Installation
Extract all the files to a folder of your choice (.i.e. site). The zip contains Autoresponder Unlimited and all the images you need to create your sales web page. REMEMBER to change the ClickBank order link in the HTML file to your own nickname.
System Requirements
- Unix Operating system (linux/FreeBSD)
- Perl5 Interpreter (standard onunix machines)
- SendMail (standard on unix machines)
- Works without CRON jobs (which are not allowed on many servers)
- Your own cgi-bin directory
The Autoresponder Unlimited scripts were tested to work in most servers. Follow these instructions carefully and you should have no problems in installing it. If after installing and you are still having problems, please ask first your webhost before contacting us . Any decent webhost should be able to help you. On our part, we will help you with any script related concerns, but we could not help you in resolving your problems with your webhost.
Overview
- Setting up your activation page
- Installation of the autoresponder scripts
- Setting up and managing your autoresponder accounts in the Admin Control Panel
- Testing your autoresponder
Setting Up The Activation Page
If you are wondering why we put this step as number 1 is because a lot of first time users FORGET to do this step and complain that the autoresponder is not working. This is a very important step so be sure you follow the simple procedure here. The first thing that you need to do is to determine which page of your website will be the activation page. The activation page is the one which will "activate" your autoresponder scripts to work. In our experience, the best page to become your activation page is your homepage which is the most frequently visited page of your website. After you have determined which is your activation page, edit this page and paste the following scripts anywhere between the <body> and <body > tags of your HTML.
<img src=http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/autoresponder/activate.cgi width=1 height=1 border=0>
Do not upload yet this webpage. You will still need add your subscription box in this webpage. Just remember, this is called your activation page.
Installation Of The Autoresponder Scripts
Unzip the file called autoresponder.zip. Be sure you remember the directory where you unzip the files. After unzipping, you should have the following files
hml folder – there is nothing to edit /chnage in the files inside this folder.
autoresponder folder – open it, it should contain the following 4 files:
config.cgi
activate.cgi
ar.cgi
Lite.pm
You need to edit only the file called config.cgi. When you first opened the file config.cgi you might notice that it looks garbled. There is nothing wrong with the file. Close it. Open the same file in wordpad. You notice that it looks ok now. You will find detailed explanation in the config.cgi of what variables to change. What you are doing here is configuring the script. You only have to do this one time. After editing the config.cgi, you are now ready to upload your files to your web host.
Uploading The Files To Your Web Site
Upload first the html folder to your root directory. This is the directory where you normally keep your index.html or your home page. Now look for your cgi-bin directory. Upload the autoresponder folder under the cgi-bin directory. BE SURE that you upload the autoresponder folder as ASCII and NOT BINARY. You need change the permission of your autoresponder folder and the files inside it.
- Set the permissions or CHMOD for the ar.cgi file to '755' or rwxr-xr-x
- Set the permissions orCHMOD for the config.cgi file to '755' or rwxr-xr-x
- Set the permissions or CHMOD for the activate.cgi file to '755' or rwxr-xr-x
- Set the permissions orCHMOD for the lite.pm file to '644' or rw-r-r
- Set the permission or CHMOD for the autoresponder folder to '755' or rwxr-xr-x
Important Note: In some web host, you have to set the permission of the autoresponder folder to '777' or drwxrwxrwx for it to work. Try first '755' , then if it doesn'twork (like you cannot add a new account), then change it to '777' . If it still doesn't work, try changing the autoresponder folder permission '775' or drwxrwxr-x. This all depends on how your webhost is configured. If you have followed everything correctly, we're now ready to manage our autoresponder. You can now log-out from your webhost while you study how your Admin Control Panel.
Administrative Control Panel
- To login into your admin control panel, open your browser and in the URL address type www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/autoresponder/ar.cgi
- Enter the password that you created in the config.cgi
- When you are in the Admin Control Panel, the first thing that you want to do is to create your autoresponder nickname.
- The nickname is how you will identify your different autoresponders. For example, you have several domains or several web pages where you wanted to put the subscription box. For each subscription box, you may want different autoresponder messages. So you may want to create different nicknames.
- Enter a nickname in the text box.
- Click on the Add Account Button.
- Once you have created your nickname, click on the link.
Administrative Settings
- The Admin Settings will only show whenever you click on the nickname link.
- There is one Admin Settings for every nickname or autoresponder.
- This allows you to use as many subscription boxes that you can set-up in your webpage.
Configuring Your Autoresponder Settings
Here's a very simple explanation of each item:
Add Account Button: You can create as many account as you want. One account would correspond to one subscription box where your subscribers will enter their name and email
From Name: This is the name that will show in your email messages to your subscribers.
From Email: This is the return email address that will show in your email messages. You can choose any email address that you want even the free ones like yahoo or hotmail. Just remember, the autoresponder won't create an email account for you.You need an existing email address. Why? This is the address that your subscribers will use when responding to your autoresponder messages.
Add Unsubscribe Link: We highly recommend that you check this box. This link will appear in all your email messages that will be sent to your subscribers. This will allow your subscribers click on the link if they don't want to receive anymore email messages from you.
