Cobrands

Cobrands

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What is Branding?

Simply put, branding gives you the ability to use multiple layouts for your database. Think of it as having a fresh set of templates and configuration choices to play with, that would run side by side with your main search engine, sharing the same links and categories, but looking completely different!

The advantages to your interested affiliates are obvious. They can actually have their own "copy" of your entire search engine. Your search results (and paid listings) with their HTML design and logo. This inspires a sense of ownership with them, and intrinsically, a desire to drive traffic and income.

Creating Cobrands is a very easy process, using either of 2 methods.

A full, theme based cobrand

1. Create a new "theme" for your cobranded affiliate to use.

Edit their templates to reflect their HTML, and the settings to reflect their choices in layout options.

Note that in this type of cobrand, you, as the administrator will be responsible for making HTML and option changes. Your affiliate does not have access to these editors or options screens. While this gives them the greatest flexibility in terms of the name of, and access to the cobrand from a pure branding standpoint, it is very restrictive to them in that it requires to you basically assist them in the design phase.

2. Create a copy of your main search.php file, naming it something like "affiliatename.php"

3. Edit this program file, and add the following line, directly after the "include_once(....)" line:

$CGI['theme'] = "themename";

Obviously, change "themename" to the name of the theme that you created for your affiliate.

That's it. Now, http://www.yourdomain.com/path/to/affiliatename.php will be YOUR search engine with THEIR look and feel.

If you're an apache wizard, or if you know one, you can pretty easily create a subdomain of yours that points directly to this theme page, so that something like http://affiliatename.yourdomain.com will pull up that same page, giving your cobrand-ee even more of a sense of ownership and pride.

A generic cobrand, but with affiliate level control

1. In your admin center, edit the page template, in your default theme called "cobrand" (create one if it doesnt exist)

In this template, put just the basic PLUGINS (ie: search, menu, categories, body, page_navigation, etc), in a basic layout. Do not include "<html>, <head>, <body>" tags ... just the core plugins, laid out in a basic manner (perhaps within a centered table).

2. Include a link, using  in your accounts center.

3. Your affiliates can login to their account screen, click that link, and enter in their own HTML Header and Footers, which will "wrap" around the basic template that you created in step 1.

That's it. Now, http://www.yourdomain.com/path/to/cobrand.php?affiliate=affiliatename will be YOUR search engine with THEIR look and feel.

You can rename cobrand.php to something else, if you desire, but it is required that they "link into" it using the ?affiliate=affiliatename paramater for the system to be able to change the layout based on their header/footer.