First of all this script is not for the novice affiliate, it is extremely hard to work with and requires at least some knowledge of PHP MySQL, and also access to PHPMyAdmin. Although your knowledge of PHP MySQL will only take you so far since this entire script is encrypted… so you will have ZERO luck making drastic changes to it…

Now on to the Script itself and how it works… well for me, at least at first it just wouldn’t work. The script description at the time said that it would download and import Commission Junction feeds. The script was actually NOT SET UP to work with Commission Junctions feeds at the time even though they said it would… I had to complain to them for a week in order to get the script written to do what it claimed.. They even told me that they had had no access to Commission Junction feeds in order to test it… In other words they assumed that CJ feeds were just sitting there unzipped and ready to import.

The script doesn’t really do anything automatically… you have to create thousands of FIND and REPLACES for EACH feed you want to use in order to get the products to match up.. and even when they do match up they are about 20% accurate.. AND there is no way to CORRECT BAD MATCHES… unless you delete the product itself… The Kaon Softwares Price Comparison Script is SUPER TIME CONSUMING and you will probably get so tired of creating FIND and REPLACES that you’ll just give up on it… especially when all your work results in a 20% accuracy rate!!!

Basically and I will try to make this short, The script is CRAP.. SHORT ENOUGH FOR YA? I never did get it working properly and I just scrapped the whole project at a loss (for the cash I paid for the script). The Kaon Softwares SUPPORT is located in INDIA and the time difference was a nightmare… it would take 24 hours to get an answer for the simplest questions.. and there were a lot of questions. They also claimed that they had sold hundreds of these scripts without any complaints… when I couldn’t find one site that was running this script that wasn’t linked to from Koan Softwares.. and all of those domains “could” be Kaon Softwares for all I know… After all they claimed that the script would work with CJ feeds and then admitted to me that they had NEVER EVEN TESTED a CJ feed!! So anything goes at Kaon Softwares!!

The biggest let down of them all… Get this.. when you import a feed (and that takes a long time) your SITE IS DEAD… The CSV/MySQL import process takes up so many system resources that it renders the MySQL database useless and “DEAD” for any visitors… and that is just ONE FEED… if you had 100 feeds your site would be DEAD over 80% of the time in order to do the import process… RIDICULOUS AT BEST and RIP OFF at WORST…

Now you can take this Kaon Softwares Price Comparison Script Review for what it is worth, I bought this script and spent more than a month working with it and sending e-mails to INDIA and waiting for a response… and nothing happens with them on the weekends. I was ready to pull my hair out.. and by the end it was just too much stress trying to get answers and make this script work properly… and it NEVER happened.. I gave up before I waisted any more time… and the DEAD site thing was the biggest let down of them all….!!

I mean if I had ten thumbs I would give this script ten thumbs down… but since I only have TWO I give it two thumbs down!

DO NOT PURCHASE THIS SCRIPT UNLESS YOU WANT TO THROW $600.00 US IN THE TOILET!!!!!

Telnet is a fast and easy way to make changes to your files and folders located on your server. It comes in handy for several things including: Unzipping Files, Deleting Huge Folders, Changing File Permissions etc. This article will explain how to use telnet for unzipping a file on your server. You may want to download the Telnet Program PuTTy.exe it is a free download and it is very simple to use.  You will want to install PuTTy.exe and configure it for your server connection (like your FTP program).
See Also: PuTTy Documentation
Note: If you are unsure if you have telnet access or have never tried using telnet you may want to contact your hosting provider and ask if you have telnet access.

Unzipping Files On Your Server

This comes in handy when you have a huge file or an entire site that you want to upload via FTP. Some FTP programs take a long time to create the folders on the server and populate those folders with the appropriate files. Sites bigger than 5MB take awhile to upload, but that same 5MB site in a ZIP file is only around 1MB depending on the types of files included.

Instructions:

1. Add all the files in the ROOT of your directory structure (that you want to include) to a compressed file (ZIP Format) using WinZip or another program of your choice. Name the zip file “0.zip” (I like to choose small names for these files since I will be deleting them after they are unzipped).

2. Upload the file 0.zip to the ROOT of your domain.

3. Once the file is uploaded open your telnet program and navigate to the root of the domain that the 0.zip file is in.
Note: If you are logging in to a server you will be at the root of the “server” if you only have one domain you will be at the root of your domain so no navigation is necessary.

