Tips and Troubleshooting
I Want To Install on Several Domains
The licence for SmartDD allows you to install it on as many domains as you personally own.
As you've probably realised when you've updated the PayPal IPN setting, you can only set a single static IPN. So you might be thinking there's no point in installing SmartDD on more than one domain.
And if you're selling on eBay, then one domain is probably all you need. But if you also have a few websites where you sell goods by PayPal, you may be perplexed as to how you can get SmartDD to work in several places.
Well don't worry, because you can install SmartDD on a domain, and then use the built in PayPal button generator to generate the button code, decription and price widgets. When your customer pays for an item after clicking the button, they're returned back to your website.
The email is sent from that same domain, and when your customer clicks the link, they're taken back to that domain to download their purchase.
It works because SmartDD uses a dynamic IPN string which it sends to PayPal, and which overrides the static one. This is the same principle at work if you have other web applications running on other sites which use PayPal to accept payment.
The Licence Won't Work
The licence generator we use is a 3rd party bit of software called ionCube Encoder. It can cause problems sometimes when trying to recognise the domain.
Normally, you would generate a licence in the format of www.domain.com, but sometimes, depending on the configuration of your web server, it may require a licence to be generated as domain.com instead.
We've also found that if you use cPanel's "Add-on Domains" feature to add a domain to your hosting account, then the licencing software has problems with that too. It seems to find the main domain rather than the add-on domain you'd expect it to find. Then because it doesn't match the domain licence, it fails.
You can fix this by generating a licence in the format of www.add-on-domain.maindomain.com OR add-on-domain.maindomain.com (without the www in front).
It should then recognise the licence as being valid.
UPDATE: A customer of SmartDD has pointed out to us that you can generate a licence using the IP address of the server your domain instead. We've found that so far this has worked in 5 out of 6 cases, so it looks like a good tip to include here.
To get your IP address, open up a command prompt (also known as an MSDOS box), and type:-
ping www.yourdomainhere.com
and you'll then see the IP address appear as the domain is pinged. It will appear as a "dotted quad" - e.g. 128.45.65.89. Enter that IP address into the licence generator instead and download the new licence.
Emails Aren't Being Sent Out
Check the transaction screen, and check the email log. Carefully. If SmartDD says the emails have been queued, then there were no errors and SmartDD has done its part.
You can check that SmartDD is working by resending the emails, but sending them to yourself instead. If you get them within a minute or two (often immediately), you can be certain that it's working okay.
The only reasons your customers aren't getting their emails are they're either using spam filters or there is a problem with your host. Try using webmail and sending yourself a test email to your ISP email address rather than your domain email address.
Again, if you receive it okay, then you know SmartDD is working as it uses the same method to send as webmail.
Customers Aren't Getting Emails
If you know SmartDD is sending the emails out okay (see above), then it's likely that it's your customers spam filters putting your emails in their bulk or spam folders. All you can do is educate them, and ask them to whitelist your email address. Once enough users of a particular ISP whitelist you, then you should find that all your emails get through okay without being filtered.
I know it's a pain, but we all have the spammers to thank for this problem.
Getting "Order Failed" Emails
The primary reason you're getting order failures is because SmartDD can't find the item you're selling on eBay (usually) in its database. Check that the title on eBay EXACTLY matches the title in your Items panel.
If there's even a single space or character different, then the order will fail.
You'll also get order failures if your inventory product doesn't point to the download file correctly - look out for typos as being the cause of this problem! Or maybe you've forgotten to upload the file.
We've also found a case where eBay is mangling the pound symbol (£) and sending it across as £50 for instance instead of £50. After going through PayPal as well, it arrives as just a single question mark (?). There's not a lot we can do about this unless eBay decides to sort it out at their end (they're using ASCII - so no £ symbol) which we think may be unlikely.
The work round for this is either don't use the £ symbol at all, good practice would be not to use any special symbols such as $*?/@"+£ and just stick to letters and numbers instead, as it's key words that people look for when doing a search. OR, you can create a copy of the item you're selling in your database but for instance use ?50 instead of £50.
But even then you may get intermittent results depending on what eBay and PayPal do. It's best just to avoid special symbols altogether.
The only other reason you may be getting order failures is because you're also selling physical goods on eBay, but again you probably wouldn't want to have physical goods loaded…
Selling Physical Goods
You CAN use SmartDD when selling physical goods. Or at least, what you can do is use SmartDD to coax your customers onto your mailing list.
After your customer has purchased the physical item, say a CD for instance, and if that item is loaded into SmartDD, you can send a customised email out to your customer. In that email you can thank them for their purchase and offer to give them a digital download of some other useful related digital item in return for signing up to your 3rd party auto-responder / mailing list.
The follow-up email can be set to remind them to do the same thing 24 hours later.
Then you would set up your 3rd party auto-responder, e.g. Aweber, to send out a link to the download in the first email it sends after they've double-opted in to your list. It shouldn't bother you too much that it won't be protected by SmartDD. After all, you now have them on your mailing list and you can sell to them again in the future.
You should always try to get every customer onto your mailing list. If they've bought from you once and were happy with their purchase, then why not sell them something similar at a later date?
It takes a little bit of effort to set up initially, but once you've done it, it can bring you great rewards as you now have a captive audience and can sell them goods from your website instead of through eBay.
Remember, it's between 5-12 times harder to sell to a new customer as it is to an existing one.
DON'T LET YOUR CUSTOMERS BECOME EX-CUSTOMERS.
Building A Mailing List
I mentioned above about how important it is to get people to sign up to your mailing list.
Well, some people sell ebooks on eBay for one reason only. And that's to build their mailing list. That's why you see so many ebooks being sold for $1.99, it just about covers the auction expenses.
In fact, if you can get things set up correctly, using a combination of SmartDD, eBay's Turbo Lister and Selling Manager Pro, you can build your mailing list on autopilot. The trick is to break even while building your list. i.e. you want to bring in at least enough money to pay for your listing fees.
Some people aren't even bothered about that, because they know that once they have someone on their list, they can sell to them over and over again.
Let's put it another way. For every person you have on your list, you can expect to earn between $0.50c and $1.00 per month per person. That's if you send them details of carefully selected offers that match what they were interested in when they bought your ebook.
If you "spray and pray" then you'll get much lower returns than that.
So think very carefully about what you've just read.
If you know your metrics, and you know how much you can expect to earn per person on your list, i.e. you know their lifetime customer value, then you can afford to pay half that and still make a profit.
For example, if you have a good set of offers you can make directly to each person. And you know that you'll get a total return of an average $25.00 per head, and it only costs you $5.00 or less to get them on your mailing list, then you're $20.00 in profit per person on your list.
