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Q. What version of Perl is required? A. Any Perl 5.xx version should work Q. Have you encountered any host setups that your software did NOT work on? One thing to look out for: In some hosting setups, all "secure" documents must reside in a particular folder or sometimes must be uploaded to a completely different FTP account! This kind of setup will NOT work with my software. All of the component parts of my software MUST reside in the same place, and MUST be able to access files created by the other component parts. For related information, see "Does your software work with a secure server?" Q. Please explain "static" and "dynamic" pages . . . A. My software will allow you to have "static" or "dynamic" pages -- or a combination of both. All static pages are ".html" files that are kept in your "templates" directory. Whenever someone signs up, these static pages are copied into their web site directory. "Dynamic" pages end with ".txt" and are also kept in your templates directory. They are "delivered" to the user's browswer via a CGI script (much like an SSI-delivered page) which is included in my software package. Whenever you change the contents of a "dynamic" page template file, those changes are seen immediately by anyone going to that page on an affiliate site. If you have static pages, you first change them in the template, then run the "update" function of the administration program (part of my package). The "update" function then copies all "*.htm" and "*.html" files from the template directory to all the affiliate directories (substituting correct "coding" information into each page before copying it, of course). Q. How big can the replicated site be? A. As big as you want. But keep in mind that every "static" page will be duplicated one time for every affiliate -- if you have a few thousand affiliates, this could really add up! If you expect to have a large number of affiliates, I'd recommend using dynamic pages for all except the "index.html" file . . . Q. Can the URL directory be stipulated by the user? A. No, the affiliate program administrator determines what the "root affiliate directory" will be named, and all affiliate directories are subdirectories of this root directory. The affiliate's "affiliate number" is used as that affiliate's directory name. The affiliate CAN specify their own affiliate number though, if you want to give them that option. Q. Does your script allow for the inclusion of affiliate contact information on each affiliate's replicated web site? A. Yes it does. You can set it up to embed the affiliate's name, address, email, phone, web site, etc. into the pages. Q. What is involved with "preparing" template files? How is an HTML file changed to a template file? A. The only difference between a template file and the original HTML file is how the "links" are set up. For instance, all graphics image source links must be "absolute" links rather than "relative" -- instead of saying <IMG SRC="images/smile.gif"> you'd need to change that to <IMG SRC="http://www.yourdomain.com/images/smile.gif"> Links to other pages require some specific formatting. If you have a static page called "index.html", and it will reference another static page called "faq.htm", you could actually use a "relative" link, because both pages will be in the same directory (remember, static pages get duplicated -- copied to the affiliate's directory). If you were linking FROM a "dynamic" page to a static page (I'll use "faq.htm" in this example), you'd use this format in your tempalte file: href="http://www.yourdomain.com/affiliatesrootdirectory/yoap1/faq.htm" Where "affiliatesrootdirectory" is the directory name you choose when you setup the program. The "keyword" yoap1 will be replaced with the affiliate's affiliate number by the script that delivers the dynamic page. Links TO dynamic pages would require this format (I'll use "abc" as the example file): href="http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/d.cgi?abc-ap1234yh" In this case, you would have a template file named "abc.txt" in your templates directory, and this link would be for affiliate number "ap1234yh" . . . More details can be found in the installation guide . . . Q. How hard is it to add another page and update all the affiliate sites? A. If it's a static page, you need to create a "template" file for it. Then add it to the templates directory. If any of the other files will be linking to the new one, those template files need to be changed as well (just like regular HTML pages). Once your changes are made, use the "update" utility -- just a click of the button, and you're done! Q. Does the update script update the order page or just the index page. A. The "update" script will update all static pages. Any ".htm", ".html" or ".shtml"page in your template directory will be copied into each one of your affiliate's directories. Q. What is meant by "affiliate level"? A. This depends on whether or not you're using the "two-tier" mode. If NOT, then each affiliate level is just a different commission rate. For instance, you might have a "free" affiliate program that pays 20%. You could call all affiliates involved in the free program "Level 1" affiliates. Then you could offer an affiliate program where you required a deposit, or the purchase of something before someone could participate -- and perhaps you'd pay 33% commission to these assocites -- you could designate all affiliates in the "paid" affiliate program as "Level 2" affiliates. You can have as many of these different levels as you want, and you can move affiliates from one program to the other just by changing their "level" in their information file (this is done from the web interface). If you ARE using the "Two-Tier" mode of commission, things are a bit different. In this mode, every affiliate that gets a sale is awarded the commission rate assigned to the "level" they are at. And their sponsor receives a commission rate of the next level up. So you must have the commission defined for a minimum of TWO adjacent levels. That can be level 1 and 2, or 2 and 3, or 3 and 4 . . . you get the idea! Here's an example: Bob signs up as a "level 1" affiliate -- that's the only level you allow anyone to sign up as -- level 1. He sponsors "Jim" who ALSO signs up as a level 1 affiliate. Now, when Jim gets a sale, HE gets paid according to the commission rate you set up for "level 1" affiliates. But Bob is paid according to the commission rate you set up for "level 2" affiliates -- the next level up from Jim's level (level 1). Even though no one ever signs up as a "level 2" affiliate, the program uses the commission rates assigned to that level to calculate commissions for "sponsors" of "level 1" affiliates. If you DID allow people to sign up as "level 2" affiliates, their "sponsors" would be paid according to the commissions set up for "level 3" (2+1=3). The reason this is so "complicated" and "unintuitive" is because "Two-tier" programs were not originally supported . . . Q. Can I customize the email confirmation a new affiliate receives when first signing up? A. Yes, this is easily done. There is a file in the "admin" directory named "success.txt" -- just change the contents of that file. The text in that file will be send to your new affiliate via email, with their unique account information appended to the end. Q. How are affiliate passwords generated? A. The sign-up script creates a password consisting of 8 random letters/numbers. Both uppercase and lowercase letters are used. This password can be changed by you at anytime, and if you allow it, each affiliate will also be able to change their own password. Q. If someone doesn't end up buying anything the first time they visit an affiliate site, will they automatically be taken to the affiliates site the next time they visit my home page? A. Yes. If you setup the "Affiliate Cookie System" (which is included with the YOAP software), then affiliates can still get commissions even if a referred visitor leaves the affiliate site and returns to your home page. Q. Can the same affiliate be credited for several products, although the products are purchased from separate order forms? Yes, you can use any number of order forms. You can have a separate order form for each product, or you can have a single order form for all products -- your choice! Q. How hard is it to add more products after the initial installation? A. It's very simple -- just follow these steps:
Q. Do you provide some type of template so we can add products without having to bother you? A. Yes, there is an order form template included in the program distribution files. Q. Will I be able to offer different products with different commission levels? A. There is no way to attach a commission to a particular product name. However, you CAN assign different commission rates depending on the price of a product. So you could set it up so all items costing $10 or less earn a 10% commission, all items more than $10 but less than $50 earn 15% commission, and all items $50 or more earn a flat rate of $15. Q. Can your script handle variable shipping? A. Yes it can. Full details are given in "preparing your order form" section of the installation guide. Q. Does the script automatically format the order comfirmation emails for sendmail? A. I guess that depends on what you mean by "format". It sends out an email that starts with a message you define in the "ordrmsg.txt" file (in the administration directory). Order details are appended to the end of your message (including items ordered and cost). Q. Is it possible to "turn off" the email that sends the order information to the webmaster (site owner), and just keep it in the log file? A. Yes, you can choose to NOT have an email sent when an order is received. However, if you do this, you should be sure to check your order history page on a daily basis. Q. Does your system work with real-time credit card processing services? A. Yes, you can integrate YOAP with your shopping cart and/or real-time payment software by including an image tag on the "thank you for your order" page displayed the system. All that is required is that you have the ability to embed the amount of the sale into the HTML code for that page. Most shopping cart and payment gateway systems have this capability, so YOAP should work fine with just about all of them. Q. I have ShopSite shopping cart doing my transactions. Will your software work with it? A. As long as ShopSite allows you to customize the "thank you for your order" page and allows you to specify where in the HTML code the sales amount will be embedded, it should be compatible with YOAP. Q. Does this program develop a mailing list of affiliates and customers so that I can send email updates about new products offered? A. Yes. You can download this data from the affiliate contact information screen and from the order details screen. Q. Does your software work with a secure server? A. Yes, as long as your web site host allows for the accessing of a single file by secure and a non-secure methods. This means if a file is created by a script running via a secure server, the owner and/or group names assigned to that file need to be the same as those assigned when a script is running via a non-secure server -- OR, you have to open up your permissions . . . but that could be a security issue, depending on how your ISP has things set up. The issue that I've seen is when the secure server and the "non-secure" server have different "identities" -- i.e. when they create files, the files they create are assigned different owners and groups. The owner and/or group of a file must be the same for both secure and non-secure servers in order for the software to operate correctly and with full security . . . Here's the problem I've seen with a couple of web host companies: When
the "startup" script creates the files for a new affiliate (via
a non-secure server), the "login" name of the web There are 3 ways to get around this:
Option 1 is always the best, in my opinion . . . you should check with your web host provider to see if this is something they need to address -- just forward this explanation to them, they should understand the potential problem after reading it. One thing to look out for: In some hosting setups, all "secure" documents must reside in a particular folder or sometimes must be uploaded to a completely different FTP account! This kind of setup will NOT work with my software. All of the component parts of my software MUST reside in the same place, and MUST be able to access files created by the other component parts. Q. Does your script work with Server Side Includes? A. Yes, but only with "static" pages. Web servers will ignore any SSI directives in a "dynamic" page. Q. If I order today, how long until I get the software and installation instructions? A. I always send instructions for downloading the software within 24 hours. 95% of the time it is within 8 hours, and often it is within 2 hours!
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