I’ve been using the WP e-Commerce Shopping Cart plugin for WordPress for a few years now. Unfortunately there isn’t much in the way of affiliate or referral plugins for WP e-Commerce. I’ve been on the lookout for an easy solution to track referral sales. I didn’t need something as complex as most affiliate management systems. I decided to have a try at creating an easy solution for tracking referral sales. I ended up with a fairly simple solution, which requires just one modification to your shopping cart theme. It works in conjunction with the “Cookie Monster” plugin.

How it works

First, I’ll explain how this will work so you know what you’re getting into. We’re going to use the Cookie Monster plugin to allow us to capture a cookie based on the URL the visitor uses to enter your website (i.e. http://www.yourstore.com?ref=JohnDoe). The cookie will now be remembered (in this case “JohnDoe”) and stored in the users browser. At checkout the cookie is passed on via a hidden field “how_find_us” which is normally used to determine how the customer found your site (but we’ll be modifying that).

The way this will work for your affiliates is they’ll need to choose an affiliate code, anything really, such as “Bob” or “CompanyInc”, and put that affiliate code ( ?ref=Bob ) at the end of any of your store URL’s (i.e. http://www.yourstore.com?ref=Bob, http://www.yourstore.com/books/?ref=Bob, http://www.yourstore.com/books/harry-potter/?ref=Bob ).

To track any sales that came as a result of referrals go to your WP e-Commerce “Store Sales” page and check either the sale detail page or CSV export of your sales. The CSV export is the easiest way to see all referral sales at once. The referral code will be listed as “How User Found Us: JohnDoe”.

This method is especially simple and beneficial to small/medium online stores who don’t need all the features of a full-featured affiliate system, especially considering the complexity of integrating such an affiliate system with WP e-Commerce.

How to Implement

Simply follow these steps:

1. From your WordPress Dashboard go to “Settings” –> “Store” and then the “Marketing” tab. Check the box to turn on the “Display How Customer Found Us Survey” (hopefully you weren’t planning on using that feature, because this is a slight modification that’s going to change what it does). Now click update.
2. Download, install and activate the WordPress “Cookie Monster” plugin.
3. From your WordPress Dashboard go to “Settings” –> “Cookie Monster”. In the box next to “URL Parameter 1 :” enter “ref” (ref without quotations). Click “Update options”.
4. Open “wpsc-shopping_cart_page.php” in your theme files… (You may want to make a backup copy of this file before changing it, and also another backup copy after changing it, in case it ever gets over-written, or you want to remove the changes)

Find this code:

<?php if (wpsc_show_find_us()) : ?>
      <tr>
         <td><label for='how_find_us'><?php _e('How did you find us' , 'wpsc'); ?></label></td>
         <td>
            <select name='how_find_us'>
               <option value='Word of Mouth'><?php _e('Word of mouth' , 'wpsc'); ?></option>
               <option value='Advertisement'><?php _e('Advertising' , 'wpsc'); ?></option>
               <option value='Internet'><?php _e('Internet' , 'wpsc'); ?></option>
               <option value='Customer'><?php _e('Existing Customer' , 'wpsc'); ?></option>
            </select>
         </td>
      </tr>
<?php endif; ?>

Replace with this code:

<?php if (wpsc_show_find_us()) : ?>
      <tr>
          <td colspan='2' style="height: 5px;">
              <input class="text" value="<?php echo $_COOKIE[get_option('cookie_param1')]; ?>" name="how_find_us" type="hidden">
          </td>
      </tr>
<?php endif; ?>

It’s possible that your code is going to be a little bit different than mine, the important thing is to replace the “how_find_us” drop-down form code with a hidden input field that grabs the referral cookie code…

<input class="text" value="<?php echo $_COOKIE[get_option('cookie_param1')]; ?>" name="how_find_us" type="hidden">

That’s it! You’re done.

You may want to make a test purchase to verify that it’s working. (Be sure to visit your store with a ref code in the URL, i.e. http://www.yourstore.com?ref=Bob )

I build a lot of WordPress websites and it’s great that there are so many plugins available for various functions, but sometimes I run into a situation where the right plugin just doesn’t exist (or if it does I didn’t find it). I needed a widget to display the WordPress recent comments with the comment excerpt and the users gravatar (globally recognized avatar). Here’s what I came up with, modified based on some code from others looking for a similar solution:

Put this into your sidebar template or elsewhere:

<?php $comments = get_comments('status=approve&number=5'); ?>
<h3 class="widget-title">Recent Comments</h3>
<ul class="recomm">
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) { ?>
    <li class="recomm-wrapper"><?php
        $title = get_the_title($comment->comment_post_ID);
        echo get_avatar( $comment, '53' );
        echo '<span class="recommauth">' . ($comment->comment_author) . '</span>';
        ?> said: "<?php
        echo wp_html_excerpt( $comment->comment_content, 72 ); ?>.."
        on <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($comment->comment_post_ID); ?>"
           rel="external nofollow" title="<?php echo $title; ?>">
           <?php echo $title; ?> </a>
    </li>
<?php }  ?> </ul>

Here’s the CSS styling I’m using (you may need to modify it according to your theme):

ul.recomm {
	margin-left: 0;
	margin-bottom: 36px;
	list-style: none;
}
.recomm-wrapper {
   clear:both;
   min-height: 53px;
   margin-bottom: 14px;
}
.recomm .avatar {
   float:left;
   margin-top:5px;
   margin-right:10px;
   border: #d8d8d8 1px solid;
}
.recommauth {
	font-weight: bold;
}

Go to Utah Liberation to see this code in action: utahliberation.com (bottom of the sidebar)

