Partners News Blog

Localized Date and Time Settings

rene — 2012-01-11T07:21:29-08:00

Today we released a new localized date and time format, affecting how dates and times will be displayed in different places throughout the site, in the site editor (Admin view), and in the emails we send to users.

The Location settings defaults are set per installation, and can be controlled by the site-owner from Control Panel > Site Properties > Special Features.

If you have any questions, or would like to see date and time settings for your location added to the list of presets, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Additional Mail Servers, Improved Mail Handling

rene — 2011-12-15T03:32:04-08:00

Today we have added 2 new inbound mail servers for all domains that we provide mail hosting for.

The new servers will allow us to handle more inbound email. We have also made improvements to the spam filter system that should result in even fewer spam emails reaching your inbox.

If you want to use the new email servers for the domains that you control, you will want to update the MX records of those domains. Our tutorials have been updated to guide you through the process.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact support.

Improved Handling of Domain Properties During Client Package Downgrade

rene — 2011-12-08T02:20:01-08:00

There can be any number of reasons why a client would miss a payment. Sometimes they simply forgot the date or they had to update their credit card details and did not manage to do that on time. Whatever the reason, fully restoring the client's account once it is paid, is of the utmost importance. Until now, this meant that any custom domain information that was associated with the account would have to be re-entered manually.

We are happy to announce that we have greatly improved the way that we handle domain information during client downgrades. As a result, as soon as a client's account is restored, so is their old domain information.

What's more, you can now manually control, on an account-by-account basis, whether custom domains are supported. To change this setting for a single account, go to Manage Accounts > User Details and change the Active Domain setting.

This means that you can now, for example, temporarily disable custom domain support for specific accounts.

Any user up- or downgrade will automatically override the manual setting and apply the new package preset for domain support.

We believe this new behavior will make client management easier and more powerful.

New Feature: Header HTML Snippet

rene — 2011-10-27T07:36:04-07:00

We are happy to announce that today we launched a new feature that lets you add HTML snippets in the head of your web site. You can read the official announcement on the SiteKreator Product Blog.

Using the Header HTML snippet you can add Webmaster Tools, Facebook Insights, or any other meta tag by simply copy-pasting the relevant HTML code into the Header HTML field in Site Properties.

We have also updated our API by adding object.site.set_header_snippet and object.site.remove_header_snippet calls that give each application the ability to add it's own HTML code in the head of the site. For more information on the SDK update, read our SDK blog.

Create a Facebook Layout for any Custom Design Using SK Pro

rene — 2011-07-20T07:51:04-07:00

SiteKreator recently released a new Facebook Page Layout that is available for all our stock designs. The new layout makes creating custom Facebook Page tabs as easy as editing any page in SiteKreator.

Facebook Page Layouts are not limited to stock designs. You can easily add such a layout to any custom design created in SiteKreator Pro. Below is a screenshot of the layout structure inside the SiteKreator Pro Layout Editor.

The Facebook Page Layout includes a Page Image element, a Page Title and a fixed-width content area that makes sure the page's content fits neatly inside Facebook's page content column.

For a detailed description of how to create this structure for any SiteKreator Pro design, see our DesignFlux blog.

New Application Tutorials

rene — 2011-04-05T00:06:57-07:00

At the rate with which we have released new applications since the summer, our tutorials were getting a little behind. We've taken steps to correct that and are adding new tutorials almost daily.

We now have tutorials online for the following applications: Add This, Facebook, Google Maps, Image Zoom, News and Events, Page Rating, PayPal Buttons, Snap Shots, Twitter and the Voting Poll. Tutorials for more applications will be added on a regular basis.

We are also excited to announce that we will produce more white label instruction videos, something many of you have asked for. The videos will be made available via the resources section of our reseller portal. Today we released a video for the Add This application. Here too, we will be adding more videos on an ongoing basis.

Storage Limit For Packages Now 30GB

rene — 2011-04-04T01:18:23-07:00

Based on requests from several of our private-label partners, we have now set the Storage Limit for packaged to 30GB.

To change the Storage Limit for an existing package, go to Control Panel > Manage Accounts > Packages and select the wrench tool to edit the package settings. You'll find the Storage Limit pulldown menu in the Properties section.

White Label Customer Support

rene — 2011-04-01T02:15:55-07:00

Providing quality support can take up quite a bit of your time. Time that you would probably prefer to spend on growing your business. That is why, as part of our private-label reseller program, we offer optional white label email and chat support for your partners. This will give your clients direct access to our team of support professionals and we can help them solve any technical problem starting from "how to resize my gallery" to configuring a domain and email hosting.

With white label support enabled, your clients will see the option for online chat and email support when they click on the [Help] buttons inside their Admin interface. When they choose email support, our replies will be fully white labeled (SiteKreator is not motioned anywhere, including in the email address and the links we send them).

If white label support is not already included in your package, the price is just $2/mo per account. To set up white label support for your clients, please contact support at sitekreator.com.

