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After installing the plugin you can place an affiliate registration widget or form on your site to allows visitors to join your affiliate program. You need to check the option Anyone can register in the General Settings administrative section of your site. If you do not want visitors to join automatically, you can also add affiliates manually.
Existing users may also join your affiliate program. The registration form will show the appropriate options for users who are logged in.
You will need to provide affiliates with their affiliate links to your site. You can do so manually or create an Affiliate Marketing Resources page for your affiliates, where banners and links and their respective codes can be provided to your affiliates when they are logged in. These features are currently part of the Affiliates Pro contributor release. The Affiliates Pro plugin also provides statistics and referral views for your affiliates. Please visit the Affiliates Pro plugin’s page for more information.
The default options should be suitable for many, but there are some options you might want to consider before you really start.
Although the options are documented on each page and are generally intuitive or self-explaining, a quick introduction is useful …
The ‘Affiliates’ menu provides these sections:
Affiliates
Here an overview is provided with summarized statistical data, including your currently operative affiliates, total hits, visits and referrals.
Manage Affiliates
This is where you add, remove and manage your affiliates. For each affiliate, the appropriate affiliate links are shown so that these can be conveniently employed on your affiliates’ sites.
Visits & Referrals
Provides per-day information:
This page shows a summary of unique Visits, Hits and Referrals as well as a Ratio that shows the conversion rate (Referrals/Visits) on a daily basis.
Extended information can be shown, including information about pages or posts that produced referrals as well as their date and time and IP addresses that produced hits.
Data can be conveniently sorted and also filtered by affiliate and time period.
Affiliates & Referrals
Provides per-affiliate information:
For each affiliate, the number of unique Visitors, Hits, Referrals and Ratio (Referrals/Visitor) are shown.
Detailed information about each referral can be expanded as well as for hits.
Data can be conveniently sorted and also filtered by affiliate and time period.
Referrals
This section is where referrals are displayed and maintained, it provides per-referral information:
For each referral, the date and time, corresponding post, the credited affiliate, referral amount and currency are shown along with the referral’s current status.
Each referral’s status can be conveniently set. The status is used to track whether referrals need further attention:
- Accepted – referrals that are approved and pending payment to the affiliate
- Pending – if a referral needs further review or approval before being accepted
- Closed – a referral is closed when payment to the affiliate has been issued
- Rejected – a referral that has not been approved and will not be credited to the affiliate
Additional data and referral descriptions that have been recorded using the plugin’s API can be expanded for each referral.
Data can be conveniently sorted and also filtered by affiliate and time period.
Options
Referral timeout
The referral timeout determines for how long a visit via an affiliate link will produce a referral.
This setting can be adjusted to range from the individual session to a number of days.
Direct referrals
The affiliates plugin can be used to store transaction data even if no affiliate was involved.
This settings determines if ‘direct’ referrals are stored. This are accessible through a ‘Direct’ affiliate who represents the site’s owner or organization.
Robots
Hits from affiliate links that have originated from robots listed here will not be taken into account.
By default there are no entries but you can start with this example:
Yahoo! Slurp
YandexBot
Googlebot
DotBot
discobot
MJ12bot
proximic
Baiduspider
bingbot
Exabot
AMZNKAssocBot
Affiliate ID encoding
Either plain or MD5-encoded affiliate IDs can be used. These are appended to your affiliate’s link.
Permissions
For each role these permissions can be set:
* Access affiliates: to be able to see information accessible through the *Affiliates* menu in WordPress.
* Administer affiliates: to add, remove and manage affiliates.
* Administer options: grants access to make changes on this *Options* page.
Deactivation and data persistence
A convenient option is provided to delete all data that has been stored by the affiliates plugin.
This option is useful if you just need to start clean while you run tests.
Comments
40 responses to “Affiliates – Introduction”
Is it possible to have the following syntax http://www.domain.com/user-id? If so how?
Sorry I did not complete my question. I am trying to get my affiliate page to have the following syntax domain/user-id instead of domain/affiliates/user-id or domain/affiliate100
Hi Chris, the problem with that is potential conflicts with pages sitting at a location that WordPress interprets before the affiliate system recognizes it. But you can have the username instead of the affiliate ID in the affiliate link with Affiliates by Username. It still needs the parameter in the URL though.
Hi, I have affiliates who want both the encoded affiliate code as well as a non-encoded affiliate code. Is this possible?
Hi, both together are not possible.
cheers
HELP!!
I’m using OptimizePress 2.0 and it’s not working. Im even trying to contact support but I see no email or ticket system on this website!
I bought both affiliate pro and affiliate name and nothing.
Can someone help me??
Hi,
please send us dashboard admin access to support at itthinx dot com (please indicate this comment in the email), and we’ll have a look.
cheers
Is there any way of adding fields to the contact form widget without hacking apart the whole thing?