4. Type unzip 0.zip (HIT ENTER) – It may ask you if you want to continue, if so the answer is case sensitive.

Other Telnet Commands

Navigating

• /
  • refers to the root directory on the server
• ./
  • the current directory that you are in
• ../
  • parent directory of your current directory
• pwd
  • shows what your current directory is – giving the full path
• ls
  • lists all the files in your current directory
• ls -al
  • lists filenames + information
• ls -aR
  • lists filenames + information in all subdirectories
• ls -aR | more
  • lists filenames + information in all subdirectories, pausing when the screen becomes full
• ls -alR > result.txt
  • lists filenames + information and outputs the results to a file
• ls *.html
  • lists all files ending with .html
• ls -al/home/usr/sam/
  • lists files + info for /home/usr/sam
• cd
  • changes you to a new directory
• cd /
  • changes you to the root directory

Moving, Copying, and Deleting Files

• mv [old name] [new name]
  • move/rename a file
• cp [filename] [new filename]
  • copy a file
• rm [filename]
  • delete a file

Moving, Copying, and Deleting Directories

• mkdir [directoryname]
  • creates a new directory
• ls -d */
  • lists all directories within current directory
• cp -r [directoryname] [new directoryname]
  • copy a directory and all files/directories in it
• rm -r [directoryname]
  • remove a directory. You will be prompted to answer “Yes” or “No” for whether you would like to delete each file in the directory
• rm -rf [directoryname]
  • remove a directory and all files and folders in it (no prompting).

Searching Files and Directories

• find / -name [filename] 2>/dev/null
  • search the whole server for a file
• find ./ -name [filename]
  • search for a file starting with the current directory
• grep [text] [filename]
  • search for text within a file

Some affiliates think that setting up an RSS Feed on a web site is difficult – or – over their heads.  Well it’s not, it’s SIMPLE.  An RSS feed is just a page of separated content, in a format that an RSS READER can understand.

Example “Datafeeder.com’s Recent Posts RSS Feed” this is Datafeeder.com’s RSS Feed of the LATEST POSTS made to this Blog.  The individual RSS Entries are just snippets of the actual content of each entry, you can get full content RSS feeds too, but most are just snippets..

What is an RSS READER?

An RSS READER is just a small script that allows you to include the data at that URL “http://www.datafeeder.com/feed/”.  You can include the data practically any where or in any way you choose.  Most RSS Readers come with full documentation and are pretty simple to adjust to your needs.  My personal favorite RSS Reader is SimplePie

I have set up an Example of the “Finished” product the RSS READER creates.. HERE »

Or Look Below To See It Inserted Into This Post ::

Affiliate RSS Feeds?

Yep, that’s right. Avantlink.com currently offers free RSS Feeds to all their Affiliates. Check them out (way ahead of their time) they offer Coupon feeds and all kinds of innovative tools for Affiliates.  Pretty cool stuff.

Why not make your own? You can use Webmerge to create your own Affiliate RSS Feed and have more unique content.  I have created my own RSS Feeds using Webmerge and a few Merchant Datafeeds.  It is pretty difficult if you do not know what you are doing (and I didn’t) but it CAN be done.

Why Should I Bother?

RSS is the next best thing since sliced bread. It’s not a new idea at all, but it has gained new interest in the past year. Look at Google and their recent Home Page set up, all the different news headlines and weather forecast are all RSS Feeds. It gets better, users that have their Google Home Page set up, can quickly add YOUR Feed to their Home Page. The new Windows Internet Explorer 7.0 was distributed with an RSS Feed Reader and a “New” way to add any RSS Feed to a persons “Favorites”. This is a really nice feature that a lot of people are gearing up to take advantage of…

Create an original enough RSS Feed and you could get “Syndicated” across all kinds of RSS Feed sites.  You could have your RSS Feed on thousands of peoples Home Pages (if the quality is good and it is updated frequently)

Are You Sure It’s Not Hard?

SimplePie has made it pretty easy with their documentation and the FREE RSS Reader.  Download it and go through the documentaion, it comes with a template with predefined RSS Feeds in it.. so you can quickly and “easily” get your RSS Reader working. Get the documentation and go through it.  Install an RSS Reader and test it out.. what have you got to loose?

Will I Be A Millionaire In A Month?

