Mike Griffiths

A couple of nights ago I decided to do a little experiment. I was going to create a generic website with a few hundred pages of content, SEO the hell out of it, and see if I can earn anything from AdSense.

The website is All Phobias, and it lists every ‘known’ phobia out there. It’s written in PHP ontop of CodeIgniter. I created a small C app to scrape all of the data off a few different websites and generate some SQL for me. All in all the whole thing took about 4 hours to make. The design is some crappy free one I downloaded, as I’m not really interested in how it looks.

I’ve made sure every page has everything it should like unique titles, h1 tags and all the meta tags to go with it. I have also made a couple of blogs on external websites and made 5-10 posts on each, some linking to the site, and some not. I’ve submitted to some free submission sites, as well as linking from all of my major sites with a decent page rank.

I’ve submitted a hefty sitemap (I think there were 750 pages) to Google, but the domain is still in the incubation period, so I guess I’ll need to wait a couple of months to see any real progress.

Since the site went live 2 nights ago it’s earnt me a whopping £2. Which, to be honest, isn’t bad at all. If I can earn £1 a night from 2 nights work then I’ll be a happy man. Do the math on that, 15 sites per month, for 6 months, that would be ~£90 per day, or £2.7k a month. Not bad. My hope is that in 6-8 months time it will be top of Google for a lot of keywords ‘all phobias’, along with many of the actual phobia names and short descriptions (’fear of spiders’, for example), at which point the £1 a day would easily jump up to £5-10 per day, with a bit of luck.

I recently worked on and launched a website for a very large, and very well known global organisation. Within a couple of hours of the site being launched it was receiving thousands of unique visits every hour.

The website in question was quite busy, but the business it was involved in is quite light-hearted and probably not the most competitive in the world – not by a long shot.

This being said though, within a day of it’s launch the server was on it’s knees. After some quick tests and looking through the logs it was obvious there was a Denial of Service (DoS) attack going on. Not a very sophisticated attack, as I just added a few rules to the firewall to totally block it, but someone had still gone out of their way to attack the website from a handful of IPs from all around the globe. I traced the IPs and they came mostly from mainland Europe, each from various countries.

I find it quite amazing that someone has taken the time and effort to try and bring someone’s livelihood to it’s knees, for what appears to be no apparent reason. The website doesn’t have any real competitors so this attack seemed to be either totally random or an unprovoked malicious attack. Pointless either way. The site has since been running totally smoothly without a single hitch.

In the past I have used several different online ad platforms for a little bit of advertising here and there, but the two that I (along with the majority of e-marketers) prefer is Google AdWords. Recently I have begun using Google AdWords more heavily.

There is a lot of hype about Google AdWords and how it can work wonders for your website. I’m not entirely sure I could agree with that. Google definitely have the biggest audience for the ads, but that doesn’t mean it’s better value for money, or whether the audience is more targetted.

Facebook Ads is the Ad management tool for displaying ads on Facebook, and personally my favourite ad platform. Due to Facebooks nature the customisation of the Facebook ad’s is phenominal. I recently launched an advert for one of my Facebook applications (you can advertise anything*) that is designed for Baseball fans. I was able to tell Facebook that I only wanted to display the advert for users who are in the USA (where the Facebook app is hosted) and who are fans of Baseball and like some Baseball TV shows. This was a great help as it meant maximum exposure. Having said that, it doesn’t neccessarily mean I’ll save any money…

Pay per click is what it says… you pay every time someone clicks your ad. Google AdWords is pay per click. Facebook allows you to run campaigns on a pay per click or a pay per impression basis. This gives huge amounts of flexibility and allows you to save money depending ont he type of advert. If I was advertising a car insurance company then I’ll want to have it display to a large number of people, so I’d run pay per click, only paying if someone clicks through. But if I was advertising a car insurance promotion that only female students aged 21 or above, attending university in the UK, then I can easily drill down to only have the advert display to girls in 3rd year of uni or above who live in the UK – it’s then much cheaper to pay per impression, as less people will see it, but the one’s that do see it are more likely to click. Facebook also tells you how many users it has meeting this criteria.

