One of the ways in which
ScrapBook is available for sale is
through the "RegNow" affiliate network. This makes it
possible
for a web site operator to place an advertisement for ScrapBook on
their web site and earn a commission on resulting sales!
Slow-Cooked Software, LLC has an account with RegNow as a vendor
(vendor id = 12257), and lists ScrapBook for sale (product id =
12257-1).
To participate as an affiliate,
- Use
your existing RegNow affiliate account, and request an
affiliate relationship with Slow-Cooked Software, LLC
OR
Once the request for an affiliate relationship is approved, you can use
your affiliate control panel to access the text and graphics links that
can be inserted into your HTML page to create an advertisement link for
ScrapBook.
In case your links (based on RegNow's scripts - see below) direct the
user to Slow-Cooked Software's web site, the user will be presented
only with download or purchasing options based on RegNow, to help
assure that the affiliate receives the appropriate commission (this is
based on RegNow's cookie-based tracking mechanism.)
That's it - ALMOST!
Providing
a Free Trial
Download
Since
ScrapBook is shareware, most
users will probably want to evaluate a free trial download
before
purchasing.
However, since ScrapBook runs on Palm OS (and not on an operating
system that RegNow is better equipped to support), RegNow will only
source the download *after* the purchase has been made!
This means that most of the links you will find in your RegNow
affiliate control panel are, effectively, "Buy Now" links - to be used
if the user wants to purchase ScrapBook before
downloading it!
I have found one exception to this, in the "Relationship Detail"
window, on the "Sales Links" tab, in the bottom section "Link to the
Vendor's Homepage". This link has the form
"http://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?affiliate=XXXXX&action=site&vendor=12257"
where XXXXX is your affiliate ID.
If this link is used, you will be recorded as the affiliate who
referred the user to ScrapBook; then the user's browser will load
Slow-Cooked Software's page, from which the user can obtain the trial
download. (In this scenario, only the RegNow build of
ScrapBook
will be offered to the user - and this build directs the user to return
to RegNow.com to make the purchase.) When the user does
decide to
register ScrapBook and goes to RegNow.com to make the purchase, you
will be credited with the sales commission. The "cookie
based"
tracking mechanism that supports this isn't 100% foolproof, but
nevertheless is very likely to work as intended.
Another option, which I learned about thanks to the excellent support
staff at RegNow, is to use the following variation of the above link:
"http://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?affiliate=XXXXX&action=site&vendor=12257&ref=https://slowcookedsoftware.com/download/RegNow/ScrapBook1.15.zip"
where
XXXXX is your affiliate ID.
The effect of the above link is to record you as the affiliate who
referred the user to ScrapBook, and initiate a download of the RegNow
build of ScrapBook from Slow-Cooked Software's web site - all without
causing the browser to load a different page! Many affiliates
may
prefer this link to implement a "download" button.
Note that the above link refers to a specific version of ScrapBook
(i.e. ScrapBook1.15.zip), so the link would need to be edited to track
future updates (but several old .zip files will stay on-line so old
links won't break suddenly).
Alternatively, you could use the following non-version-specific link:
"http://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?affiliate=XXXXX&action=site&vendor=12257&ref=https://slowcookedsoftware.com/download/RegNow/ScrapBook.zip"
where
XXXXX is your affiliate
ID. (The content of "ScrapBook.zip" will be updated
with
each release so
it stays current.)
The above link would be an excellent choice for implementing a
"download" button that always retrieves the most up to date version of
ScrapBook, without needing to update the link when ScrapBook updates
are released.
Also, PAD-style product setup information about the latest version of
ScrapBook is available in ScrapBook's PAD file:
https://slowcookedsoftware.com/PAD/ScrapBookPAD.xml