View Full Version : SW v3
Hi
Very recently my sites have gone from hobby for extra spends to full time job. :mad: :) (mixed emo's)
Im no master programmer so before I rip SW V2 apart to learn and customizes it, was wondering with V3 coming is there any point.?
Don’t really want to spend weeks working out V2 when the program at anytime could be more or less redundant.
If my ROI isn’t good enough I will be one of the people who is willing to pay for the premium service, so will that platform be massively different?
Nole
Everyone that uses ShopWindows is just as much in the dark about exactly what the next versions of this project will be, when they'll be available, or what the stipulated ROI terms will be and there is no words being uttered by ShopWindows on this at the moment besides the announcements already made, as is the case with most companies when producing a new product.
Ripping the version 2 client apart and tinkering with it to your hearts content is not overly time consuming though, so i'd say have a play with version 2 in the meantime, if for no other reason than to simply get used to the ShopWindows coding techniques, which would make tearing open future versions even easier.
I suppose really, the one question I would ask along the same likes as you with this, is... Will V2 be supported and useable at all liek V1 still is at the moment, once this new development is completed?
The question I have is: will it be V3 or V2.5?
It's my understanding that whatever is coming is compatible with the current codes, so Im assuming it's a sub-version rather than an all out, new fangled, delete everything and start again type bad boy (which is what V2 was over V1)
<rumour mongering>
I haven't heard anything about a "premium service", paid or otherwise. Maybe I missed the memo. A paid service would just make it more for the "already successful at something else, but need more money for the shareholders xmas party in Dubai" type affiliates
*cough* Murdoch
I was under the impression those that performed in one way or another would get more calls to play with. Those that didn't perform so well would be "offered alternatives".
I also hope that performance would be on a Returns:Calls basis rather than just Sky.com and the Sun getting everything. So the onus would be on the affiliate to try and save calls if he could, to increase profits per M calls.
</rumour mongering>
It's been a few months since I aborted my V1 to V2 upgrade due to a lack of fundamental features and I'm glad to see talk of an impending V3 (or 2.5). I'm even happier about some of the features mentioned in the V3 changelog. But, I guess the million dollar question is still: when can we expect V3?
What's the latest official annoucement?
What's the latest official annoucement?
Yup, it would be nice for us to actually be engaged in some kind of ongoing dialogue by the employed ShopWindow team, rather than having little scraps thrown at us once in a bluemoon and otherwise being left completely in the dark. The current level of communication and affiliate interaction with this project really does seem to be getting poorer and poorer to me.
There's little enough of anything going on, on here as it is, the least SWs could do is provide information regularly, stimulate discussion, give us idea's, help us to actually help ourselves, while as per normal it is the affiliates who eternally do a hell of a lot of the donkey work for them, like reporting merchant errors, with bugger all in return.
I think somewhere down the lines, this entire enterprise seems to have lost a little of it's purpose and hell of a lot of it's direction and over time fewer and few people are bothering to do much with it, especially when there are solutions such as Price Tapestry out there, that to be frank is an absolutely fantastic bit of kit, which doesn't limit to just one network and doesn't have such ridiculous quota limitations, in fact if SWs doesn't get it's ass in gear, it's something I can seriously see myself contemplating, as I'd love to have some of the programs I use from other networks and things like Amazon working in harmony.
I mean, it'd be nice to have had any kind of actual proper feedback of what kind of stuff was said at the meetup, I'm sure I wasn't the only person that wanted to attend but couldn't simply due to other pre-arranged commitments.
*cough*, wasn't intending to post a little rant when I started...:eek:
I mean, it'd be nice to have had any kind of actual proper feedback of what kind of stuff was said at the meetup, I'm sure I wasn't the only person that wanted to attend but couldn't simply due to other pre-arranged commitments.
They said they were going to turn Amoochi off but I managed to talk them round eventually
Jus 'kiddin' :p
Its a tangled web mate. Wish you'd have been there actually, was looking forward to putting a face to the name.
I'm not sure what I can tell you (without getting struck off) other than to keep your eye on shopwindow.com for clues.
