Difference between revisions of "X-Cart:Affiliate"

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(Viewing partner orders summary)
(Changing commission status)
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If payable commissions are available, in the summary table with partner orders such commissions will be marked as Payable, not Approved. See an example in the picture below.
 
If payable commissions are available, in the summary table with partner orders such commissions will be marked as Payable, not Approved. See an example in the picture below.
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[[Image:x-affiliate_admin_33.gif|640px|center]]
 
[[Image:x-affiliate_admin_33.gif|640px|center]]
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To change the commission status to paid:
 
To change the commission status to paid:
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This will display a message below the list saying the commission can be paid to a particular customer. If the amount of the selected commission is equal to or exceeds the minimum commission payment for the partner's affiliate plan, the amount will be marked in green (the picture on the left); otherwise the amount will be displayed in red (the picture on the right).
 
This will display a message below the list saying the commission can be paid to a particular customer. If the amount of the selected commission is equal to or exceeds the minimum commission payment for the partner's affiliate plan, the amount will be marked in green (the picture on the left); otherwise the amount will be displayed in red (the picture on the right).
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[[Image:x-affiliate_admin_34.gif|640px|center]]
 
[[Image:x-affiliate_admin_34.gif|640px|center]]
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2. Click the '''Update''' button. This will change the status of selected commissions to Paid.
 
2. Click the '''Update''' button. This will change the status of selected commissions to Paid.

Revision as of 14:59, 25 January 2010

Contents

Overview

X-Affiliate enables you to launch a full-featured affiliate program in your store, which can help you advertise your store and the products you sell. When the affiliate program works, your store takes the main advantage of the Internet marketing, which is to distribute information to global audience at comparatively low price: You promote your store not only with the help of your store management team, but also through a network of your affiliates who get commission for the sales they promote. This will certainly make your online business more competitive.

With X-Affiliate you can manage your partners' accounts, calculate and track partner commission, create affiliate banners and links, collect versatile affiliate statistics, build a multi-level marketing system and even take closer control of third-party advertising campaigns in which your online store may take part.

The key X-Affiliate features are:

  • Unlimited number of affiliate partners of different levels.
  • Unlimited number of affiliate plans.
  • Ability to setup product- and category-based commission.
  • Full control of your partners' commission.
  • Control of third-party advertising programs.
  • Adjustable email notification.

How X-Affiliate works

In general, the idea of how the affiliate program built with X-Affiliate should work is as follows: The store administrator creates an affiliate plan and defines the rules on how to calculate commission for the plan, then the administrator creates a number of affiliate banners and allows new affiliates to register. A new affiliate partner gets registered in the affiliate program, subscribes to the affiliate plan and gets access to the special interface where the partner can generate the codes for the affiliate banners created by the store administrator. The partner then includes the banners into third-party resources on the Internet, companion websites, newsletters, forum signatures, bulletin boards, etc. When a new buyer comes to the store through a banner placed by the partner, the partner receives a percentage of the store's earning according to the rules in the affiliate plan which the partner is subscribed to. The commission goes to the partner's account automatically. The administrator then pays the commission to the partner in any preferable manner - X-Cart and X-Affiliate do not interfere with payment process in any way. After the partner commission has been paid off, the administrator should mark it as paid.

Since X-Affiliate is an add-on module, it can be used together with the X-Cart shopping cart only. When the module is installed and activated, it adds a number of new controls to the X-Cart Admin area and a new user interface, Partner area, and introduces a new type of user, Partner.

New controls in the Admin area allow the store administrator to manage all the aspects of the affiliate program. The majority of controls can be accessed through the special menu Affiliates, which is shown in the picture below. Other controls introduced by X-Affiliate are smoothly built into the basic X-Cart controls.

X-affiliate admin 01.gif

Partner area is a special password-protected user interface with the URL like www.example.com/xcart/partner/ where www.example.com/xcart/ is the URL to where X-Cart is installed. The Partner area is used by your affiliates to access different resources, including codes of affiliate banners and links, sales statistics, payment details, etc. To access the Partner area one must be a registered member of your affiliate program. The Partner area is shown in the picture below.

X-affiliate admin 02.gif

Partner is a user who registered to participate in your affiliate program. A partner can log in to the personal account in the Partner area, get assigned to an affiliate plan and earn commission for promoting your products, and even recruit his or her own affiliates and receive a part of their earnings if they promote a sale as well. The number of partners of all levels is unlimited.

System requirements

To be able to successfully install and use X-Affiliate you must have a working copy of X-Cart Gold or X-Cart Pro already installed on your server. Make sure that the version of the module is the same as the version of the installed copy of X-Cart.

Note: If you do not remember the version of the installed copy of X-Cart, find it in the Summary/Environment info section of the X-Cart Admin area (Administration menu -> Summary).

Installing X-Affiliate

Installation

The instructions on how to install the X-Affiliate add-on module are the same both for X-Cart Gold and X-Cart Pro.