Facebook is also MUCH cheaper than Google. I recently ran a campaign for the project Downtime Preventer. The average cost per click on Google was over £5. The average cost per click on Facebook was £0.05. You can see that this is a massive difference in price. However, the reason Google excels is the amount of traffic it receives. It took me a month to get through £15 on Google, for ‘downtime’ related keywords, hardly worth doing. On Facebook it was quite difficult to pick specifics for the campaign, so ended up going for ‘All users with their on company page’, hoping that would be small business owners.

Another plus Facebook has over Google are the ads themselves. Google is text-based only. Facebook allows more characters and one small image. The Facebook ads are subtle enough to not disturb the user but allow the advertiser to get their point across more easily.

Although my preference is definitely with Facebook, Google has it’s plus points. Facebook can only be used for so much before Google comes into it’s own. If you’re advertising a huge campaign then Facebook just won’t cut it, the audience just isn’t the same. The Downtime Preventer example is a good one, as it goes to show how difficult it can be to advertise something niche.

The bottom line is this: Google knows what people might be looking for and displays your advert, Facebook will display ads that people might like.
If you remember that golden rule then you’ll probably make the right choice.

Recently I began a project with two other guys. The idea was simple; get a group of people signed up to a web site that asks you a unique question every day. This question changes at midnight and you can view your friends answers and comment on them.

The project was finished about a week ago and it’s been met with excellent feedback. Everyone seems to love the idea and we’re seeing a steady increase in our userbase.

We aim to have 1,000 users by the new year, at which point we’re hoping for an explosion of new users as the word spreads.

Similar to my Facebook App Football Badges we have integrated into Facebook Connect. This seamless integration will allow users to sign up at the click of a button, providing they have a Facebook account. Logging in is a breeze too, just hit the log in button and we use your Facebook session to log you in. The idea is that every time a Facebook user answers a question the question and answer is posted to their Facebook wall.

Check the project out, it’s called QueryLife.

QueryLife

How perceptive do you think you are? If you were walking down the street would you notice a couple having a domestic? Would you spot someone slipping on something on the pavement? Would you notice if your favourite shop that you walk passed every day changed their layout?

Some of us are more perceptive than others, but there are still some things that we all miss – or at least almost all of us.

In Washington DC inside a busy metro station on a cold January morning in 2007 there stood a man with a violin. He stood there and played 6 pieces of music by Bach for around 45 minutes. In those 45 minutes around 2,000 people passed through that metro station, on their way to work or to a meeting. After 2 or 3 minutes a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing, slowed his pace a little and stopped very briefly, he then continued on hurriedly.

4 minutes pass and the violinist gets his first tip, a woman throws him $1 on her way passed.

6 minutes later and a young man leans against the wall close to him and listens for a moment, he checks his watch and then moves on.

10 minutes go by. A very young child – maybe 3 years old – stops but his mother hurries him along. The child then stops again and stares at the violinist, the mother pushes him again and the child carries on walking, turning his head constantly as they’re walking, ignoring all other distractions around him. Several other children do exactly this over the next 30 minutes or so – all of their parents, without exception, hurry their children along.

45 minutes have passed. The musician hasn’t stopped playing but only 6 people stopped and listened for a very short while. Around 20 gave a tip but didn’t stop. The violinist collected $32 in total.

1 hour has now passed. The violinist stops playing. No-one stops, no-one notices and no-one cares. Everyone continues as they were.

The violinist in the metro that day was Joshua Bell, arguably the greatest musician in the world alive today. He played one of the most difficult and intricate pieces of music ever written using a violin worth over $3.5 million. A few days prior to this Joshua Bell played in a theatre in Boston to a sell out crowd, the cheapest seats in the house were $100.

No-one took any real notice of Joshua that day. A few people threw him some cash, but they probably would have done whoever he was and whatever he was playing. Children seem to be far more aware of their surroundings, their minds more open to what’s going on around them – probably not clouded by hurried thoughts of the day to come and the events it will hold.

This whole thing was an experiment done by the Washington Post to test people’s perception of the world around them and how we respond to ambient music.

Something to think about…

Ever heard of Geocities? Most web savvy people have. Well it’s parent company, Yahoo have decided to pull the plug on Geocities and tomorrow (26th October) Geocities will be gone forever and all web sites currently hosted on there will be deleted.