More clues can be found in "Create-a-Feed" where the "Adult Filters" are.
There might also be some changes to the SW affiliate interface to come.
I do know that there has been a slight staffing reshuffle across DigiWin. George has been moved from SW into DW and now has his own pen, and I think Ollie has finally been given his own Mouse and Keyboard.
I think I speak for all aw affiliates when I say Congratulations to them both!
I'm sure we'll hear preeeeetttty soon about the beta testing. We were promised "sometime in July", so I bet thats when it'll come.
I'm also working on other interests while V3 comes out, which is fun, cos it's given me a reason to play with jQuery.
I think ultimately I found SW more exciting in the early days when there was only a few of us using it and I felt I could actually achieve something with it. Inevitably the masses piled in along with the super affiliates and squeezed me out before I even got a chance to get going by saturating the web with SW clients and dominating the rankings respectively.
Initially I enjoyed coming up with a unique site with unique features using a generic toolset that was V1. Then V2 came along with its toolset tailored so specifically for sites with the exact same functionality of SW.com. I was a little disappointed to say the least.
I'm hoping that V3 reverts to a more generic API that we can use how we want and create innovative, unique and useful sites again. I'm also hoping that the client software gets ditched so that those of us that put in the time and effort actually stand to get rewarded.
I appreciate the info Andy and I look forward to V3/Beta.
I think V3 should be more of a generic API rather than all-in-one out of the box, so affiliates can customize individually and rank differently in search engines. Its not a solid business platform to have hundreds of websites/affiliates giving the same results for Shopwindow products in search engines...with similar meta tags and urls. Search engines and leading directories would simply class such as mirror sites and all would lose out.
Work should be done to improve product databases, categorisation and functionalities but much more should be left upon affiliates to customize for themselves. Affiliates should have the flexibility to change urls the way they want, deal with meta tags individually and much more to make each site unique.
I am sure if each affiliate has a solid opportunity in terms of being unique, no one would mind going for premium services.
infocraze - you said exactly what I was trying to say except a lot more succinctly. Nice.
Ditch the client software, give us a generic API with loads of useful features and watch what people do with it. I think the resulting sites would be far more useful to visitors and far more profitable for affiliates, merchants and AW alike.
Not sure I'd know where to start with the API - Client's the one for me please. :p
Not sure I'd know where to start with the API - Client's the one for me please. :p
But you must be disappointed with the flood of out-of-the-box SW sites with absolutely no original features or modifications? If you've modified the client software at all I don't think you'd have too many problems working with the API, given decent documentation.
I understand not everyone's a PHP guru, but it's not so much a point of making it harder for people, just not making it so damn easy. The proliferation of vanilla ShopWindow clients must have been a lose-lose situation for eveyone, to the point of most of them being discarded by the SE as spam?
Don't disagree with you Steve, just scares me to death! :eek: :D
If I ever get the time(!) I'm going to delve into the API but, like many other affiliates, with 101 projects on the go it's just a matter of 'getting round to it' -I need to focus! :o
You make it hard for "people" and it'll only be accessible to the super affiliates with bottomless pockets to pay the grads.
Client is where it's at for me. I've always been more comfortable reverse engineering than starting from scratch. Ive done some very natty things with the client. Some functions Ive never seen people do with the API. I still use the api, but mainly to backup what the client is doing.
Granted, having an "out of the box" client is why the net has been flooded with duplicate content, but at the same time, those who "Dont even change the logo" aren't going to compete with those who delve in.
Google isn't stupid, they can tell if its an out of the box SW. The footprint is huge and littered with sw_this and sw_that.
I say let them flood the net. If you really think about it, it's in our best interests for them to do exactly that ('our' as in those who make the necessary changes).
And to be honest, you look at search results for any given keyword and you'll find it's not "people" who have flooded the rankings, it's the supers (with their dodgy calls to action) who have multiple installs targeting different versions of "cheapest" and "buy"
Found 8 seperate sw installs on one domain the other day, or at least, 8 different directories running sw