To install the module:

1. Obtain a distribution package for the X-Affiliate add-on module by downloading it from the File Area section of your X-Cart Account. The distribution package you need is contained in the archive file xaff-x.y.z.tgz where x, y and z are the version numbers of the module. Make sure the version of the module is the same as the version of the installed copy of X-Cart.

2. Put the distribution package to the X-Cart root directory on your server or hosting account.

  • If you use a Windows-based server, or a UNIX-based server without terminal access:
a) Decompress the archive with the X-Affiliate distribution package to a directory on your system using your favorite compression program (WinZIP or any other archiver with support for TAR files).
b) Use an FTP client to upload all the files contained in the archive (retaining the directory structure) to the X-Cart root directory on your server or your hosting account.
  • If you use a UNIX-based server with terminal access:
a) Use an FTP client to upload the archive with the distribution package to the X-Cart root directory on your server or your hosting account.
b) Decompress the package using the following commands.
tar -xzvf xaff-x.y.z.tgz
Important: Make sure you keep the directory structure while unpacking and uploading the distribution package, otherwise some necessary files can be overwritten!

3. In a web browser, run the installation script http://<YOUR_XCART_DOMAIN>/install-xaom.php replacing the variable <YOUR_XCART_DOMAIN> with the true name of the domain where X-Cart is installed.

4. Enter the Auth code, accept the License Agreement and click the Next button.

Note: The Auth code is a random code that was generated after you installed your copy of X-Cart. If you do not remember the Auth code, find it in the Summary section of the X-Cart Admin area (Administration menu->Summary) before the License info subsection. Another way to know the code is to retrieve the value of the variable $installation_auth_code from the file <xcart_dir>include/install.php .

5. The installation script copies the files and activates the module. Click the Next button to continue the installation.

6. The installation script generates a new system fingerprint. Click the Next button to complete the installation.

7. Use the ADMINISTRATOR AREA link to log in to the Admin area.

Uninstalling X-Affiliate

The instructions on how to uninstall the X-Affiliate add-on module are the same both for X-Cart Gold and X-Cart Pro.

To uninstall the X-Affiliate add-on module:

1. In a web browser, run the installation script http://www.example.com/install-xaom.php replacing "www.example.com" with the true name of the domain where X-Cart is installed.

2. Choose the Uninstall the module option, enter the Auth code, accept the License Agreement and click the Next button.

Note: The Auth code is a random code that was generated after you installed your copy of X-Cart. If you do not remember the Auth code, find it in the Summary section of the X-Cart Admin area (Administration menu->Summary) before the License info subsection. Another way to know the code is to retrieve the value of the variable $installation_auth_code from the file <xcart_dir>include/install.php .

3. After the installation script removes the module files and deactivates the module, click the Next button to complete the uninstallation.

4. At the Uninstallation complete screen, click the Next button to leave the Wizard.

Important: After you have uninstalled X-Affiliate, be sure to remove the module distribution package from your web directory.

Enabling

After you have installed the X-Affiliate add-on module, you need to enable it in the X-Cart Admin area. Otherwise you will not be able to use the module to launch an affiliate system in your store.

To enable the X-Affiliate add-on module:

  1. Log in to the X-Cart Admin area and go to the Modules section (Administration menu -> Modules).
  2. In the list of modules find the entry "Affiliate" and select the corresponding check box.
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Update button to apply the changes.
X-affiliate admin 03.gif

After you have updated the list of active modules, the Configure link will appear next to the module name, meaning that the module is enabled. Use this link to go to the X-Affiliate configuration page and set up the module.

X-affiliate admin 04.gif

Configuring

To configure the module:

1. Log in to the X-Cart Admin area and go to the X-Affiliate settings page.

To reach the configuration page use one of the methods below.

  • Go to the section General settings/Affiliate (Settings menu -> General settings).
  • Go to the list of modules (Administration menu -> Modules) and click on the Configure link that corresponds to the entry "Affiliate".

You will see a box with a number of options and settings for the X-Affiliate module.

X-affiliate admin 05.gif

2. Adjust the module settings.

General Affiliate options

  • Keep partner cookies (days): Use this field to specify the number of days during which partner cookies must be kept on local computers of those visitors who came to your online store through an affiliate banner or link. This ensures that the system will count partner commission even if a referred buyer makes a purchase not on the first visit, but a few days later while the cookies are still kept on the buyer's local computer.
If you do not wish to save partner cookies on a buyer's local computer, leave the value of the field empty or equal to 0.
  • Allow partners to see order totals: Select this check box to allow your affiliate partners to see order totals in the Referred sales section of X-Cart Partner area.
  • Display banners in Admin area as IFRAME: Select this check box to display banners in the Admin area as HTML IFRAME.
  • Ask for partner ID on checkout: Select this check box to enable your customers to enter the ID of an affiliate partner who solicited the sale. Having this option enabled allows your affiliate partners to get a commission if a sale was solicited in an alternative way (e.g., a word of mouth), not a link or banner on a partner's website.
  • Show child affiliate names in partners' affiliate trees: Select the check box if you wish to allow your affiliate partners to see the names of their child affiliates in a personal branch of the store's multi-tier affiliate tree.

