Web Design Discussion

If you’re looking for a free shopping cart that has more features than many of the paid solutions look no further than Zen Cart. It’s a free download and is often included in your hosting plan. This means you can install it from fantastico within cpanel with one click.

Here are some of the main benefits I discovered:

1. Inexpensive

It’s free to install but you need to set up a hosting account.

2. Easy installation

Once you have unzipped and uploaded all the files to your server you just need to change permissions for several directories, insert the install URL in your browser then follow the instructions for installing Zen Cart.

3. Easy customization

If you’ve already designed your own template you can create a basic custom template first then customize it by editing the style sheet and using the admin panel that comes with your installation. The admin panel allows you to turn off the right or left columns, right or left sideboxes, banners etc.

It takes a it of time to learn how to do this but once you’ve done it it gets faster.

NOTE:

Zen Cart is not a backend solution ie you can’t just add some html code to your custom designed template. You must either use their own termplates or create one of your own. Zen Cart is a front end and back end solution for a creating a complete online store.

4. Manage pages, products, banners etc from the admin panel.

Pages can be created on the fly without having to learn HTML.

5. Helpful online forum

Response times to your questions on the forum are fairly fast…generally within an hour (according to my experience).

Here are more details of Zen Carts’ features

Easy Installation

* checks the database and server for requirements before installing
* installs using a built-in installation tool
* prepopulates the basic store information
* optional demo products

Global E-Commerce Ready

* multiple language support
* multiple tax support
* multiple shipping methods
* multiple currency support
* multiple payment methods

Customer Status Modes

* unrestricted shopping
* must register to view prices
* must register to view prices and merchandise
* showroom only

Catalog Status Modes

* showcase mode without prices
* showcase mode with prices
* normal shopping mode
* down for maintenance mode

Categories and Products

* unlimited category depth
* physical merchandise
* downloadable virtual products
* products can reside in multiple categories
* product options as dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes, and text input

Customer Retention Tools

* periodic newsletter in plain text or HTML
* order status emails and records in the customer account
* referral tools
* gift certificates

Promotions, Sales and Discounts

* individual special prices
* global sale reductions
* category-wide sale prices
* discount coupons
* customer group discounts
* quantity discounts
* one-time charges
* minimum and maximum purchases per product
* prices by attributes

Powerful Administration Tool

* configure your minimum and maximum values, image sizes and customer details
* choose which layout settings to use for the spotlight listings
* pick which details to show on your product details page
* edit your policies pages with HTML (if desired)
* add, delete, move, link or copy your products
* create and manage your product attributes
* manage product reviews, featured products, specials and store wide sales
* shipping and payment module installation and management
* price and taxation control
* banner advertising controls
* newsletter creation and sending
* content management tool, easily add new content pages

Fully Customizable Catalog Templates

* XHTML 1.0 compliant - nearly table-less layout
* change the colors, fonts and many graphics using Cascading Stylesheets
* add, move, remove sideboxes via the Admin Tool
* template overrides that do not get overwritten during upgrades
* override functionality without having to learn PHP
* create as many different looks as you would like and choose them from the admin

*****************************************
Get 1000s of NEW visitors to your website without spending
a dime on advertising.

Read my new ebook “Article Marketing Strategies“…
to learn one of the most effective ways to drive 1000s of visitors to your online store.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

So you’ve built your customized template, downloaded and unzipped your shopping cart software into a folder on your computer and created a database for your online store.

The next stage is to integrate the shopping cart software with your customized template.

How to Intregrate the PHP Ecommerce Plus Shopping Cart Software With Your Customized Template.

Step 1

Copy and paste the 5 include lines shown below into content area of your html template.


<?php include "vsadmin/db_conn_open.php" ?>
<?php include “vsadmin/includes.php” ?>
<?php include “vsadmin/inc/languagefile.php” ?>
<?php include “vsadmin/inc/incfunctions.php” ?>
<?php include “vsadmin/inc/inccategory.php” ?>


I placed them between the

tags that normally contain the content.

Step 2.

Edit the last line of include code to reflect the name of the page you are creating. e.g. for the category page the last line of code is


<?php include "vsadmin/inc/inccategory.php" ?>


Make sure each page has the php extension. ie category.php

Step 3.

Do the same for the 8 main store web pages

*Affiliate.php
* Cart.php
* Categories.php
* Proddetail.php
* Products.php
* Search.php
* Sorry.php
* Thanks.php
* You can also set up an order status, order tracking and customer login page

Step 4.

