PTCBox.Me Ads - Development Stages History

2013-06-26

Initial planing and analysis of the project.
Definition of the resources that will be required and research on the implementation platforms.

2013-06-27

Completed the very first beta version of the database.
Designed the first version of the ads page. Started working on the sites portability of the page to smaller resolutions.
Completed configuring our PayPal account to prepare it for usage with our new system's specific advertising products.
Added a new invoice prototype with our logo.
Completed the first version of the ad submission form and connected it to the database.
Major changes to the administrator's office. Everything on the site can now be supervised through the Administrator's "Office" (password protected panel).
Implemented methods to get notified for new tasks requiring our attention.

2013-06-28

Decided the final prices based on the spots location and distance from the top of the page.
Heavy upgrades done to the submission form. It now offered automated calculation of the product for sale and the price to be paid to PayPal based on the user's selections on ad spot and duration.
Submit ads were initially possible with image file upload. But later on we turned down that idea mainly because of the security risks that came up. Therefore, we decided that we will manually upload and host the banners on our server, during the approval stage of the ad.
Small additions done in the database and all site's permissions were adjusted for the maximum security of our data.
A complete guide with screenshots and a pricing table were added to the ad submission page.
Auto-respond script completed and implemented. Both administrator and advertisers will now receive a detailed description of their order.

2013-06-29

Administrator's office updated with an ad approval section. It is now possible to approve single and multiple ads with a simple click.
Database updated with an email blacklist. In case of unauthorized usage of an email the recipient will now have the option
to directly add his email to the site's blacklist (using an "unsubscribe"-like link coming in the new order notification email so that the system prevents it from happening again). A user can be removed from the black list by contacting support. More flexibility and security of this system will be developed soon (we'll probably ad a security pin option in the future).

2013-07-01

Developed a whole you confirmation system with a security pin code. New ads must be now be confirmed (before being approved) by clicking a confirmation link in the confirmation email received after ad submission. This is to prevent unauthorized placement of orders by users using email accounts they don't own.

2013-07-02

Applying security measures to prevent SQL injection attacks through all the input fields of the site.
This was necessary to ensure the safety of the data stored in our databases.
Enabled email blacklisting.
Fixed date formats.

2013-10-15

Updated Administration Panel so that editing an ad now is much easier and simpler to avoid mistakes.

2013-10-16

Updated the script to show "Available Now!" instead of "Available at..." and the current date. It is simpler for the advertiser to know that the spot is currently available.

2013-10-27

Prepared functions to work on the upcoming new version of the script (etc. re-coded PayPal's options to support the new prices).
Updated the script to automatically show the activation and the expiry date of the ad as soon as the member confirms it.
Updated the script to automatically prepare an email to send immediately after the approval, directly from the admin's panel.
These will greatly improve speed when handling multiple ads that need quick approval.
Added a "traffic stats" link on the ads page so that it's easier for an advertiser be able to know when his spot will become available.

2013-11-09

Added a custom tracking system so now every hit is being tracked. It's easy now to create grouped reports on the incoming traffic.
Completed some script modifications to consume the minimum possible bandwidth per page load. We can now handle much more traffic this way (10.000+ daily visitors)

2013-11-10

Upgraded my Payza account from Starter to Personal.. so now I'm able to receive payments there.
The new form is now ready and includes PayPal/Payza/EgoPay options plus the 7-Days ad duration option.
Fixed a couple of bugs in the ad submission page. Now it adapts better at low resolutions.

2013-11-14

EgoPay automated system scripting is complete. It will be available once we upgrade the script to the 2nd version.
Completed the announcements system on the ads page. It will be implemented before the v2 upgrade. (first announcement will be the upgrade)
Reconstructed the layout of the Ads page to improve adaptation to smaller and bigger resolutions while including the 2 new features listed above.
Improved adaptation to include font size decrease at smaller resolutions.
Added a 7-days stats indication on the top of the ads page. This will help with the upcoming 7-days ad pack sales.
Captcha bot check is complete and implemented directly on the new submission form. I'll soon implement it on all forms of the site.

2013-11-15

Fixed an issue with banners that failed to load messing up the site's design. Now if they fail to load they get removed.

2013-11-17

Fixed a small critical bug that was messing up the availability dates.. by cutting days off for every month that had 30 days instead of 31.

2013-12-14

After a lot of scripting we are finally ready to launch our second version with the exception of the Featured Links column as it is taking more time that it was planned.

You may want to also get some input from the other members in the forum on what should be written on the final draft before it's displayed to the public. If needed, we could also possibly help with the editing here and there.

Are you going to allow affiliates in the future some time? I don't recall if that was discussed

I keep forgetting that the banners will be a fixed cost and they won't rotate. Yes, because of that neobux would be too expensive. Also, having affiliates would also not be very useful.

The only way to make those two things useful would maybe be to leverage your payments system and build a second page that does have rotating banners. Either that or let people bid on the banner spots.

You can't really do it with fixed ads. You need something that will scale up in order to capitalize on increased traffic flow

SolidSnake wrote on 30^th Jun, 2013 at 10:42pm:

An affiliate program could bring more traffic to the site cause it could encourage members to promote the program.

But like you said, you rather take one step at a time then build on from there, etc.

SolidSnake wrote on 3^rd Jul, 2013 at 1:52pm:


And people wonder why I don't become an admin.

Reason # 1 through 7:  HACKERS!