Registration

  • Enable partners to register: Select this check box to add the Register button to authorization page of the Partner area and allow everybody to register as affiliate partners. If you leave the check box unselected, your store visitors will not be able to register as affiliate partners, and only the store administrator will be able to create partner accounts.
Note: If you leave the check box unselected and choose to prohibit partners to register, the other registration-related options and controls will be disabled.
  • Moderated partner registration: When the check box is selected, every new partner account will be created with the pending status until the store administrator approves the account.
  • Link to Partner area on Customer area: Select this check box to display a link to the Partner area in the Customer area. It is useful to enable this option if you wish to make your affiliate program available to everybody who visits your store.

Email notifications

  • 'Partner profile is created' notification to profile owner: Select this option to send automatic email notifications to users who have been successfully registered as partners.
  • 'Partner account is approved' notification to partner: Select this option to send automatic email notifications to users whose accounts have been approved by the store administrator. Use this option when only moderated partner registration is enabled.
  • 'Partner account is declined' notification to partner: Select this option to send automatic email notifications to users whose accounts have been declined by the store administrator. Use this option when only moderated partner registration is enabled.

3. Click the Save button to apply the changes.

Improving User Experience

Before you start building an affiliate program with the X-Affiliate module, remember to adjust some of the store settings, which will help you improve the user experience of your existing and prospective partners.

Partner profile

In X-Cart a user profile is a set of personal and business data for administrative use that is collected when a user gets registered in a store. The exact set of details you collect may vary depending on a user type: Customer, Administrator, Provider or Partner. For example, if you sell tangible products you need to collect customers' shipping addresses, but you are unlikely to need this info when it comes to registering affiliate partners. But at the same time you may need to collect some info that is specific to affiliate partners only. For this purpose you need to adjust the set of active and mandatory fields and, if necessary, add new fields to the partner profile/registration form.

To configure the partner profile/registration form:

  1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the section General settings/User Profiles options (Settings menu -> General settings).
  2. In the Partner column of the User Profiles options box select Active (included into the form) and Required (mandatory) fields.
  3. If necessary, use the Add new field subsection to add new fields to the form.
  4. Click the Save button to apply the changes.

Contact form

Similar to user profiles, contact forms are likely to consist of different fields depending on who is intended to submit a form and why. The contact form in the Partner area can be configured to collect only those details that you really need, and, if necessary, you can add new fields.

To configure the contact form in the Partner area:

  1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the section General settings/Contact us form options (Settings menu -> General settings).
  2. In the Partner column of the Contact us form options box select Active (included into the form) and Required (mandatory) fields.
  3. If necessary, use the Add new field subsection to add new fields to the form.
  4. Click the Save button to apply the changes.

Affiliate program description

Remember to place a description of your affiliate program and a message advertising your affiliate program somewhere on your website. For example, you can publish news using the News management section of the X-Cart Admin area and add a detailed description of the program as static content to the Help section of the Customer area. To add the necessary information to the Help section of the Customer area you can either edit the existing information pages "Privacy statement" and "Terms & Conditions" or create new static pages that will include the description.

For instructions on how to edit the text of the user interface and manage static content please refer to the respective sections of the X-Cart user manual.

Email notifications

X-Affiliate can be set up to send email notifications to partners. If necessary, you can customize the default contents of the email messages by editing the respective templates. The table below reveals what templates use certain types of email messages.

Message Type Templates (plain text message) Templates (HTML message)
Partner profile is created
(notification to profile owner)
mail/signin_partner_notif.tpl
mail/mail_header.tpl
mail/profile_data.tpl
mail/signature.tpl
mail/signin_notification_subj.tpl
mail/html/signin_partner_notif.tpl
mail/html/mail_header.tpl
mail/html/profile_data.tpl
mail/html/signature.tpl
Partner account is approved
(notification to partner)
mail/partner_approved.tpl
mail/mail_header.tpl
mail/signature.tpl
mail/partner_approved_subj.tpl
mail/html/partner_approved.tpl
mail/html/mail_header.tpl
mail/html/signature.tpl
Partner account is declined
(notification to partner)
mail/partner_declined.tpl
mail/mail_header.tpl
mail/signature.tpl
mail/partner_declined_subj.tpl
mail/html/partner_declined.tpl
mail/html/mail_header.tpl
mail/html/signature.tpl

Managing Affiliate Partners

When installed and activated, X-Affiliate adds to the store a new type of a user called partner. A partner is a registered user who can participate in an affiliate program in your store and receive a commission for promoting and recommending your products at third-party resources like own websites, ezines, newsletters, forums, etc. Every registered and approved partner has access to a personal password-protected area where the partner can generate affiliate links and banners and see different statistics. Depending on an affiliate plan, which the partner is subscribed to, the partner can be able to recruit own affiliate partners and receive a part of their commissions.

