7 Dollar Tools

After a 35-day absence from the $7 Secrets forum and 85 days after v2.6 was released, Jon Leger has returned -- bearing version 2.7 of the $7 Secrets Scripts! What's new, what's changed, and what does it mean for you?

Here's what's new in the scripts:

• Added code so ?e= with no PayPal email will clear the affiliate cookie

This is great for troubleshooting issues with your installation. Instead of tracking down that affiliate cookie ("aff") and deleting it manually, just use this to clear it. (Just a note: if you try this pre-2.7, you'll get a PHP error.)

• Added ability to collect Country / State / Zip code information for tax purposes.

If you need to track this information for tax on (physical) products, now you can. I'm not sure how useful this will be for users, since the script doesn't ask PayPal to charge tax as a profile override nor does it record the tax amount returned by IPN. If any of you try this feature, let me know how it works for you.

• Added conversion tracking and the ability to have multiple sales letters for conversion testing purposes

Woo-hoo! This has been asked for by many people. Test two or more different sales letters to see which produces more sales. I haven't had the chance yet to put this feature through its paces, but I'll let you know later what I find.

• Added the ability to limit the number of sales before "closing the doors." (soldout.html)

Another popular request, this feature helps you convey a sense of urgency to your buyers.

And what's changed:

• BUG FIX: Recording payment_amount to ipn.txt instead of payment_gross caused problems for some currencies

I reported this to Jon back in May. Basically, anyone using a currency other than US dollars would see "0.00" for the payment in their admin panel, due to a change (some time ago) to PayPal's IPN. The script still operated correctly, though.

[Update 8/24/2007] Version 2.7 still records IPN variable payment_gross to fraud.txt instead of mc_gross when a fraudulent transaction is detected.

• BUG FIX: Script would hang after customer redirected back from PayPal

Another one I reported to Jon in May. This is the "tries" bug you've most likely seen on the $7 Secrets forum, which returns the customer to the sales page after a successful PayPal payment. Users of Admin Expansion and Admin Expansion Lite have been able to avoid this bug.

All this news about version 2.7 sounds great, but I'm going to caution you against downloading it and using it on a production site. As I began running through the code to see what effects the new version would have on my $7 Tools products, I came across bug after bug that limited the usability of not only the new features, but of the script as a whole:

• A section of code that made it impossible to place any orders


• The sold-out feature can cut off sales of your regular product before you expect it


• If you're testing multiple sales pages, only the first one shows


• If you delete a sales page you were testing, a customer that had already seen that sales page might get an error when they return [updated 7/24/2007]


• If you're collecting country/state/zip information, your customers will not be able to buy your OTO


• If your customer cancels the purchase of the OTO, they're kicked out of the order process and can't download their first purchase (reported in April)


• A common setting error needlessly keeps customers from downloading their purchase (fixed by Admin Expansion and Admin Expansion Lite)


• A bug which sends an invalid address to PayPal when using split commissions on the regular product (reported two days ago)


• The amount received is not reported correctly for a fraudulent transaction when the payment is in a non-USD currency. [Updated 8/24/2007]
  

Again, I recommend that you NOT download and install version 2.7 of the scripts. Version 2.6, when combined with Admin Expansion or Admin Expansion Lite, will work well for you until these kinks get ironed out. I'll let you know when that happens.