Clever Profit Growth Software

Written by Jim Daniels


Are you truly using technology in your web business? Before you answer yes, stop a moment and consider how many promotion or marketing tasks take place at your website without you lifting a finger.

Perhaps your site signs up new opt-in subscribers for you while you sleep. If so, that's ONE automated task. Maybe orders are accepted securely without your intervention. That's TWO. But can you keep counting?

If you have a little trouble going beyond that, what follows will help you.

As you probably already know, perhapsrepparttar most powerful of all applications onrepparttar 107136 Internet isrepparttar 107137 CGI script. CGI stands forrepparttar 107138 "Common Gateway Interface". It is a standard for interfacing external applications with information servers, such as HTTP or Web servers. If you have a website, more than likely you already have cgi based software running at your site. But your profits could probably benefit greatly from a few more.

Now don't worry, I'm not going to go into a long, boring explanation of how to install cgi scripts. I'll save that forrepparttar 107139 techhies. Instead, I'll simply share a wide variety of scripts that are ideal for small business owners looking to grow website traffic and sales.

(Note: If you're not at all familiar with CGI, http://www.cgi101.com/ is a great place to learn about how it works. Remember, if it all seems too confusing, fear not. Using CGI can be as simple as picking out a script and having someone else set it up!)

Anyway, on withrepparttar 107140 scripts...

Automark http://www.superscripts.com/scripts/automark.html

Automark is a cgi script that will automatically pop up a "bookmark" suggestion box for first-time visitors to your website. While this can be accomplished using straight javacode, this script will not annoy regular visitors by popping uprepparttar 107141 window every time they return. The first time a new visitor hits your "target page"repparttar 107142 bookmark window pops up, but never again. This is a great way to get your site bookmarked by more visitors.

MailNow http://www.mailnow.co.uk/

MailNow allows you to provide web-based email to your users. Its web-based email product provides unlimited addresses for multiple domains. A free email account is a great giveaway that ensures constant repeat visitors to your site.

Master Subscriber Pro http://willmaster.com/master/subscriberpro/index.shtml

This program automates joint ventures with other ezine publishers. Using this script your visitors can subscribe to an unlimited number of ezines without leaving your website to do so. Locate a few ezine publishers with traffic comparable to yours and you'll all increase your new subscriber signups!

Protect It http://www.cgi-world.com/protect_it.html

Why Aren't You Using CGI

Written by Michael Southon


The very name CGI used to send chills up my spine. For years I put it inrepparttar 'too-hard-basket'. But like most things in life, CGI is not as scary as it seems. If you have a cgi directory on your website and you know how to FTP files, chances are you can have a CGI script up and running in less than 20 minutes.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is not a programming language but a standard that allows visitors to interact with your website. CGI scripts can be written in a number of different languages but most are written in Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language).

This article gives you details of five free CGI scripts that will dorepparttar 107135 following:

1. Mail out your Newsletter from your server 2. Trackrepparttar 107136 number of times your free E-Book is downloaded 3. Rotate banners on your website 4. Create your own auto responders 5. Allow visitors to recommend your website to friends

Atrepparttar 107137 end of this article are details of where to download these 5 free scripts. But first, here are some basic guidelines on how to configure and install CGI scripts:

1. CGI programs usually come in a zip file. Unziprepparttar 107138 file and openrepparttar 107139 README file. This document will give you instructions for configuringrepparttar 107140 program file.

2. Openrepparttar 107141 program file using a text editor such as NOTEPAD (the program file will usually haverepparttar 107142 file extension .cgi but may have other extensions such as .pl).

In most CGI programs you will have to configurerepparttar 107143 following 4 items:

(a)repparttar 107144 path to perl

This is whererepparttar 107145 perl program resides on your server. The path will usually be:

#!/usr/bin/perl

but could be:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

If you're unsure what your 'path to perl' is, check your web host's online 'manual' or FAQs. If you can't find it there, simply ask your web host.

(b)repparttar 107146 path to sendmail

Most CGI programs notify you when your visitors have completed a particular action, and for that,repparttar 107147 program needs to know whererepparttar 107148 'sendmail' program resides on your server. The path to your UNIX sendmail program will usually be: /usr/sbin/sendmail

But it could also be something like this: /usr/lib/sendmail

Again, checkrepparttar 107149 documentation on your web host's website, or simply ask your web host.

(c)repparttar 107150 absolute path to your CGI directory

The absolute path tellsrepparttar 107151 CGI program exactly where to findrepparttar 107152 file (or files) that it needs to open. Unfortunately,repparttar 107153 absolute path to your CGI directory is not something you will be able to guess or deduce - it is completely arbitrary and depends entirely on howrepparttar 107154 system administrator at your web host has partitioned your host's hard drive.

The easiest way to find out your absolute path is to ask your web host. Another way is by using telnet - just type in pwd (print working directory) and that should give you your absolute path.

(d) Your email address

This isrepparttar 107155 address thatrepparttar 107156 CGI program will use to notify you when an action has been completed.

3. Uploading

Uploadrepparttar 107157 program files to your cgi-bin (or a directory off your cgi-bin) using ASCII mode. Never use BINARY mode, as this will play havoc withrepparttar 107158 line-breaks inrepparttar 107159 script.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
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