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The question I want to know the answer for is, is it just me, or is there no ready made off the shelf software that does exactly what you want?
The reason for asking it is because when ever I start to build a new site I find that I become frustrated and worked up by not being able to find the perfect bit of software (free or paid) to do exactly what I need.
Take for example a new website I’m working on. It’s called The List Building Project. The aim of it is to try and build a list of 100,000 subscribers as quickly as possible and let the members see exactly how I want to do it.
The requirements of the site are as follows:
1. Need to be able to easily post updates to the site
2. The updates need to be in a members only area which needs authenticated access because it also contains downloads
3. Members need to be able to refer new members using a kind of tell-a-friend form
4. We need to track how many members a user has signed up
5. If a member has referred X number of people, we give them a prize
6. Each week we’d like to offer new competitions with new prizes if the user signs up X number of people during that week
I would be posting updates on a private members only blog. The blog of choice was of course Wordpress. Does Wordpress do what I want? Of course not, I can’t make it private and viewable by members only. Is there any other software that can do what Wordpress does and be accessible to members only? No, not what I could find. So that’s the first bit of software that doesn’t do what I want.
To solve the private membership problem, I turned to a bit of software called Butterfly Marketing Script. An outrageously priced $997 bit of software that is fairly decent. It could track referrals, signup members, give users a referral link. But alas, it wouldn’t work with Wordpress because it couldn’t make it private. So there’s another bit of software that can be struck off.
Next port of call was some software called Amember which has a cool Wordpress plugin that allows you to make your Wordpress blog completely private to members only. It also has an affiliate feature that allows you to signup members and earn commission. Almost perfect, but what’s the big problem? It doesn’t tell a user how many referrals they have or in the admin area you can’t find the top referrers. Are you seeing a pattern here? Third bit of software that doesn’t do exactly what I want.
My next port of call was some software called Viral Friends Generator. From the sales page it looked like the perfect solution. A user can send a link from a form to signup their friends and if they refer X number of friends they earn a prize. The problem with this software is that you have two options: a) let a user enter random names and emails and they get the prize when they click submit or b) user enters name and emails, but those people he has referred also have to signup people in order for the first person to get the credit. Aragh. Also, there’s no affiliate area so a user cannot see how many people he has signed up. Rubbish.
Moving on to the next software called List Spawner. Now this did look the bees knees. It tracked referrals, gave users an affiliate link, they could see how many people they’ve signed up, and if they reach a magic number it automatically gave them access to the prize. The problem? The bloody script was encrypted so I couldn’t change any text or make any changes! Also, when the user reached the magic number, the script stopped tracking their referrals. Pathetic.
Now, I’m on to my 6th bit of software for a site that should be so easy to create it should be up and running within a week. The new software is called The List Virus and promised to do everything that I wanted. Except that after I signed up, it didn’t. Like everything else, it sort of gets to 80% or 90% of the way but then there is one important feature missing. In this case, for some reason they wanted complete control of your visitors. Although the user got a referral link, you couldn’t send a user to a download page for them to collect their free prizes. So close and yet so far.
So, where do I go from here. I’m looking at some freebie affiliate scripts that can track signups and then I’ll have to say to them, hey, email me when you get to a certain number and I’ll send you your download links.
How much does the final solution suck? From everything that I wanted and now I’m reduced to going with this.
The stupid thing is, what I want to do isn’t anything unusual. List Spawner“>The List Spawner and The List Virus“>The List Virus which are made for what me and others want to do should be able to handle this sort of thing.
This isn’t just a problem I have with this site, it’s a problem I have with so many sites. I just don’t know anyone that has created a site with a piece of ready made software and have it do precisely what they want. Every site I make only does something to 90% at the most of what I want it to do.
This is why I want to know, am I so different? Am I doing things differently to 99.99% of everyone else out there? Am I doing it all wrong? Why is there never any ready made software that works exactly the way I want it to.
OK, if you’ve read down to this bit you are either really bored or maybe you empathise with my problem. Either way, I’ll stop this rant and rave now. Just glad to get it off my chest!
Posted in Moans | 1 Comment »
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The starting point is in the bottom right hand corner where the red lines meet to a ‘V’ shape.