RE: Enable Adress Search in the Google Maps Application

Chris — 2011-03-11T05:58:54-08:00

It would be great if SK would make the tutorial videos for any training easy to embed on other sites. Your videos are very helpful and it would be great if we could share them with our customers.

Thanks for all the great work!

Enable Address Search in the Google Maps Application

rene — 2011-03-11T05:03:23-08:00

Did you know that our Google Maps application lets you search and display a map by address? You can now enable this feature for all your customers with just two simple steps. And it won't cost you a thing.

Here's how to do it.

First you will have to apply for a Google Maps API Key. Make sure you fill in your Admin-mode domain � the domain that is used when your customer's website is in Admin mode � when applying for the key.

Once you receive the key from Google, simply email it to support at sitekreator.com and we will do the rest. Free of charge.

The video below shows you how easy searching by address with the Google Maps application is.

Turn More Trials Into Paid Customers with Email Follow-Ups

rene — 2011-03-02T02:04:51-08:00

You have to strike while the iron is hot is the familiar expression. In the same way that blacksmiths had to work fast to hammer iron into shape before it would cool and the opportunity to mold it had passed, you have to act on time to turn trial users into paying customers.

But don't give up too quickly either. Did you know that research has shown that 80% of sales are made on the 5th to the 12th contact?

How can SiteKreator partners use this knowledge? One incredibly strong tool that can greatly increase your subscription rate is follow-up emails. This article looks at how you can increase your business with a few well-designed, well-written emails. We'll give you three easy steps to get your follow-up email system set up and we'll also share some details about just how much of an effect such emails can have.

Step 1: Decide when and how often to send follow-up emails

Users who have just signed up for a trial account, have an expressed interest in your product. They may simply want to see how it works, or they may have a concrete plan for a website. Whichever is the case, you have an opportunity to seize.

Try to have your first follow-up email go out to the new client within 24 hours of their signup, while the experience of your product is still fresh and they are still thinking about the website they wanted to create with your service.

Repeat this in the weeks after the trial signup. Make sure to slowly decrease the rate with which you send these emails, otherwise you risk being considered a spammer. A good schedule would be for a second follow-up email to come three days after the first, and a third one another three days later, making it exactly one week since the customer signed up. Further follow-up email could be sent at a rate of about once a week.

According to Jeanniey Mullen, chief marketing officer of Zinio, your focus should be on the first 90 days of messaging.

Step 2: Write engaging content that invites customers to respond

In your first follow up email, thank your new customers for signing up, ask them how the build process is going, remind them that help is always just a click away. Try to be helpful, show that you care, but do not push for a direct sale. Offer a free downloadable white paper on how to build a better website and include a secondary call to action, such as "follow us on Twitter" or "Join our LinkedIn group". Fast follow-ups help you motivate people while their new trial is still on their mind.

Try to change the message in the emails that follow, use a different message every time, include a different offer and a different call to action.

It should be no surprise to any business owner that customers who get a friendly, positive response to their expressed interest in a service or product are more likely to buy. Just think about it for a second. What shop are you more likely to buy from? One where the owner doesn't seem to care that you walked in or one where you are approached and friendly offered help?

Over time track which message works and change the ones that don't work.

Step 3: Putting it all to work

Did you know that all this work can be easily automated with MailChimp? MailChimp is easy to set up and lets you track your follow-up email campaigns. It offers a free account that includes 2000 subscribers and lets you send 12000 emails a month.

Best of all, SiteKreator partners now enjoy full integration with MailChimp. Head over the Getting Started guide for a complete introduction. If you're new to email marketing, there is an extensive online library of excellent tutorials and guides that will make an email marketing superstar out of you in no time.

To have MailChimp integration set up for your reseller account, please contact support at sitekreator.com.

Introducing: Google Apps Mail Support For Custom Domains

rene — 2011-02-15T07:25:06-08:00

Today we released a change to the domain management that will allow resellers to add domains to our DNS server while hosting the email with Google Apps.

To do this, go to Control Panel > Manage Accounts > Domains, and select Gmail Hosting from the # Mailboxes pulldown menu as shown in the screenshot on the left.

Additional fees for email-hosting will not be charged if you use this feature. Google Apps Standard edition offers up to 50 email addresses for free.

For now, this change only works for newly added domains, but we will be implementing this to work with existing domains as well.

SiteKreator Launches MailChimp Integration for Resellers

rene.beekman — 2011-01-14T01:59:02-08:00

The ability to follow up with a potential customer is often crucial in making a sale. Today, SiteKreator launches a new feature that will help resellers follow up on trial signups.

We are now offering full integration with MailChimp, one of the leading e-mail marketing platforms, letting you send out timed, automated responses to every new signup.

MailChimp integration has to be set up on a per-reseller-account basis. This takes about 4 hours and will be charged at our standard service rate. Please contact support at sitekreator.com if you would like to have MailChimp integration enabled on your reseller account.

MailChimp offers a free account which lets you add up to 1000 subscribers and send up to 6000 emails every month. For those who have not worked with MailChim before, you can find tons of information on the MailChimp website to get you started.