There are an increasing number of marketers that have become clued up to this, and are now working eBay to build their list. Don't worry about it becoming too overcrowded, eBay is HUGE, but if you aren't using eBay to build your list today, then you should seriously stop to think about it.
If you want to learn more about this, then I strongly suggest you try out EPA and learn all about how it's done by a professional marketer.
Or you could just ask me and I'll see if I can put something together.
Pending Payments
SmartDD is unique in that it will handle PayPal echecks. These show as a "Pending" payment, and your customer will receive an email telling them they'll get a further email when the echeck clears. You will also get an email to tell you the purchase is pending.
A few days later when the echeck clears, PayPal sends a further mesage to SmartDD to let it know that the transaction has now completed. SmartDD will then send out an email to your customer with the download link, and you'll also get one to let you know the payment has cleared.
If the payment doesn't clear, then both you and your customer will get an order failed email.
Don't Use Your Personal Email Address To Run Your Business With
As you have a domain to install SmartDD on, then use it properly! 
It looks very unprofessional to your customers to receive email from a personal or free email address. It's very easy to set yourself up an email address that runs off your domain, such as sales@domain.com.
Use IMAP Instead Of POP3
Once you've created an email account on your web server, then I suggest you use IMAP to fetch your email - most hosts support IMAP as well as POP3. If you have a hosting account that uses cPanel (such as my favourite - Hostgator), then you can definitely use IMAP.
Why? Well, IMAP leaves your emails on the server.
Imagine what would happen if your hard drive crashed, and you're using POP3. All your emails are gone forever, and you have absolutely no record of any of your transactions or conversations with customers.
It's happened to a LOT of people…
With IMAP, your PC will only read and copy the emails from the server. They don't get removed after download. So if your PCs hard drive ever did go bye-byes, it doesn't matter, you still have all your emails safe on the web server!
Other nice things about IMAP are you can share an email account across several PCs. For instance, my wife and I both have local copies of emails on our PCs. And my developer partner Paul lives over a hundred miles away but sees all the same emails that I do.
If either of us respond to an email, IMAP saves the response in the Sent Items folder on the web server, so we can both see it. If one of us saves a draft email, the other can see it in the drafts folder. If one of us flags an email, the other one gets to see it too.
It's really cool, and keeps us both synchronised!
And if you use Windows and Outlook Express (OE), there's another bonus too. If you use IMAP, then OE creates completely separate accounts and folders. So you get an Inbox, Sent Items and Drafts folders for every account, keeping everything separate instead of all jumbled up in the one Inbox etc.
Believe it or not, here's a tiny picture of some of my different email accounts. I have over 30 set up in OE, all with their own folders. With IMAP they're very easy to manage.
You can see the usual local folders, plus the IMAP accounts and folders underneath. As an additional benefit, it makes it easy to copy and move emails between accounts too! My second PC also has all the same email accounts too as a local backup!
And Finally…
That's it!
If you've followed these instructions, then SmartDD is now all set up to start delivering your digital goods.
© 2006, 2007 Frank Haywood and Paul Freedman.
143 Comments »
March 12, 2007
Drew :
I am planning to create some of my own products to sell through Clickbank. Can I use SmartDD with my Clickbank downloads? If so How?
Frank Haywood :
Hi Drew.
Not yet. We've laid all the foundations down in the code for us to add additional payment processors, but only PayPal is supported at the moment.
We'll be adding ClickBank support in the next version, currently due for release in late April / early May. Although we may bring that date forward.
We'll make an announcement via the mailing list as soon as we have something firm.
Cheers,
Frank Haywood.
March 15, 2007
Chris Butler :
I have now installed smartdd and set up outlook express OK. Quite pleased I've got this far as it's my first time with a non-Windows server (I'm using hostgator).
I am following your video tutorials and have reached tutorial no. 2.
In system manager, I have no PayPal IPN shown under smartdd links. Only cron command. I have version 0.98.
Hopefully you can help with this ASAP.
Regards
Frank Haywood :
Hi Chris,
Thanks for pointing that out, I'll fix that shortly with a new video.
In release 0.98, we moved the PayPal IPN setting to its own page off the main menu of your SmartDD installation.
From the main menu, click on "PayPal Settings" and you'll find what you're after.
All the best,
Frank.
March 18, 2007
Drew :
Hi Frank,
I installed SmartDD on my server using you Windows base installer. After installing everything worked fine. However I have tried to use since and get the following error report:-
Site error: the file /hermes/web03/b596/pow.freeranger777/htdocs/smartdd/user/userlogonform.php requires the ionCube PHP Loader ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so to be installed by the site administrator.
I have contacted my hosting company (Powweb) who are currently upgrading their CGI system and they said this: "We have ioncube_loader_lin_4.3 version and ioncube_loader_lin_5.2 is not available. We will be upgrading the version soon, but not sure when". Can I get SmartDD to function with' ioncube_loader_lin_4.3' or will I have to wait for Powweb to upgrade?
Regards
Drew
Frank Haywood :
Hi Drew,
If you're using the free version, then (at the moment) I'm afraid you'll have to wait until Powweb upgrade. I realise this is a problem for you and a handful of other people whose hosts don't support ionCube.
We're looking into a way of getting round this, but it's unlikely to be for about 6 weeks or so.
Alternatively, if you've paid for the full version of SmartDD, then send me your FTP details by emailing me on the support email address found in the members area, or use the contact form there.
I can then login to your site and tweak it to get it working for you.
All the best,
Frank.
April 2, 2007
Steve Stelzner :
Hi Frank,
I thought I'd try this venue so others could benefit. I have Filsaimes
PowerLink Generator and entered;
http://www.thelifeincomegroup.com/Recommends/SmartDigitalDelivery
into the Systems Tab affiliate link users section. I then generated a test email
and found that my masked link didn't work.
Any suggestions,
-Steve
Frank Haywood :
Hi Steve,
You can't do anything about this in the free version as the files are encrypted, but in the paid version, 99% of the files are unencrypted, so you can go into:-
\smartdd\_structure\config\cProductConfig.php
and edit the "Powered by" string directly where you can cloak it or remove it altogether.
All the best,
Frank Haywood
Steve Stelzner :
Ok Frank,
I did that but now see via my test email (love that feature) that
the " I use SmartDD for all my digital delivery" has been truncated.
Probably due to the length of my masked url.
So what due I need to do to the code so as to see that phrase below
my promotion link ?
-Steve
April 3, 2007
Pat :
I've installed the free version and so far so good. Before I launch though I'd like to do a 'test purchase'. How can I do that?
Pat
April 4, 2007
Frank Haywood :
Hi Pat,
Absolutely the best way to do it is to use a second PayPal account. I have a business account for my sales, and also a personal account with PayPal too.
I then buy something from my business account with my personal account, and when everything has completed, I refund the purchase.
Alternatively, you can use the PayPal sandbox.