Add a line of code to the top of each page. This goes before the opening tag with absolutely no spaces before or after:


<?php
session_cache_limiter(’none’);
session_start();
ob_start(); ?>


NOTE:

The home page will be the only html page that does not contain the includes files unless you want to include products on it. If so, just do the same for this page as the categories.php page above and name it home.php. Create a category for this page in the admin panel. You could then be able to add products to it from the admin panel as well as to the main category they would normally go into.

There is a checkbox at the bottom of the product admin page to create additional categories.

You can do the same for the best products page or any other additional pages you wish to create etc. This allows you to edit the products within the admin panel without having to edit the html.

Step 5.

Add links to your product pages in the navigation bar. This will make it easy for visitors to navigate your online store.

Step 6.

Upload all files to the server.

Step 7.

Create category pages and add products to them from the admin panel.

Step 8.

Select a credit card payment processor.

Some of these include:

Google Checkout
Authorize.net
PayPal / PayPal Pro
2Checkout
Linkpoint
WorldPay
Barclays ePDQ
NOCHEX / Protx / SECpay

If you use PayPal, Google Checkout or 2Checkout to process credit card payments you won’t have to bother with a merchant account, payment processor, SSL certificate or shopping cart. It takes care of all this for you.

If you want your money deposited directly into your bank account select one of the other payment processors.

Once you have all your product categories and pages built and a method to accept online payments you can begin selling your products.

Conclusion

In order to build a successful online store you need to attract lots of visitors. So your final step is to create a marketing plan.

*****************************************
Attract 1000s of NEW visitors to your online store without spending
a dime on advertising.

Read my new ebook “Article Marketing Strategies“…
to learn the most effective ways to drive 1000s of visitors to your online store.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

So you’ve completed the design of your customized template by having it reflect the image of your online business. Now you need to integrate the PHP Ecommerce Plus Shopping Cart Software into your template pages.

Here’s an example of an online book store I designed and built.

Step 1

Design your html template in your favorite editor. Make sure the design reflects your business image.

Step 2

Purchase the PHP Ecommerce Plus Shopping Cart Software for $140.00

Here’s an example of an online book store I designed and built using the software.

Step 3

Unzip the files you downloaded and place them in the root folder of your server e.g. public_html

Step 4

Create a database for your ecommerce software in the cpanel of your hosting plan. Here’s a tutorial on how to make the database connection:

Now you are ready to Intregrate the PHP Ecommerce Plus Shopping Cart Software With Your Customized Template.

*****************************************
Attract 1000s of NEW visitors to your online store without spending
a dime on advertising.

Read my new ebook “Article Marketing Strategies“…
to learn one of the most effective ways to drive 1000s of visitors to your online store.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

Deep Linking boosts your web site traffic by helping search engines spider the content on other pages besides your home page. This gives your site greater authority because you have related links pointing to these internal pages.

7 Effective Strategies to Build Deep Links

1. Deep links should only be 3 clicks away from the home page.

Search engines don’t spider web sites deeply so make sure visitors can access all pages within 3 clicks
from the home page. Visitors also don’t want to search throughout your site to find relevant information.

2. Create a site map page

The site map should contain all the links of your web site. Place the site map link on the home page and all other pages. This allows visitors to navigate your whole site from one page. Search engines spidering your home page will also spider all the links on the site map page.

3. Create a Google Site Map

This is an XML site map which is different to the html site map mentioned above. According to Google “Sitemaps provide additional information about your site to Google, complementing our normal methods of crawling the web. We expect they will help us crawl more of your site and in a more timely fashion, but we can’t guarantee that URLs from your Sitemap will be added to the Google index.”

The XML site map can include links, anchor information, page priority and how often your site changes. Click here to read more about Google Site Maps

4. Get relevant links from other web sites

If you find a information relevant to a specific page on your web site ask the site owner if they can link to that page. The best way to do this is to offer something of value in return. It may be a link from your own site, an article you’ve written or you can even offer to pay them for a link from their site to yours.

5. Write articles that target specific web pages

Write an article that focuses on the content of one of your web pages. Use the main keywords in your article title, content and the anchor text in your resource box. Submit your content to the top article directories. If many people publish the article you will receive many links pointing back to your web page. The more articles you generate the more links you’ll acquire.

6. Internal linking

When creating a new web page or blog post link to other pages that have related content. This will strengthen the authority of the page you are linking to and help it attain higher rankings.

