<UPDATE on 07/01/2011>
DAP v4.2 Beta has just been released, and is now available for download from the members' area. </UPDATE>
Don't forget to watch in "Full Screen" mode
Ok, so did you see all of the amazing new 4.2 features in the above video? Very cool, eh?
Anyway, here's why things have been kinda quiet in the DAP world…
DAP v4.1 Is Final
DAP v4.1 is now officially "Final". It has been very stable for over a month now, but we were just holding ground in case any bugs get reported. So unless you've downloaded DAP in the last couple of weeks. better to re-download DAP v4.1 and LiveLinks v1.6 again, and upload them to your site. (Upgrading Your DAP Installation)
DAP v4.2 Is Coming Soon Now Here!
In less than 2 weeks, actually.
And here are all the features that are included…
[NEW] Shopping Cart "Check Out Page" can now be placed right inside WordPress pages using new merge code %%DAPCART%% , thus taking on the instant look & feel of your WordPress theme!
[NEW] Custom Fields (Hooray!): Admin can create new custom fields inside DAP
[NEW] Ability to customize shopping cart options: Like "Where did you hear about us", "Additional Comments", "Terms & Conditions", etc – on the DAP Cart's Checkout page
[NEW] Ability to include and customize Product-level Cart header & Cart footer HTML
[NEW] Complete redesign of the Products page. Now has a tab-based – so basically, the long Products page has now been chopped up into multiple, shorter tabs. The form has also been redesigned to make the Product setup a lot more intuitive and simple
[NEW] Improvements to "ContentResponder" section: DAP will now highlight (actually, down-play with a dull gray color) all of the blog posts/pages that have already been added to the product being viewed, so you can clearly see which ones are not protected.
[NEW] Dedicated Buy Button "Generator" Page
[NEW] Fully re-designed Config page – now you change multiple config items in one go, and click "Update" just once. Better description of fields, better organization of logical groups of configs, etc.
[NEW] "Help Tips" and "Tool Tips" added to many pages, making things much easier to understand
[NEW] Cleaner-looking forms and buttons in the DAP Dashboard
[NEW] "First Name" now part of User Search Criteria
[NEW] Improved Pagination on Users > Manage page. Eg., when you're on page 4 of the users list, and you take any action on any user on that page, previously DAP used to reset the user search back to Page 1. Now it's been fixed so that it will stay on same page.
[NEW] Improved "Pop Up" locations: Previously, popups for "Modify Dates" or "Add Affiliate" used to show up all the way on top of the page regardless of how far down you've scrolled on the Users page. Now, the popups will show right next to the clicked link.
[NEW] Personalized RSS Feed Links: Each of your members will now get their own custom RSS feed link, which they can then enter into their favorite feed reader, like Google Reader or iTunes, and the feed will be customized with only the content that they're eligible to view
[NEW] Coupons support for Authorize.net
[NEW] * "Add To Cart" Support for Authorize.net (and possibly Payments Pro too): Which means if you're using the DAP cart & Auth.net, your members will be able to buy multiple products in one purchase
[FIX] Change to DAP Shortcodes to remove empty breaks and paragraphs when hiding protected content
[FIX] "Missing spaces from error and notification browser messages" issue fixed
On top of that, there are so many other little tweaks and improvements, that don't merit a mention in the above list, but will make your DAP experience a much smoother one.
Well, that's about it as far as 4.2 is concerned.
As always, don't forget to add your comments below.
[NEW] When you add a blog post/page to a Product, it retrieves the post/page’s title, and the page title is what your member will see in the “Links” section of a product.
[NEW] (New Config Field) SECRET_KEY : Secret Authorization Key used when interfacing with external systems
[NEW] (New Config Field) SHOW_COMMENTS: Show comments on protected WP content?
[NEW] (New Config Field) DEFAULT_AFF_LANDING: URL of default landing page for Affiliate links (when not redirected). Default: / (home page)
[NEW] DAP will no longer allows deliberate or unintentional deletion of admin users. You must change their account type to “User” first before you can delete the user.
[NEW] Display of User Links (sorting order): Within a given day, if you have multiple links dripping (say, on day 1 itself you have multiple links), then they will show up on the “User links” page in the exact same order in which it shows up on the Products page.
[NEW] Warning presented and asks for confirmation when you click on “Delete Product” (even though DAP already won’t delete a product if there is even 1 user associated with a Product. Just another confirmation in addition to what was there before).
[NEW] DAP Logs displays only 1000 rows now
[NEW] URL field length increased from 100 to 200
[FIXED] LiveLinks: It seems the first name and other merge tags work, but the last name merge tag isn’t functional.
[FIXED] Removed “http://” from second link in affiliate “redirection” link
Feel free to comment below.
Oh, one more thing.
