The first step is to open up each and every
file that has a .cgi extention and edit line number one of each script. Each of the
cgi scripts is written in perl 5. For your scripts to run they must know where perl 5 is
installed on your web server. The path to perl 5 is defined to a cgi script in the first
line of the file. In each of the cgi scripts the first line of code looks something like
this:
#!/usr/bin/perl
If the path to perl 5 on your web server is
different from /usr/bin/perl you must edit the first line of each cgi script to reflect
the correct path. If the path to perl 5 is the same no changes are necessary. If you do
not know the path to perl 5 ask the webmaster or system administrator at your server site.
This file pretty much runs the whole
show. If you screw this one up don't count on anything working properly. In
other words, make sure you take the time to do this step CORRECTLY. Ask your
administrator if you need to. Below are the variables used in ALL of the other cgi
scripts. All of the other cgi programs USE configure.cgi to figure out where certain
things are. You will use TWO COPIES of configure.cgi to run this system. They
are the EXACT SAME FILE - just TWO COPIES (/cgi-bin/clickblaster/configure.cgi and
/cgi-bin/clickblaster/admin/configure.cgi)$admin =
"you\@yourdomain.com";
$mailprogram =
"/usr/lib/sendmail";
$mysqldatabasename = "mysql
database name";
$mysqlusername="mysql
username";
$mysqlpassword="mysql
password";
$aclick=1;
$bclick=10;
$cclick=50;
$sale=2500;
$threshold = 2500;
$deadaccounttolerance = 10;
$destination =
"http://www.yourdomain.com/clickthroughurl.html";
$emails="/path/to/cgi-bin/clickblaster/emails.txt";
$cgidir =
"/cgi-bin/clickblaster";
$aclick is the number of
"credits" you award for a primary clickthrough from the generated bannercode.
I would advise keeping this low so you don't pay out for lame
"hit-and-run" traffic.
$bclick is the number of credits
awarded when the same surfer reaches a special page of your site (using server sides
includes to execute bclick.cgi). When bclick.cgi executes it awards the affiliate a
bonus credit value determined by $bclick (in this example its set to 10). So when
they hit the second hidden page (even if its 5 years later) the affiliate gets 10 extra
CREDITS
$click is similar to $bclick - same concept.
You might want for example to place the server sides includes tag to execute
cclick.cgi inside of your order page. That way when a surfer is sent to you that is
actually considering ordering your product you want to reward the affiliate heavily (here
set to 50)
$sale is an optional reward that you can
include on your "thank you page" or execute from your billing system. This
would (in this example reward the affiliate with a HUGE 2500 credit payout) for sending a
referred sale.
$deadaccounttolerance is to sweepup accounts
that are opened and then the affiliate leaves. You can set cleanup.cgi to run by
crontab (optional) and it will use this value as the number of days an account will remain
active without sending traffic. For example - here any account that sends no hits
after 10 days is deactivated. This will only occur if you are crontabbing
/cgi-bin/clickblaster/admin/cleanup.cgi. Note that you will need to put the FULL
path to configure.cgi inside of cleanup.cgi since this is a cronjob.
$destination - duh.... thats the clickthrough
url
$emails - this is the location of a text file
you want to setup and chmod 777 so when you want to email all of your affiliates all their
emails are exported to this handy file
$cgidir is just the relative URL (URI) to the
clickblaster installation