7. Use the no follow tag to control deep links

You don’t need search engines to index irrelevant web pages such as your contact or privacy policy pages. It dilutes the authority of your web site. You only want Google to index pages that matter.

To stop Google from indexing irrelevant pages insert the no follow tag like this:


<a href=â€http://domain.com/contact.html†rel=â€nofollowâ€>anchor</a>


This will maximize the flow of link juice to your most important pages and minimizes (or eliminates) the flow of link juice to your least important pages. For more information read “Sculpting Your PageRank For Maximum SEO Impact”

Conclusion

Increasing the number and quality of links pointing to your internal pages will make it easier for search engines to spider your web site. This boosts web traffic and get visitors to stay longer on your site because of its in-depth content.

*****************************************
Learn how to Generate 1000s of Links to your web site without spending
a dime on advertising by reading my new ebook “Article Marketing Strategies“…

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

Most site owners try to get links pointing to just their home page. This is a big mistake because you miss out on attracting traffic to other pages of your web site. Also your incoming links may not be directing visitors to the targeted content they are looking for because it is on your internal pages. This is why you need to cultivate deep links.

What are deep links?

Theses are links that point directly to a specific page of your website instead of just pointing you to the home page.

Benefits of Deep Links

1. Deep linking help visitors navigate to the exact location of the item or service they are searching for.

Online visitors want to find the most relevant information as quickly as possible. They don’t want to spend time searching all over the Net. By providing the most targeted information possible you will attract and retain those visitors thus generating more traffic to your site.

2. Increase search engine rankings

A site that contains deep links to other pages will gain high rankings because it has more depth than web sites that just have links pointing to the home page. Make sure your site has a mix of home page and internal page links.

3. Target multiple keywords

Stuffing all the main keywords in your home page will dilute its effectiveness. It’s better to create a page of content that only includes one or 2 keywords or keyword phrases. The content you create should be all about the topic of that particular keyword. This increases the opportunity of that page to rank well for that keyword.

4. Encourages natural linking

If Google sees 1000 links to your homepage and just a few links to the rest of your site they’ll perceive you haven’t participated in natural linking strategies. Natural linking is where other sites naturally link to the content within your web site. Natural links generate deep links.

5. Builds page rank

Page rank measures how many links point to a website, and also the quality of the sites providing the links. If you have the Google tool bar installed on your browser it will display a little green bar. A page rank of 5 (PR5) means that your site has a good number of links pointing to it.

Only building links to the home page will boost your home page PR and pass on some of the PR to your internal pages if they link to it. A better strategy is to increase the PR of your internal pages with deep links.

Keep in mind Google no longer provides an accurate reflection of PR, therefore only use it as an indicator of your site’s page rank.

6. Attract visitors to deeper pages

A large web site often contains pages in directories that are several levels away from the home page. This makes it difficult for search engines to index those pages. Search engines generally visit pages that are only a few links away from the home page.

By getting other web sites to link to these deeper pages you increase the PR of those pages and attract more overall traffic to your web site.

7. Give authority to internal pages

Your internal pages can carry as much weight (authority) as your home page if you build links to these pages based on specific keywords. They will also rank higher than your home page if you have built your content around that keyword phrase. This will increase the number of pages the search engines will index form your website.

Conclusion

I highly recommend creating deep links as part of your overall web site marketing strategy instead of just getting links to your home page. You will increase the number of visitors to all parts of your site and boost the authoritativeness of its content.

*****************************************
Learn how to Generate 1000s of Links to your web site without spending
a dime on advertising by reading my new ebook “Article Marketing Strategies“…

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

Then PHP Ecommerce Plus Shopping Cart Software is one of the easiest and quickest ways to set-up an online store to sell a large amount of products. For approximately $149.00 you can purchase a multi-featured shopping cart that integrates with most major payment gateways ie authorize.net, linkpoint, etc. You can also use one of their ready-made templates or create one of your own. I recommend getting a custom-built template so your store looks unique and not like all the other templates on the Net. By just adding a few lines of code to your template you can create a fully functional e-commerce store in a short period of time.