In the late 90’s and early 00’s Geocities was the first (and only for some) port-of-call for anyone looking to set up a web site in the cheapest and easiest way. It’s What You See is What You Get (WYSiWYG) designer tools was at the forefront of it’s technology at the time and made making web sites easy.

Yahoo itself will be deleting all of the content hosted on Geocities so, if like me, you created your first web presence on there then I suggest you try and remember your log in details and go grab the files. A few companies have been downloading copies of all files from Geocities for some time now, including Archive Team.

Onwards and upwards.

You might think of Google as your doorway to the Internet. Google is the search engine most people use to find what they’re looking for on the Internet. But the fact is, Google is a brand and the search is simply their flag ship product. Google releases new products regularly, they have well over 50 products; some of them are used every day by millions of users (Google Mail) and others are used occassionally by a few thousand users (Google Code Search).

It has since been released that Google has a new product on the way, a product that has been rumoured for some time now and it’s making a lot of people very excited, and a lot of people very nervous.

Google is releasing it’s own operating system.

The operating system (OS) will be know as Google Chrome OS (at least for the time being). It’s due for release in mid-2010. To begin with the OS will be used solely on netbooks, but it’s very likely to be brought into use on laptops and desktops very soon after.

Google have said that they are taking everything back to the drawing board and changing the way computers work. Most computers today are built using similar kernals, whether they’re Windows, Linux or Unix – the basic architecture is the same. It’s well known that Linux and Unix systems are more stable than other systems, but that doesn’t make them any more safe. All computers are prone to viruses, but Google believe they’ve come up with a way of stopping viruses, worms and malware on computers all together. It will be interesting to see how.

The OS itself will be tiny. The OS will simply work with the computers hardware to connect to the Internet and display web content. The good part about it is that it’s built for cloud computing. Cloud computing is a new term popping up more and more. It’s the term used to describe systems or software that are available on the Internet, but not at one central location. Google are already at the forefront of this technology with their products Google Mail – a webmail service – and Google Documents – a free browser-based version of Microsoft Office.

To do basic tasks on a Windows or Mac you need to install a hefty sized OS, which costs. You’ll then need licenses for your word processing or spreadsheet software, which is another cost again. You then need an email host and server set up, which can cost rental and can be difficult to set up. You’ll then need some where to store it, whether that’s a home network or your computers hard drives. The idea of Google’s OS is that you install the free Chrome OS, and that’s it. The OS comes with the web browser that you’ll need to do everything, from the browser you can access Google Mail, Google Documents and anything else you’ll need.

So essentially Google are releasing a package that is completely free, all you need is your hardware, which will be even cheaper when buying from vendors like PC World as they won’t be made to purchase the OS license fees.

All of this must be getting Microsoft and Apple a little worried. Google are known for getting things right, and with Microsoft’s track record of late deadlines and resource intensive software, and Apple’s reputation of being ridiculously over priced – both companies must have their tails between their legs. Even more so with the latest press release from Google that states a list of companies that Google will be working with on this project, including hardware manufacturers such as HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Texas Instruments, Freescale and software vendor Adobe – but no mention of Dell or Intel.

In my personal opinion I believe that in 10 years time we’ll all be paying next to nothing for computers, but instead renting virtual space on a series of servers some where, and as the price of storage and bandwidth comes down it’s likely to get a lot cheaper for all of us.

I’ve been using PayPal for web site payments for years now. I love the way you can just sign up for an account and begin taking payments quickly, unlike a lot of gateways where you need merchant accounts with banks and written permission and what not. I always recommend PayPal to my clients as it means minimal fuss and get’s their site online far faster.

One thing I’ve noticed though, is that there is no decent example code out their for their IPN (Instant Payment Notification) service, which informs your web application when a payment is made, so you can do whatever you need to do when the user pays; ship the product, send an email, send a download link, set their account to upgraded, whatever. So, quite simply, here’s mine…

It’s based on PayPal’s very old and out-dated example script. I’ve adapted it to work on today’s properly set up production servers and removed the causes of the massive amounts of Notices and Warnings PHP would spit out with the old code. It’s pretty simple to use, just edit the config vars at the top to suit yourself. It’s defaulted to the live set up. You can put your custom code to be executed when a successful payment is made around halfway down, just read the comments.

