New Project: MusicSig

[SirThom]

Check it: MusicSig

For a preview, just check my signature. Give it a shot and let me know what you think! =)

PS. I pretty much coded this in three days, while both CGA and ToJ were down.
PPS. For the PHP geeks out there, I utilized GD (to render the banner and to resize the cover), caching (to avoid rendering the same banner over and over again), XML (to get the album data from Amazon), FreeType (to make the text look pretty) and some file management functions (to pull the cover down from Amazon, and saving rendered images). *phew*

 

[Pilgrim]

Thanks for letting us know how you did it! I will have to use it sometime soon.

 

[tjguitarz]

I didn't want to click the link (because I'm at work) but does that $14.99 really mean the price? That's steep...

And how does it work? Do I just click on your sig and it'll start blasting my 12th favorite song?

 

[SirThom]

I didn't want to click the link (because I'm at work) but does that $14.99 really mean the price? That's steep...

$14.99 is the price of that CD on Amazon.

And how does it work? Do I just click on your sig and it'll start blasting my 12th favorite song?

Clicking the link directs you to Amazon where users can learn more about that CD.

 

[vibrokatana]

and sirtom can make a profit

 

[SirThom]

and sirtom can make a profit

There's no such thing as profit with this thing.

Here are my costs:

Web hosting: $15/month = $180
Domains: 12 domains x ~$8.95 = $107.40 (12 domains might be a little low... I know I have some domains hosted at 1and1)

So my total running cost is $287.40 per year. (That doesn't even include the skins I purchase, which are ~$30 apiece.)

$287.40 isn't easy to make for a sixteen year old with no job, no car and no driver's license.

At my normal commission rate of ~4%, I would have to sell roughly 560, $13 CDs -- per year. That's about 46 CDs per month, or 1.5 CDs per day. It's just not happening yet.

So, as you can plainly see, there is no "profit" involved with MusicSig. I'm just trying to recoup a little bit of the costs associated with running all these websites.

 

[vibrokatana]

excuses, excuses, actually if I make a amazon purchase anytime soon I will click on the music thing so you get a commission

 

[SirThom]

excuses, excuses

My post wasn't an excuse, it was a valid rationale for why I don't make any money.

actually if I make a amazon purchase anytime soon I will click on the music thing so you get a commission

Well, thank you. =)

 

[tjguitarz]

So if I buy a TON of stuff, even if it's not a CD, it'll help you out?

 

[SirThom]

So if I buy a TON of stuff, even if it's not a CD, it'll help you out?

That's correct. It doesn't even have to be the product you clicked -- just as long as you clicked a MusicSig banner before you added the items to your cart.

 

[vibrokatana]

considering the price is the same, give the guy a commission

 

[tjguitarz]

That's correct.

Next time I make my giant cd purchase or buy any books, I'll click on it for ya. Hopefully it'll be soon. Off the top of my head there are 6 cds I'd like that are either out, or coming out in the next month or so.

 

[SirThom]

Next time I make my giant cd purchase or buy any books, I'll click on it for ya. Hopefully it'll be soon. Off the top of my head there are 6 cds I'd like that are either out, or coming out in the next month or so.

Awesomeness. Thanks for your support. =)

 

[vibrokatana]

you should put a random counter on there or something to make people wonder

 

[vibrokatana]

you should add support for space delimited dictionaries, ie just a text file with the name of artists like:
'name of a band' 'another name' 'yet another example'
using this "dictionary" you can parse it in php to an array and choose a random element within the min and max and display the item. assign the value to a variable and spit it off to amazon to fetch the data.

 

[SirThom]

you should add support for space delimited dictionaries, ie just a text file with the name of artists like:
'name of a band' 'another name' 'yet another example'
using this "dictionary" you can parse it in php to an array and choose a random element within the min and max and display the item. assign the value to a variable and spit it off to amazon to fetch the data.

Good idea, but that's also not the point of MusicSig. You put in what *you* like, and it will randomly pick one of your favorites every 10 minutes (or whatever length of time you specify) and render that banner.

If it were completely random, it would be extremely difficult to get the banner and the link to match up (since they're both called with the same URL all the time), so that's why I have it set up the way I do.

 

[vibrokatana]

you can make the image as the link is being processed. eh whatever, I may mess around with the php image stuff one day If I find a good useage.

Maybe I will make a program to submit data from my linux machines with realtime stats. You should make a image with the current server stats like ram usage and uptime.

 

[tjguitarz]

you can make the image as the link is being processed. eh whatever, I may mess around with the php image stuff one day If I find a good useage.

Maybe I will make a program to submit data from my linux machines with realtime stats. You should make a image with the current server stats like ram usage and uptime.

... once again you've confused me...

 

[SirThom]

Due to the success, I decided to pick up a domain: musicsig.com. All banners will be re-rendered with the new URL (in the corner) within seven days (since that's how long the banners are cached).

Also, my first sale has resulted from MusicSig: Elmo's Big Surprise Book and Cartridge.

 

[vibrokatana]

see what SirThom is reading nowadays