Partner accounts are managed in the same manner as accounts for other user types: you can create, modify, disable/enable and delete partner accounts. As a store administrator you can choose to enable new partners to register themselves, or you can allow for manual partner registering only. To enable partners to register themselves, go to the X-Affiliate configuration page ( General settings/Modules options -> Affiliate) and select the check box Enable partners to register.

To force moderated account registration, select the Moderated partner registration check box at the X-Affiliate configuration page (General settings/Modules options -> Affiliate).

Creating Partner Accounts

To create a partner account:

1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the section Users management (Management menu -> Users).

2. In the section menu, click Create partner profile.

When you click on the link, the system will open a page with a profile details form. Below is an example of such a form. The exact set of fields in the form may vary depending on which fields are set active and mandatory in the partner profile options. For instructions on how to adjust the partner profile form, see the #Improving User Experience section of this manual.

X-affiliate admin 06.gif

3. Complete the form. Fields marked with * (red asterisk) are mandatory and must not be left blank.

4. Click the Save button to apply the changes and create a partner account.

Approving and Declining Partner Applications

If you allow new partners to register themselves and the registration is moderated, you will need to approve or decline new partner accounts manually.

To approve/decline a partner account:

1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the Users Management section (Management menu -> Users).

2. Use the Search for users form to list all affiliate partners in your store.

To list affiliate partners only, click on More search options, select Partner from the Search for user type drop down box and click the Search button. Accounts that are waiting for your review will be marked as (Unapproved).

X-affiliate admin 07.gif

3. Click on the name or username of a partner whose account you want to review. This will open a page with the account profile details.

4. Scroll down to the Approve or decline partner profile box.

X-affiliate admin 08.gif

5. Approve or decline the profile by clicking the Approve or Decline button, respectively.

If you find it necessary, describe the reason why you decline the application. The reason will be automatically sent to the applicant's email address.

Assigning Affiliate Plan to Partner

With X-Affiliate, each affiliate partner can be subscribed to only one affiliate plan at a time. A partner can apply for a particular plan when getting registered with your affiliate program, and the store administrator can then decide which plan to assign. However if partner registration is not moderated in your store, partners get automatically subscribed to the plan that they choose during the registration.

To assign a plan to a partner:

1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the section Users management (Management menu -> Users).

2. Use the Search for users form to list all affiliate partners in your store.

To list affiliate partners only, click on More search options, select Partner from the Search for user type drop-down box and click the Search button.

X-affiliate admin 09.gif

3. From the drop-down box in the Affiliate plan column, select a plan you want to assign to a corresponding partner.

4. Click the Update button to apply the changes.

Managing Affiliate Plans and Commissions

Creating Affiliate Plans

Setting up Plan's Commission

Setting up Plan's Multi-tier Commission

Assigning Affiliate Plan to Partner

Handling Banners

Although your affiliate partners are free to choose how exactly they will recommend your store and products, the common practice is to promote your business via affiliate banners and links, which is known to be one of the most popular and efficient techniques of Internet marketing. If terms of X-Affiliate, an affiliate banner/link is a text, graphical or multi-media unit that can be placed at any website and would lead to a certain page of your store. The banner would also convey the ID of a partner who placed the banner so that X-Affiliate could accurately recognize who of your partners promoted a particular sale, and thus add commission to the partner's account.

X-Affiliate enables you to create affiliate banners and distribute them to your partners, who can then generate banner codes and insert the codes into their web resources, which may include companion websites, newsletters, forum signatures, bulletin boards, etc. Besides, partners are allowed to create certain banners themselves in their password-protected Partner area accounts.

The affiliate banners can be of different types, and one can generally classify them as generic banners and specific banners. Generic banners aim at promoting your online store as a whole. This type of banner can be a text, graphical or multi-media unit that would always lead to the home page of your store (e.g., http://www.example.com/store/home.php). Specific banners aim at promoting certain products and product groups. The supported types of such banners are product banners, category banners and manufacturer banners. To get the best result, we recommend you use generic and specific banners conjointly.

Along with the functionality for creating and distributing banners, X-Affiliates can track banner statistics that you can use to analyze the efficiency of separate banners and banner network on the whole.

This section provides instructions on how to handle affiliate banners of different types. For information about the banner statistics, see the #Banners statistics section of this manual.

Types of generic banners

Generic banners are the affiliate banners that aim at promoting your online store as a whole. Such banners would lead potential buyers to the home page of your store, e.g., http://www.example.com/store/home.php. The available types of generic banners are text banners, graphic banners and media-rich banners.

Text banners

A text banner is a simple text link that can contain only plain text with no formatting or graphics. The picture below shows you a sample text banner.

X-affiliate admin 16.gif

When creating/modifying a text banner you should specify a number of banner attributes that are listed and described below.