Benefits

Inexpensive
Quick and easy set-up
Design your own template or purchase a ready-made one
Fully functional shopping cart intregrates easily with template by adding a few lines of code
Create unlimited pages on the fly from the admin panel
Add/edit/delete products from the admin panel
Search engine friendly (payments are processed on your own web site)
Great customer suppport with fast response times
Forum for interacting with other online store builders and asking questions to tech support.
Comprehensive user manual for building your online store

Features

Store Administration

* Full online control panel for simple admin management more details view demo
* Dynamically populate product pages without the need to touch the database.
* Password protected CSS based skinable control panelmore details more details
* Restrict admin pages depending on login
* Simple process for adding / modifying / deleting products and categories more details more details
* Full online order viewing by date selection and search.
* Product search within the admin section.
* Editable order details more details more details
* Optional Customer login for order history viewing and creating accounts.
* Affiliate program included with online viewing of affiliate sales more details more details
* Downloadable product inventory.
* CSV database upload more details more details
* Language specific admin available more details more details
* Up to 3 languages supported from the same database more details more details

Product / category options

* Unlimited number of products.
* Upselling of related, bestselling, recommended products as well as suggesting products purchased by other customers more details more details
* Product reviews and ratings feature more details more details
* Show multiple currencies more details more details
* Place products in several categories
* Up to a depth of 10 levels of sub-categories.
* Extra detail page for more detailed product descriptions with layout options.
* Show multiple product images.
* Image upload
* Allows for use of HTML in product descriptions to make formatting simpler more details more details
* Provision of coupons so clients can purchase at a discounted rate by entering their coupon code more details more details
* Apply discounts by product or category depending on total purchase or quantity ordered more details more details
* Specify the number of products per page.
* Choice of product and category layouts, using one or multiple columns of products more details more details
* Optional images choice for categories.
* Choice of product listing by price, id, user preference or alphabetically more details more details
* Product options allow for the selection of color, size etc. with price differences shown in real time - choose between drop down menus and radio buttons more details more details
* Product option selection can change product image displayed
* Multiple purchase feature for product options
* Allow clients to type in their own requirements for a particular product more details more details
* Product options can have their own product ID more details more details
* Clone products and product options for faster input.
* Wholesale / retail pricing depending on login more details more details
* Quantity pricing option more details more details
* Option of showing the “buy” button or an “Out of stock message”.
* Option of maintaining a product in your inventory but not showing on the store.
* Stock management feature permits you to define the number of products in stock, and the store will automatically generate an “Out of stock” message once the last item in stock has been purchased more details more details
* Stock management for product options more details more details
* Show number of products in stock on the products page
* Set minimum purchase total requirement more details more details
* Email to friend link option - product specific more details more details
* Choice of currency symbols and formatting.
* Change all store generated language from one place more details more details
* Option to remove buy / checkout buttons making the plus version compatible for other uses eg. real estate listings, online catalog etc more details more details
* Order categories to suit your needs.
* Option of showing list price / your price.
* Show product ID, SKU, Manufacturer on the product pages.

Shipping / checkout features

* Weight based shipping by zone more details more details
* Flat rate shipping more details more details
* USPS shipping rate integration and order tracking more details more details
* UPS shipping and order tracking more details more details
* FedEx shipping and order tracking more details more details
* Canada Post more details more details
* Free shipping option (choose by country and / or total order or number of items purchased) more details more details
* Price based shipping more details more details
* Shipping estimator before checkout more details more details
* Streamlined checkout process
* Customer shipping carrier selector more details more details
* Provide a different shipping method for international customers in respect to domestic buyers.
* Global handling charge option.
* Handling charge per payment provider more details more details
* Compatible with all major tax systems (including Canada and Australia) more details more details
* Offline credit card processing more details more details
* Complete integration with the top payment processors, and / or email notification only more details more details
* Manual order creation
* Order status look up page for customers more details more details
* Offer customers a tracking number.
* Automatic email to customers on order status change more details more details
* Integrates PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification for secure order processing more details more details
* Email notification once an order has been placed.
* Printable receipt on thanks page
* HTML header and footer for the confirmation email more details more details
* Download orders to a .csv file.
* Print packing slips from the admin orders page.
* Print invoices from the admin orders page.
* Collect email address on checkout.
* Send out newsletters more details more details
* “Remember me” option for return users.
* Javascript and Cookie disabled detection.
* Block IPs or IP ranges.