If you are an experienced Affiliate you know there is no “magic formula” that will produce thousands of dollars a day. Being an Affiliate is a lot of hard work, and don’t expect RSS Feeds to allow you to kick back and ride it out. RSS Feeds are a lot of W-O-R-K to maintain unless you have them automated by a script or program. A good RSS Feed is updated DAILY with fresh content, people do not want to see the same links on their Home Page or in their RSS Reader. Stagnant links get your RSS Feed deleted from the loop. Choose your RSS Feeds carefully if you get them from a Merchant, some are not updated for months.  They haven’t caught on yet…

This was the first script or program I purchased to process datafeeds, it was and still is the best piece of software in my arsenal. This program is easy to learn, very versatile and only limited by your imagination.  Webmerge brought my Affiliate business to a new level, I was able to create thousands of pages with multiple categories.  Webmerge gave me the ability to create extremely original datafeed driven websites with a very small learning curve.

Webmerge is a program that sits on your desktop (not on your server) and you can create unlimited pages and templates  It is extremely fast at processing huge datafeeds. As an Affiliate I can’t say enough about Webmerge.

POSITIVES ::

• ♦  Completely Template Driven – Very easy to create original looking sites or integrate into existing sites.
• ♦  Very small learning curve on the program and template creation.
• ♦  Low price compared to other scripts that allow you to publish your data online.
• ♦  Very versatile program use it to create RSS FEEDS, MySQL INSERTS and more. The only limit is your imagination!
• ♦  Create 2 tier, 3 tier, 4,5,6 tier sites.  The categories are unlimited on this program.

NEGATIVES ::

• ♦  It is not a server based program.

Webmerge Version 2.4

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”.
Here is a quote from:: WIKI – “RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.“  RSS Feeds are designed to SYNDICATE updated information.  The information needs to be maintained and updated frequently, in order to justify putting it in an RSS Feed format.

Optimizing Your RSS Feed

Some merchants who have rushed to get an RSS feed available for their Affiliates have totally missed the point of having an RSS Feed. The information is supposed to be updated on a regular basis.  If you are thinking of putting together an RSS Feed for your Affiliate Program then you should take a serious look at what information you are going to be able to provide.  If any of your options include links that “COULD” be banner links or static text links, then avoid putting them into your RSS Feed. Below is a list of things I have seen other merchants include in their RSS Feed and you should avoid including these types of links or information.

Savvy Affiliates will not use your RSS Feed if it is not updated on a regular basis.  There is no point in setting up an RSS Reader and creating a nice spot for it on a web page if the information is never updated.  Simply put – “Updated RSS Feeds Get Used More Often“.

Things you can do to improve your RSS Feed:::

Taking the time to set up your datafeed properly and “Optimized” for Affiliate Marketing will reap you great rewards in the long run.  Your Affiliates will be able to utilize your program to it’s full potential.  Here are just a few Datafeed Tips I have put together for Merchants looking for a good example of what a datafeed should contain.

This is an ongoing project for me and I will be updating this post whenever I find any new information or get some feedback from merchants and affiliates.

1. Datafeed Format »
   (Delimiters, Text Qualifiers etc..)
2. Datafeed Delivery Options »
   (FTP, HTTP, etc..)
3. Datafeed Column Layout »
   (Datafeed Category Structure & Content etc..)
4. Making Changes To Your Datafeed Format »
   (Category & Structure Changes etc..)

Datafeed Format

This is a huge issue and no matter what I say here there will be someone that disagrees.  The best I can do is direct you to some of the most universal problems and what not to do.  If you are an Affiliate Manager (AM) and want to provide your IT Department with “Datafeed Specs” please refer to the tables below:::

Note: all of these options are “Affiliate Friendly“

Datafeed Delivery Options

Giving your Affiliates access to your datafeed is crucial to how well it will perform.  Giving access only through an Affiliate Network is not advised.  Some Networks charge a fee to access your datafeed through them.  Networks also have their own datafeed format which is not always the best.  The more options you have the more “universal” your program is.

Updating your datafeed should be on a consistent schedule weekly, daily — you decide.  Once you decide stick with it..  Affiliates like to see consistency in an Affiliate Program.

Datafeed Column Layout

Establish a well formatted column layout and stick with it.  Once your Affiliates get to “know” your datafeed it will become second nature for them to include it in any new projects they have, and it makes it easier to update on a regular basis (Especially If It Is Put Together Well).

Making Changes To Your Datafeed Format

Regardless of why, sometimes datafeeds need tweaking and updated or better categorized.  What ever makes you have to or want to, change your datafeed you MUST let your Affiliates know before the changes go LIVE..  Keep in mind that some established datafeeds have hundreds of thousands if not millions of pages depending on the information for content.  The slightest change could create chaos across your affiliate sites. So before you rename CATEGORY “X” to CATEGORY “A” give your Affiliates a heads up on the changes so that they can make changes to their software programs or scripts, and avoid chaos.  Your Affiliates will appreciate it.