Go into Item Manager, and click the code generator link against the item you want to test. Then go into the PayPal button code generator and check the radio button that says "Test mode". The code below will change to indicate test mode.
Copy the link at the bottom of the page and paste it into a new browser window or tab if you use FireFox, and press enter. You'll then be taken to the sandbox where you can simulate payment and follow the flow through.
You'll first need to create a PayPal developer account (free) before you do that. There's a link to the site on the code generator page when you click the "What is test mode?" link.
All the best,
Frank.
Wendall Bagwell :
I really like Smartdd but I don't know enough about IPN to do what I want to do.
I want to use Smartdd for digital delivery but I also want to run a subscription site. So my question is that since I have the IPN activated at Paypal how can I also run a subscription script thru paypal with out the IPN going to Smartdd?
Thanks
Wendall
April 5, 2007
Frank Haywood :
Hi Wendall,
SmartDD *requires* that the PayPal IPN link points to it if you're going to use it with eBay. That's the only way SmartDD would get notifications from PayPal and be able to deliver your eBay customers purchases.
However, if you only plan to use SmartDD with your web sites, then you don't need to permanently set the IPN link to point to SmartDD as it embeds the return IPN in the POST to PayPal when someone clicks one of your payment buttons.
In addition, SmartDD will work in harmony and will not interfere with most other IPN software, e.g. shopping carts, classifieds software, etc. This is because in almost every other item of software, the IPN is set within the payment button or link as I've described in the paragraph above. This IPN overrides the normal default IPN you would set in PayPal for SmartDD.
Without knowing what subscription software you're using and what your setup is, I can't give you a definitive answer to your question. But hopefully there's enough information in what I've described above for you to come to your own conclusion.
Cheers,
Frank.
Wendall Bagwell :
Hello Frank,
Thanks for your comments. I am going to do some Ebay sales so I need the IPN set at Paypal. I also want to run some subscriptions using the subscription button from of Paypal itself. If the subscription button from Paypal will not mess with the IPN set at Paypal for Smartdd then I am set to go.
Thanks
Wendall
April 22, 2007
Wendall Bagwell :
Hi Frank,
Well, I bit the bullet and got the full version and I really like Smartdd.
I do need some help as I set up a sandbox account all verified premium and bank account all set up. Then did a test mode and my Smartdd transaction file says pending, reason is unilateral. So went to my sandbox account and the test run says unclaimed.
Also did a test email and the download link in the test email did not work.
So help me if you know what i did wrong.
Thanks,
Wendall
April 23, 2007
Frank Haywood :
Hi Wendall,
I'm not sure exactly, but it's probably because you've set your sandbox account up to pay by bank account.
That means that any payment is by echeck which will stand as unpaid until it clears. SmartDD won't issue a delivery email until the echeck clears.
Set your sandbox account to pay by credit card and it should go through immediately.
Test emails sent by SmartDD use dummy data, so the test *would* fail. A real email would be linked to an item and so a product in your database.
The best way to test it all out is to set up a personal account with PayPal and then pay your business account with the personal account to test it, and then refund yourself after.
All the best,
Frank Haywood.
Mel Calaby :
Frank,
I've downloaded the upgrade from 0.94 to 0.98 but it's a zip file which when I extract it I can't find an .exe file to run the installation.
Mel
Frank Haywood :
Hi Mel,
There are two, I think you've downloaded the manual installer, there's also a Windows installer just above it.
Frank.
April 24, 2007
Mel Calaby :
Got it now Frank. I was sure that I'd downloaded the windows installer. Still never mind.
Mel
May 2, 2007
J :
Frank -
My digitally delivered software installs via a Microsoft Installer file or an .msi file format. It is similar to an .exe file.
When I try to deliver an .msi file - SmartDD tells my customer that it is an unknown file format. So far my workaround had been to .zip it up and send it that way.
BUT ideally I would like to still deliver my stand-alone .msi file.
By the way, IF I wanted to use the actual path of the .msi file like a URL instead of generating the unique hidden URL it just puts the link as http://domain.com/file.msi?l=ORDERNUMBER - it works but reveals the actual location if the user is smart enough to use the link behind the "?".
How can I make a .msi file be a recognized file format?
This way I can protect the location of the file. (my reason for using SmartDD)
Thanks
J
Frank Haywood :
Hi J,
At first I thought I knew the answer to your .msi extension problem, but it looks like you'll have to keep zipping them up.
If you take a look inside fd.php in the root of your SmartDD installation with a text editor, at the end you'll see a number of MIME types that SmartDD supports, and they're the most used ones.
There's also a link in that file to a big list of all the other MIME types and their format:-
http://www.w3schools.com/media/media_mimeref.asp
However, .msi isn't supported by MIME, and there's probably a very good security reason behind that, although what it would be escapes me…
For your second question, the answer is right here on the blog:-
http://www.smartdd.com/help/digital-delivery/digital-delivery-the-long-version-part-2/
All the best,
Frank Haywood.
May 3, 2007
tom :
Hi Frank, I got through the installation with a minimum of difficulty, considering I am a total non techie…this is a minor miracle!
I have one question about Paypal, the manual mentions a download thank you page, if I have all my digital items in one folder how does this work?
Does each item need to have a link to it's own download folder?
I told you I was a non techie
Frank Haywood :
Hi Tom,
Cool!
You don't need to worry. With the current version of SmartDD, there's only one default download page which all your sales go through.
It's called download.php, and you can change the appearance of your download page if you edit the HTML in that file. There's also body_top.php and body_bottom.php which you can tweak to change the appearance of your page.
As you're a non-techie, I'd leave them well alone!
In the next version of SmartDD (we keep putting the release date back) one of the new features will allow you to create individual protected download pages for every item. So you'll be able to upsell products that are related to the item you've just sold.
With the current version, you can do only do upsells with the outgoing emails.
Cheers,
Frank.
May 23, 2007
Tallbody :
Hi Frank. I'm having a nightmare trying to load this software and have already reached frustration level. I initially installed the FREE version of the software and this in itself took me up into the early hours, but after many failed attempts I was able to get this up and running.
I have since purchased the full version and now I cannot install this version. Over 1 dozen attempts to load this has taken me to the limits of my patience.
As I'm a non-techie, any advice you may give will have to be in ye good olde anglo-saxon and not techno-speak.
I'm in desparate need of assisitance, please advise before I explode.
Many thanks,
Wendall :
Hello Frank,
You may want to check this out as I found someone selling Smartdd on Ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/FREE-SmartDD-Software-Digital-Delivery-Tool-for-eBay_W0QQitemZ130116246216QQihZ003QQcategoryZ182QQcmdZViewItem
I didn't know you allowed that?
Thanks
Wendall
Frank Haywood :
Hi Wendall,
Thanks for that. You're right I don't.
