The process to set up such a system with Avangate is quite easy:

1. build your discount coupons list (or Avangate can generate one list for you)
2. add your Gift Certificate product, with the price you want it
3. add a Static Electronic Delivery List and add to this list the discount coupons from step 1. Add the Gift Certificate product to this list, to enable code delivery when buying this product
4. generate a link to your product and you’re ready to add it to your website
5. add a Promotion and set it up to have multiple discount coupons. Add to the promotion coupon list the coupons from step 1 above. Don’t forget to add your regular products to this list.
6. you’re done

At this stage, everyone who’s buying the Gift Certificate product will receive the discount coupon by email. The discount coupon can be used by anyone else to get a discount for the list of products you’ve specified in Step 5.

Is that easy. Of course, this is just a base scenario that works. From here we can start playing with various things like email customization, combination of the Buy as a Gift option with the Gift Certificate buying etc. Any sugestions are welcomed any time.

1. Access your Adwords account
2. On “Conversion tracking” section click on “Get conversion page code”
3. Choose “Per sale” and then the default adwords text
4. Since this code will measure how many sales the Google Adwords advertising has generated (conversion rate), this code will be placed on Avangate’s “Thank you for your purchase” page. The page is on SSL, so “https” must be selected in “Security Levels”.

The generated code needs to be added in Avangate Control Panel, section “Marketing Tools / After Sale Message”. Most of pay-per-click advertising programs are offering tracking capabilities and generally, the steps are the same.

But in the end it matters only how the gathered data is used / transformed in information.
More information about Google Conversion Tracking can be found (of course) on their website: http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=27338&topic=60

- the homepage picture is brand new (we have used pointing girl in some of our posters in the past)
- new tagline, more suitable with what we do each day: Taking Your Software Business Forward
- new signup button … eventually this website is looking for new partners so the button should be there
- new link css design
- right column on homepage is reorganized (we have too much to say and the space is limited)
- tip of the day (we have already compiled tips for the next few months)

Out of the topic, CeBIT Hannover started today. Larry and Alex are already there, meeting some of our partners. Oh, and I just remembered, most of Avangate team is present on a new page in “About us” – “Our people” section of avangate.com. Pictures included too

So here is more technical information: until now, every disc that was processed had a customizable face in terms of graphical design and no other custom information. Now, the customer name, product name(s) and license codes can be dynamically written on a disc, independent of the graphical layout. For this to happen we needed to know the exact position on the disc where those elements will be printed. There were two options here: make the publisher calculate the x and y of the elements and then send it to us or set it in an interface or make a nice tool where you can drag and drop the elements, play with the font size and color, see a preview of how the final work will look, adjust again the settings and then save it.

The first option was not really an option for us, because of the errors and extra work might introduce for both the software publisher and Avangate. So we went with the second choice. The tool makes the process of adding custom elements to a CD a breeze. It is using extensive html and Ajax to make it as close to a desktop application as possible. It has the benefit that what you see is what you get. It even has a flash demo on how to use it, in simple steps and with comments.

Major benefit: extra-rapid CD face setup.

Only one “drawback”: the tool will be used only once, when the CD is set up. If the CD face is not changed for a long period of time, then the editing tool is not needed. So this is not a day-by-day tool, but more like a one-time tool. But it will leave any one of us more free time, time to post a new topic in the blog

But even better is the html and JavaScript code support. For instance, adding external tracking codes like Google Analytics is now a breeze. And transparent for the buyer. Practically the possibilities are endless. Adding the support for various variables like First Name, Last Name and Email, a nice combination could work out, something that will make the buyer shopping experience a little bit better but also help the seller track a sale through external tools.

Several implementations are already online. I’m quite curious how our sellers will use this feature, giving the flexible customization support.