  • Banner name: The name of the banner how it will be displayed in the list of banners.
  • Banner size: The fixed width and height of the banner. Must be specified so that your partners could place the banner through an inline frame correctly.
  • Availability: Availability of the banner code to your partners. Select to make the banner available, or leave it unselected to hide the banner.
  • Open in new window: The attribute that specifies where to open the referred page after the banner has been clicked on. Select to open the page in a new window/tab or leave it unselected to open the page in the same window/tab.
  • Text: The text in front of the link that will be displayed instead of the actual link’s destination (Note: No formatting is supported).
X-affiliate admin 17.gif

Graphic banners

A graphic banner is an image linked to the store's home page. The image can also be accompanied with a plain text description. The picture below shows you a sample graphic banner.

X-affiliate admin 18.gif

When creating/modifying a graphic banner you should specify a number of banner attributes that are listed and described below.

  • Banner name: The name of the banner how it will be displayed in the list of banners.
  • Banner size: The fixed width and height of the banner. Must be specified so that your partners could place the banner through an inline frame correctly.
  • Availability: Availability of the banner code to your partners. Select to make the banner available, or leave it unselected to hide the banner.
  • Open in new window: The attribute that specifies where to open the referred page after the banner has been clicked on. Select to open the page in a new window/tab or leave it unselected to open the page in the same window/tab.
  • Text (optional): A text description that will be displayed near the image (Note: No formatting is supported).
  • Alt. tag (optional): An alternate text for an image, if the image cannot be displayed.
  • Text location: The location of the descriptive text (if any) against the image. The possible values are Above, Left, Right, Below.
  • Image: The image for the banner.
X-affiliate admin 19.gif

Media-rich banners

A media rich banner is a banner that can include different combinations of formatted text, graphics of various formats, Flash object, etc. At that, each component of such a banner can be either clickable or not. Due to higher customization capability, media-rich banners tend to have higher views-to-click conversion rate. The picture below shows you a sample media-rich banner.

X-affiliate admin 20.gif

When creating/modifying a media-rich banner you should specify a number of banner attributes that are listed and described below.

  • Banner name: The name of the banner how it will be displayed in the list of banners.
  • Banner size: The fixed width and height of the banner. Must be specified so that your partners could place the banner through an inline frame correctly.
  • Availability: Availability of the banner code to your partners. Select to make the banner available, or leave it unselected to hide the banner.
  • Open in new window: The attribute that specifies where to open the referred page after the banner has been clicked on. Select to open the page in a new window/tab or leave it unselected to open the page in the same window/tab.
  • Body: Media-rich content of the banner that can include standard HTML formatting and components, graphic and flash objects from the built-in media library, and a few internal tags.

The components from the media library can be added either clickable or non-clickable. Clickable components appear in the form of internal tags <#A#> and </#A#> or <#A1#>, <#A2#>, <#A3#>, etc., and non-clickable components appear as internal tags <#1#>, <#2#>, <#3#>, etc. In both cases, the numbers within the tags identify the object from the media library, and the letter A means that the component is a clickable link. Unlike the standard HTML tag <a>, the links within the internal tags <#A#> and <#A1#> would always lead to the main page of your store and will convey the ID of the partner who placed the banner. Thus, if you need to place a text link in the banner, simply put the text between the start and end tags <#A#> and </#A#>.

In the example below, line 3 contains an internal tag <#1#> that means a non-clickable media object with the ID number 1. Line 7 contains internal tags #A#> and </#A#>, which means that the text between the two tags is a clickable link leading to your store's home page.

1 <table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=0 border=0>
2 <tr>
3 <td align=center><#1#></td>
4 </tr>
5 <tr>
6 <td align=center>
7 <div style="color:DarkBlue;">Click <#A#>here</#A#> to visit X-Cart website now!</div>
8 </td>
9 </tr>
10 </table>
  • Media library: The media object repository. Objects are added to the library through a special interface below the banner attributes.
X-affiliate admin 21.gif

Creating generic banners

Store administrator can create generic banners through a special interface of the Admin area. After a banner has been created, partners can generate the code for the banner in their personal password-protected accounts of the Partner area.

To create a generic banner:

1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the Banners section (Affiliate menu -> Banners).

2. In the section menu, click on the link corresponding to the banner type.

  • Click on Add Text link to create a plain text banner.
  • Click on Add Graphic banner to create a graphic banner.
  • Click on Add Media rich banner to create a media-rich banner.
This will open a Modify banner form with banner attributes that differ depending on the banner type.

3. Complete the form. The meaning and purpose of fields in a particular form is described under the #Types of generic banners heading earlier in this section.

4. Click the Save banner button.

After a banner has been successfully created, you will be able to see it in the list of existing banners (both generic and specific).

Types of specific banners

Specific banners are the affiliate banners that aim at promoting certain products or groups of products. Such banners would lead potential buyers to specific pages of your store directly. The available types of specific banners are product banners, category banners and manufacturer banners.

