Automate Your Business

Archive for the ‘Site News’ Category

A while ago, I ran a short competition to name a product. Well, I’ve finally gotten there….!

The delay has been caused by a re-think around the “SENuke alternative” concept. I’ll be releasing two products – one white hat, and in partnership with Paul Forcey, the other more black hat and launched just by me. We’re still discussing what will go into the white hat service, and once that’s agreed, I’ll announce what’s coming in the black hat product.

So.. the winner is: Robert King!

Well done Robert, and thank you to all who contributed.

OK, I’ve closed the competition, and over the next day or two I’ll pick the best name from the entries to be the winner (and as promised, even if I end up using a name I choose, the prize will still go to the best entry.

I’ll post again soon. Good luck to all who entered!

Enough’s enough.

Ever since GetResponse upgraded to their latest version, the quality of their application has been utterly atrocious:

• Scheduled mails not gone out.
• Unable to move subscribers to a different message in the same autoresponder.
• Copying one campaign to a new one misses out more than half the configuration data from the original one, including the registered postal address of the mailing list owner, which is the only legal requirement (in the US).
• Support is taking 3-4 days to come back with a “we’ve passed this to our technicians” message, and then just under another week to say they’ve fixed the issue… and then the issue still remains.

Enough.

So if you’re on one of my mailing lists, over the next few weeks you’ll receive a confirmation message from  my new mailing provider, MailChimp. An odd name, but no odder than SurveyMonkey, which is their other, more well-known company.

I’ll mail each of you on my GetResponse list to say that the confirmation mail from MailChimp should be waiting in your inbox.

Hopefully, you’ll get the mail from GetResponse….

The autoblogger is now available, so if you’ve not signed up for the updates list (or if you’re not an existing customer), you’ve still got a little time fo get the subscriber/customer discount before I disable the coupon code.  Just subscribe using the form to the left and you’ll get the discount code as soon as you confirm your subscription.

An unusual one this one: I’ve created the site ProductNameGenerator.com (which is live)  specifically for sale. It’s a fully-functioning site you can use to build a bit of traffic from, and do with that traffic whatever you want.

Have a look at the site, and see if you might be interested.

Some features of the site:

• You can adding new dynamic terms by simply editing some text files.
• You can configure the number of suggestions shown on each page refresh.
• You can show a full-page add every X page refreshes.
• You can show a configurable number of mini-ads on the page, and the ads can be related to the dynamic terms currently showing on the page.
• You can have multiple mini-ads per dynamic term, and the script will pick one at random to keep them fresh.
• Ads are managed via simple text (html) files which you FTP into a specific folder.
• HTML layout is extracted into a template, so you never have to touch the PHP code or JavaScript.
• The refresh of the suggestions is AJAX-based (ie, faster than hitting the “refresh” button!).
• All configuration options can be done via a simple text file.

The buyer of the domain will get sole use of the script (ie, even I won’t be running the script on my own site), a manual to explain how to configure it, the ProductNameGenerator.com domain itself (it expires in about 360 days) *, and a link back from this site for as long as the script is in use. If you are the buyer, you’ll also get full rights to the script – it’s yours, entirely, and in eternity. The script will be unencrypted, and is well commented.

The cost: $125. Purchase here.

* I’ve been stung in situations like this before. So the domain will remain in my hands for a few days, giving you time to create a temporary copy of the site, get it working, etc. Then, once you’ve sent me an email that you’re happy that the site is as described, and you do not want a refund, I’ll transfer the domain to you.