/*
 * @author Mike Griffiths
 * @website Mike-Griffiths.co.uk
 *
 * Use as you like but I'd appreciate a link back to my site and some credit.
 * Enjoy.
 *
 * Post comments on the blog post you found this code on (mike-griffiths.co.uk)
 * if you get stuck.
 *
 */

#############
# CONFIG
#############
$CONFIG = array();
/*
 * General
 */
$CONFIG['notify_email'] = "email@example.com"; // For debug info 

/*
 * Database
 */
$CONFIG['db_host'] = "localhost"; // Server, eg. 'localhost'
$CONFIG['db_user'] = "example";  // Username, eg. 'mike'
$CONFIG['db_pass'] = "example";  // Password, eg. '12345'
$CONFIG['db_name'] = "example";    // Database name 

############
# Script
############
// read the post from PayPal system and add 'cmd'
$req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
    $value = urlencode(stripslashes($value));
    $req .= "&$key=$value";
}
// post back to PayPal system to validate
$header = "POST /cgi-bin/webscr HTTP/1.0\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
$header .= "Content-Length: " . strlen($req) . "\r\n\r\n"; 

// If testing on Sandbox use:
//$fp = fsockopen ('ssl://www.sandbox.paypal.com', 443, $errno, $errstr, 30);
$fp = fsockopen ('ssl://www.paypal.com', 443, $errno, $errstr, 30); 

// assign posted variables to local variables
$item_name              = (empty($_POST['item_name']) ? '' : $_POST['item_name']);
$business               = (empty($_POST['business']) ? '' : $_POST['business']);
$item_number            = (empty($_POST['item_number']) ? '' : $_POST['item_number']);
$payment_status         = (empty($_POST['payment_status']) ? '' : $_POST['payment_status']);
$mc_gross               = (empty($_POST['mc_gross']) ? '' : $_POST['mc_gross']);
$payment_currency       = (empty($_POST['mc_currency']) ? '' : $_POST['mc_currency']);
$txn_id                 = (empty($_POST['txn_id']) ? '' : $_POST['txn_id']);
$receiver_email         = (empty($_POST['receiver_email']) ? '' : $_POST['receiver_email']);
$receiver_id            = (empty($_POST['receiver_id']) ? '' : $_POST['receiver_id']);
$quantity               = (empty($_POST['quantity']) ? '' : $_POST['quantity']);
$num_cart_items         = (empty($_POST['num_cart_items']) ? '' : $_POST['num_cart_items']);
$payment_date           = (empty($_POST['payment_date']) ? '' : $_POST['payment_date']);
$first_name             = (empty($_POST['first_name']) ? '' : $_POST['first_name']);
$last_name              = (empty($_POST['last_name']) ? '' : $_POST['last_name']);
$payment_type           = (empty($_POST['payment_type']) ? '' : $_POST['payment_type']);
$payment_status         = (empty($_POST['payment_status']) ? '' : $_POST['payment_status']);
$payment_gross          = (empty($_POST['payment_gross']) ? '' : $_POST['payment_gross']);
$payment_fee            = (empty($_POST['payment_fee']) ? '' : $_POST['payment_fee']);
$settle_amount          = (empty($_POST['settle_amount']) ? '' : $_POST['settle_amount']);
$memo                   = (empty($_POST['memo']) ? '' : $_POST['memo']);
$payer_email            = (empty($_POST['payer_email']) ? '' : $_POST['payer_email']);
$txn_type               = (empty($_POST['txn_type']) ? '' : $_POST['txn_type']);
$payer_status           = (empty($_POST['payer_status']) ? '' : $_POST['payer_status']);
$address_street         = (empty($_POST['address_street']) ? '' : $_POST['address_street']);
$address_city           = (empty($_POST['address_city']) ? '' : $_POST['address_city']);
$address_state          = (empty($_POST['address_state']) ? '' : $_POST['address_state']);
$address_zip            = (empty($_POST['address_zip']) ? '' : $_POST['address_zip']);
$address_country        = (empty($_POST['address_country']) ? '' : $_POST['address_country']);
$address_status         = (empty($_POST['address_status']) ? '' : $_POST['address_status']);
$item_number            = (empty($_POST['item_number']) ? '' : $_POST['item_number']);
$tax                    = (empty($_POST['tax']) ? '' : $_POST['tax']);
$option_name1           = (empty($_POST['option_name1']) ? '' : $_POST['option_name1']);
$option_selection1      = (empty($_POST['option_selection1']) ? '' : $_POST['option_selection1']);
$option_name2           = (empty($_POST['option_name2']) ? '' : $_POST['option_name2']);
$option_selection2      = (empty($_POST['option_selection2']) ? '' : $_POST['option_selection2']);
$for_auction            = (empty($_POST['for_auction']) ? '' : $_POST['for_auction']);
$invoice                = (empty($_POST['invoice']) ? '' : $_POST['invoice']);
$custom                 = (empty($_POST['custom']) ? '' : $_POST['custom']);
$notify_version         = (empty($_POST['notify_version']) ? '' : $_POST['notify_version']);
$verify_sign            = (empty($_POST['verify_sign']) ? '' : $_POST['verify_sign']);
$payer_business_name    = (empty($_POST['payer_business_name']) ? '' : $_POST['payer_business_name']);
$payer_id               = (empty($_POST['payer_id']) ? '' : $_POST['payer_id']);
$mc_currency            = (empty($_POST['mc_currency']) ? '' : $_POST['mc_currency']);
$mc_fee                 = (empty($_POST['mc_fee']) ? '' : $_POST['mc_fee']);
$exchange_rate          = (empty($_POST['exchange_rate']) ? '' : $_POST['exchange_rate']);
$settle_currency        = (empty($_POST['settle_currency']) ? '' : $_POST['settle_currency']);
$parent_txn_id          = (empty($_POST['parent_txn_id']) ? '' : $_POST['parent_txn_id']);
$pending_reason         = (empty($_POST['pending_reason']) ? '' : $_POST['pending_reason']);
$reason_code            = (empty($_POST['reason_code']) ? '' : $_POST['reason_code']); 

