Since I posted my article on Monetizing using Screensavers, I have received a large number of emails from all sorts of people, with fabulous ideas, asking for more precise information on how to actually do the ‘techie’ part behind this idea. What I am going to explain below is something I have done myself, so it is tested and does work. I hope I manage to explain this correctly:

We start with three files:

1. your screen saver file (screensaver.exe)
2. the affiliate programs install file (affiliateprogram.exe)
3. a launcher file (installer.bat) *

Firstly, we want to rename the files like so:

1. screensaver.exe > screensaver.db
2. affiliateprogram.exe > infofiles.db
3. installer.bat can remain the same *

Essentially, what we want to happen, is have the person run the installer.bat file, which I will get to in a moment, and on execution of this file, the other two files will be renamed to executables, and will be executed. The reason for renaming them, is to force the user to run the .bat file, rather than the other files by themselves. Another reason could be to hide what the user is installing, but this is not a fair approach in my opinion!

* We want to open notepad, and create a file called installer.bat. In this file we would have something like this..

ren screensaver.db screensaver.exe
ren infofiles.db infofiles.exe
screensaver.exe
infofiles.exe

This is a four part process:

1. The screensaver executable file is created, by renaming the file.
2. The affiliate program executable is created, by renaming the file.
3. The screensaver software you created is executed.
4. The affiliate software is executed.

I have not had a great deal of time to play around with affiliate companies, to see what installs they have to offer, but after all the emails, I at least wanted to be able to explain how we go about doing this!

Good luck!