When
you're ready to excellerate sales revenues and gain extensive
exposure for your web site, products, seminars and services,
then you're ready to setup an affiliate program using our
built-in affiliate tracking system!
Simply, mouse over Email &
Marketing, inside your account, then mouse over
Affiliate Program and
a drop down menu of options will appear that looks like
this ...
Within
this drop down menu, you can:
•
Setup your affiliate program ...
• Setup commission rates ...
• Customize the affiliate's login home
page ...
• Run affiliate commission reports ...
• Add marketing media for your affiliates
...
• Search and add affiliates by hand ...
• Run affiliate commission reports ...
• ... and lots more!
The
Affiliate Program section
is one of the most visited areas within your account with
us. This is where you'll see how well your sales force of
affiliates is growing to help you excellerate your sales
revenues and gain extensive exposure online for what you
have to sell. Check
out these topics and their video tutorials to help you better
understand the Affiliate Program
drop down menu of options!
Frequently
Asked Questions about Affiliates & Affiliate Programs
...
An
Affiliate Program is a marketing system that allows you
to track the sales other people make for you. Our system
comes equipped with a built-in Affiliate Program tracking
system. A huge plus to our shopping cart system over all
the rest.
When
an affiliate refers business to you, our system drops
a small cookie on the potential customer's computer. When
that customer makes a purchase, the person who made the
referral receives credit for the sale and a commission
from you for helping to make that sale.
Affiliates
are people or companies who (sign up for your affiliate
program) and sell, refer and promote your products, services,
seminars, tele-seminars and coaching programs to others
for a commission of every sale they make for you. They're
a lot like a "sales person" or "independent
distributor" who wishes to earn a commission when
they successfully sell your products and services to their
list or through other means of advertising.
An
affiliate link is a unique URL our system will generate
for you, which will track all the Internet traffic an
affiliate drives to your web site. When someone clicks
on an affiliate's link, a cookie is dropped on that potential
customer's computer. When that customer purchases product/services
at your web site, our system tracks that customer and
credits the affiliate for the sale. Then, depending on
the commission rates you setup for each product or for
a specific affiliate program, our system tracks and calculates
the affiliate's commissions.
Once
a month, you'll run a commission report inside your
account, to see how much you owe each affiliate for
the previous months worth of sales activity.
When
you find out how much you owe your affiliates, you have
the choice to pay them either by check or by PayPal
or both! Our system tells you exactly how much to pay
them.
Affiliate
marketing allows you to reach more potential customers
without the "up-front" marketing costs typically
associated with traditional marketing, advertising campaigns
and the like. This reminds me, I have a slogan ...
"If
we have to spend money on marketing, then we have
a problem!"
—
Bart Smith, TheMarketingMan.com
Starting
your own Affiliate Program is a powerful marketing tactic
which can help you gain additional sales at a very reasonable
cost. Read on ...
Keep
this in mind ... "You only pay commissions to your
affiliates WHEN they make a sale and never before!"
You only pay for RESULTS! Your affiliates ONLY get paid
when they make sales! So, there really isn't any cost
to starting your own affiliate program except a little
bit of time in the beginning setting up the affiliate
program and then making some announcements to your business
associates and certain affiliate announcement groups that
you have an affiliate program.
Operating
your own Affiliate Program helps to increase the number
of eyeballs and traffic to your web site. And, typically,
an increase in eyeballs and traffic usually leads to an
increase in sales!
Entire Catalog of Products
— You could choose to offer a commission
for any one who sells anything from your entire catalog
of products from your web site. This would be a global
commission assigned to all your products (like a % of
every sale or total order).
Individual Product/Seminar
Promotions — You could also choose
to run individual affiliate campaigns per product and
award specific commissions (you set per product; either
% or $-based) upon the sales of individual products
by your affiliates.
Well,
the first thing you might do is to watch a quick "overview"
tutorial of the Affiliate
Program drop down menu of links which
will describe for you what each link beneath the main
Affiliate Program header has to offer and where you can
go to access certain features and functions of the affiliate
program tracking system within your account inside MyMarketingCart.com.
