An affiliate program is a collection of e-partnerships between an affiliate program administrator (admin) & partners (affiliates) and all the activity generated by these partnerships. In an affiliate program, an administrator creates partnerships with other webmasters to promote products and/or services that are like one another. These partnerships, or synergies, are created with the goal of bringing sales to your site through the sites of other webmasters.

How can an affiliate program benefit business?

Starting an affiliate program is a fairly cost efficient sales channel that also serves to build brand recognition. Your affiliates, who may have traffic sources you’ve not considered or have the ability to reach, will be advertising your site, product, or service for you. The incentive for your affiliate to advertise your site, product or service is commissions.

Do I need an affiliate program for my website?

Although adding an additional sales channel to your online business is never a “bad” idea, it depends entirely on whether or not qualified affiliates exist for your business. In other words, if you have a site that sells plans for building gazebos, you could have affiliates that sell lumber, paint, hardware, garden accessories, etc. However, if you sell an e-book on how to become a notary, then you may only be able to acquire other notaries as affiliates and that would not justify the expense of maintaining the affiliate program.

How many ways are there to reward affiliates with the affiliate tracking software?

Affiliates can be rewarded on a per sale, per lead and a per click basis for each sale that is made. Each method can be awarded a flat fee or percentage and can go up to 2 levels (or tiers) deep. Affiliates can also be rewarded on a recurring basis if you use a compatible processing solution such as Netbilling, PayPal, CCBill or Right Connect.

What is a tiered affiliate program?

Our affiliate tracking software will create a hierarchy among your affiliates. By default, your account can accept affiliates AND sub-affiliates. A sub-affiliate is an affiliate that was referred by an existing affiliate. This is referred to as a two-tier affiliate program. This allows an admin to reward affiliates for getting new sign-ups, and allows the affiliate to earn commissions from his sub-affiliates’ sales. When you have an affiliate that signs up sub-affiliates, our affiliate tracking software uses his unique I.D. and creates a “parent” affiliate, with the sub-affiliate under him. Don’t worry if it sounds complicated. Our affiliate tracking software will do the work for you, and all you have to do is determine the criteria for your program. If you choose to use the 3rd tier, then your sub- affiliates can refer affiliates beneath them.

How do you track sales?

We can integrate with your order/lead form and email you the results or your ecommerce solution to pass the order details to our software for proper commission assignment.

How does the affiliate tracking software protect against fraud?

With built-in anti-fraud filters, our software detects duplicate affiliate submissions, clickthroughs, order ids and email addresses. If you enable the strict log mode, no orders will be logged from any other domain except the one where our software resides. This is useful in case you want to keep your order forms on our servers (same domain). You can remove false (or cancelled) orders at any time using your administration panel. Once you remove an affiliate he will not be able to simulate clickthroughs on your affiliate program anymore, in case he was attempting to do so, and an error message will show up and stop them (even if they simulate the clickthroughs in a hidden frame!).

Can I integrate my existing order/lead generation process with your software?

We have successfully integrated our software with many shopping carts, credit card processors and e-commerce products and services. Check the compatibility for your current solution. If the software you use is not in the list or is a custom one, you can still ask us to evaluate it before you order. Remember that integration is included in the set up fee, but you can choose do it yourself. However, this will not reduce the set up fee.

What is required in order to integrate the affiliate software with my website?

Please review the information

Does your affiliate tracking software allow me to delete charge backs or duplicate entries etc. before rewarding the affiliates?

Yes. Our tracking software allows you to either accept orders on a pending basis for manual approval or you can remove invalid items from the Orders management screen.

Is it possible to host the affiliate software on my servers, if I don’t trust yours?

No, we do not provide a one-time purchase option. However, having been in the business of hosting and maintaining affiliate programs for years, we know how to protect your data. We guarantee good quality and reliable service. Please note that we use separate servers for general in-house hosting and affiliate program hosting.

What servers and network do you provide to host my affiliate program?

The servers we use to host your affiliate program are modern Unix servers, with strict security. They are Intel-based, multiple CPU hosts that use SCSI RAID methods to give better performance and data protection, that is the data is written to 2 arrays, 2 Hard Disks in each at the same time. In the unlucky case of a hard disk crash, we will substitute the secondary drive and the server will be up and running after a few minutes. YOU LOSE NO DATA AT ALL! We have our own hosting facility, which features a constant 58-60 degree temperature, redundant channels, and universal power supplies (UPS) for each server. If one or more lines go down we are able to re-route traffic automatically, thereby ensuring continued access for your business.

How does your affiliate payment service work?

Each month we will generate a report of all affiliates who are due a commission for the previous month. The report will be accompanied by an invoice for the total amount of commission due for the period and any per check/wire transfer/report regeneration fees. You will be asked to review the report for any errors, changes or omissions. If the report is correct, you should forward payment via check or wire transfer to our offices. We will not disburse affiliate payment until your payment has been received. **Please note that we will not accept payment for commissions via credit card and that your account can be suspended for delinquent affiliate commission invoices. For those choosing to pay via wire transfer, there is a $14 fee for domestic and $40 fee for international. Email accounting for wire transfer instructions.

Now that I have placed my order, what can I expect?

Once your order is placed, you will receive an email receipt to the address entered on the order form that contains a summary of your order details. We also get a copy of this receipt and forward it to our Technical Department so they may begin the integration process. To begin this process you will receive an email requesting log in and ftp instructions to access your ecommerce solution for integration purposes. With your prompt response and cooperation, the integration process generally takes about 3 business days to complete. Tech will test the integration to ensure it is working properly. If the test is successful, integration is complete and a “welcome” email is sent to you.

When will I be charged for service?

When ordering your card will be preauthorized to verify funds are available at the time of the order. Your card will not be charged until we have completed account set up on our end. Our Accounting Department will get a copy of the welcome email that will trigger them to charge the card for the order amount minus any discounts. Your card will then be automatically billed every 30 calendar days unless you discontinue service.

If I no longer need your services, how do I cancel?

All cancellations must be received (telephone requests are not accepted) via email.Please include your account name in the subject line when making this request to ensure your request will not be deleted as spam and will be processed promptly. Once your cancellation has been received, it will be verified for validity. When the request has been validated, you will receive an email notice confirming cancellation.

What are network publishers?

Network publishers are publishers that joined the Affiliate Tracking Network. They signup once using this site to get a publisher account. Once they have been approved to join the network, they are able to view a list of all available programs on the network that they can subscribe to without having to reenter all their information for each program.