The final feature list for 3.8 isn’t going to change much. But if you have a feature request(s) for 3.9, then speak now or forever hold your peace… er… , you may have to hold it at least until v4.0
Now you can do Unlimited 1-Click Upsells, Downsells & OTO’s with both Authorize.net and Paypal Website Payments Pro!
This totally rocks!
Also, DAP v3.6 Beta is out. Has changes for Paypal Payments Pro integration, Authnet form look & feel, and integration for Paypal “Add To Cart” buttons too!
<LAUNCH SALE>
Oh, and only for the next 3 days, you can purchase the Paypal Upsell Tree plugin for $97 ($30 off the regular price of $127).
Just send us a payment of $97 to Ravi _AT_ DigitalAccessPass.com , and you’ll get access shortly. The $30 launch sale ends on 01/29 (Friday) at midnight.
WooHoo! Aweber has finally finished a custom email parser for DigitalAccessPass, I’ve tested it and it works great!
This is going to make Aweber integration as simple as just adding “yourlist@aweber.com” to the “3rd Party Notification Email Id” field on your “Product” page in DAP. That’s it! 5-second integration. No more will you need to do any of this!
But, before it shows up on the list of global parsers, and in fact for it to even show on the list of global parsers in your Aweber account, I need your help asap.
Please visit Aweber.com, open a ticket, and tell them something to the effect of…
“Hi Aweber Support,
I want the custom parser “DigitalAccessPass.com” to be added to my Aweber account.
This parser is currently available in Aweber account plugandplay owned by Ravi Jayagopal
Here’s my Aweber login: _______
Here’s my Aweber password: _______
Thanks!
- Your Name”
That’s it.
Once they have at least 10 people request this, then the Custom DigitalAccessPass.com Parser will then be added to the global list of Email Parsers, and it will be available to everyone. And no one else will have to send these guys the above email any more. Probably just the first 10.
But I do need your help to send this email to them asap.
Feel free to comment below if you have any questions.
Which means, if you have an Authorize.net merchant account, then DAP itself becomes your shopping cart. No need for a 3rd party cart like 1SiteAutomation.com (1ShoppingCart Private Label).
It also means that the customer never leaves your web site to make a payment. No more sending people to a different web site – like Paypal – for instance. Customer stays within your web site’s pages. And makes a purchase right on your web site.
Once this plugin goes live soon, 1-Click Upsells and OTO’s will soon follow suit.
If you are willing to try out the Authnet Plugin beta version, you will get a substantial discount on the plugin. So please let us know via the comments below if you’re interested in signing up for the beta and getting the discount.
What You Need (To Use This Plugin)
1) Your own Authorize.net Merchant Account
2) A “SSL Certificate” on your web host.This is where your site looks like “https://Yoursite.com” with the extra “s” after the “http..”. That is what allows your members to “securely” enter their credit card information on your site and submit it for payment processing. We can help you set up SSL on your host for a fee. Just ask us.
With the addition of these features (and even more that we’ll be adding: Product Chaining, Joomla Support, vBulletin integration, …) we’re taking DAP to a whole new level.
And we are really excited, humbled and honored that it is your support that has allowed us to get here.
And we promise you that in 2010, we’re going to take DAP “Where No Membership Script Has Gone Before!”
And finally, a “HUGE Thank You” for your show of support and incredible feedback at the Warrior Forum . I’ve published your comments from the forum on our testimonials page.
I just found out from Aweber that I need to take some extra steps in order for the email parser to show up for everyone, including you. So, ignore the request below for now. I will send you an update once I hear back from them. Sorry for the trouble! Thanks!
We’ve just finished testing a new feature – an Aweber Email Parser – for automatically adding your DAP members into your Aweber list.
And we’re hoping to roll this into DAP v3.4 (in beta right now. Yay!)
So I need a really quick favor from you…
If you have an Aweber account, and if you have 3 minutes to spare, can you please check something for us?
1) Log in to your Aweber Account
2) Under “My Lists” tab at the top, click on “Email Parser”
3) Do you see “DigitalAccessPass.com” among the list of email parsers available there?
Pls post your findings/comments below in the comments section.
*Really, really* appreciate your help
Thanks much!
- Ravi Jayagopal
PS: If you did see the parser, then all you need is DAP v3.4 which is available for download right now!
Both DAP v3.4 and LiveLinks (LL) v0.9 should be out in just a couple of days.
We have some very cool new features packed into this release.
WordPress User Integration
DAP now fully integrates with the WordPress user tables. Which means you can now put to use awesome WordPress plugins that require the user information to exist in the native WordPress user tables. Also see our earlier post about this.
WordPress Forum Integration
We have so far tested DAP with bbPress and Simple:Press and both work great!
If DAP works with these two forum plugins, then it should work with other WP forum plugins too.
Other New Features
* [New] More columns added on the “Users > Manage” screen. New colums include: “User Status”, “User/Product Status”, “Opted Out”. So in one glance, you can see if a user is active, if the user/product status is active, and if the user has opted out of receiving emails from you. Any of the users that are “Inactive” or “Unconfirmed” will be highlighted with a bright color (orangish?)