Send Report to Admin: We highly recommend that you check this box. An email will be sent to you to notify you when someone subscribes. The email message will contain the subscriber's name, email, date and even the IP address. This will serve as a proof that they actually subscribe to you. For this purposes, you will be called admin.
Redirect After Registration To: Type in the path where you will send your subscriber's after they subscribe, or after they click on the subscribe button. This is normally the page where you tell them "thanks for subscribing" or an order page. This is entirely up your marketing strategy.
Save Settings: Don't forget to click this to Save the information that you just entered above.
Generate HTML Code: When you click this button, the HTML code for your subscription box will be automatically generated for you.
Add New Message: Click this button to start typing your email messages or your autoresponder messages.You can attach any kind of file up to a size of 2 MB.Remember you can customize your email messages to include the first name, last name, email address and date today.
Intervals: This refers to the number of days when you want to send the messages or when you want your subscribers to receive the messages.
For example, you want your new subscriber to receive the message immediately after subscription. Then you want them to receive emails from you daily for the next 3 days. Your intervals should look like this:
0 -send the message as soon as your visitor subscribes
1 -send the message1 day after your visitor's subscription
2 -send message 2 days afteryour visitor'ssubscription
3 -send message 2 days afteryour visitor'ssubscription
There is no limit to the number of messages you can send. You don't have to start with 0. You may want to start sending the messages 3days after your visitor's subscription. In this case you will enter 3 in the intervalbox. Or you may want to send your messages at different intervals. For example, if you want to send your message every other day only, your intervals will look like this:
0 -send the message as soon as your visitor subscribes
2-send the message2 days after your visitor's subscription
4-send message 4 days afteryour visitor'ssubscription
Import Prospects: Allows you to enter manually the name + email addresses of anyone. You can also cut and paste the data from another file.
Export Prospects: Allows you to view online the names of your active subscribers.
Some Important Reminders
After all the messages had been sent to your active prospects, it may look like some of yoursusers may have disappeared! Don't panic, your users did not disappear. If you check you cgi-bin folder, there is a file called collect.txt. This file contains all the names + email addresses of your subscribers.
If you want to send messages to these subscribers gain, just import them to any account that you want. To import these subscribers to your autoresponder, just copy and paste the email addresses from the text file to your autoresponder, then click on the Import Prospects Button.
What To Do After You Have Configured The Autoresponder Settings
After you have set-up everything in the Admin Control Panel you need to test first that your autoresponder is working. From the Admin Control Panel, click on the the button Generate HTML code. Copy and paste the HTML code to the webpage where you wanted the subscription box to appear. Copy this to your activation page. Remember your Activation Page? Go back to step 1 & review it. Copy and paste the code into your HTML page where you wanted the subscription box to appear.Your subscription box will look like this. You can change how it looks. Save your activation page and upload your webpage to your webhost. Now you are ready to test if your autoresponder is working.
- Open your browser and go to your webpage (or activation page)
- Enter your name and email address in your subscription box.
- You will be re-directed to the webpage that you specified in the Admin Control Panel "Redirect after registration to."
- Now check your email box which you have specified in the FROM EMAIL in the Admin Control Panel.
You should receive the autoresponder message. This is the same message that your subscribers will receive. You will notice that there is a link at the bottom of the email to unsubscribe. You will receive another email. Let's call this the admin email. Everytime someone subscribes, you will receive a notification email. There is also a unsubscribe link so you can also unsubscribe this subscriber. If you don't want to receive any admin email after everyone subscribes, go back to the Admin Control Panel and uncheck the box "Send Report to Admin"
This is a sample email that you will receive every time someone subscribes. You will notice that the email contains a lot of information about the user. I highly suggest that you keep this emails. You can also unsubscribe this user if you want by clicking on the link. If you receive the first email, you know that the autoresponder is working.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I have to set the permissions?
We have already set the correct permissions to the file. However sometimes after you unzip the files, these could be lost. Just be sure that you set the correct permission after you uploaded the files
When I opened the cgi scripts in Notepad, it looks corrupt.
This can happen sometimes. There is nothing wrong with the files. Close the file that you just opened in Notepad. Just open the same file again in Wordpad. You will see that the files looked fine now.
I am getting an internal server error when I access the login page.
There is something wrong with one of the following:
- Check the config.cgi. Be sure that all the variables are set correctly.
- Check the page where you are activating the activate.cgi scripts.
- Check the permissions of each cgi script.
- Did you upload the scripts as ASCII and not binary?They should be uploaded as ASCII to work.
How do I send an email to my subscribers every other day?
- Login to you admin control panel.
- Add a new account or edit the account that you have created.
- Under the Add Message be sure to set the interval to 2,4,6,8
How do I activate the autoresponder script after I have imported the email addresses?
There are 2 ways to do this:
- Visit the page where you posted your activate.cgi script . This is the normally the most visited page of your website.
- You can also type in http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/autoresponder/activate.cgidirectly into your browser. This will also activate the autoresponder script.
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