The free version is okay to sell if you want to, although I like to think people would give it away with an ebook delivery, and their affiliate link, and make money that way - it's actually worth more to him than the $20 this dummy is asking for!
I've already written to him/her about it yesterday, and they've chosen to ignore it. So I think tomorrow I may purchase myself, and then do a PayPal chargeback and negative feedback for piracy.
At any rate, whatever method they had, they'll now find doesn't work as I've closed everything up tight and put a monitor on domain registration and latest version requests.
It's a real shame, as I'd intended to release the next version without any encoding at all. Maybe I'll still do that, and then again, maybe I won't…
Good timing though, whatever I do.
Thanks again,
Frank.
May 26, 2007
Adi :
Hi Frank,
I've successfully set "smartdd FULL version" up on my server and start selling digital products on Ebay (though first sell is not coming yet
).
I plan to sell digital prod with huge file size, so I plan to divide them into separate few zip files. How can I do that with smartDD? Since for one product I could only 'define' one inventory item.
Looking forward for your advice.
Many thanks
Adi
Frank Haywood :
Hi Adi,
Currently the only way you can do that is to create a download page with the files on it and point to that page. This is not a protected method of delivery.
We're working on a method of handling multiple purchases, and also multiple products per saleable item. That should be enough to solve your problem if you can just bear with us for a while.
On top of that we're also going to add download pages per saleable item.
The combination of all of the above means you'll be able to protect whole pages of files.
Cheers,
Frank.
Richard Jahn :
Hi Frank
SmartDD is a very nice piece of software & I find it a joy to use.
However, I have encountered a problem which is proving frustrating.
I have received complaints from some of my customers that they have not received emails sent out by SmartDD. Now, I know that this is covered in the instructions & FAQs, & initially I put it down to spam filters being set on my customer's email service - especially since Smart DD was showing that the emails had been sent
However, I have now found a problem when I send test messages to my own email accounts. Emails to my mail.com email address get through with no problem - but emails to my Yahoo service NEVER get through.
I believe that Yahoo have put in a quite severe email spam block in the past few days because I use another software program (SendBlaster) to send emails daily to my horse race tip clients. These emails are essentially the same every day - only the tips change. However, about 10 days ago, the emails to one of my clients started being returned as undeliverable.The accompanying message from Yahoo was that they were identiufying the message as potential spam. I believe that this is what is happening with my Smart DD emails.
Any suggestions?
Richard
Frank Haywood :
Hi Richard,
I don't know how I can help with this one. If there were a magic bullet that made sure that all emails get through, then the spammers would be using it too…
Education is the way through this. Tell your customers on your thank you page or eBay listing that if they use free email addresses such as Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN (and even AOL) then it's likely that they will have problems receiving any email at all in the future.
Tell them it will be so bad soon, that they may as well not have any email account at all with any of the providers (and others) mentioned above. It's spreading to ISPs too.
You might be wondering why it's suddenly becoming so bad.
Well you must have noticed spam is on the increase. Worse still is that the spammers are now using image spam to get through the text filters of anti-spam software.
Adding images to emails has greatly increased the size of emails from what might have been 1-2k in size up to 6-10k in size or bigger. The mail services (and ISPs) are now (almost overnight) having to handle 3 or 4 times more bandwidth in email alone, and they're suffering badly from it.
So what they've increasingly started to do is delete POTENTIAL spam mail early in their handling of it, even before it gets to the stronger spam filter software. If you think about it, the more sophisticated the software dealing with the email, then the processing requirements must increase also.
All this is even before the email gets to your customers email accounts, so you have little chance of your email getting through even if you educate them to white list your email account.
So now lots of legitimate email is being deleted as well as some of the spam.
That now raises a question.
"What use is an email account that doesn't allow you to receive email?"
The answer's "none at all". All you can do is educate your customers that if they use a free email account, they may not receive any communications from you or anyone else. Advise them to use their ISPs email account (unless they use AOL), or take out a paid third party email account.
Quite frankly, the free email services are now a joke. They're routinely deleting legitimate email, while still allowing spam through.
So the answer is, tell as many people as you possibly can not to use a free email service any more. Their day is done.
Other than that, well, there are better minds than mine puzzling over what to do about this.
All the best,
Frank.
May 27, 2007
Darren :
Hi Frank,
Great product .. but I am having great difficulty connecting using the auto installer!??
I can access my ftp account using another ftp program but your installer has not managed to connect. I have tried changing every setting I can and double/triple checking the passwords, URLs etc.. they are identical.
The mesage I get is "unable to resolve host…. try again.."
Please help as I really want to purchase the full version but need to try out the free one first!
Thanks in anticipation for your help and advice.
Darren.
Darren :
PS .. I am trying to install to a subdomain . I have entered the main sites ftp in the "ftp address" section and entered .. " subdomain/abc/" in the "create install folder in" section… is this the correct installation to a subdomain procedure?
May 28, 2007
Frank Haywood :
May 31, 2007
Zetta Williams :
Hi Frank,
I just purchased a pre-made website for selling ebooks. It is sort of a mall because I now have 50 ebooks on my site as opposed to a separate website for each product.
Is SmartDD able to handle multiple listings of ebooks without entering the title of each one? Or do I need to customize a setting for this?
Thanks
Chris :
Hi Frank,
I sell physical goods on eBay not using smartDD and sell eBooks on my website using smartDD. Can I turn smartDD off for my physical goods as I keep kept getting order failed emails (presumably my customers are too?) when they pay for physical goods using paypal.
Thank you
June 1, 2007
Frank Haywood :
Hi Zetta,
At the moment no.
But we're working on it. We have a solution, we know how to do it, and it's just a matter of us taking out the time to include it the next version.
Which we will.
We'll actually be adding the ability to handle multiple purchases automatically, and also you'll be able to link multiple inventory products to a single saleable item.
What that last one means is you'll be able to quickly and easily set up a special offer by just creating a collection of your products into a reduced price, and they'll all be delivered automatically from the same page.
Cheers,
Frank.
Frank Haywood :
Hi Chris,
You can safely ignore the "order failed" messages, as only you get them, not your customer. It's just SmartDD letting you know that it doesn't know about a particular item in case you made a typo or forgot to add it to the SDD database.
If it's annoying you, what you can do is add it to the SDD database, and then set a simple "thank you" message to your customer that SDD will send out. You can turn off all the other messages apart from that first one if you want to (we'll change that in the next release).
Also in the next release, we'll give you the options to either turn off order failed messages altogether, or for individual items using the method above.
My suggestion though is that you use SDD to email your customers for everything you sell, and offer them something for joining your mailing list.
Ideally it would be an info product relevant to the item they've purchased.
For instance, if they've purchased a golf bag, then offer them a golf related ebook or video in return for signing up to your golf mailing list.