Once
you're comfortable with the basic layout of our affiliate
program and the tools we provide you, you can proceed
to setup your affiliate program with confidence.
Affiliate
Program "Drop Down Menu" Option Explanations
Menu
Explanations, Video Tutorials & How-To's ...
Simply
click on the link that interests you to learn more about that
topic:
When
you’re ready to set up your affiliate program, log
into your account and mouse over EMAIL & MARKETING;
then AFFILIATES; and click on Affiliate
Setup.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to get an overview
of the Affiliate Setup
section. It will help you understand how to set up your
first affiliate program.
For
each Affiliate Program you create, you can assign products
and media like banners, text ads, and other marketing
tools to help your affiliates promote what you have to
sell. Keep
in mind, you don't have to setup multiple affiliate programs.
The default affiliate program will meet most merchants’
affiliate needs.
Additional
affiliate programs offer greater flexibility and allow
you to set up multiple affiliate programs to accommodate
greater commission needs.
When
you visit the Manage Programs
page, you will see two sections, a menu bar across the
top of the page, and a breakdown of the affiliate programs
you’ve created with their stats.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn about
the Affiliate Programs section. Here is where you will
create your affiliate programs.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to get an overview
of the Manage Media section.
Here is where you add affiliate marketing media such as
banners, text ads, audio ads, and the like to affiliate
programs you create program.
Whenever
you need to look up an affiliate or a group of affiliates,
mouse over EMAIL & MARKETING; then AFFILIATES; and
click on MANAGE AFFILIATES. This is where you’ll
search for affiliates who’ve signed up to join your
affiliate program.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to get an overview
of the Manage Affiliates section. It’s in this section
where you’ll search through all the affiliates who’ve
signed up for your affiliate program.
Whenever
you need to add an affiliate or a number of affiliates
manually, simply mouse over EMAIL & MARKETING; then
AFFILIATES; and click on ADD AN AFFILIATE.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
add an affiliate manually through the Add an Affiliate
section.
To
protect the integrity of your affiliate program, you might
choose to manually approve all new affiliates who sign
up for your affiliate program.
To
do this, simply mouse over Affiliates; then Affiliate
Setup; and click on Approval & Notifications. On this
page, set the option for Affiliate Approval Required to
YES.
In
this video tutorial you will learn about the Pending Affiliates
section and how to approve, decline, or delete those affiliates
waiting to be approved by you to join your affiliate program.
Each
month, on the day you specified as your Pay Day under
AFFILIATES, AFFILIATE SETUP, COMMISSION SETUP, both you
and your affiliates will receive a reminder that it's
payday. You will need to visit the Pay Commissions page
to find out how much you owe your affiliates.
In
this video tutorial you’ll learn about the Pay Commissions
section and how you can run a quick report to see how
much you owe your affiliates.
Each
month, on the day you specified as your Pay Day under
AFFILIATES, AFFILIATE SETUP, COMMISSION SETUP, both you
and your affiliates will receive a reminder that it's
payday. You will need to visit the Pay Commissions page
to find out how much you owe your affiliates.
In
this video tutorial you’ll learn about the Pay Commissions
section and how you can run a quick report to see how
much you owe your affiliates.
6.09
Pay Commissions Job Status (Section Explained)
The
Affiliate Reports page allows you to search through your
affiliate commissions and display different types of reports
based on the information you want.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
generate a number of very useful reports from the Affiliate
Reports page using some powerful search criteria.
If
you have an existing affiliate list outside your account
with us, you can easily import that list in either a tab-delimited
or CSV (comma separated values) format.
We
recommend using Microsoft Excel to create or save your
import files, although any database program should also
be able to save files in either of these two formats.
It
does not matter in which format you save your file. Using
Excel, once the file is created, click File; then Save
As; and choose either tab-delimited or CSV from the File
Type drop-down box.
The
important part of creating your file is ensuring that
you have the correct number of columns in your file, and
that they are in the correct order.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
use the Import Affiliate page to import the names of affiliates
from your computer into our system!
