How the WordPress Affiliate Platform Works
Categories: Additional Resources
The WordPress Affiliate Platform works like most other affiliate recruitment, management and tracking program.
- A visitor visits your (the admin who installed the wordpress affiliate platform) blog/site and decides to become an affiliate after viewing the products/services you offer.
- The visitor signs up for an affiliate account
- He can now get affiliate banner/links for your products that he can put on his website to direct traffic to your site.
- A customer visits this affiliate’s website and clicks on an affiliate banner/link (Wordpress affiliate platform tracks this click)
- The customer decides to buy product(s) from your site and pays for it (Wordpress affiliate platform tracks this sale)
- The WordPress Affiliate Platform rewards the affiliate (who directed the traffic) with a commission
The following diagram illustrates the concept of affiliate marketing
July 30th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Hi
Congrats for your plugins, they seem very appealing, and well built!
One question concerning the affiliate plugin. Let’s say someone reaches my site using an affiliate link, let’s call it link A. After this, the same person clicks on another affiliate link – link B, then decides to buy.
Which affiliate will get the purchase? A or B?
Thanks!
July 30th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Hi Ben, Glad to hear you like the wordpress affiliate software. The simple answer is B. The reason is that the cookie gets overwritten. Let me know if that answers your question.
August 3rd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Yes, perfect.
Thanks a lot for your answer Ruhul.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Hi, can this affiliate plugin be used even if there is no product? For instance, I have a clients that wants an affiliate program and pay out with each click through.
August 4th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Hi
wondering if the plugin has support for different revenue shares for each affiliate dependent on diff rev share levels on various products which customers referred by affiliates are using? [assuming the system is not a CPA type system, or flat rev share system]
August 4th, 2009 at 3:35 am
@GG, yeah you can use it for click throughs only as the plugin records each clicks from each affiliates. The only concern is that you are exposed to click frauds so people can do false clicks.
August 4th, 2009 at 3:38 am
@ Gambling SEO, Yeah, you can assign different commission level to different affiliates with the Affiliate software. If you use the WP eStore plugin then you can set product specific commissions for the products too.
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Hello,
Plz plz help me
I want to make plugin same as this WordPress Affiliate Platform so can u guide me how to make this type of plugin,
Here are some features to add to my plugin
Track clicks.
Sales amounts.
Commissions.
Set Commissions levels per product.
Custom header and footers for the back end affiliate center.
Ability to manage affiliates – Set different commission amounts for each affiliate.
Add affiliate accounts manually.
Create and edit links and banners.
Click Throughs screen lets you see all the traffic your affiliates are sending to your site.
The Sales Data screen.
The Manage Payouts menu
Pay out history screen
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:57 pm
@Priyanka, what kind of help are you after?
September 9th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I want to see a complete list of my affiliates registered. Currently I can only see the top 20 registered and I know of several more including my own demo account, that I forgot the password to and need to reset, but cannot find it in the list even if I use the search feature.
RECAP:
Problem 1 – want to see ALL affiliates registered in scroll down page or additional pages
Problem 2 – search feature is not locating additional affiliates registered (even though I know they exist since she made a sale to herself and earned a commission)
Please help at your earliest opportunity. this is a killer plug in and everyone should be using it.
Thank you.
Also much to the same as “Priyanka Says: ” I would like to see Custom Headers for our Affiliates Home page. I got the rest set up it is pretty much a walk thru issue that Priyanka needs to go thru step by step. Priyanka, go to the WP affiliates tab in your wordpress admin and click on each sub-tab and it will work perfectly. really easy.
September 10th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Hi Patrick, You should be able to search for an affiliate by “User ID” or “Name” or “Email address”. Also when you go to the Manage Affiliates page it will display a list of all the affiliates (this page is paginated).
September 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
thanks. thank you for getting me the updates for the wp-affiliate platform and wp-estore.
You are a king.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I was wondering if there was a way to add a 2nd and/or 3rd tier…. I have been playing with it and see nothing.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Hi Krista, at the moment it doesn’t do tier affiliate commission but I am working on adding a 2nd tier affiliate feature to this.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Hi there – purchased the affiliate software but it doesnt seem to be tracking – any ideas what is going wrong and what I can do to resolve it?
Thanks so much
November 6th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Hi Dan, please post a link to your site where you are testing it so I can have a look. Are you using the plugin with WP eStore?
November 6th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Hi there – thanks so much for your quick reply.