That way you're building a business asset on autopilot that no-one can ever take away from you.
If you're not already building mailing lists, you should start today.
http://www.frankhaywood.com/recommends/Aweber
Cheers,
Frank.
June 8, 2007
Justin :
I would like to know how to access SmartDD after it has been shut down without it wanting to start from the beginning. How do you get to the administrator section?
Thanks
Justin
Frank Haywood :
Hi Justin,
I wouldn't recommend you do that as it may not work quite as you expect it to and you *might* get problems after installation.
However, if you want to to give it a try, what you do is go to:-
http://www.mydomain.com/smartdd/install/
All the best,
Frank.
Chris :
Hi Frank,
I currently have the free version of smartDD, where do I go to look into my upgrade options?
Thanks
Chris
Frank Haywood :
Hi Chris,
Normally you'd go to the "Membership Downloads" page where you'd see an upgrade option.
However, don't do that - when you're ready just drop me a line and I'll sort something out for you.
Cheers,
Frank.
June 23, 2007
Ken Trueman :
Hi Frank.
I installed and everything worked fine untill I tested the payment process with an eBay item. The payment process went through fine, the item was payed for and the download e-mail delivered okay. However when I went to the download link the file to download, the file was named "Web" with no file extension, obviously I could not open the file, the file should have been a .zip file. This only happens when I set the path to the file using
/home/userid/public_html/files/file.zip (or)
/home/userid/files/file.zip if I locate the file outside the public_html folder.
If I use the url path i.e. http://mydomain.com/downloads/file.zip everything works fine.
I am using cPanel with Linux.
Can you help?
Regards
Ken Trueman
Frank Haywood :
Hi Ken,
By the sounds of it you've set the Display Name to "Web something or other".
The Display Name is a security feature used to rename the physical file.
For example, you may have the file stored as abc.zip on the server, but you can deliver it as xyz.zip by changing the Display Name to xyz.zip - that way your customer never gets to know the real name of the file.
If you put anything with spaces in it, then everything after the space is ignored. As a rule of thumb when dealing with web objects, you should use the underscore or hyphen character instead of a space.
You can read more about how to add an inventory product here:-
http://www.smartdd.com/help/digital-delivery/digital-delivery-the-long-version-part-2/
Cheers,
Frank.
June 24, 2007
Ken Trueman :
Hi Frank
Thanks for the swift reply.
I did at first use spaces, (inserted by my server) because I always copy and paste file paths directly from the server cPanel.
However I removed the spaces when I realised they were there and still got the same result.
I have deleted the item and inventory and will try again from scratch.
Is there a character limit on the fle name, ie, "downloadmenow.zip" or would you go for "down_load_me_now.zip or dlmn.zip" ?
In the Display Name Box can I put "Download Me Now" or do I use
"Down_Load_Me_Now" ?
Best from Ken.
Ken Trueman :
Hi Frank.
Have used the underscores in the Display Name Box ie. "Down_Load_Me_Now"
and everything is now working fine.
Best from
Ken.
Frank Haywood :
Hi Ken,
That's great.
BTW, you don't *have* to use the display name feature if you're storing your files outside the web root (as allowed by e.g. cPanel based hosts), it was put in place for people with domains whose web hosts didn't let you do that.
You can just leave it blank if you want to, which is what I tend to do as I use cPanel.
But it does add an extra layer of security.
Cheers,
Frank.
July 1, 2007
Rob :
Hi Frank, I've just downloaded the free version of SmartDD and following the videos I can't FTP through the wizard to my 'Cheapdomains' server as it just won't connect. I've used the correct ftp address and port number i.e. 21. Also When clicking on the browse button re: video 1 I get my domain name come up but there are no other sub-folders and certainly no Public_html,www or anything else?
If I transfer the files manually using their fTP do I just create a sub folder under my main domain name called 'smartdd' and dump the files in there?
I've set up a mysql database or at least I think I have. How does the database access the SmartDD files? or are we ftp the files directly to the database somehow?
Please help this dummie.
Thanks.
Rob.
Frank Haywood :
July 2, 2007
Rob :
Hi Frank, I think we need to rewind here, either I'm totally not getting this or you've missed something right from the start. I think the pennys starting to drop but…
For us non-techies, am I right in thinking that we need to have/purchase a virtual dedicated web-space on a Linux server as apposed to a normal server where I currently have a basic web-hosting package?
Is this where I get the Cpanel from which inturn will have the 'Public_html' folder or eqivalant. Although with 'Cheapdomains' I think it's called Simple control panel(needs to be with me!).
You don't seem to mention this in the videos or the PDF manual, you just go straight in to telling us to upload to the Public_html folder.
I take it this also means I've now got to buy a new domain name for space on the Linux? .
Sorry about this Frank but I think you need to go back to real slow basics for us newbie-non-techies.
Rob.
Frank Haywood :
Hi Rob,
First off I'm not trying to be flippant with this message, just in case it comes across that way as I suspect it might.
No you don't need cPanel, but it certainly helps. A "normal" web server would be one running either one of the Linux or Unix variants (generally called *nix), usually either Red Hat for Linux and FreeBSD if it's Unix. Usually, but not always…
In both cases, you wouldn't see many differences (if any) if your host provided you with cPanel as your web control panel.
(Windows as a web host isn't as common as you might think, or Microsoft might claim.)
Some large hosts use their own control panel to save money, but it usually results in a sub-standard experience for us users. I've seen a LOT of web control panels, both *nix and Windows, and cPanel is the best and the most commonly used.
But SmartDD will work on a Windows platform if it's properly configured. It was actually developed on a Windows machine, so I know it definitely works!
Send me an email on the support email address (you would have received several emails through it since you signed up) with your web control panel and FTP details, and I'll take a look for you.
All the best,
Frank.
July 7, 2007
Dave :
I uses 3 paypal account for 3 different group of digital delivery
I am currently using digital dispatch it work fine but I do have to install 3 set and get 3 license
How about SmartDD. I know each paypal ipn can only be point to 1 site and since the installation is tie to paypal email address.
Question.
If I need to install on 3 different domain pointing to 3 different paypal account.
How much is the license for multiple domain?? How hard is it to generate the license as currently I only have 2 domain setup the last one I am still searching for a domain name
Frank Haywood :
Hi Dave,
The answer to your question is right at the very top of this page / post.
Cheers,
Frank.
July 8, 2007
Dave :
hi
I just purchase the scripts
I enter the location of my file using normal url
www.mydomain.com/download/book.zip
I do a test purchase
the download link I get is
www.mydomain.com/download/book.zip?l=F219EFA8-8BC9-A844-0DC1-822A7E06D540
this isnt really encrpted. The only way to encrpt is to enter the unix url into the location box?
/home/public_html/download/book.zip
?????