Product banner

A product banner is a banner that would lead directly to a product page, e.g., http://www.example.com/store/product.php?productid=176&cat=112&page=1. The store administrator creates a model product banner, and affiliate partners can then generate the code of a banner for a particular product in a special section of the Partner area. The picture below shows you a sample product banner.

X-affiliate admin 22.gif

When creating/modifying a product banner you should specify a number of banner attributes that are listed and described below.

  • Banner name: The name of the banner how it will be displayed in the list of banners.
  • Banner size: The fixed width and height of the banner. Must be specified so that your partners could place the banner through an inline frame correctly.
  • Availability: Availability of the banner code to your partners. Select to make the banner available, or leave it unselected to hide the banner.
  • Open in new window: The attribute that specifies where to open the referred page after the banner has been clicked on. Select to open the page in a new window/tab or leave it unselected to open the page in the same window/tab.
  • Picture: Having a product image on the banner. Select to display the image on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without an image.
  • Full name: Having a product name on the banner. Select to display the product name on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without a product name.
  • Description: Having a product description on the banner. Select to display the product description on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without a product description.
  • Add to cart: Having the add-to-cart button on the banner. Select to display the add-to-cart button on the banner and enable referred visitors to order the product in one click, or leave it unselected to create the banner without an add-to-cart button.
X-affiliate admin 23.gif

Category banner

A category banner is a banner that would lead directly to a category page, e.g., http://www.example.com/store/home.php?cat=3. The store administrator creates a model category banner, and affiliate partners can then generate the code of a banner for a particular category in a special section of the Partner area. The picture below shows you a sample category banner.

X-affiliate admin 24.gif

When creating/modifying a product banner you should specify a number of banner attributes that are listed and described below.

  • Banner name: The name of the banner how it will be displayed in the list of banners.
  • Banner size: The fixed width and height of the banner. Must be specified so that your partners could place the banner through an inline frame correctly.
  • Availability: Availability of the banner code to your partners. Select to make the banner available, or leave it unselected to hide the banner.
  • Open in new window: The attribute that specifies where to open the referred page after the banner has been clicked on. Select to open the page in a new window/tab or leave it unselected to open the page in the same window/tab.
  • Picture: Having a category icon on the banner. Select to display the icon on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without an icon.
  • Full name: Having a category name on the banner. Select to display the category name on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without a category name.
  • Description: Having a category description on the banner. Select to display the category description on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without a category description.
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Manufacturer banner

A manufacturer banner is a banner that would lead directly to a manufacturer page,e.g., http://www.example.com/store/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=1. The store administrator creates a model manufacturer banner, and affiliate partners can then generate the code of a banner for a particular manufacturer in a special section of the Partner area. The picture below shows you a sample manufacturer banner.

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When creating/modifying a product banner you should specify a number of banner attributes that are listed and described below.

  • Banner name: The name of the banner how it will be displayed in the list of banners.
  • Banner size: The fixed width and height of the banner. Must be specified so that your partners could place the banner through an inline frame correctly.
  • Availability: Availability of the banner code to your partners. Select to make the banner available, or leave it unselected to hide the banner.
  • Open in new window: The attribute that specifies where to open the referred page after the banner has been clicked on. Select to open the page in a new window/tab or leave it unselected to open the page in the same window/tab.
  • Picture: Having a manufacturer icon on the banner. Select to display the icon on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without an icon.
  • Full name: Having a manufacturer name on the banner. Select to display the manufacturer name on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without a manufacturer name.
  • Description: Having a manufacturer description on the banner. Select to display the manufacturer description on the banner, or leave it unselected to create the banner without a manufacturer description.
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Creating specific banners

1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the Banners section (Affiliate menu -> Banners).

2. In the section menu, click on the link corresponding to the banner type.

  • Click on Add Product banner to create a product banner.
  • Click on Add Category banner to create a category banner.
  • Click on Add Manufacturer banner to create a manufacturer banner.

This will open a Modify banner form with banner attributes that differ depending on the banner type.

3. Complete the form. The meaning and purpose of fields in a particular form is described under the #Types of specific banners heading earlier in this section.

4. Click the Save banner button.

After a banner has been successfully created, you will be able to see it in the list of existing banners (both generic and specific).

Tracking Advertising Campaigns

Along with building your own affiliate program, you can use X-Affiliate to track third-party online advertising campaigns in which your store may participate. Examples of such campaigns may include different types of contextual advertising, doorway pages, link exchange, email marketing, etc. Tracking your advertising campaigns with X-Affiliate can help you estimate the efficiency of these campaigns for your business, promote your store more effectively and plan your further advertising policy.

The general idea here is that you advertise your store at third-party web resources and let X-Affiliate know how to detect the new customer who comes from a particular resource. Then the module estimates your return according to your expenses for the particular campaign and the sales statistics. The expenses can be calculated on the cost-per-visit basis or cost-per-campaign basis, or both. The exact rule is set up by the store administrator when creating a campaign.