The more I messed the more i started finding little bits of how it works.
Really nice but intimidating for first time user
It’s really meant as a simple lead tracking form that you can expand on and derive your own form from it. Of course you would have to code in the additional fields.
Ok that sounds great, here’s what i want to do, I think I will eventually end up having to buy Affiliate pro cause this is giving me ideas for selling my other products and services, but for now, I have a site http://www.the-colab.com and I have a course bring promoted on one of the pages – http://www.the-colab.com/wordpress-course-cape-town-wp-bootcamp/
I am using a Gravity Form for registrations and will take payments in person or via EFT.
I need to provide some people will affiliate links for this specific page so i can track IP numbers and link to IP numbers of people who register through my gravity form.
I can do that manually for now, but need to be able to give an individual a link to this page – http://www.the-colab.com/wordpress-course-cape-town-wp-bootcamp/
do I add the affiliate link ID thing onto the end of that link?
Can it then provide me with IP numbers for people a specific Affiliate has referred?
Yes – you would add the affiliates parameter to that link, e.g. http://www.the-colab.com/wordpress-course-cape-town-wp-bootcamp/?affiliates=3 and you can see the IPs that visited that link in the Affiliates > Visits & Referrals section by checking the option Expand hits.
Hi. I am a web designer/developer and use wordpress for absolutely everything. Even so I found the plugin very difficult to understand exactly what is what. I am trying to promote a wordpress course, and want to allow those who assist me getting paid students to earn a commission.
I guess the pro version allows one to create links to one specific page on one’s site?
I won’t be processing course payments online though, so need to know if this solution will still help me create manual referal links which I can then track and manually pay my referal partners?
You don’t need the Pro version to create links to a specific page, please have a look at the documentation. Whether it will be suitable for your case or not depends on how you want the referrals recorded. If you just want to track leads you could use the contact form widget that is provided by the plugin.
hi thank you for this program. where do i change the amount of commission I want to give for each referral? i know i saw this when i first downloaded the plug in but now I cant find it anywhere.
thanks!
Hi Caroline, you’re welcome, thanks for using it 🙂
You can find that setting in the integration’s menu item under Affiliates for the light integrations, under Affiliates > Settings for Affiliates Pro.
https://xxxxxxxxxx.com/wp-content/plugins/affiliates-paypal/lib/ipn.php fails to track while
http://xxxxxxxxxxx.com/wp-content/plugins/affiliates-paypal/lib/ipn.php works fine
755 or 777 of the ipn.php fails does not help does I’m guessing it’s a SSL issue
Also even more importantly:
Setting up Affiliates Pro for MD5 fails to track while switch to plain text tracks fine
Duplicate of http://www.itthinx.com/plugins/affiliates/#comment-1741
Please post questions regarding Affiliates Pro for PayPal on its own plugin page.
If someone wants to feature-sell just two products on my site, how do I set it up so they do that? Can you do that at all?
thanks!
You could do that with Affiliates Pro using one of the shops for which it supports coupon codes. That way you define a coupon code that can be applied to a product and assign that coupon code to an affiliate who gets credited when the code is applied. That’s the most convenient solution I see.
Should I promote our own affiliate program or can I use any other affiliate programs such as click bank or anything else with this plugin
It’s for your own affiliate program, it’s not related to any third party programs.
So where does the newly registered affiliate find their affiliate links?
If you are using the free version you can either forward it to your affiliates manually or create a small plugin that renders the affiliate link where needed. If you are using Affiliates Pro, see Setting up a marketing resources page for affiliates.
Kento, just some feedback for you, I have to uninstall Affiliates unfortunately as perfect as what it is for what I want to do only because the connecting components are just not there (login form plugin isn’t working, cannot see where affiliate provides password in registration process in any video and affiliate profile shortcode does not “pick up” affiliate link and display it for the affiliate). I know that there is an absence of connection and automation to cause the administrator to just take the easy way by paying the contributor fee and having the PRO version fix all that, but if you take a look at a much bigger more comprehensive and time consuming plugin like S2Member and their “buy here” options, being able to do everything in the first instance AND THEN buying for additional site licenses, upgrades and additional theme options – ONCE a person has begun making money and is able to easily reinvest into the better options would be a much more viable option for you to offer people.
Making a free plugin that doesn’t join all the dots and connect with itself the way it should to force people into buying is not necessarily the best money making and credibility buying method. I am disappointed that I cannot use it with a view to upgrade to a plan, some optional themes and additional site licenses as I will be making more sites in the future.