I haven't try that just want to confirm first
July 9, 2007
Frank Haywood :
Hi Dave,
Yes, that's right. There're 3 methods of entering a download link:-
1) To the filesystem like /home/public_html/…
2) To the file itself.
3) To a download page.
We're working on the next version at the moment, and when we release that we'll be enhancing 1) and 3), making 3) more secure.
If we can come up with something reasonable for 2), we'll do that as well, maybe something like allowing the display name to show a different filename - that currently only works with 1) but I guess we could change the way that works.
Cheers,
Frank.
Dave :
hi
I had a few more question
1) How do we know if a email is been send to a customer??
If we had some auction that is not in the database than obviously there should be no email send to customer as there is no download link, correct me if I am wrong
2) How can we backup the database or we have to do it on MySQL?
Frank Haywood :
Hi Dave,
1) You can check the email log to see all emails sent by SmartDD, and re-send them from there if you want.
2) Yes, backup your database with MySQL / phpMyAdmin or if you use cPanel, you can use the built in backup function. That's how I do my own backups.
Cheers,
Frank.
Dave :
last question
for the paypal email address
We have to use the primary email address or any paypal email address in that account?
thank you
Frank Haywood :
Hi Dave,
Any PayPal email address will do.
Cheers,
Frank.
Dave :
thank you very much I am ready to go
cheers
July 11, 2007
Dave :
Hi
can I know the follow-up email to customer when will that email be send??
Frank Haywood :
Hi Dave,
It goes out 24 hours after the success email that's triggered by a payment.
You can check and resend if necessary, all emails in the email log on the main menu.
Cheers,
Frank.
Dave :
hi
I only have success email to customer send and a new order email send to myself.
It has been 2 days but no followup email.
on the indivual inventory and item for sale I did have the followup email set already.
Any idea?
July 14, 2007
Chris :
Hi Frank,
Is it possible to have a text link instead of an image with SmartDD buy it now buttons?
Thanks, Chris
July 15, 2007
Frank Haywood :
Hi Chris,
Yes, on the button generator page there's a text link at the bottom. Just use that instead of the button form codes.
Cheers,
Frank.
August 6, 2007
Jim Moore :
When I try to load the video tutorials on adding a product or bulding emails from sections, the pages load OK, but they are both blank. There may be others like this that follow - I haven't gotten there yet. I use Firefox 2.
The two pages so far are, respectively:
http://www.smartdd.com/special/adding_a_product_and_item.html
and
http://www.smartdd.com/special/email_section_builder.html.
If there are this many (and maybe more) perhaps you should double-check the coding for those pages. It makes one hesitant to buy if the seller's website is not working right.
Frank Haywood :
Hi Jim,
I've just tried both those links and they work fine for me. I use FireFox 2 as well, in fact it's just recently upgraded itself to 2.0.0.6 after I upgraded from FF1.5.
Maybe it's some setting on your PC that's the problem? I've not had anyone else say they can't see those videos. Give them a try with IE as well.
Cheers,
Frank.
September 14, 2007
Mark Brown :
Hi
It would appear that emails sent by smartdd are not getting through, which I think is down to the hosting company (servage.net). Do I need to setup smartdd with the smtp address?
Thanks
Mark
Frank Haywood :
Hi Mark,
SmartDD uses PHP functions to send email, and doesn't use an SMTP server. Talk to your host about it.
Realising that's a "pass the buck" answer, I'll also say that we *do* have an alternative mailing method that we're working on, we'll try to include it in v2 once we're happy with it.
Cheers,
Frank.
September 15, 2007
Mark Brown :
Hi Frank
It would appear that emails sent by smartDD are being blocked by the recipients email providers, I have tried with hotmail accounts and virgin.net (ISP) accounts and the same thing happens ie nothing gets through even when the sender email address has been added to that email accounts safe list. The only time an email actually gets delivered is when I send to an email account in the webmail of the hosting package where smartDD is actually installed and which has been set to automatically forward all received mails to my hotmail account. I understand that this is due to the fact that I have setup smartDD around the email address that I have been using for all my eBay business which is ********@hotmail.co.uk - (not the actual prefix!!). I now want to try using a different sender email address which will be setup in the webmail of the hosting package ie *********@happyrocks.co.uk where the smartDD package is installed but I can't find any way of changing the sender email address without deleting the current installation and starting all over again. I was thinking therefore maybe you could confirm that smartDD will work if I do this and let me know if there is a way to change the sender ID without the hassle of reinstalling. Thanks, Mark
Frank Haywood :
Hi Mark,
First the easy part. You can change the email addresses in the System panel (admin email address) and in each individual email that gets sent out.
The delivery part sounds very much as if your host is blocking emails going out via PHP for some reason - we've seen this with some hosts who are less accommodating to their customers.
The couple of times this has arisen, my developer's taken a look and in both cases, the emails were being sent off to the hosts mail relay, but they weren't being forwarded. In both cases, a change of hosts solved the problem.
First talk to them, and ask if the PHP send mail function is enabled for self hosted scripts as your emails aren't arriving. When they say "contact the developer", its time to change hosts.
On the other hand, if they're helpful and actually investigate the issue, they'll almost certainly resolve the problem for you.
My bet is it's an overzealous security setting, or a feature that hasn't been turned on. That's a guess of course.
I hope that helps.
All the best,
Frank.
September 17, 2007
Mark Brown :
NB: second post for this message - first time it didn't appear when posted.
Hi Frank
Having gone back to the host with the points you raised they have replied :
'Please note that it is a policy of email service provider like gmail, yahoo and
hotmail. They have control over what goes into what box, not we.
Did you set proper \'From\' address in your php script mail ?
Setting a proper \'From\' address is important so that replies, bounces, etc go
back to an appropriate address rather than the \'nobody\' account on our web
servers. The most important thing is to avoid email rejection.
The last two parameters to mail(), which are optional, are
\"additional_headers\" and \"additional_parameters\". They can both be used to
ensure a properly set \'From\' address.
Example:
mail(\"target@address.com\",
\"subject\",
\"message\",
\"From: your@address.com\",
\"-fyour@address.com\"
);
Replace \"your@address.com\" with something appropriate, but ensure that the
\"-f\" is maintained.
I hope this helps :)'
Can you confirm that the smartDD scripting conforms with these parameters? Assuming the answer will be yes, I will try one last time with a fresh install. If that doesn't work then I don't know what to do as I have four sites hosted with this company, one a fully featured video sharing site (whose php email functionality works faultlessly), so changing hosts is not an option, equally I do not want the complications of having two hosting companies, ie hosting smartDD elsewhere. Mark
September 20, 2007
Arthur Bradshaw,IIIrd :
Hi, I'm having a problem with my SmartDD. When I try ti sign in to it so that I can use it, it keeps telling me that I'M not using the right password,OK, well I had it send me a new password and when I used that one, it still will not except it. I have tried several times now and still can't get in..Why is that?
