need help with web page

[Douglas J Archambault]

How can I post a big link on the front page of my website that says “Read the first chapter of my new book. Ask people to give me their name and email address when they download my first chapter, and allow them to recommend it to their friends. Once they recommend the book to their friends, give them the second chapter as a thank you and at the end of the second chapter, present them with a link to buy the full book electronically, or in paper back?

[BiblioScribe]

Douglas,

I think that the way to do this may be to put a "tell your friends" link on your page. Of course, there is a bit more to it. You have to have a script that informs you when a person sends a "tell your friends" email of that persons emaill address, plus the email addresses he or she sends to. Be careful with these type of programs though as they can be succeptable to abuse by folks that send their message to mailing lists through the program. I use a version of this at one of my sites, http://www.christmasdaddy.com/, but I have taken out the message area. It will send a page link as well as your embedded text, but nothing from the sender. The one I use isa CGI script. Some good information on that can be found at http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/tell-a-friend-script.htm.

Constant Contact is something you may want to explore as well. It has a feature that allows you to place a link on your page that does the same as above, but it costs money. You are building a a good mailing list though. Details of that can be found at http://www.prwp.com/design.htm.

In either case, you should be comfortable with a little coding on your website.

The most simplest would be to use a form on your website that has your email address embedded as a blind copy, but is really a link to open the users default email, thus lessening the potential for spam.

Jim
BiblioScribe.com