// subscription specific vars
$subscr_id           = $_POST['subscr_id'];
$subscr_date       = $_POST['subscr_date'];
$subscr_effective = $_POST['subscr_effective'];
$period1           = $_POST['period1'];
$period2           = $_POST['period2'];
$period3           = $_POST['period3'];
$amount1           = $_POST['amount1'];
$amount2           = $_POST['amount2'];
$amount3           = $_POST['amount3'];
$mc_amount1       = $_POST['mc_amount1'];
$mc_amount2       = $_POST['mc_amount2'];
$mc_amount3       = $_POST['mcamount3'];
$recurring           = $_POST['recurring'];
$reattempt           = $_POST['reattempt'];
$retry_at           = $_POST['retry_at'];
$recur_times       = $_POST['recur_times'];
$username           = $_POST['username'];
$password           = $_POST['password']; 

// auction specific vars
$for_auction           = $_POST['for_auction'];
$auction_closing_date = $_POST['auction_closing_date'];
$auction_multi_item   = $_POST['auction_multi_item'];
$auction_buyer_id        = $_POST['auction_buyer_id']; 

if (!$fp) {
    // HTTP ERROR
} else {
    fputs ($fp, $header . $req);
    while (!feof($fp)) {
        $res = fgets ($fp, 1024);
        if (strcmp ($res, "VERIFIED") == 0) {         

            //create MySQL connection
            $link = @mysql_connect($CONFIG['db_host'], $CONFIG['db_user'], $CONFIG['db_pass'])
            or die("Couldn't connect to MySQL:<br>" . mysql_error() . "<br>" . mysql_errno()); 

            //select database
            $db = @mysql_select_db($CONFIG['db_name'], $link)
            or die("Couldn't select database:<br>" . mysql_error(). "<br>" . mysql_errno()); 

            $fecha = date("m")."/".date("d")."/".date("Y");
            $fecha = date("Y").date("m").date("d"); 

