There have been a lot of content locking solutions that are released as open source packages for you to throw together (such as BHCB and CPA LockUp) and toss onto your pages. They're not simple enough. Most of them require way too much technical configuration, be it PHP or JS, and not every affiliate marketer is skilled in those areas. With that in mind, I decided to create a remotely-hosted solution that is completely non-dependant on any single incentive (or non-incentive network, really) network itself while also preserving ease of use. Before we jump into things, check out a simple demo here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3861818/deadbolter.html It's very sleak and jQuery-based. You can customize everything from the fonts, colors, and corner style. You can leverage between forced incentive (by refusing to allow users to pass the locker until a survey has been completed) and hard incentives (like in the example, where the user has the option to close to locker and continue). You can choose the overlay opacity, re-pop frequency, and so on. Check out Deadbolter! I'm releasing this strictly to forums for the time being as we go through the opening stages of development. I went ahead and put together a little screenshot walkthrough, I want you guys to let me know if there is anything that doesn't work quite the way it should. Let me know if you have any suggestions or anything like that. Here's how you get started: Navigate to: http://deadbolter.com/?action=new The form here is pretty self-explanatory. Please don't fill everything in with BS fields, I don't want a bunch of clutter from test lockers (after I showed a demo earlier), so have a pretty good idea in mind before you proceed from here. When adding links to your locker, you see we've broken down the link a little. We ask that you separate your network's offer-specific sub ID variable from the link itself. This is so that we can append a special sub ID value to each variable for postback purposes, so that the locker actually unlocks after an offer has been completed. It's pretty easy to figure out your network's sub ID variable if you just inspect the tracking URL or ask your AM. Here are the variables for the most tracking network platforms… HasOffers: aff_sub DirectTrack: s1 LinkTrust: SID HitPath: c1 Your raw link (although you can append other sub IDs if your network supports it, source variables, etc.) will go in the "URL" field, the sub ID variable will obviously go in that "Sub ID Variable" field. We will automatically populate the variable with a random value. Enter a valid email so that we can send you your login information. You will use this information to log in from now on, even if it is PIN-specific to your first locker. Do not use multiple emails. You can use this same information to create multiple lockers. After creating your locker, your information will be sent to you (may land in your junk folder). You will then be presented with your embed codes. If your website uses jQuery, use the appropriate code, if not act accordingly. If you want a fully-functional content locker that actually unlocks upon offer completion, you need to have your AM integrate your postback code either globally or for every offer on each network. Pass the postback URL on to them and they'll need to append their dynamic variable for the sub ID at the end. You can feel free to test your content locker offline just using Notepad and saving the code with a .htm or .html extension. You'll need to be using the code that includes jQuery. Just so you know what the settings alter in relation to the demo, here are the exact settings: It's really simple, but I sort of anticipate people having an issue with understanding the sub ID separation and postback. I'll try to help you with that, but your networks' AMs should be of some assistance also. Upon returning to the site, log in with your PIN and email and you'll see the following bar: Clicking "My Lockers" will show you each and every existing locker you've created: Clicking "New Locker" will allow you to add a new locker to this PIN account. This is an awesome service for a couple of reasons: It's 100% free. It completely simplifies the entire process of "custom" content locking. It is not integrated directly with any network, meaning that you can slip non-incentive offers into the mix if you dare. It's remotely hosted and you can control your lockers content dynamically from a control panel. If you place the same locker on 5 sites, you don't have to go and update each of them individually. You log in and edit your locker one time through your panel and the locker is dynamically updated for all 5 of your websites. Deadbolter is currently being hosted on a Linode VPS and I've noticed literally 0 downtime. As, and if, the service grows, we can and will move this up to as dedicated of a solution as possible to ensure that everyone is reaching their traffic. This project is considered done, but we're considering this an open phase of testing. Okay, so how am I making money with this? Well, I'm not yet. I didn't open up this project with money in mind, I wanted to create a useful service. I won't be tampering with the lockers individually. I may make a few advertising deals with incentive networks or just see what I can do as a referrer alone. It's not my top priority right now, and it will come to mind eventually. What improvements may be coming in the future? Ability to change the location of your links (up and down) relative to their placement on the locker interface Ability to preview your locker before saving it Let me know what you guys think!
One of the best things about content lockers (those available inside affiliate networks) is that we don't have to search for every offer to use, it is done automatically. That is something your script doesn't have and what you should think about.
Well that's an opinion and that's what I'm trying to get away from with this content locker. It puts the affiliate in more control. You really don't know what exactly your network is doing with your traffic and this puts it all in your hands. Sometimes you might not want the "highest EPC offers" on your locker interface. The highest EPC offers for a Facebook application or a game might not show that same high EPC for a streaming website. It should be up to the affiliate. Like you said anyway, there's already plenty of those integrated in existing networks. Why another?
Wow Craig, your new product looks very promising and powerful. Can't believe it's 100% free!! Keep up the good work!
Great tool, but what about the "wmode" "transparent" problems with flash videos, can you do something about that too?