Here’s how you do this…

Add the following javascript code to the header of your website (somewhere in between the <head> </head> tags)…

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
<!-- POPUP WINDOW SCRIPT -->
var win=null;
function NewWindow(mypage,myname,w,h,scroll,pos){
if(pos=="random"){LeftPosition=(screen.availWidth)?Math.floor(Math.random()*(screen.availWidth-w)):50;TopPosition=(screen.availHeight)?Math.floor(Math.random()*((screen.availHeight-h)-75)):50;}
if(pos=="center"){LeftPosition=(screen.availWidth)?(screen.availWidth-w)/2:50;TopPosition=(screen.availHeight)?(screen.availHeight-h)/2:50;}
if(pos=="default"){LeftPosition=50;TopPosition=50}
else if((pos!="center" && pos!="random" && pos!="default") || pos==null){LeftPosition=0;TopPosition=20}
settings='width='+w+',height='+h+',top='+TopPosition+',left='+LeftPosition+',scrollbars='+scroll+',location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,toolbar=no,resizable=no';
win=window.open(mypage,myname,settings);
if(win.focus){win.focus();}}
function CloseNewWin(){if(win!=null && win.open)win.close()}
window.onfocus=CloseNewWin;
<!-- POPUP WINDOW SCRIPT -->
</script>

Now place the following code on your website, like a normal hyperlink but with some extra code. Edit this line according to the link you are wanting to open…

<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/awebpage.php" onClick="NewWindow(this.href,'TitleGoesHere','550','400','yes','center');return false" onFocus="this.blur()">OpenThisPage</a>

That’s it.

After spending a lot of time trying to get this process (install Windows XP from USB Flash drive) working I found an easier, quicker, solution (compared to most online tutorials). It’s called WinToFlash.

This tutorial shows you how to install Windows XP from a USB Flash drive. (Seriously, easy!) It would probably also work for Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows 7, etc.

Optionally you can follow these nLite tutorials to remove unwanted Windows files before installing Windows:

• http://www.i64x.com/eeexp.php
• http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:nlitexp

I just finished doing this on my Asus 1001p netbook, after removing Windows 7 Starter (which consumed over 500MB of the 1Gig of memory at bootup, no programs running!)

I decided to opt for installing Windows XP via a USB Flash drive. I didn’t have an external DVD drive available. After following various complicated tutorials (which never did fully work for me) I found a very simple way to take the resulting Windows install files created by nLite (or copied from your Windows install disc) and create a bootable USB Flash drive: WinToFlash ( http://wintoflash.com ).

With WinToFlash all you need to have is a Folder on your PC containing all the Windows install files. Then you just open WinToFlash, tell it where your Windows install files directory is, then tell it what letter your Flash drive is (i.e. J: ). It does the rest for you. SIMPLE Once it’s done boot from the flash drive on your netbook (or PC you want to install this copy of Windows on).

When I first tried this I was getting BSOD (blue screen of death) errors when Windows setup was starting. (The problem was not with WinToFlash) After doing some research online I decided it might be due to some corrupt files (the XP disc I copied files from was too scratched up)… so I located another disc and went through the nLite process again (was easy because it saved my previous settings)… then did the WinToFlash process again. This time Windows XP installed without a problem from my USB Flash drive! (much easier than the tutorials that wanted me to accomplish this with 3+ programs and never worked)

The best thing about this is:

• My Windows install was only 270MB (with all Asus 1001p driver integrated and non-essential windows XP stuff removed, thanks to the nLite tutorial)
• Bootup to XP is fast (less than 30 seconds)
• Memory usage is at less than 200 MB even after installing a bunch of programs (disabled non-essential startup processes).
• No CD/DVD drive necessary for installation.

Sometimes when moving a Joomla, WordPress or other website to a different directory or different server you’ll need to change the absolute path for the site to work. In joomla this requires editing the configuration.php file, in WordPress this sometimes requires editing the database or ensuring that you update the settings before moving your files/database over to the new directory/server.

How do I find out what the absolute path is?

The easiest way is to create a file named pathinfo.php and paste only the following code into that file:

<?php
   $path = getcwd();
   echo "Your Absoluthe Path is: ";
   echo $path;
?>

Now, upload pathinfo.php into the root directory of your website and view it in your internet browser ( example: http://www.mysite.com/pathinfo.php )

This will display your absolute path.

As I am creating websites I sometimes come across situations that require a more than basic knowledge and a bit of research to figure out.

Here’s a helpful hint regarding removing blank lines from an html file using dreamweaver, should you ever want to do that without having to manually delete the lines…

1. Click CTRL + F
2. Select “Current document” in “Find in” (You can also select the folder if you have multiple files)
3. Search in “Source code”
4. Tick “Use regular expression”
5. Type “[\r\n]{2,}” (without quotes) in “Find”
6. Type “\n” (without quotes) in “Replace”
7. Press “Replace All”

That’s it. Have fun.

How?

Here are some tips that have been working for me in my quest to have a more productive day:

• Stop trying to multi-task.
• Organize and clean your workspace; get rid of the clutter.
• Create a list of what you want to accomplish.
• Focus on one thing at a time and get it done before starting something else.
• Check your e-mail less often (schedule specific times each day to read and respond to email).
• Reduce the amount of programs and files that are open on your computer.
• If you have side hobbies like I do; set apart a time to work on those, but not at the same time you’re trying to get some work done.
• Take regular periodic brakes and get away from your desk, go outside; Perhaps two 15-minute breaks and a lunch break during your workday.

I realized that if I want to actually get a lot of work done I have to be organized and focused. I’ve accomplished much more this week than past weeks as a result of putting these ideas into practice.