- Sample page:
Here's a sample 'more friends' page.
Feel free to copy it and use it as a template for your own page.
- The lazy method:
Note the 'magic' element in the sample page - [b_fwd] -
which will automatically duplicate all original form elements
in hidden fields instead of having to list them all verbosely.
- User-driven customisation:
To duplicate any dynamic info from the original form, enclose the
original field name in square brackets, for example:
Thank you for your referral [sendername], please send a few more...
You're not restricted to the existing form fields I've used either. For
example, how about asking the user what their favourite colour is, then
displaying your 'more friends' page with that colour background (or even
a background image - the possibilities are endless):
Ask the user for their input:
What's your favourite colour?
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="bgcolor"
VALUE="FFFFFF" CHECKED>White<BR>
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="bgcolor"
VALUE="EEEEFF">Blue<BR>
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="bgcolor"
VALUE="FFCCCC">Red<BR>
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="bgcolor"
VALUE="EEFFEE">Green<BR>
...then carry the result over to the <BODY> tag in your 'more friends' page:
<BODY BGCOLOR="#[bgcolor]">
- Speeding things up:
The server response will be slower
if you use a custom page since the browser has to get data from two different
servers (yours and mine) and there's also some extra processing to be done.
However, if your custom page uses absolute URLs for links and graphics
instead of relative ones, it'll speed things up considerably.
Example of an inline image using an absolute URL:
<IMG WIDTH="324" HEIGHT="63" SRC="http://referme.deadlock.com/refer-me.gif">
Examples of the same image called with a relative URL:
<IMG WIDTH="324" HEIGHT="63" SRC="images/refer-me.gif">
<IMG WIDTH="324" HEIGHT="63" SRC="../refer-me.gif">
<IMG WIDTH="324" HEIGHT="63" SRC="refer-me.gif">
- Multiple result pages:
Several webmasters have asked if they could have a thank-you page instead
of asking the user for more referrals. Of course you can! The result page can
be anything you like, use your imagination!
You can take things one step (or many steps) further. When you create your
original custom page, redirect the result to a different custom page the
second time around - simply use a new URL for the "result"
value on your custom page. Make sure it's AFTER YOUR [b_fwd] ELEMENT.
A couple of interesting applications for this: a) if you want to offer a
free gift to users who send three referrals, make two custom pages, each
with only one pair of referral fields (and a comment like "only one more
to go!") then give the free gift instructions on the final page. b) you
could take your user on a mystery tour with a chain of many result pages.
Perhaps you could tell a story and the user has to send another referral
to find out what happens next.