6.11
Import Affiliates (Section Explained)
Setup
Your Affiliate Program (Step-By-Step Tutorial)
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
setup a successful affiliate program to help sell your
products and services. But, for the record, here's what
you need to do to set up your first affiliate program:
Simply
stated, when it comes to setting up your own affiliate
program, here’s the list of the steps you need to
follow: PRINT
THIS LIST
STEP
1
Determine
your Affiliate Commission structure:
o Per product under each product you wish to sell,
or ...
o Overall under the Affiliate Setup area’s
Commission Setup.
STEP
2
Under
Affiliate Setup, setup your affiliate Approval
& Notifications section with the appropriate
entries.
STEP
3
Under
Affiliate Setup - Setup your Signup Page look and
feel.
STEP
4
Under
Affiliate Setup - Setup the look and feel for
the Support Page.
STEP
5
Under
Affiliate Setup – Confirm these Terms Of
Service work for your affiliate program. Make
any adjustments as needed.
STEP
6
Under
Affiliate Setup – Customize the Welcome Page,
or leave this alone.
STEP
7
Under
Manage Programs – If you need more than
one affiliate program setup to promote different products,
then create those here.
STEP
8
Under
Manage Media – Once you determine if you’ll
have one or more affiliate programs for the products
you want to sell, it’s time to add marketing
tools, banners and other media so your affiliates
can promote what you have to sell more effectively!
STEP
9
Create
an affiliate program details web page and an affiliate
training section on your web site. While this is optional,
this really helps to (1) sell your affiliate program,
and (2) train your affiliates to sell more for you.
STEP
10
Place
an Affiliate Signup Link on your web site so your
affiliates can join your affiliate program.
STEP
11
Place
an Affiliate Login Link on your web site so your
affiliates can log into their affiliate accounts to
check their earnings and statistics, pick up marketing
material, and update their personal contact information.
STEP
12
Review
and study how to run reports and pay affiliates under
the Pay Commissions and Reports link areas within
the eCommerce Control Panel.
6.12
First steps to Setup a Successful Affiliate Program
NOTE:
It is wise to have some HTML programming experience and
an FTP program. Speak with your webmaster if you do not
possess these things.
With
our system and our simple Command Script, your links,
ads, and affiliate traffic will all be pointed to your
web sites’ domain name, rather than to ours. Just
watch this video and follow the easy instructions to make
this happen.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to get a quick
overview of the Domain Masking tool (located in the Setup
drop down menu) and how you can use this special function
within MyMarketingCart.com in conjunction with our affiliate
tracking module to personalize your affiliate links so
they link to your web site’s domain name and not
ours!
6.10
Domain Masking Script (Section Explained)
NOTE:
It is wise to have some HTML programming experience and
an FTP program. Speak with your webmaster if you do not
possess these things.
Customize
Your Affiliate Program & Create New Ones
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
setup the Affiliate Commission Settings for your main
or default affiliate program.
This
section is the first page you will see whenever you select
Affiliate Setup. This
page gives you total control to setup the default commission
levels and affiliate cookie settings for the main affiliate
program.
Keep
in mind, while you can setup other affiliate programs,
the settings you specify here will govern them all.
6.13 Customize Your Affiliate Program - Commission
Setup
In
this video tutorial you will learn how to setup and customize
the Approval & Notifications section of your default
affiliate program within your account, using MyMarketingCart.com.
6.14 Customize Your Affiliate Program - Approval
& Notifications
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
customize the Welcome Page. This is the page your affiliates
see when they log into their affiliate accounts.
6.18 Customize Your Affiliate Program - Welcome
Page
Our
system allows you to run multiple affiliate campaigns
simultaneously through one account. In this video tutorial
you’re going to learn how to create and manage different/multiple
affiliate programs under the Manage Programs section.
To
add an additional and separate affiliate program to your
account, simply mouse over EMAIL & MARKETING; then
AFFILIATES; and click MANAGE PROGRAMS. Then, follow the
steps outlined in this video tutorial.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
add an additional affiliate program. This will be separate
from your default affiliate program that is initially
set up for you inside your eCommerce Control Panel.
