Tutorial
There are many different steps to take to fully set up the affiliate program. Follow the instructions found in each section of this tutorial to fully take advantage of the functionality found in the affiliate program.
To find the Affiliate Program menu, under 'Commerce' choose 'Affiliate Program'
Click on each tab for more information
A. Customize Affiliate Settings and Signup Options
The initial step is to edit the affiliate settings for your site's needs.
Click on each section to expand the field to learn more details.
From the 'Affiliate Program' Menu choose 'Customize Affiliate Settings and Signup Options'
Set the 'affiliate cookie length' as a number of days. If a user comes to your site through an affiliate link, the cookie will stay on their computer for the amount of time set in the affiliate cookie length. If they make a purchase or become a member within that time frame, the affiliate will be given credit.
The next three fields: 'Affiliate Form Headline', 'Affiliate Form Body Text' and 'Affiliate Agreement Text' are all found on the affiliate sign up form. Customize these three fields for your site.
After an affiliate signs up, they will receive an email message. The email message information can be customized in the 'New Affiliate Email Message' box. Substitute
#firstname#
#lastname#
#affiliateID#
#password#
to substitute the real values for those placeholders in the email message.
Automatically sign affiliates up to an email marketing list through Aweber. Upon submitting the signup form, an affiliates name and email address can be sent to your aweber list for affiliate members. Choose the radio button for aweber or infusionsoft and select your list from the drop down menu.
Default Affiliate Link - This is the default link that will be listed in the affiliate's marketing page. Include any url of your site. Remember if using the home page to also include /index.cfm at the end. For example, the membergate home page would be listed as //www.membergate.com/index.cfm
From the drop down menu, select whether to automatically make new members, affiliate members as well. Select 'yes' if you would like all members to be affilate members, select 'no' if the member would have to manually sign up to be an affiliate.
Process Recurring Affiliate Commission - If you would like an affiliate to earn a commission on each recurring billing fee, select 'yes'. If you would only like the affiliate to earn a commission on the first membership fee select 'no'. This setting is for all affiliates and all member plans.
Set the Affiliate Signup form 'Header Text Color' and the 'Header Background Color'
10. Click the 'Apply Changes' button
B. Affiliate Marketing Page
When an affiliate logs into their account, they will be able to copy code and images to place on their site. The marketing page is where they will see that information. Edit the main text of the marketing page by following the steps below.
Click on each section to expand the field to learn more details.
From the 'Affiliate Program' Menu choose 'Edit Affiliate Marketing Page'
The affiliate marketing page can be viewed once an affiliate is logged into their account. The affiliate login page can be found here (substitute your site name into the url)
Update the 'Link Instructions' and the 'Text Link Phrase'
4. The marketing page (http://www.yoursite.com/public/affiliate/index.cfm) will resemble this:
C. Add or Edit Affiliate Banners
Affiliate banners can be provided to your members along with automated code to add the banners to their site. The banner code will automatically include the affiliate's ID information so all the affiliate has to do is copy and paste. The affiliate banners are found in the marketing area when they login to their affiliate accounts.
Click on each section to expand the field to learn more details.
1. From the 'Affiliate Program' menu choose 'Edit Affiliate Banners'. The banners are found on the marketing page for the affiliate members. They can paste the code onto their sites to include a clickable image for their site users.
Choose 'Add New' to add a new banner. Choose 'edit' to make changes to an existing banner.
Add a banner name just for your reference. It will not be shown anywhere.
Set the 'Banner Status' to 'active' to include it on the marketing page. If you no longer would like to offer it to affiliate members, set the status to 'inactive' and it will not show on the marketing page.
Enter the description in the 'Banner Description' field. This will show on the marketing page next to the banner and it's code. This can be used for information about the banner, a new sales program or subscription details.
Link URL - Paste the URL where the user who will click on the banner will 'land' on your site. This can usually be a sales page with more information.
Banner Graphic - Press the 'Choose File' button and select the image from your computer to upload.
8. When completed, click on the 'Add this Image' button.
9. The banner will appear on the marketing page for the affiliate. There will be an HTML code for the affiliate to add to their site to add a banner or just a text link. The affiliate's ID will automatically be added into the HTML code.
Almost Done!
The affiliate program is now set up. The final steps include setting your member plans and shopping cart products so the affiliate members can earn a commision. Please follow the steps found in these other tutorials for further information.
- Set Commission Rates on Member Plans (see part 6 -P and Q)
- Set a Product in the Shopping Cart so an Affiliate can Earn a Commission
- Pay the Affiliate Members their earned Commission
Last Step - Testing!
Join the affiliate program and take the steps that a real affiliate would take. This allows you to see the whole process and to make sure it is working as you expected.
Testing can include signing up as an affiliate, checking out the affiliate's marketing page and even testing to subscribe as a new member through an affiliate link.
What is the Affiliate URL?
For an affiliate to receive credit for a sale, they would have to send users to your site with their affiliate ID appended to a URL on your site.
This code would be added to the end of the URL on your site (replacing the affiliate's actual affiliate ID with 'affiliatesID')
?affID=affiliatesID
For example, if you wanted to direct an affiliates users to your public portal page, the url would be:
http://www.yoursitename.com/public/main.cfm?affID=affiliateID