From the AShop administration panel main menu, select Configuration and then click the Affiliate Program option.
Affiliate Text
This text will display on the affiliate sign up page. The most common use for this text is to disclose the terms of the affiliate program and to invite new affiliates to join. HTML and hyperlinks can be included in this text area.
Affiliate Email
The Affiliate email is the address of the affiliate administrator, which can be different from the store administrator email that is set in Shop Parameters. Affiliate sign-up and affiliate sales notices are sent the Affiliate email address.
Multi Tier
Check this box and set the second tier affiliate commission percentage to enable the multi tier commissions.
Maximum Number of Tiers
If you use multiple tiers you can set a maximum number here to make sure you don't end up paying all your profits as commissions to affiliates.
Upgrade Affiliates After
Automatically upgrade your affiliates to a higher commission rate when they have referred a certain number of orders.
Share Leads
Allow your affiliates to download a list of contact information to customers they have referred, which they can use to follow up with customer or even to sell other products to them, if you allow this, which can be a great incentive to join your program.
Default Affiliate Commission
When a new product is added to the catalog, the percentage amount will default to this amount. The commission may be set to a percentage or flat rate amount for each product from within Add Products or Edit Products.
Upgraded Affiliate Commission
A second level of commission rates for affiliates that perform well, which you can reward by giving them a higher commission.
You can select the level of commission an affiliate will receive in their profile: normal or upgraded.
View your affiliate's profiles in the Messaging and Management section of Manage Affiliates
Commission on Wholesale
Check this box to give your affiliates commission on wholesale orders as well as retail orders.
Email Confirmation
Check this box require that your affiliates confirm their email by clicking a confirmation link in an automatic message they receive when they sign up.
Check this box if you want the PayPal field to be required when affiliates sign up. PayPal ID is used within AShop to make payments for commissions earned. There is also a manual method of recording commission payments.
Customer click a link on an affiliate's website or e-newsletter. The link URL goes to the affiliate.php script and includes the affiliate's ID. The affiliate.php script immediately reads the affiliate's ID from the URL and places a cookie on the customer's computer so that, when a sale is made to this customer, the affiliate will be credited a commission for the sale, then redirects to a page of your choosing. It doesn't matter if the customer goes directly to the catalog page. It may be preferable to direct the customer to a different page first, for instance; a product information page or ad copy. The Redirect URL setting is provided for this purpose. To complete the sale, a link to the shopping cart catalog can be provided, or OrderLinks may be used, depending on the type of product and how it is marketed.
Note: For affiliates to receive credit for commissions from click-thru sales, the product catalog must be accessed by navigating to the file affiliate.php and must include the affiliate's ID in the URL.
For instance:
http://www.yourdomain.com/ashop/affiliate.php?id=1.
Hyperlink code, which includes the affiliate ID is automatically generated for affiliates in the Affiliate Support Panel.
AShop places a cookie on the visitor's computer and redirects to the URL that is set within Administration Panel/Configuration/Affiliate Program/Redirect URL (usually http://www.yourdomain.com/ashop/catalogue.php). Once the cookie is set, visitors can leave and return at any time to make a purchase. AShop checks the cookie and credits the referring affiliate.
The catalog can also be accessed by navigating directly to the script catalogue.php (for instance, http://www.yourdomain.com/ashop/catalogue.php) or to the AShop folder, where the index.html file will redirect to catalogue.php, but these links will not credit any affiliate.
Note: The affiliate link can be manipulated to assign another redirect URL. Affiliate referrals can record stats, set a cookie, and redirect to a specific product page for each link.
For example:
http://www.yourdomain.com/ashop/affiliate.php?id=1&redirect=http://www.anydomain.com/product.html
This link will set the cookie, record the click, and redirect to http://www.anydomain.com/productinfo.html
The syntax in Admin Panel > Manage Affiliates > Link Codes for adding such an affiliate link is:
%affiliatelink%&redirect=http://www.anydomain.com/product.html
You could use this to create affiliate links to a product page or any page you want. The product pages could even be on a completely different domain. To complete the order, the productinfo.html page can have a link to the shopping cart catalog, or directly to checkout with an Order-Link.
Affiliate Commission FAQs
Tier-1 commissions are earned when a customer clicks through an affiliate link and then purchases a product that has a tier-1 commission set for it.
The tier-1 commission rate is set as a dollar amount or percentage for each product. You can set a different amount/percentage for two commission levels (not to be confused with tiers). When each affiliate first signs up, he/she receives level 1 commissions.
See: Add Products
Tier-2 commissions are commissions that are earned by an affiliate when somebody who clicked through his/her affiliate link signs up as an affiliate and then refers customers who purchase products.
See: Second Tier Affiliate Commissions
Tier-2 commissions are set as a percentage of orders. There are two levels, just as with tier-1 commissions. Tier-2 commission rates are set in the Configuration > Affiliate Program page.
You can promote the affiliate to level 2 in the profile page for each affiliate.
See: View Edit Affiliate Contact Information
AShop V posts only one-time payments to PayPal. One-time payments through the shopping cart and PayPal IPN method do not initiate recurring billing. Recurring billing setup through PayPal does not affect affiliate commissions in AShop V.
None of the commissions are automatically recurring.
Tier-1 commissions are only earned once when a product with a tier-1 commission is ordered.
Tier-2 commissions are only earned once when a second tier affiliate refers a customer who orders a product.