Internet Profits Blog

aMember is a great membership site script. But, it can be expensive at $180 and it supposedly only works with 1 domain.

Here is how you can use aMember with just 1 install, on multiple domains, and staying within the terms of the product license.

Presumably, you already have aMember installed on a domain if you are reading this.

For your second website, in your cpanel create your second website as an add-on domain for the same web hosting account as your first domain. (If you only have one web hosting account this is your default situation). This tip only works within the same web hosting account.

Within aMember create a new product. For the new product the script asks for a url. Give it the full url of your second website and subdirectory you want to protect.

Example: domain2.com/membership/

Now, within aMember you need to protect the folder.

Typically, the option used will be new_rewrite, which presents users with a nice login form to login to your membership area. That will not work.

Instead, choose the htpasswd protection option. This will give users a popup box to enter their username and password. Not nearly as nice looking as the new_rewrite created screen. But you’re also saving $180 and only needing to update and use one script install, instead of juggling multiple script installs.

The protected url to enter on the Protect Folder screen will be

/home/YOURWEBHOSTINGACCOUNTNAME/public_html/YOUR2NDADDONDOMAIN.COM/MEMBERSHIPFOLDER/

Example: /home/bob/public_html/domain2.com/membership/

That’s it. Very easy.

Since the aMember script stays installed on only 1 domain you are not violating the software license agreement:

“aMember license grants you the right to run one instance (a single installation) of the Software on one web server and one web site for each license purchased. Each license may power one instance of the Software on one domain. For each installed instance of the Software, a separate license is required.”

Depending on your setup, you may want to modify some of the default emails sent by the script so they are generic and do not refer to a specific site. This can be done in the admin area under Global then Email.

There may also be some membership related files you will want to put in a frame so it is not apparent the user is on a different domain.

Since the login page has a link to the main domain registration page, which may be odd for the second domain, you can delete the link under templates for the login page.

Note: due to the multiple domains there may be issues with staying logged in or accessing membership admin pages if the user’s web browser does not accept third party cookies

There are many ’signals’ Google uses to rank your web pages – one of which is how often your page is bookmarked. Not only does a bookmark help your rankings, but it helps increase traffic by making it easier for someone to remember and find your website.

But hardly anyone helps their users bookmark their website.

This is a really easy fix to make.

Here is some easy to use JavaScript to insert into your pages to promote the bookmarking of your site.

You can see the implementation and how it works at the bottom of this Vandor Cookie Jar website.

Simple. Insert the JavaScript into your web page and that’s it.

Of course you can offer more options, such as social bookmarking, Facebook likes, and so on. But those are all third party sites. With a bookmark it is in the user’s web browser and always accessible no matter what website they are visiting.

eBay has made some changes to its affiliate feed to be implemented before the 2011 Christmas season. Here are the changes in the phpBay files to be made for each phpBay install:

config.php

There are 3 changes that can quickly be made:

1. Under the Preferred Country Section all of the country codes need to be updated. The entire section needs to be replaced.

2. Under Advanced Options the Default Sort Order has changed. Instead of a ‘0′ there are now various words to be used to select the sorting of the eBay listings. They are listed in the new file.

3. There is also now an option to show items only from top rated sellers. You may not need this in your config.php file if you do not care about this option. Most users won’t.

ebay.php

Many, many changes in this file. Which is a major pain in the butt if you are running a customized version of the script.

My best recommendation is to take the new ebay.php file and rework into the the customizations. Adding the customizations back in from the phpbay customization page takes only a minute.

auction.php

Again, 3 changes to be made.

1. Since the country codes in config.php have changed, near the end of auction.php those codes similarly need to be changed. You will want to swap out the entire ebayCountries array to have the new codes.

2. Then, at the very end where there is a ’switch’ command with various “cases” – those are all related to the country codes so they also need to be replaced with the coding. The new coding is actually a lot simpler.

3. The final url variable starting $url, almost at the very end of the file, needs to be updated with the new code.

Reasons why you do not simply want to copy over the new auction.php file:

- Custom IP blocks
- Custom page redirects for bad IPs/bots
- Custom coding for using QCT to track clicks

Other Files

New versions of these files are also included in the new download package:

forms/form.sort_by.php
includes/combo.php; country.php, geo.php, geoip.dat, geoop.inc
templates/template.column.results.html

Misc

The price provided by eBay includes the dollar sign. So if your template has $ followed by the price code, delete the “$” because otherwise the prices for your listings will appear as $$.

eBay defaults to showing listings sorted by a Best Match. The phpBay config file default is to sort by the soonest ending time. Stick with the default to help avoid the listings matching the order of the eBay listings. Also known as duplicate content.

The new phpBay also seems to be showing 10 listings per page, even if you change the number in the config.php file. Changing the number shown in the web page call to the script still works. So for customization that is now the place to put a randomizing factor for the number of listings shown.