There are several steps to processing a new affiliate program that we have joined. The amount of time a human needs to spend could be reduced greatly by creating a tool that automates creation of the necessary data.

1. Create a database of subscribed affiliate programs.¶

After we create a database, https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/ and https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/aff.html can be turned into dynamically-generated pages and humans will be spared from manually updating those pages every time a program is added.

TODO: DEFINE SCHEMA for affPrograms

- id int(10)
- affProgram varchar(128)
- affUrl varchar(255)
- refUrl varchar(255)
- PPCdoorway varchar(255)
- commission varchar(128)
- paidVia varchar(128)
- notes text utf8_general_ci

Above is needed for https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/aff.html, below is needed for https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/ (disc, discText, and discCode are used to construct the "Discount Details" column in https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/_

- disc varchar(128)
- discText varchar(128)
- discCode varchar(128)
- discInstructions varchar(128)

I prompted https://chat.openai.com/?model=gpt-4 with ...

give me SQL to create a table affPrograms and add 26 blank records using the following schema: 
- id int(10) auto_increment
- affProgram varchar(128)
- affUrl varchar(255)
- refUrl varchar(255)
- PPCdoorway varchar(255)
- commission varchar(128)
- paidVia varchar(128)
- notes text utf8_general_ci
- disc varchar(128)
- discText varchar(128)
- discCode varchar(128)
- discInstructions varchar(128)

... and got ...

Below is the SQL code to create a table named affPrograms with the specified schema and to insert 26 blank records into it. This SQL assumes you are using a MySQL database given the datatype specifics like int(10) and varchar sizes, as well as the collation setting for the text field.

SQL to Create the Table

CREATE TABLE affPrograms (
    id INT(10) AUTO_INCREMENT,
    affProgram VARCHAR(128),
    affUrl VARCHAR(255),
    refUrl VARCHAR(255),
    PPCdoorway VARCHAR(255),
    commission VARCHAR(128),
    paidVia VARCHAR(128),
    notes TEXT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci,
    disc VARCHAR(128),
    discText VARCHAR(128),
    discCode VARCHAR(128),
    discInstructions VARCHAR(128),
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

SQL to Insert 26 Blank Records (not clear if we need to do this)

Given that the id column is an auto-increment field, you do not need to specify the ID values when inserting new records. MySQL will automatically assign incrementing integers starting from 1. To insert blank records (with NULL values in all other fields), you can use the following:

INSERT INTO affPrograms 
(affProgram, affUrl, refUrl, PPCdoorway, commission, paidVia, notes, disc, discText, discCode, discInstructions)
VALUES 
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL),
(NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);

Notes:

Primary Key: The id column is the primary key and is set to auto-increment.

Character Set and Collation: The notes column is set to use UTF-8 character encoding.

Inserting Blank Records: 26 insertions are batched into one command to streamline the operation. Since the id field is auto-increment, there's no need to specify it during insertion.

This setup ensures that you can add records to the table easily, and MySQL will manage the incremental IDs for each new entry.

2. Populate the database from our existing set of subscribed affiliate programs.¶

We have 26 programs to populate the dataabse, it is not clear if it will take less time to copy/paste manually or use AI.

If it needs to be done manually, just setup one record (s you can continue on with other parts of this task) and I will have someone else populate it.

If you want to try to use AI+python (perhaps more fun, probably more time) ...

I saved https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/aff.html into Affiliate Programs.html

I prompted https://chat.openai.com/?model=gpt-4 with ...

give me code to parse the values from the first column in the table in the attached table, list those values, and generate SQL to update the records, in order, in the affProgram field of the affPrograms table with those values

AI gave me: To extract the values from the first column of the table in the provided HTML file and generate SQL statements for updating records in the affProgram field of the affPrograms table, we can use the following approach:

Parse the HTML file using BeautifulSoup.
Extract the values from the first column of the table.
Generate SQL update statements to update the corresponding records.
Here's how you can do it in Python:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

# Load the HTML file content
with open('/mnt/data/Affiliate Programs.html', 'r') as file:
    html_content = file.read()

# Parse the HTML
soup = BeautifulSoup(html_content, 'html.parser')

# Find the table
table = soup.find('table')

# List to store the first column values
affiliate_programs = []

# Extract data from the first column, skipping the header row
for row in table.find_all('tr')[1:]:  # The first row is the header
    first_column = row.find('td')
    if first_column:
        affiliate_programs.append(first_column.text.strip())

# Output the extracted values
print("Affiliate Programs:")
print(affiliate_programs)

# Generating SQL statements
print("\nSQL Update Statements:")
for program in affiliate_programs:
    sql = f"UPDATE affPrograms SET affProgram = '{program}' WHERE id = ?;" 
    print(sql)

Tasks below are all optional, whichever ones you can do will help.¶

HTML to generate those two pages dynamically¶

Now we need to change https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/ and https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/aff.html to be dynamically-generated from the database.

Step 1 is to reproduce those pages as is.¶

Make it easy for me to update the style of the pages later to make the display more elegant.

If it is not obvious how to dynamically create those two pages from the affPrograms table, let me know and I can explain.

Step 2 is to enhance https://pickleballdiscountcodes.com/ to support categories.¶

The 'categories' field in the 'affPrograms' table controls where (if anywhere) a given affiliate program appears on that page.

Most records will contain a single identifier in the 'categories' field, with most being set to "Gear". However, we must support any number of comma-separated values, including none.
If the 'categories' field of a record in the 'affPrograms' table is empty, do not display that program anywhere on that page (we might want to do this to suspend a program).
When the 'categories' field of a record in the 'affPrograms' table is not empty, display that program in the corresponding category section(s) on that page.