6.20 Create An Additional Affiliate Program
Manage
Media – Add Marketing Materials To Your Affiliate
Program
Here's
where you can upload all kinds of marketing tools, banners,
buttons, text ads, sound files and flash ads you'd like
your affiliates to have access to when marketing your
web site's products and/or services. The more you help
them, the more sales they'll make for you! Hire a webmaster,
graphic artist or a copywriter to help you create some
of these marketing tools if you need any assistance. Your
affiliates will thank you (with sales) in the end!
In
this video tutorial you will learn how to create an Email
Ad, and assign it to an affiliate program under the Manage
Media section.
To
create an Email Ad to which your affiliates can gain access
inside their affiliate account to use to promote what
you have to sell, simply follow these directions:
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
create a Banner Ad, and assign it to an affiliate program
under the Manage Media section.
To
create a Banner Ad to which your affiliates can gain access
inside their affiliate account to use to promote what
you have to sell, simply follow these directions:
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
create a Banner Ad, and assign it to an affiliate program
under the Manage Media section.
To
create a Banner Ad to which your affiliates can gain access
inside their affiliate account to use to promote what
you have to sell, simply follow these directions:
In
this video tutorial you will learn how to create a Flash
Ad, and assign it to an affiliate program under the Manage
Media section. To create a Flash File Ad to which your
affiliates can gain access inside their affiliate account
to use to promote what you have to sell, simply follow
these directions:
Is
your affiliate program set up to approve affiliates before
they can start marketing for you? If it is, you can see
a list of those affiliates who require your approval before
accepting them into your affiliate program.
Approved
You
have approved this affiliate to be included in your
affiliate program.
Declined
You
have refused this affiliate the right to be included
in your affiliate program.
Pending
This
affiliate is waiting final judgment regarding their
status in your system. You can find these clients
under the Affiliate Approval area.
Suppose
you received an email from an affiliate asking you, for
example, to update their mailing address, PayPal email
address, telephone number or even their last name.
In
this video tutorial, you’re going to learn how to
update an Affiliate’s personal profile inside the
affiliate’s details page within the affiliate program
module using MyMarketingCart.com.
6.29
Update or Make a Change in an Affiliates Account
In
this video tutorial you’ll learn how to resend the
Welcome Email to an affiliate. Suppose an affiliate contacted
you saying they never received their Welcome Email, the
email containing their unique affiliate link and login
information.
Suppose
you’re working inside the Affiliate module inside
the eCommerce Control Panel, and you need to look at the
“inside view” of the Affiliate Support Center.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
log into an affiliate’s personal account within
the affiliate module inside your account with MyMarketingCart.com
using the Quick Login link feature located inside an affiliate’s
personal details page.
Sometime
you might need to terminate an affiliate or delete an
affiliate’s account. Whatever the reason behind
this need, here’s it’s done ... In this video
tutorial you’re going to learn how to terminate
or delete an affiliate from your database of affiliates.
Every
affiliate who signs up to become an affiliate for you
is assigned their own affiliate account.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to get an overview
of what the inside of an Affiliate’s Account looks
like so you know what they have access to when it comes
to promoting your web site; getting links, banners and
other marketing media; how to run sales reports and check
their earnings; how to update their contact information;
find help and log out.
Your
knowing this kind of information will help you manage
your affiliates better because you know and see what they
see when they sign up to become an affiliate for you.
Here's
where you can check out the commissions you owe your affiliates;
which ones are unpaid and which ones have been checked
off as paid. A very important area, indeed.
Commission
Reports via eMail
— Our system is also designed to
automatically eMail you and your affiliates whenever they
make a sale for you. This is a great feature. As, it helps
motivate the affiliates to "sell more" when
they actually see that their efforts are making a difference
in your sales and their earnings!
Then,
when you finally do pay your affiliates on the date you
specified when you set up your affiliate program, the
system will also send them an eMail letting them know
what a great performance they did as a member of your
affiliate team and that you'll be generating payout commissions
as of a certain date and how much they've earned. commission
total has been calculated at $0.00. and that you'll be
sending their payments shortly.