Design options

* Choice of template editor - Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Expression Web, Adobe GoLive or design your own.
* Search engine friendly options such as static pages and generated title and meta tags available more details more details
* Original .png files included for editing graphics in Fireworks.
* Global design changes made simple through Dreamweaver .dwt and .lbi files, Frontpage include pages or GoLive components.
* Simple to change colors and personalize the store.
* Multiple CSS classes available for key display options more details more details
* ALT information automatically added to category and product images

General features

* Integrated product search page.
* Built in modular fashion, allowing for free future upgrades and addition of new features.
* 6 month free online technical support more details more details
* Downloadable User Manual more details more details
* 30 day money back guarantee.

Requirements

* For the PHP templates a UNIX / Linux server with a minimum of PHP 4.1 and a mySQL database. (cURL component required for UPS shipping)
* Dreamweaver 3+, or Frontpage 2000+ or GoLive 5+ or Expression Web
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 5+ or Firefox 2.0 + for using the admin section.

Template Versions

* Ecommerce Plus shopping cart software in Dreamweaver version.
* Ecommerce Plus shopping cart software in FrontPage version.
* Ecommerce Plus shopping cart software in Adobe Golive version.
* Ecommerce Plus shopping cart software for CSS layouts.
* Design your own

To receive more details about each of the above features please visit:
PHP Ecommerce Plus Shopping Cart Software Features

*****************************************
Attract 1000s of NEW visitors to your online store without spending
a dime on advertising.

Read my new ebook “Article Marketing Strategies“…
to learn one of the most effective ways to drive 1000s of visitors to your online store.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

Small Number of Products

If you only have small number of products you won’t need all the requirements listed in my last article. When starting out with your online store you may not want to spend a large amount of money purchasing a merchant account and paying high processing fees until you know your product will sell.

For a small number of products or service you can use PayPal or Clickbank

PayPal

PayPal accepts credit card and paypal payments for hard goods (ie books) and digital products (ie software, ebooks). It takes care of all the requirements for processing your payments by simply copying a pasting some html code into your web site. It offers simple buy now buttons or a fully fledged shopping cart.

Here are some of the features PayPal offers:

No monthly fees
No setup fees
No gateway fees
Free eBay and Merchant tools
Antifraud systems at no extra cost

Monthly Sales Price Per Transaction
$0.00 USD - $3,000.00 USD………………………2.9% + $0.30 USD
$3,000.01 USD - $10,000.00 USD………………..2.5% + $0.30 USD
$10,000.01 USD - $100,000.00 USD……………..2.2% + $0.30 USD

Your funds are deposited directly into your PayPal account.

Read How to Build an Ecommerce Web Site Using the PayPal Shopping Cart

For Digital Products or Service use ClickBank

ClickBank is an ideal payment processor for selling digital products like ebooks or online software. It also allows you easily set up an affiliate program with no hassles and begin accepting commissions.

Fees

There is a one time activation fee of $49.95 and $1 + 7.5% charge for each transaction. You receive a check twice a month. There are no monthly charges, but there is a $2.50 pay period processing fee for every check that ClickBank issues to you.

Clickbank Calculator
http://www.clickbankguide.com/calculator.htm

*****************************************
Get 1000s of NEW visitors to your website without spending
a dime on advertising.

Read my new ebook “Article Marketing Strategies“…
to learn one of the most effective ways to drive 1000s of visitors to your online store.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

The number and quality of links pointing to your site is one of the major factors that influence the position of your web site in the search engines. Ideally you want to be on the first page for your main keyword phrase to receive the most traffic.

This may almost be impossible if it’s a very competitive phrase ie your competitors have 500 backlinks pointing to their site and you only have 50.

Here’s how to find out how many backlinks your competitors have:

1. Enter your main keyword phrase in the Google search box and make a note of the top 10 web sites.

2. Do a backlink check for each of these web sites by entering site:www.domain.com in the Yahoo search box.

3. Click the link “only this domain”

4. Repeat this procedure for your own site to see how many backlinks your site has.

5. Repeat this procedure for your other main phrases to see which phrase is the least competitive.

6. Select the phrase that is the least competitive ie if you have 50 backlinks for one of your phrases and your competitor has 75 you only need to get another 26 to out rank him (providing they are quality links).

7. Generate lots of backlinks to your web site by writing articles that include your keyword phrase in the content and live links pointing back to your site in the resource box at the end of the article.

8. Submit your articles to the top article directories.

9. Write and submit 3 articles/week over 2 months..more if you have time, less if you don’t. The most important aspect of this exercise is to do it consistently.

10. Monitor your results by checking your rankings and site stats. Some article directories provide stats on how many people read your articles.