The 'affCategories' table defines the categories and their relative position on that page.

a) Section format.

Take the current format and convert it from a single table to multiple tables with headings.

Take a shot at a format that is likely to be visually appealing.

b) Display order.

The 'displayOrder" value in the 'affCategories' table governs the order of display of the category tables.

Current affCategories table looks like this...

So the first category displayed would be "Paddles and Other Gear", etc.

Page to add new records to the affiliates table.¶

AI can probably do it if you craft the prompt well.

I tried...

give me HTML code that will accept the necessary input fields and display the SQL to add a record to the affPrograms table

category displayed wou
Below is an example of a simple HTML form with JavaScript that captures input from the user for each field defined in your affPrograms table. The form will not actually insert data into a database; instead, it generates an SQL insert statement based on the input and displays it on the same page.

Eventually, we want it to display what the records would look like, solicit confirmation from the admin, and directly add a new record to the affiliates table.

HTML and JavaScript Code

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Add Record to affPrograms</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Add a New Record to affPrograms</h1>
    <form id="dataForm">
        <label for="affProgram">Affiliate Program:</label>
        <input type="text" id="affProgram" name="affProgram"><br><br>

        <label for="affUrl">Affiliate URL:</label>
        <input type="text" id="affUrl" name="affUrl"><br><br>

        <label for="refUrl">Referral URL:</label>
        <input type="text" id="refUrl" name="refUrl"><br><br>

        <label for="PPCdoorway">PPC Doorway:</label>
        <input type="text" id="PPCdoorway" name="PPCdoorway"><br><br>

        <label for="commission">Commission:</label>
        <input type="text" id="commission" name="commission"><br><br>

        <label for="paidVia">Paid Via:</label>
        <input type="text" id="paidVia" name="paidVia"><br><br>

        <label for="notes">Notes:</label>
        <textarea id="notes" name="notes"></textarea><br><br>

        <label for="disc">Discount:</label>
        <input type="text" id="disc" name="disc"><br><br>

        <label for="discText">Discount Text:</label>
        <input type="text" id="discText" name="discText"><br><br>

        <label for="discCode">Discount Code:</label>
        <input type="text" id="discCode" name="discCode"><br><br>

        <label for="discInstructions">Discount Instructions:</label>
        <input type="text" id="discInstructions" name="discInstructions"><br><br>

        <button type="button" onclick="generateSQL()">Generate SQL</button>
    </form>

    <h2>Generated SQL Statement:</h2>
    <p id="sqlOutput"></p>

    <script>
        function generateSQL() {
            const form = document.forms['dataForm'];
            const affProgram = form['affProgram'].value;
            const affUrl = form['affUrl'].value;
            const refUrl = form['refUrl'].value;
            const PPCdoorway = form['PPCdoorway'].value;
            const commission = form['commission'].value;
            const paidVia = form['paidVia'].value;
            const notes = form['notes'].value;
            const disc = form['disc'].value;
            const discText = form['discText'].value;
            const discCode = form['discCode'].value;
            const discInstructions = form['discInstructions'].value;

            const sql = `INSERT INTO affPrograms (affProgram, affUrl, refUrl, PPCdoorway, commission, paidVia, notes, disc, discText, discCode, discInstructions) VALUES ('${affProgram}', '${affUrl}', '${refUrl}', '${PPCdoorway}', '${commission}', '${paidVia}', '${notes}', '${disc}', '${discText}', '${discCode}', '${discInstructions}');`;
            document.getElementById('sqlOutput').innerText = sql;
        }
    </script>
</body>
</html>

Explanation:

HTML Form: This form contains text inputs and a textarea for the fields of the affPrograms table. The form does not actually submit data to a server but instead triggers a JavaScript function when the user clicks the submit button.

JavaScript Function: generateSQL() is called when the form is submitted. It retrieves values from the form, constructs an SQL insert statement, and displays it in the pre element with the ID sqlOutput.

Preventing Form Submission: The onsubmit attribute in the form tag calls event.preventDefault() to prevent the form from submitting traditionally, which would reload the page.

This setup allows you to collect data via the HTML form and see the SQL statement generated live, which can then be used to manually insert data into a database. However, be cautious with directly using user input in SQL statements to avoid SQL injection vulnerabilities. In a production environment, you'd want to handle this securely on the server side, possibly with prepared statements or parameterized queries.

Setup Google PPC¶

ref: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10702525?hl=en#zippy=%2Cads%2Ckeywords

Get AI to populate the template Create Responsive Search Ad(s).xlsx for import.

We will populate the template by replacing parameters with input values.

If you decide to go ahead with this I will provide details.

Get AI to populate the template Add Keyword(s).xlsx for import.

I use https://classygroundcovers.com/cgi-bin/cg/misspellings.pl to generate keywords, but it might be simpler to have AI recreate the functionality of that tool.

Rules

Square braces: required element(s) "[a|b]" 
Curly braces: optional element(s) "{c}" 
Pipes inside braces are used to separate alternatives "{c|d|ef}" 
Pipes outside braces are not allowed
Braces should not be nested
Characters can be escaped with a backslash "\", like: "[\{]" 
A tilde "~" will be converted into space. (Currently there is no escaping for it)

For example (replace BRAND with the brand name) {best} BRAND pickleball {coupon|discount|savings} {code|deal|promo}
generated 30 good keyword strings:

I also do brand models…
ProDrive [encounter|drive|Select|raw|carbon|bella|glasses|bag|backpack] {discount|sale|promo|coupon|deal}