Frank Haywood :
Hi Arthur,
The only thing I can think of is that it's actually the userid that is wrong. By default it's set to admin, but if you've changed it to something else in the admin panel and then you're trying to log in as admin, then it wouldn't work.
The wrong password message wouldn't seem to be correct in that case though.
If you email me your web control panel and FTP details, I'll take a look for you.
Cheers,
Frank.
Frank Haywood :
Hi Mark,
Okay, I had a long chat last night with my developer Partner, Paul. He said that he's had problems with a couple of free mail providers, Hotmail is the worst he reckons as nearly all the emails end up in the spam box.
(Check your spam box first.)
He said he's pretty sure it's because of the strict requirements of some mail providers on the exact headers that are within the email, and that it's a nightmare trying to cater for each individual one.
But he's provided a couple of potential fixes for your problem.
ini_set(sendmail_path, "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -f sender@domain.com");
$strHeaders .= "Reply-To:\n"; \n"; \n";
$strHeaders .= "X-Sender:
$strHeaders .= "X-Mailer: PHP4\n"; //mailer
$strHeaders .= "X-Priority: 3\n"; //1 UrgentMessage, 3 Normal
$strHeaders .= "Return-Path:
First, try just the ini_set line on its own, and if the problem continues, add the lines of code following it. Change the sender@domain.com to your own email address.
Add the lines of code into the file called fMailer.php immediately after the line that says:-
$strHeaders .= "From: " . $strFromDisplay . "< " . $strFromAddr . ">\n";
at about line 29.
You can find fMailer.php at:-
/smartdd/_functions/server/fMailer.php
If this resolves your issue, we'll add the above into the next version due out soonish.
(Personally, I think it's your host, but I'm always happy to be proven wrong. The other script that you're using okay, does it use an SMTP server or just the plain PHP function?)
If it's still a problem, then please email me your web control panel and FTP details and we'll take a much closer look for you.
All the best,
Frank.
October 3, 2007
Papa Don :
I installed SmartDD on this site (as well as a couple of others I own). However, the PayPal Button Generator still uses the OLD PayPal buttons, which PayPal changed last month. Since the old links no longer work and I get visible HTML code in my pages, how long will it be before you update SmartDD to use the new buttons? I am holding off starting to use SmartDD until I know it will work with the new buttons. I will just use PayPal-generated buttons until then and handle my digital delivery some other way - not a pleasant thought! Also, what about an option to use a button of our own, located in the /images subdirectory, similar to PayPal's option?
Other than that, I love what I see in the capabilities of SmartDD!
-Don
"Papa" Don McNulty :
I believe I have figured out a workaround for the "old" PayPal button issue, for now.
1) After reviewing the generated code, it appears that I can just replace the "src=" for PayPal's image with one of my own. That should work until you get the update in there.
2) It also appears to me (please correct me if I'm wrong!) that the only difference between the code generated for each product is the "aid" "value="X" parameter. X seems to be the "Auction ID" number from the Items/Auctions List. So I should be able to copy/paste the generated code (after I change it to use my own image) to each product on the page and then just change the X value. With just a few products, this should work, but as I expand this site and others, an update to the Code generator would sure be helpful.
Thanks for your consideration.
Don
Frank Haywood :
Hi Don,
The PayPal buttons are fed directly from the PayPal site, there's no local copy held within SmartDD.
What I think may have happened in your case is that your browser still has the old ones cached. If you clear your browser cache, you'll probably see the new ones when your browser re-fetches them from PayPal.
You can use your own images in one of two ways.
Either amend the form codes to point to your own images instead of PayPal's, or (my favourite) place your own image on the web page and then put the 1-liner email link as the link behind it.
The second method is I think the easiest to use.
Cheers,
Frank.
Frank Haywood :
Hi again Don,
I spotted your second comment after I'd replied to the first…
1) Browser cache.
2) Yep!
I don't think we'll change the code generator for now, but we'll probably place a library of images in there in a later (intermediate) release, as we have quite a few of our own now.
Cheers,
Frank.
October 16, 2007
Darren Harris :
Hi Frank,
I have installed the software and all seems to be working well except for 1 problem. I can't get my head around where I uploaded my ebook using cpanel. I am using hostgator.
Does it need to be uploaded into the smartdd file?
When I went to my website and did a test purchase I got to the secure download page, but when I clicked on the download link and saved the file, my computer said it could not open the file.
Any suggestions?
Darren
October 17, 2007
Frank Haywood :
Hi Darren,
The most secure place to put your files is above the web root, and I suggest a directory called files which is created at the same level as public_html. Have a read of this:-
http://www.smartdd.com/help/digital-delivery/digital-delivery-the-long-version-part-2/
The second issue sounds like the "Display name" doesn't have a filename in it, and you can read about that on the same page. If you're using the method above, then you don't need to use the Display name.
We should have called "Display name" something like "Delivery filename" instead and we'll fix that in v2.
Cheers,
Frank.
October 23, 2007
Jayson :
I just installed SmartDD on my server, and I'm noticing, on the top of all the control panel pages, that I'm getting this message:
"Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated; If you would like to pass it by reference, modify the declaration of GetHeadlineStats(). If you would like to enable call-time pass-by-reference, you can set allow_call_time_pass_reference to true in your INI file. in /home/________/public_html/smartdd/_functions/smartdd/fSmartdd.php on line 213" (username deleted)
What's this about?!?!
Thanks!
JL
October 25, 2007
Shelby Carr :
Hi Frank,
I have a problem with my SmartDD.
I have recently changed servers to Kiosk. I went to login to my admin panel and I received the message that I needed IonCube PHP loader. I contacted tech support and they fixed the problem.
But when I went to again login to my admin panel I received this message:
The encoded file /home/shelbyc/public_html/smartdd/user/userlogonform.php requires a license file.
The license file /home/shelbyc/public_html/smartdd/smartdd.lic is not valid for this server.
What do I need to do to fix this problem of my license not being valid for this server?
Shelby Carr
Frank Haywood :
Hi Shelby,
Try generating a licence using the IP address of the server as described at the top of this page. If that doesn't work, email me with your FTP details and I'll take a look.
Cheers,
Frank.
October 30, 2007
Kenny Holley :
Hello Frank,
I have had the software running for a while now. But I am having trouble with a couple things that I have not been able to figure out. First no follow up emails are being sent out. The first email goes off immediately after payment like it should…but never has a follow up been sent. Second the download counters are not changing they always stay at zero, regardless how many times the file is downloaded. Maybe the problems are related, I dont know. However the follow up email feature is one of the major reasons I bought the software and quit using Outlook Express to send my files, so I would really like to figure it out. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Kenny
November 3, 2007
Chris :
Hi Frank,
This might be a stupid question, assuming for some smart DD was no longer running, would my smart DD still work if even you'd shut 'the business' down?