No – its not in use with the store (though we did buy both) – we are promoting a product on a seperate sales page on another domain (that is ours) which i have of course uploaded as a banner link in the admin panel.
I signed up as an affiliate to test it and though i’ve used the both the direct link (with my id in) and clicked on the banner I created it several times and it’s not tracking at all..
http://sponsorshipmarketing.biz?ap_id=dcs74
I feel as if I’ve missed a critical step but can’t think of what it is.
Again – thanks so much for your help – I love the plugin – it will be perfect if I can sort this out…
November 7th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Is the page thats acting as your landing page a wordPress page or post? Is the affiliate platform plugin installed on this wordpress install where you have the landing page?
November 8th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Hi Again,
Yes – the landing page is a wordpress page and the affiliate platform plugin is installed and activated on both.
I noticed that it is tracking the clicks now but not where I signed that affiliate up (author source), it is tracking the clicks on the sponsorshipmarketing.biz affiliate back end. Is this the way it should be tracking?
November 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Hi Dan, I am a little confused after your explanation
… lets handle one site at a time. The affiliate software works on a per domain basis. Say for example you have installed it on Site A.. is it tracking the clicks when a referral is made to that site?
November 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
How can I integrate a lead (example with newsletter subscription) with the affiliate plugin ?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
@Andrea, The affiliate software stores the data of a referred sale in the sales database. In your case you can treat this sales database as your leads database as you do not have any actual sales happening.
Basically when someone hits the “Submit” button on a contact form or on a Newsletter subscription form, that is the point of conversion and you can add it to the sales database at that point meaning you have had a conversion.
I can give you a bit of code that you insert in your newsletter subscript form which will get executed when someone hits the submit button and at that point it will check to see if this visitor was referred by anyone, if true, it will record this conversion in the sales database (the commission amount column will show 0 as no sales really took place). you can then see how many conversions you had from whice affiliate in your admin area.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Thanks Admin for your fast reply.
I actually added an hidden field in the form that get the cookie value and send it to the leads database but I’d like to integrate it with your plugin to see wich one of the visits generate leads.
If you can please send me the code and maybe I can explain you better the system I use.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:52 am
@Andrea, sent you the code in your email.
November 16th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Is this software compatible with the Shopp plugin for Wordpress? Can it track sales if I use the Shopp plugin in my website?
Thanks
November 17th, 2009 at 7:15 am
@Entrepenur, not right off the bat but it can be integrated… it depends on what short of post payment options you have. It depends on the post payment processing cause the commission is awarded after a payment is confirmed.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Hi, I’m trying to put together a WP site that will run an affiliate campaign. However, there is no immediate product sale, just an enquiry form. If the user ends up buying, then I need to know which affiliate directed that enquiry so that I can pay commission.
Can this be set up easily using the platform?
December 1st, 2009 at 10:32 am
Hi Leslie, not yet… I am working on adding a “Leads” database table so the leads can be stored here. Once this is done you will be able to follow the “Pay Per Lead” model with this affiliate plugin.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Thanks for your reply.
Do you now when the leads database might be ready?
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:46 am
should be able to add this in this weekend.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
WOW! That’s service!
Thanks
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Sounds like you’ve just about got the feature set that I asked about in post #42 here:
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-affiliate-platform-plugin-simple-affiliate-program-for-wordpress-blogsite-1474#comment-3230
Please add a change log to the Affiliate plug-in documentation site so we can determine what new features are added and when. Thanks!
Leon McKee
December 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Please let us know here when the leads database feature has been added. Thanks!
Leon McKee
December 7th, 2009 at 4:01 am
This looks like a great plugin and I am looking forward to trying it out on my web store running Wordpress. I have never seen anything like it before and I must applaud you for you for your effort! I have given you a mention on my website. Definitely hope to see more development and updates!
Once again kudos for working on a GREAT PRODUCT.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Thanks Nathan
December 8th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Hey webmaster just realised that this plugin is a paid plugin not a free plugin. I made a mistake in my blog post about this wonderful plugin saying that its free, but have since editted it. Sincere apologies and I will be buying this plugin as soon as I set up my web store blog in the next month
December 9th, 2009 at 7:39 am
What security features are included in this software? i.e. to prevent scammers from signing up as affiliates and doing their tricks to get your money.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:39 am
@Naomi, there is no trick affiliates can do to steal money. Commission is only awarded after a sale is made and the payment is verified. So affiliates can try all their tricks but they can only get money after you get money from a sale
December 21st, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Is the leads database now ready?