            //check if transaction ID has been processed before
            $checkquery = "select txnid from paypal_payment_info where txnid='".$txn_id."'";
            $sihay = mysql_query($checkquery) or die("Duplicate txn id check query failed:<br>" . mysql_error() . "<br>" . mysql_errno());
            $nm = mysql_num_rows($sihay); 

            if ($nm == 0){ 

                if ($txn_type == "cart"){
                    $strQuery = "insert into paypal_payment_info(paymentstatus,buyer_email,firstname,lastname,street,city,state,zipcode,country,mc_gross,mc_fee,memo,paymenttype,paymentdate,txnid,pendingreason,reasoncode,tax,datecreation) values ('".$payment_status."','".$payer_email."','".$first_name."','".$last_name."','".$address_street."','".$address_city."','".$address_state."','".$address_zip."','".$address_country."','".$mc_gross."','".$mc_fee."','".$memo."','".$payment_type."','".$payment_date."','".$txn_id."','".$pending_reason."','".$reason_code."','".$tax."','".$fecha."')";
                    $result = mysql_query($strQuery) or die("Cart - paypal_payment_info, Query failed:<br>" . mysql_error() . "<br>" . mysql_errno());
                    for ($i = 1; $i <= $num_cart_items; $i++) {
                        $itemname = "item_name".$i;
                        $itemnumber = "item_number".$i;
                        $on0 = "option_name1_".$i;
                        $os0 = "option_selection1_".$i;
                        $on1 = "option_name2_".$i;
                        $os1 = "option_selection2_".$i;
                        $quantity = "quantity".$i; 

                        $struery = "insert into paypal_cart_info(txnid,itemnumber,itemname,os0,on0,os1,on1,quantity,invoice,custom) values ('".$txn_id."','".$_POST[$itemnumber]."','".$_POST[$itemname]."','".$_POST[$on0]."','".$_POST[$os0]."','".$_POST[$on1]."','".$_POST[$os1]."','".$_POST[$quantity]."','".$invoice."','".$custom."')";
                        $result = mysql_query($struery) or die("Cart - paypal_cart_info, Query failed:<br>" . mysql_error() . "<br>" . mysql_errno()); 

                        ##############
                        ### BEGIN YOUR CUSTOM CODE FOR BUY NOW VERIFIED (cart)
                        ############## 

                        ##############
                        ### END YOUR CUSTOM CODE FOR BUY NOW VERIFIED (cart)
                        ##############
                    }
                } else {
                    $strQuery = "insert into paypal_payment_info(paymentstatus,buyer_email,firstname,lastname,street,city,state,zipcode,country,mc_gross,mc_fee,itemnumber,itemname,os0,on0,os1,on1,quantity,memo,paymenttype,paymentdate,txnid,pendingreason,reasoncode,tax,datecreation) values ('".$payment_status."','".$payer_email."','".$first_name."','".$last_name."','".$address_street."','".$address_city."','".$address_state."','".$address_zip."','".$address_country."','".$mc_gross."','".$mc_fee."','".$item_number."','".$item_name."','".$option_name1."','".$option_selection1."','".$option_name2."','".$option_selection2."','".$quantity."','".$memo."','".$payment_type."','".$payment_date."','".$txn_id."','".$pending_reason."','".$reason_code."','".$tax."','".$fecha."')";
                    $result = mysql_query("insert into paypal_payment_info(paymentstatus,buyer_email,firstname,lastname,street,city,state,zipcode,country,mc_gross,mc_fee,itemnumber,itemname,os0,on0,os1,on1,quantity,memo,paymenttype,paymentdate,txnid,pendingreason,reasoncode,tax,datecreation) values ('".$payment_status."','".$payer_email."','".$first_name."','".$last_name."','".$address_street."','".$address_city."','".$address_state."','".$address_zip."','".$address_country."','".$mc_gross."','".$mc_fee."','".$item_number."','".$item_name."','".$option_name1."','".$option_selection1."','".$option_name2."','".$option_selection2."','".$quantity."','".$memo."','".$payment_type."','".$payment_date."','".$txn_id."','".$pending_reason."','".$reason_code."','".$tax."','".$fecha."')") or die("Default - paypal_payment_info, Query failed:<br>" . mysql_error() . "<br>" . mysql_errno()); 

                    ##############
                    ### BEGIN YOUR CUSTOM CODE FOR BUY NOW VERIFIED (simple)
                    ############## 