You’ll get more backlinks as you increase the volume of articles you produce.
*********************************************************
For a step by step guide on how to write and submit
articles pick up a copy of my new ebook…

Article Marketing Strategies

I’m currently selling it at the test price of $9.97.
The price will increase when I’ve completed the testing.

An online store enables you to sell your products 24 hours a day 7 days a week from a single computer. This means you hardly have any overhead fees. The difficulty is to actually create your ecommerce store because it contains many more variables than an informational web site.

There are so many options for building an online store that it is easy to be confused. In this series of articles I will discuss the requirements and options that are available so you can quickly and easily get your store set up.

Requirements

1. Product or service to sell

Select a product or service you are passionate about so you don’t get bored promoting it. Make sure there is a demand for it. Before spending time and money on what you think is a good product, do the necessary research. It will save you a lot of headaches down the road.

2. Merchant Account

This is a “bank account” established with a payment processor for the settlement of credit card transactions. If you are selling products online you will need a “Card Not Present Merchant Account.”

3. Payment Gateway

This is an online system for real-time charging of credit cards when a customer places an order. It normally requires a merchant account.

A common example of a payment gateway is authorize.net where customers are taken to the authorize.net secure server for making payments. After a successful transaction they are returned to your store.

4. SSL Certificate

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. SSL certificate is an electronic key that encrypts transmissions between two computers on a public network, providing privacy and security to the session. An SSL certificate confirms that a message that you receive actually did come from the person identified. SSL certificates are used for secure e-commerce communications, protecting information such as credit card numbers and personal data.

Most payment gateway providers include an SSL certificate however you can easily obtain one from a 3rd party.

Shared SSL certificate

Some web hosting companies use shared SSL certificates. This means that the certificate is shared by all web sites on that server. The benefit is that it’s free (included with your hosting account) and many shopping carts allow you to use it to process secure transactions online.

Shopping cart

This enables you to manage the products of your online store. It allows to create categories, add, edit or delete your products. With a simple shopping cart you copy and paste some html code into your web page and all the processing is done on the 3rd party shopping cart account web site. A more comprehensive cart contains many other features such as creating web pages on the fly without having to learn html, and managing your products from an admin panel from your own web site.

Domain name

If you are serious about creating a real business online you should register your own domain name ie www.domainname.com. It will help brand your business so your clients can easily identify your business.

Web Site

Create a professional web site by getting it custom built by a professional web site designer. It will help your web site stand out from your competitors and allow you to create a design that fits with your product.

Web Hosting

Select a web hosting company that has great customer service, enough space and bandwidth for hosting and marketing your site. It should also include a database, shared SSL certificate and site stats.

*****************************************
Get 1000s of NEW visitors to your website without spending
a dime on advertising.

Read my new ebook “Article Marketing Strategies“…
to learn one of the most effective ways to drive 1000s of visitors to your online store.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

Recently a client of mine suddenly received a huge number of requests (approx. 5000) for a free sample he was offering from his web site. I had installed Master Form v4 which is an anti-hijacking form. I was surprised when I checked the admin section of Master Form to find several sites had stolen this secure cgi mail form by copying and pasting the form code from my client’s site to their own site.

The form was being used on several unauthorized domains so my client received lots of traffic to his site and a large number of illegitimate requests for his free product.

How to Prevent Your Mail Form From Being Used on Unauthorized Web Sites

1. Login to the Master Form administration panel and delete unauthorized form locations.

2. Turn the auto-submit protection on in the admin panel. Two things need to be done to make this happen:

a) Paste certain JavaScript into the authorized forms.
b) Check a certain checkbox in the Master Form V4 control panel.

This page provides step-by-step instructions for auto submit protection

This will only prevent automatic submission. If people fill out the forms manually and submit them, the software probably won’t detect that.

3. Another thing that can be done is to put Form location (if known): [[REFERRER]] into the email the client receives. That will provide the location of the form being used unless the browser suppresses the information. Those requests can then be ignored or sent an email with the official location of the form.

The software is designed so the site owner can put the Master forms on any and all domains he owns. So it doesn’t have restriction by domain.

How to Prevent Your Forms From Being Stolen
(if the person is copying and pasting the form on their own site)

I contacted the creator of Master Form (Will Bontrager) and he wrote a great article on how to use javascript to stop forms from being stolen. The article is titled Forms Copied And Pasted To Unauthorized Web Sites

Master Form V4 will be upgraded in the future to allow the site owner to specify the domains that can use the form.