* [New] Merge code %%AFF_LINK%% can now be used in blog posts too.
* [New] 3rdPartyNotification Email now contains details about the product that just got a signup
* [New] There’s a new file called “/dap/inc/protected_html.php”. The contents of this file will show up below the padlock. You can customize this page with any sales copy you want.
* [New] Links on “User Home Page” are now sorted by “dripping order” – newest at the top, oldest at the bottom.
* [New] Changed affiliate earnings summary on user home page to now show “Product Name” instead of just the “Product Id”. So affiliate can know what product on your site that they referred someone to.
* [New] Minor changes to Look & Feel of various DAP pages
* [Bug-fix] Fix for the “Umlaut” above letters in the user’s first/last name
* [Bug-fix] Removed JS alert on “Export Affiliates” from archive functionality
* [Bug-fix] Some servers don’t seem to like the second “http://” in affiliate links when you’re redirecting to a new page other than the default affiliate landing page. Fixed this to remove the second “http://” from the affiliate link. It will not affect your existing affiliate links.
[Note] LiveLinks v0.8 was not a general release. It was given to just a few select DAP users who reported LiveLinks 0.7 conflicting with their theme. So regardless of whether you have LL 0.7 or 0.8, you can upgrade to LL v0.9.
We’re testing a new feature where every member in DAP now also automatically gets entered into the WordPress user database. So when they log in to DAP, they will also be logged in to your wordpress blog as a “Subscriber”.
What this means to you…
You can now use any WordPress plugin that uses the native WordPress user tables – like BB-Press and Simple Press (Forum Plugins)
Your DAP member can be automatically logged into the forum plugin (say), so they can participate in a discussion
If your member’s subscription expires, they will lose access to the forums
WordPress will now automatically recognize the logged in user in the comments section of a blog post or page
Plenty of possibilities.
But here’s where I need your help.
What are the plugins that you always wanted to use with DAP, but couldn’t do so because the native WP user integration wasn’t available?
- OR -
What are the plugins that you would like to use with DAP, now that the feature will be available shortly?
`
Please add your answers/comments/questions/suggestions below.
Imagine having the reliability of Aweber in delivering your emails, minus their monthly fees.
I mean, what if this were …<gasp>Free</gasp>?
That’s the kind of awesome new service that we’re currently evaluating for all DAP users.
It is a Third-party SMTP Service provided by leading Email Service Provider, FuseMail.com (Note: This is not final in any way, and we may end up going with someone totally different. Just FYI).
Now you already know DAP allows you to send out bulk email to your members right from your web host. There really is no need for an external email service. Most web hosts are pretty good with their deliverability.
In fact, we ourselves use our web host’s SMTP service to send out our emails to you.
That said, if you are hosting on an inexpensive web host (like for $5/month), you obviously cannot expect your host’s email deliverability to be the same as, say, that of Aweber’s. There is a reason why Aweber is expensive. And that’s because they have really good email delivery. And if you have an Aweber account already, and plan on using that with DAP, then DAP allows you to add buyers of a Product in DAP to your Aweber list (a different list for each product since DAP v3.3). So you’re all set already.
And if you didn’t care for Aweber, and still wanted to avoid using your web host’s email system and their hourly email-sending restrictions, then DAP has always had an answer for this…
Simply sign-up with a 3rd party SMTP provider, set up their SMTP info on the “SMTP” screen in DAP admin, and DAP will totally bypass your local web host for all outgoing emails, and instead send out emails through this 3rd party service.
No Monthly Fees
But what if you didn’t have an expensive service like Aweber? And you also don’t want (or can’t afford) the ongoing monthly fees charged by such email providers?
That’s exactly why we’re evaluating whether offering such a 3rd Party Service to all DAP users makes sense.
We’re not sure if you’re going to favor such a service over Aweber. We’re not sure if you’re going to take up this option at all.
DigitalAccessPass.com is actively exploring such an option, and we’re going to be taking on on a big monthly fee in order to provide this to you for free.
But these individual accounts that we’re going to provide you with, certainly won’t allow you to blast out tens of thousands emails an hour. For that, you would have to sign up for a paid option (it costs something like $80 per month, and you can send out up to 80,000 emails a month). Or use Aweber.
But for 99% of membership site owners, they don’t have tens of thousands of members (yet). And they don’t plan on blasting out spam to that 20-million email id’s purchased for $99 online either .
So a 3rd-party service like this would be perfect for the average, non-spamming, membership site owner who doesn’t have gobs of money and boat-loads of members – yet.
That’s why we need your help to determine what kind of email volume you expect to send out through such a 3rd-party service.
So please take this short survey, which will really help us figure out your specific needs.
It would be great if you let us know who you are, but you don’t have to. Feel free to be anonymous if that helps.
.