                    ##############
                    ### END YOUR CUSTOM CODE FOR BUY NOW VERIFIED (simple)
                    ##############
                } 

                echo "Verified";
                mail($CONFIG['notify_email'], "VERIFIED IPN", "$res\n $req\n $strQuery\n $struery\n  $strQuery2"); 

            } else {
                // send an email
                mail($CONFIG['notify_email'], "VERIFIED DUPLICATED TRANSACTION", "$res\n $req \n $strQuery\n $struery\n  $strQuery2");
            } 

            //subscription handling branch
            if ( $txn_type == "subscr_signup"  ||  $txn_type == "subscr_payment"  ) { 

                // insert subscriber payment info into paypal_payment_info table
                $strQuery = "insert into paypal_payment_info(paymentstatus,buyer_email,firstname,lastname,street,city,state,zipcode,country,mc_gross,mc_fee,memo,paymenttype,paymentdate,txnid,pendingreason,reasoncode,tax,datecreation) values ('".$payment_status."','".$payer_email."','".$first_name."','".$last_name."','".$address_street."','".$address_city."','".$address_state."','".$address_zip."','".$address_country."','".$mc_gross."','".$mc_fee."','".$memo."','".$payment_type."','".$payment_date."','".$txn_id."','".$pending_reason."','".$reason_code."','".$tax."','".$fecha."')";
                $result = mysql_query($strQuery) or die("Subscription - paypal_payment_info, Query failed:<br>" . mysql_error() . "<br>" . mysql_errno()); 

                // insert subscriber info into paypal_subscription_info table
                $strQuery2 = "insert into paypal_subscription_info(subscr_id , sub_event, subscr_date ,subscr_effective,period1,period2, period3, amount1 ,amount2 ,amount3,  mc_amount1,  mc_amount2,  mc_amount3, recurring, reattempt,retry_at, recur_times, username ,password, payment_txn_id, subscriber_emailaddress, datecreation) values ('".$subscr_id."', '".$txn_type."','".$subscr_date."','".$subscr_effective."','".$period1."','".$period2."','".$period3."','".$amount1."','".$amount2."','".$amount3."','".$mc_amount1."','".$mc_amount2."','".$mc_amount3."','".$recurring."','".$reattempt."','".$retry_at."','".$recur_times."','".$username."','".$password."', '".$txn_id."','".$payer_email."','".$fecha."')";
                $result = mysql_query($strQuery2) or die("Subscription - paypal_subscription_info, Query failed:<br>" . mysql_error() . "<br>" . mysql_errno()); 

                ##############
                ### BEGIN YOUR CUSTOM CODE FOR SUBSCRIPTION VERIFIED
                ############## 

                ##############
                ### END YOUR CUSTOM CODE FOR SUBSCRIPTION VERIFIED
                ############## 

                mail($CONFIG['notify_email'], "VERIFIED IPN", "$res\n $req\n $strQuery\n $struery\n  $strQuery2"); 

            }         

        // if the IPN POST was 'INVALID'...do this
        } else if (strcmp ($res, "INVALID") == 0) {
            // log for manual investigation
            mail($CONFIG['notify_email'], "INVALID IPN", "$res\n $req");
        }
    }
    fclose ($fp);
}

You’ll need the following SQL too…

# Table structure for table `paypal_cart_info` 	#

CREATE TABLE `paypal_cart_info` (
  `txnid` varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
  `itemname` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `itemnumber` varchar(50) default NULL,
  `os0` varchar(20) default NULL,
  `on0` varchar(50) default NULL,
  `os1` varchar(20) default NULL,
  `on1` varchar(50) default NULL,
  `quantity` char(3) NOT NULL default '',
  `invoice` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `custom` varchar(255) NOT NULL default ''
) TYPE=MyISAM;

# Table structure for table `paypal_subscription_info` #

CREATE TABLE `paypal_subscription_info` (
  `subscr_id` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `sub_event` varchar(50) NOT NULL default '',
  `subscr_date` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `subscr_effective` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `period1` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `period2` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `period3` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `amount1` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `amount2` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `amount3` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `mc_amount1` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `mc_amount2` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `mc_amount3` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `recurring` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `reattempt` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `retry_at` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `recur_times` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `username` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `password` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `payment_txn_id` varchar(50) NOT NULL default '',
  `subscriber_emailaddress` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `datecreation` date NOT NULL default '0000-00-00'
) TYPE=MyISAM;