SiteKreator Releases Language Selector Application

rene.beekman — 2011-01-11T06:38:52-08:00

In today's world with disappearing borders and diverse populations, more and more businesses need multi-lingual websites. With SiteKreator's new Language Selector application this takes just a few clicks.

SiteKreator's new Language Selector application has been enabled on all reseller accounts that have applications enabled.

Find out more about the application on the SiteKreator blog.

New Application: PayPal Buy Now Buttons

Mark McGrady — 2010-12-16T19:04:34-08:00

Today we released a new application which makes it possible for website owners to add PayPal Buy Now buttons to their site with the click of a mouse.

The full announcement of the application is available on the SiteKreator blog.

The new application is available in all packages that have Applications enabled. If, for any reason, you don't wish to have this application enabled please contact us at support at sitekreator.com.

Adding Sub-resellers To Your Account

rene.beekman — 2010-12-16T03:18:29-08:00

Being able to quickly respond to a business opportunity is vital to our resellers and we constantly look for ways to make your work easier and quicker.

We have now made it very easy to add a sub-reseller to your account. All you have to do is to point the sub-reseller domain to 72.20.110.40 and fill out this form and you can expect your sub-reseller to ready in one business day.

Just as a reminder, you will be billed for each non-TRIAL account that is created under your sub-reseller at the same rate that you pay for your reseller. This includes the sub-reseller portal, which is a fully-functional site. There are no free accounts for sub-resellers, and all sub-reseller accounts apply towards your minimum quota.

PLR Reports

laurajames — 2010-11-20T10:17:33-08:00

PLR Reports

RE: New Pricing for SK Pro and New Reseller plan.

Venataur — 2010-11-17T10:26:54-08:00

This makes a lot more sense in a lot of ways.

1. The $120 fee does not seem like much, but you want to do 40 accounts in Pro it adds up to be A LOT.

2. Extending Trials. I am often working on 3-4 projects at a time, and with some users we will not go live for 6-8 months. Resellers should not get charged if the site is not Live - Meaning a custom domain name. Obviously is the site was running a lot of bandwidth, I could see charging, but most are accounts that are small and only seeing 1- 2 users a week, most likely just the reseller.

New Pricing for SK Pro and New Reseller plan.

rene.beekman — 2010-11-17T07:12:18-08:00

This week we are introducing several important changes to our offer for reseller. We hope these changes will help you create more successful businesses, using our integrated web design and production platform.

1. New Pricing model for SK Pro

In addition to the standard one-time fee of $120 for SiteKreator Pro, now resellers can choose to pay $2 a month per account for using the SK Pro design platform. This fee will be added to your monthly reseller invoice for all non-TRIAL accounts currently using custom design. All accounts where the $120 one-time fee has been paid will, of course, not be included.

2. New $12/mo Package

We are replacing our current $10/m and $15/mo reseller plans with one $12/mo package. The new package requires only a minimum of 5 accounts ($60/mo) which does not increase over time. The new package does not include white-label support and email hosting, which can be enabled on a per-account basis and will cost an additional $2/mo each.

The new Reseller Package will apply only to new resellers, but if you would like to switch to it, just contact us at support at sitekreator.com.

3. Enable SiteKreator Pro On A Per-Package Basis

Last week we announced that Resellers can now set page-number limitations for packages by going to Control Panel > Manage Accounts > Packages and selecting the package they want to make these changes to.

As of today, in the same screen, Resellers can also allow their users to enable our custom design tool SiteKreator Pro. This control works on a per-package basis. Once the option is enabled by the reseller for a specific plan, all users on this plan can enable the Pro editors from Control Panel > Site Properties > Pro Design Editors.

4. Extended Trial Accounts

Some of you have asked for this feature, and we have listened. As of today, trial accounts can be extended manually for up to 6 month.

From the Resellers Admin area, open Manage Accounts and click on the [$] icon next to the trial account that you wish to extend. Then click [New Subscription] and choose TRIAL30. This will extend the trail with another month.

You can extend the trial for up to 6 months from the initial signup date without incurring any additional fees. As you know the trial accounts are limited to 10Mb of storage and do not allow the use of a custom domain name.

SiteKreator Announces New Feature and New Design

rene.beekman — 2010-11-11T07:43:31-08:00

Today we are announcing a new feature for resellers and a new design for all our customers.

To start with the new design. We are extremely excited to present the latest addition to our stunning design library: Atlas.

Atlas features the much-requested, trendy page layout where the header, navigation and footer span the entire browser width. This new design comes in 8 distinctive color themes, each with a brand new page header image for a perfect color-photo combination.

Have a look at our blog post for more about our latest design.

For our resellers, we have introduced a new feature which enables you to set a limit to the number of pages available under your packages.

All you need to do is go to Control Panel > Manage Accounts > Packages and then select any package you want to edit. Fill in the maximum number of pages for the package, or leave blank to allow an unlimited number of pages.