Hi there,

I'm in the final stages of setting up my website, but I've got a few questions:

1) In the about section of my game I've got a homepage button, that, well, goes to my homepage. If somebody downloads a version from an affiliate with this, and somebody decided to buy it while browsing, how do I make sure the affiliate gets his percentage? Do I need to do something with cookies, like http://www.homepage.com/index.htm?aflId=1 (and re-direct it to php to deal with the cookies on the server side, I don't like JavaScript, you see)?

2) Just confirming, the buynow button should go straight to the order page right, with no further links like about us, etc? Or, is there a chance the buyer may want to know a bit more about the company they're buying from. For instance, if a customer downloads the game from download.com, they would have never heard of my company name before. I guess, this is another good reason to splash my logo before the game starts. Good point! Any thoughts on this?

3) Ok, now I've got the sale, now what! I've got their name and email, so do I send them a thank you encouraging them to subscribe to the newsletter or can't I do that because of privacy and stuff?

4) I've also been seriously considering setting up my own order system, rather than using BMT Micro, etc. I'll be able to work out something with regards to expiring download links using MySql, etc. I quite like the idea of having the money immediately. I am just wondering if somebody could give me some numbers on how much you would be able to save this way. Do I still need to charge tax when 'exporting' to other countries or only to the country I live in? For instance, I noticed that BMT only charges tax to the state they are in, how does this work exactly?

5) How many of you guys out here, do their own cd printing & shipping? I mean, the default rate of $10 per CD is somewhat more than cost I think, and it could mean an additional stream of income. Any thoughts on this?

6) Are there any email proggies out there, that organize the incoming email per customer (so I know what the discussion was about) and have the option of sending people custom answers with one press of the button (like a FAQ button, DirectX problem button, Customer go-away button, refer-to-competitor-support-system etc). :)

Looking forward to any suggestions and ideas, you might have.

7) Do I put 'FREE updates' as a selling point or is that just a support/bandwidth nightmare?

3) you could simply put a checkbox on your order form that says "Yes, send me news about future updates and game releases from KoekTromL Studio".

mais bien sur (but ofcourse)
I should have thought of that! Then again it might sorta disappear in the forest of input boxes while ordering. I will definitely add one there too, and maybe an easy one-click subscribe in the "thank-you" email?

Slightly off-topic, but, do you intend to make your game (which looks promising by the way) available in both french and english, or do most people in france don't have a problem with the english versions?

And KoekTromL Studio sounds good too, hadn't thought of that one. Bummer it is a slightly localized and unpronouncable name though.

Slightly off-topic, but, do you intend to make your game (which looks promising by the way) available in both french and english, or do most people in france don't have a problem with the english versions?

And KoekTromL Studio sounds good too, hadn't thought of that one. Bummer it is a slightly localized and unpronouncable name though.
Yes, the game is available in French and English (language is automatically selected based on the system's language). I think that *many* French people don't understand English very well and are not comfortable with it. I'll probably add Spanish and German too. I'll also have to make the web site available in French with prices in Euro.

About "KoekTromL", you're right, I had to scroll the page and copy-paste it to write it in my post ;).