# Table structure for table `paypal_payment_info` #

CREATE TABLE `paypal_payment_info` (
  `firstname` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
  `lastname` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
  `buyer_email` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
  `street` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
  `city` varchar(50) NOT NULL default '',
  `state` char(3) NOT NULL default '',
  `zipcode` varchar(11) NOT NULL default '',
  `memo` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `itemname` varchar(255) default NULL,
  `itemnumber` varchar(50) default NULL,
  `os0` varchar(20) default NULL,
  `on0` varchar(50) default NULL,
  `os1` varchar(20) default NULL,
  `on1` varchar(50) default NULL,
  `quantity` char(3) default NULL,
  `paymentdate` varchar(50) NOT NULL default '',
  `paymenttype` varchar(10) NOT NULL default '',
  `txnid` varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
  `mc_gross` varchar(6) NOT NULL default '',
  `mc_fee` varchar(5) NOT NULL default '',
  `paymentstatus` varchar(15) NOT NULL default '',
  `pendingreason` varchar(10) default NULL,
  `txntype` varchar(10) NOT NULL default '',
  `tax` varchar(10) default NULL,
  `mc_currency` varchar(5) NOT NULL default '',
  `reasoncode` varchar(20) NOT NULL default '',
  `custom` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
  `country` varchar(20) NOT NULL default '',
  `datecreation` date NOT NULL default '0000-00-00'
) TYPE=MyISAM;

Downtime Prevention is not a new concept. It does seem, however, that there aren’t too many places doing it right.

One place I have found exceeding expectation though, is a web site offering downtime alerts and downtime notifications. The clever system checks your web site periodically for PHP errors, Apache errors, 404’s, 403’s, poor re-directs, etc. It also pings the server, does some TCP checks and does some HTTP header checks, all to see if your site is online and working as it should be. If there are no errors then all is kept silnet, if something is found though, you’ll receive a free email. These emails are limited to 4 a day so you don’t get 2,000 emails in your inbox should your site go down over night.

As a lot of us aren’t around 24/7 to check our emails but want to know the second our site goes down, this downtime alerts service also offers SMS alerts to your mobile phone. Where these alerts aren’t entirely free, they are cheap and capped to one a day, so you know you’re not going to be shelling out an arm and a leg. It’s dead easy to add credits and worth while doing in my opinion: your site might only go down once every 6 months and it’s oh so very easy to miss an email (be it because of spam, poor filters, or just human error), but you’ll never miss an SMS and you’ll see it straight away. You’re also able to do something about it straight away; with your phone in your hand ready to make the important phone call to your tech guy!

So, enough plugging – go and sign up.

The Pirate Bay (TPB) is the world’s most high-profile file-sharing web site. Recently its owners have been in the news a lot due to them being caught and prosecuted under copyright law by the music industry.

The web site’s owners were taken to court, found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail in April. However, they are currently still free men.

As well as the one year jail sentence, they were also made to pay $4.5million in damages.

The Pirate Bay owners are notoriously known for hating the record companies. When they were ordered to pay the damages they put notifications up on the pirate bay web site asking for donations. All of the donations were made in $1 pieces. The individual donations were then sent onto the music companies’ solicitors. Because the amounts are in such small denominations, it actually cost the record companies money in order to process all of the individual amounts, so where they did actually pay the damages, the record companies made no money from it.

The latest move from the owners of the web site is to open a new service called the Video Bay. Essentially it is an illegal version of YouTube that allows users to stream copyrighted material from the web site.

The Video Bay will be using the latest version of HTML, called HTML 5. HTML 5 comes with new elements such as video and audio, which will stream audio and video media through the browser without the need for any additional plug-ins like Flash or Windows Media Player. The only problem with this is that the users must have an up-to-date browser to use it – probably not an issue for The Video Bay’s userbase, but for the majorty of websites this is something to take very seriously.

You can read more about the new HTML 5 elements here on my blog where I run through each element and the new attributes associated with it.