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 am
I did some investigation and found out that it was going to be a lot more work then I initially thought so I put it on the back burner and completely forgot about it
I will sit down again and see what I can do.
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:19 am
omigosh, yes… please, please do! I’m sure I am not the only one who would snap it up and who has (urgent) need.
December 24th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Can I set bank accounts and local currency for payment? Frankly, credit card or paypal is not widely used for online payment in my country. They prefer to use bank accounts
.
December 24th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Ziddha, You can pay the affiliate payments any way you need to. The only thing is this will have to be done manually (you will have to write a check or transfer the funds) for each affiliate that needs to be paid.
Ivy
January 1st, 2010 at 5:28 am
Can you please give me the code and instructions that triggers the payment to the affiiliate so I can place it into my site. Thankyou
January 1st, 2010 at 6:24 am
Hi Mario, Not sure what you mean by the “code that triggers the payment to the affiliate”… can you please explain what you are trying to do?
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:23 am
Hello,
I see in the settings this text that is said to be seen on the index page of the affiliate center :
Join our affiliate program and start earning money for every sale you send our way! Simply create your account, place your linking code into your website and watch your account balance grow as your visitors become our customers.
How Does it Work?
The process is very simple:
1. Visitor clicks on …….. Etc.
I cannot see this text nowhere. Not when someone wants to know more about the program and clicks on AFFILLIATES nor when I am logged in the affiliate center.
Can you please tell me where this text appears exactly? I would have expected it on the login/signup page.
Thank you!
January 2nd, 2010 at 4:55 am
This is on the index page of the affiliate view. For example on my site it’s at the following URL:
http://tipsandtricks-hq.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/affiliates/
you just have to replace my URL with your site’s URL and you will see this.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Hi Admin,
You mentioned to a user earlier that the software could track submissions on a submit button – will your code edit work with Wordpress Contact Form 7 or any other plugin for example?
Also, just wanted to register my interest for the software to be able to track leads. This is what I need it for. I guess the above edit would work though.
Khalid.
January 5th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Admin,
If using only the affiliate plugin – how does it know when a sale is completed? I plan to use google checkout.
Thanks.
January 6th, 2010 at 6:54 am
@Khalid, yes it should work for any contact form as long as you can put the integration code in properly.
January 6th, 2010 at 6:54 am
@Rob, this URL should answer your question..
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-affiliate/integrating-the-wp-affiliate-software-with-a-3rd-party-plugin-61
January 6th, 2010 at 8:34 am
@Admin, what is the code?
Thanks.
January 7th, 2010 at 7:00 am
@Khalid, I have sent it to your email.
January 13th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Hello Admin,
I have a variation of a newsletter marketing business and my wordpress site serves as a location for subscribers to sign up and modify their subscription. I had originally intended to use wishlist to manage my subscriber base but have found it to be too closed to modification for my needs, especially in regard to affiliate tracking. I’m considering a combination of WP eMember and Affiliate platform for my needs. I have a few questions before I make a decision:
1. Can WP eMember easily hook to an API from my email service provider so that my member database can communicate with their database?
2. I want to use the affiliate platform to track all referrals made by my members. Essentially, every time a member signs up, they would automatically be enrolled in the affiliate program and when they use the on site sharing tools (an invite a friend field that sends a pre-written email) it will track any conversions. I also want to track at least 2 tiers. How difficult a project would an integration of both plugins be for a semi-experienced programmer, or is it even possible to do what I’m trying to?
3? Can the registration be linked to any HTML form? My registration forms currently exists in a jquery colorbox popup.
Thank you in advance for your prompt reply
January 14th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Hi David, I understand that many people like to customize the plugin to their needs so I do not put any restriction on what customization you do with the plugins for your own use.
With that said, its hard for me to tell you how easy or hard it would be to hook to an API without knowing what you are actually going to use. If you have PHP programming experience and you know about their (your email provider) API then I don’t see why you can’t do it.
Number 2 again depends on your implementation. The plugin was developed for a common usecase:
i) a person becomes an affiliate
ii) the affiliate refers other visitors to the main site
iii) a visitor makes a sale or becomes a member
iv) the appropriate affiliate is awarded a commission for the referral
The tools are there but it will require tweaks to achieve what you are looking for.
The affiliate plugin only tracks incoming referrals that lands on any WordPress post or page (It doesn’t track referrals on a standalone HTML page as it’s not part of WordPress)
January 15th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
This sounds fantastic! I have a couple of questions. I use ejunkie and paypal will this work with ejunkie? Thanks!