Paying
Your Affiliates — Please note, the
shopping cart system does not issue actual affiliate commission
checks on your behalf. That responsibility is totally
under your control. Luckily, our system was designed to
give you the tools necessary to quickly and easily calculate
your affiliates' monthly commission amounts. Simply print
these reports and begin to pay your affiliates either
by PayPal, by company check or other payment method of
your choice.
Refunds
— Yes, refunds do happen and when
an order is created with an affiliate marked as the referrer
(or when you manually update the commissions for an order),
a new record is created for that commission, showing the
refund amount. When you mark an order as a refund in your
shopping cart account, another commission record is created,
with a "negative" commission amount. This negative
commission will then be marked paid when you do the affiliate
payout; because refunds are often for orders many months
previous, you must not use a date-range search to do a
full commission payout. Specifying dates when generating
a commission report may not be accurate in case of refunds.
In
this video tutorial you’re going to learn how to
export your affiliates and their records inside your online
database of affiliates within your account (using MyMarketingCart.com)
to your computer for backup and record-keeping purposes.
When
it comes time to pay your affiliates, be sure you have
their most recent and up-to-date contact information available
to you (i.e., eMail, mailing address, telephone number,
etc.).
Also,
it would be a good idea to send out an eMail to all your
affiliates 5-10 days prior to each "payday"
to encourage them to login to their affiliate accounts
to confirm and/or update their current contact information
with you. Specifically, ask them to update the following
areas:
Full
Name (First/Last) and/or Company Name —
Be sure you know who your affiliates would like their
commission checks made payable to. You don't want affiliates
sending their checks back to you because they can't cash
them due to the fact that the name on the check is wrong,
or they don't have a company/DBA at a bank to cash a check
written out to a company name or domain name. This happens,
watch out for it.
Mailing
Address — Where do your affiliates want
their checks mailed? Be sure you have their current mailing
address.Having to deal with lost checks
in the mail is more trouble than it's worth. Stay in touch.
Regular
eMail address — Be sure you can always
contact them successfully with news and updates about
your affiliate program and paying commissions via eMail.
You'd be surprised how many people change eMail addresses;
at least twice a year, if not more. People move, change
Internet providers ... Stay in touch!
PayPal
eMail address — So you can pay your affiliates
with PayPal, encourage them to sign up for a PayPal account
(if they don't have one) or confirm/update their account
with a valid/current PayPal eMail address (some have a
PayPal account, they just haven't entered it in their
affiliate account yet). There is a place to do so underneath
the ACCOUNT PROFILE area when your affiliates login to
their account. If
you don't have a PayPal account, and need one, click here.
Phone
Number — That's right, just in case snail
mail or eMail doesn't work and you just have to get a
hold of a certain affiliate ... you want to be able to
call them! So, be sure you encourage your affiliates to
confirm/update a valid, working telephone number or TWO
phone numbers.
SS#/Tax
ID — Keep in mind, some state and federal
laws require you to report income (paid to your affiliates)
by you if the dollar amounts you pay them (individually
speaking) exceeds a certain dollar amount; like $600+.
Ask your accountant or other financial consultant for
information on these types of laws.
As
you can see, managing your affiliate program goes much
deeper than just reading sales reports. Each affiliate
is like a team member, helping you to achieve greater
and greater success. Stay in touch with them, monthly,
weekly, bi-weekly. Either way, they'll thank you for the
communication, updates and paying them on time, every
time!
TOP
OF PAGE 
Entire Catalog of Products
— You could choose to offer a commission
for any one who sells anything from your entire catalog
of products from your web site. This would be a global
commission assigned to all your products (like a % of
every sale or total order).
6.01
Welcome to the Affiliate Program Section!
Commission
Reports via eMail
— Our system is also designed to
automatically eMail you and your affiliates whenever they
make a sale for you. This is a great feature. As, it helps
motivate the affiliates to "sell more" when
they actually see that their efforts are making a difference
in your sales and their earnings! 