This scheme presumes that you detected a referred customer correctly. Currently X-Affiliate supports three possible ways to detect a customer coming from an advertising campaign: 1) through a special GET parameter included into the referrer URL; 2) when the customer comes from a particular domain; and 3) through a landing page.

Tracking through a GET parameter

To put it simple, a GET parameter is data sent in a URL after the questions mark. For example, in the URL http://www.example.com/ad_camp.php?partner_id=xcart the GET parameter is partner_id=xcart. To be able to track an advertising campaign through a GET parameter, you need to specify the expectable GET parameter(s) in a special field of the tracker creation form. After that, when the GET parameter in a referrer URL coincides with the GET parameter specified in the tracker, X-Affiliate will consider the referred customer as coming from a particular advertising campaign. Thus it is important to specify the expected GET parameter(s) accurately: since the data sent in a GET parameter is always a combination of a variable name and a value with fixed syntax, names and values must be entered in the following format.

variable_name=variable_value

or

variable1_name=variable1_value&variable2_name=variable2_value

Tracking through an HTTP referrer

In this method the referring web resource is detected through the server variable HTTP_REFERER that tells the system the address from which the visitor was referred to the store. The value of the parameter must be specified in a special field of the tracker creation form. After that, when the detected HTTP referrer coincides with the URL or the domain specified in the tracker, X-Affiliate will consider the referred customer as coming from a particular advertising campaign.

X-Affiliate supports two types of HTTP referrers: an exact URL and a domain name. When the expected referrer is specified as a URL (e.g., http://www.example.com/news.html), the visit will be taken into account if the customer comes from that particular URL only. When the expected referred is specified as a domain (e.g., example.com), the visit will be taken into account if the customer comes from any URL that contains that domain.

Tracking through a landing page

A landing page means a special page outside your online store which URL is used by X-Affiliate to track customers coming from a particular advertising campaign. In some degree, this method is similar to tracking through the value of the HTTP_REFERER variable. The distinction is that when you use the landing page method, the visit can be taken into account even if the customer didn't visit your store or other resources: The landing page would contain a null image linked to your store. Every time someone visits the landing page, the page will address a certain URL at your store asking to provide the image.

Technically, the null image is the standard HTML tag <img> inserted into the page. The tag must contain the src attribute (the image location) which value is a URL at your store. For example, if your store is installed to http://www.example.com/store/, a sample tag would look like in the example below. Here, the variable campaignid conveys the ID of a particular advertising campaign, which allows the system to accurately single out the campaign and count up a visit.

<img src="http://www.example.com/store/adv_counter.php?campaignid=1" border=0' width="1" height="1">

The tag is generated automatically after you have created a tracker of the Landing page with null image type. In fact, to start tracking a campaign through a landing page you need only to copy the tag and paste it into the code of the respective landing page.

Using the landing page method is reasonable when:

  1. Referred visitors are not supposed to visit your store at all.
  2. One advertising campaign is supported by several independent referrers, but you need to count visitors coming from that referrers as participants of the single advertising campaign.
  3. You run several online stores that share a single advertising campaign.

Creating advertising campaign trackers

To create a tracker:

1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the Advertising campaigns management section (Affiliate menu -> Advertising campaigns). You will see the Add advertising campaigns box with the form for creating a tracker.

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2. Complete the form according to the selected type of campaign tracker. The difference between the trackers is described under the #Tracking Advertising Campaign heading earlier in this section. 3. Click the Add button.

After the campaign has been successfully created, it will be added to the list of available campaigns located at the top of the Advertising campaigns management section.

Collecting and analyzing advertising campaign statistics

For instructions on how to use advertising campaign statistics, see the #Advertising Campaigns Statistics section further in this manual.

Controlling Commission Payments

Managing Partner Accounts

Viewing partner commissions summary

An overview of partners' commission payments is available in the Partner accounts section of the Admin area (Affiliates menu -> Partner Accounts). The section contains a box with a summary table, which tells you how much commission was paid to a particular partner and the amount of partners' approved and pending commission. Besides, from the table you can learn if any of your partners have earned more than the minimum commission payment for their affiliate plan and can get paid already. The picture below shows you an example of such a table.

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The Partner column contains the names of your affiliates. The columns under the merged column Partner commissions show the amount of paid, approved and pending commissions per partner, and the minimum commission payment for the plan to which a particular partner is subscribed. The Payable column indicates if a particular account can be paid off already.

In the example, Anthony Jones and James Brown are ready to get paid as the amount of their approved commissions ($15.98 and $15.33, respectively) is more than the minimum commission payment for their affiliate plan ($10.00).

Note: An account gets marked as payable if only the value in the column Approved becomes equal to or exceeds the value in the column Minimum limit. If there are no payable partner accounts, the respective column will be missing from the table.

Changing commission status

With X-Affiliate, partner commissions can have three statuses: pending, approved and paid. All new commissions are added to partner accounts with the pending status, which is changed to approved automatically as soon as the order gets processed. Then the store administrator can manually change the commission status to paid if the commission amount is equal to or exceeds the minimum commission payment for the partner's affiliate plan.