Thanks,
Chris
Frank Haywood :
Hi Chris,
We're not going anywhere, but yes SmartDD is self hosted and will work whatever happens to us.
Cheers,
Frank.
November 8, 2007
Chris :
Hi Frank,
Still waiting on my account to be upgraded to full version.
Please advise,
Chris
November 9, 2007
Samuel :
Hi,
This product seems great so far…. is there any means by which you can give me some code for it to work with a PayPal shopping cart rather than buy now?
Due to the fact my site offers large numbers of products I have to operate a shopping cart system, but I am having great difficulty getting the PayPal code to send the correct details to SmartDD.
I get error back saying 'Reason: Auction with number ", title " not found. The customer will have been charged by PayPal for this purchase' but I can't find a way of getting the 'title' into PayPal shopping cart code.
Ideally it would be great to have an equivalent self-updating code like your Buy Now code, but for shopping cart.
I look forward to hearing back soon.
Frank Haywood :
Hi Samuel,
You need version 2 which we'll have out just before Christmas. It has a built in shopping cart, and should also work with the standard PayPal cart, although we haven't tested that yet.
The cart is working now on our own servers, and within a week or so we'll be putting it out to our beta testers. After a couple of weeks beta of testing and if there are no major bugs, we'll release it.
Cheers,
Frank.
Craig :
HI Frank,
I hope all is well long time no hear?
A few questions for you ( a bit techy, by way cant wait till 2.0 version comes out)
All my smartdd FULL system works Fantstatic, and i have implimeted a item based counter script in my sales pages ( very simple)
this small script calls paypal payment data transfer " identity token" to then re write my sales page to the number of items i have left for sale
( ie start with say 50 some buys goes to paypal pays, thenthe script lets my sales page tag know and changed it to 49 left)
2 questions
1. can i communicate with my smartdd script instead to get the comfirmation that indeed payment has been sent
2. if 1 above is yes this is great because i can then send the customer a protected link of their download?
hope this makes sence??
hope to hear from you soon
all the best
Craig
PS by the way my sites are growing well now and also start the membershipsite and adsence sites
Craig :
Sorry to bother again
Just quicky
Have you thought of setting up a forum for your software?
it would be much easyer to collate all info and trouble shooting
bye for now
November 10, 2007
Frank Haywood :
Hi Craig,
Forum coming soon.
#1 - If you use phpMyAdmin to look at the database structure, you'll see there's a table called tblddpptxndata. This has all the raw PayPal transaction data in it, so if you knew what to do you could write some code to read the data directly from SmartDD.
#2 - Um, SmartDD does that anyway.
Cheers,
Frank.
November 20, 2007
Wilf Staton :
Hi Frank,
I have installed smartdd (full version) and am setting up on ebay.
I think I am quite up to speed on how smartddd works but for a couple of things that I am not to clear on.
1. Smartdd seems to be set only for fixed price items. where the only place in e-bay is through from the "buy now" button if an item is up for auction I do not see how smartdd can accertain the final bid price. If this is currently a limitation of smartdd will this happen in a future version.
2. I cannot see in eBay where I can use the smartdd paypal generated button to overide the standard e-bay paypal button. I understand that the smartdd paypal button can be used in e-mails or on websites but I am not clear where it can be used for payment within ebay.
Regards
Wilf
Frank Haywood :
Hi Wilf,
Thanks for that.
#1 - eBay don't allow you to run auctions for digital products, only Buy It Now (BIN) listings should be submitted. However if you want to ignore their rules, all you need to do is set the item price in SmartDD for the minimum you're willing to accept.
So if it's a 99 cent listing, set the price in SmartDD to USD 0.99 - even if it goes for $5.00, this is enough to trigger delivery by SmartDD as it only checks that the minimum amount has been paid.
#2 - Someone else asked me this question the other day strangely enough. The answer is you can't do that as you'd be by passing eBays payment system and for sure you'd have your account closed.
As long as the auction title EXACTLY matches the title in SmartDD, it will be handled and delivered without using a payment button.
Cheers,
Frank.
November 23, 2007
Wilf Staton :
Thanks for your reply Frank.
But it made me realise that my thoughts how smartdd works re paypal was maybe be a bit off the mark.
Correct me if I am wrong.
1. If the paypal button in ebay is clicked then the person is sent straight to paypal and pays. Paypal then sends a IPN (with I assume the item name) smartdd in turn checks his database finds a match and away we go. If smartdd does not find a match (because a payment was received that had nothing to do with ebay) then smartdd just ignores it because it was not found in the database.
2. If one uses the smartdd generated paypal button (for use in e-mails, sales pages, landing pages or websites) Then the payment goes through smartdd and smartdd issues the payment request to paypal first getting the price and other info from its database. smartdd recieves via ipn that payment has been received and away we go again issuing the download link etc.
Is my understanding now correct? on the above points.
Thanks
Wilf.
Frank Haywood :
Hi Wilf,
#1 - Yes. And you as admin will receive an email to let you know, just in case it *was* supposed to be in the database. If you know it wasn't supposed to be there you can safely ignore it.
#2 - Yes, spot on.
Cheers,
Frank.
November 24, 2007
G-J :
Hi Frank
Today i installed my free version of SmartDD on my server to give the script a try. The installation went smooth. Now I'm experiencing a strange problem:
When i login into the admin area and click on the inventory button (witch isn't really showing as button, just as text link) i am linked to the following location
http://mydomain/cgi-bin/php.cgi/admin/productmanager.php
The result is an "500 internal server error"
Has this happened before and is it possible something went wrong at the installation ?
Frank Haywood :
Hi G-J,
Yes it has. The one and only time I've seen this was (I think) because of the .htaccess file set up to do a redirect and it was forcing the script to point to the cgi-bin.
I think you probably have another script installed and it's caused a problem with the SmartDD installer too from the sound of it. Do you have another site you can install to instead?
Cheers,
Frank.
November 26, 2007
Joe Barmich :
Hi Frank,
I was just about to finish installing the free trial version of SmartDD and got to the last step, where I have to click on "Logon and configure". I was so excited to finally see what your program can do, but unfortunately got this messege instead:
Bad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Apache/2.2.3 (Debian) mod_python/3.2.10 Python/2.4.4 PHP/5.2.0-8+etch7 mod_ssl/2.2.3 OpenSSL/0.9.8c mod_apreq2-20051231/2.6.0 mod_perl/2.0.2 Perl/v5.8.8 Server at www.casinomadness.de Port 80
Unfortunately I am not too familiar with all that terminology yet. Could you OR maybe someone else kindly shed some light on this, please. Thank you ever so much, Regards