To mark approved commission as paid:

  1. In the Payable column, select the check boxes for the accounts your wish to mark as paid.
  2. Click the Paid button below the list of partners.

After you have marked all payable accounts as paid, the Payable column will be missing from the table, and the table will look like in the picture below.

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Exporting partner commission details

For accounting purposes you may need to export the information about your partners' commissions. With X-Affiliate you can export this information in the CSV (Comma Separated Value) format.

To export partner commission data:

  1. In the CSV delimiter drop-down menu select a delimiter.
  2. Click the Export button.

This will open a dialog box asking to either save or open the .csv file on your local computer. Choose to perform the required operation.

Managing Partner Orders

X-Affiliate can provide a detailed overview of partner orders. You can choose to display order statistics for all registered partners or per partner, by order and commission status. Besides, you can export the selected statistics in the CSV format and change the status from approved to paid.

Viewing partner orders summary

To view partner orders:

1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the Partner orders section (Affiliates menu -> Partner Orders). You will see the search form.


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2. Complete the search form. The fields in the form stand for the following:

  • Date from and Date through: The period for which you want to display the data.
  • Order id: The ID number of the order. Should be filled out if you are searching for a particular order.
  • Partner: The name of the partner whose orders you want to display. Select All to display orders recommended by all the partners.
  • Order status: Select an order status to display orders with a particular status only, or select All to display all orders regardless of their statuses.
  • Payment status: Select a commission status to display orders with a particular commission status only. The possible values are: pending, approved and paid. Or select All to display all orders regardless of their commission status.

3. Click the Search button. This will display a summary table like in the picture below.


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This sample table shows the statistics for partner Eric Johnson whose name and affiliate ID are in the Partner column. The columns under the merged column Order contain the order ID and the date when the order was placed. The Total column contains the order total. The Commission column shows the calculated partner commission for the particular order. The Owner column shows who solicited the order: Affiliate means the sale was promoted by the partner; Child (partner_id) means the sale was promoted by one of the partner's affiliates. The columns under the merged column Status contain the order status and the commission status.

Changing commission status

With X-Affiliate, partner commissions can have three statuses: pending, approved and paid. All new commissions are added to partner accounts with the pending status, which is changed to approved automatically as soon as the order gets processed. If the commission amount is equal to or exceeds the minimum commission payment for the partner's affiliate plan, the store administrator can then manually change the order status to paid.

If payable commissions are available, in the summary table with partner orders such commissions will be marked as Payable, not Approved. See an example in the picture below.


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To change the commission status to paid:

1. Select the check boxes corresponding to the marks Payable.

This will display a message below the list saying the commission can be paid to a particular customer. If the amount of the selected commission is equal to or exceeds the minimum commission payment for the partner's affiliate plan, the amount will be marked in green (the picture on the left); otherwise the amount will be displayed in red (the picture on the right).


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2. Click the Update button. This will change the status of selected commissions to Paid.

Exporting information about orders placed through partners

For accounting purposes you may need to export the partner orders. With X-Affiliate you can export this information in the CSV (Comma Separated Value) format.

To export partner orders:

1. Log in to the Admin area and go to the Partner orders section (Affiliates menu -> Partner Orders). You will see the search form.

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2. Complete the search form. The fields in the form stand for the following:

  • Date from and Date through: The period for which you want to display the data.
  • Order id: The ID number of the order. Should be filled out if you are searching for a particular order.
  • Partner: The name of the partner whose orders you want to display. Select All to display orders recommended by all the partners.
  • Order status: Select an order status to display orders with a particular status only, or select All to display all orders regardless of their statuses.
  • Payment status: Select a commission status to display orders with a particular commission status only. The possible values are: pending, approved and paid. Or select All to display all orders regardless of their commission status.

3. Click the Export button. This will open a dialog box asking to either save or open the .csv file on your local computer. Choose to perform the required operation.

Uploading Payment Info

With X-Affiliate you can not only export information about partner commission, but you can also upload the information about partner payments in the CSV (Comma Separated Values) format. The CSV file must contain 2 columns: order ID and a payment flag for each order. The flag's value can be "Y" or "N". "Y" means the partner received the commission; "N" means the commission has not been paid yet. An example of such a file is below:

163;Y
164;Y
165;N

For orders with the "Y" flag the commission status will be set to Paid, for orders with the N flag the commission status will be set to either Pending or Approved depending on the order status.

To upload payment info:

1. Prepare a *.csv file with the information.

2. Log in to the Admin area and go to the Payment info uploading section (Affiliates menu -> Payment info uploading). You will see the box for uploading payment info.

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3. Use the CSV delimiter drop-down menu to select a delimiter.

4. Use the Browse button to select the necessary file.

5. Click the Upload button.

Affiliate Statistics

Banners Statistics

Referred Sales Statistics

Top Performers Statistics

Multi-tier Affiliates Statistics

Advertising Campaigns Statistics