If you would like to take a look at what I mean, go here. Thank you anyway for producing a worthwhile product, if I COULD use it. I’ll look at using S2Member in a similar way if I can or maybe some other substitute to do what I need to do and come back to this at a later time. I hope this feedback is constructive and not offensive, I’m just being real about my disappointment. And If I have got this wrong anywhere please let me know. You can write directly to my email address for more discussion on it if needed and if you don’t wish to publish this comment.
Thanks Tonia,
Pro and Enterprise contributions help to provide an excellent service to those who appreciate it. Some people take everything for granted, it’s easy to say thank you for anything you get for free but you must understand that developers invest a lot of time, money and work in providing plugins. Do not expect to get everything for free without contributing anything at all. If the free version does not suit you and you do not want to contribute, that’s ok – no one is forced into contributing here. 🙂
Thanks so much Kento for that. My site is almost ready to go and I’m using Affiliates for a tiered viral referral membership option to add value to peoples lives, raise their quality of life and once it’s all up and running, I look forward to becoming a contributing member of your plugin to add value to your work.
Thankyou for making a free version available and for your help.
Tonia.
Thank you Kento, yes that was the one I was referring to, Im just sitting at that point in creation of it all and didn’t want to use just any redirect plugin in case of incompatibility with your plugin.
If you wouldn’t mind forwarding the info on that I would appreciate it.
Tonia.
Hi Tonia,
You can download the plugin using this link: Itthinx Login Redirect.
It’s a very simple plugin – just to make redirecting after login easy by using a shortcode: [itthinx_login_redirect redirect_url=”http://www.example.com/where-to-go-after-login”/]
I hope this works for you and thanks for giving Affiliates a try 🙂
Kento, where do you or did you get the login redirect when making the Affiliates Profile Page and Login?
If you refer to the login redirect from the videos, it’s a small plugin I wrote because a contributor was looking for a simple solution. I was going to publish it in case someone needs it and can send it to you as well if it suits your needs.
Ok…Cool…but what I am missing is WHO fills it out and what are the dollar values for…ie…it allows for an email etc etc…what is that information for?
Sales leads would fill the form with their contact information: name, email and a message. The amount is what the affiliate would get for submitting a lead. When a lead submits that form and the lead came through an affiliate’s link, the affiliate will get credited according to the amount and you will see that in the Affiliates > Referrals section on the site’s back-end.
I am a visual guy…so sorry to keep at you…but can you paint a picture for me of what we would do with the Affilates Contact widget…I know that a dollar amount for a referral gets recorded…but who is filling this out and why…ie…where are we putting it and how are we explaining its use. I get the Affiliate Link…and what to do with it…but not the Contact.
Lead capturing would be the first use of it. For example in a business where affiliates get paid a fixed amount for leads they funnel to your site, the contact widget would be your lead capturing device and your affiliates would get credited for the leads they provide. If you place the contact widget (or form) where your affiliates can target it more precisely, your funnel gets even narrower, thus allowing you to assign more value to where these leads come from.
I am NOT a programmer…or tech smart…so please try not to laugh. I dont understand your short code section at all…other than the code to actually embed the registration into a page. The rest is a mystery to me. I also dont see, in the standard version, where or how you can track who is responsible for what sales…ie…tracking how much an affiliate is owed. I can see where i can track visits to my site…but i am not going to pay for visits. I suppose your documentation would be more clear to someone better versed in WP or Pluggins generally speaking…but the issues I am raising are important enough for me to humiliate myself publicly for…i hope you can help address them.
Thanks for posting your questions, this is a valuable contribution and will surely help others as well.
The plugin can be integrated with any e-commerce or shopping cart through its API to record sales data and commission amounts. So what you basically need is an integration plugin similar to this example which you can download freely, this of course requires some basic understanding of PHP.
At some point (in the near future) generic integration plugins will be made available for popular e-commerce and shopping cart systems. As of now, I provide customized integrations for contributors.
I welcome comments like yours and do consider them very valuable. Practically all of what is available as Open Source is based on open discussions where people are not afraid to ask and those who answer are glad to respond.
This seems to be a quite useful Plugin! I’m getting started with it but figured out two problems:
1. The MD5-encoding doesn’t take any effect. I expected the links in the “Manage Affiliates” to look differently after switching on that option. But I can’t see any change anywhere.
2. Our Website is SSL-encrypted. The affiliate-parameter seems only to work if it is attached to a link starting with “https”. Otherwise it get’s lost.
Thanks for pointing out the issue with MD5-encoded affiliate links. There was a typo that managed to be overlooked, fixed it and it’s in release 1.0.4.
Regarding your http/https affiliate links, wouldn’t a simple redirect or rewrite suite your needs?
When I first saw the backend I was confused about the fact that 3 items are about “Referrals”.
Maybe renaming two of them would be a good quick fix:
Visits & Referrals > Visits
Affiliates & Referrals > Affiliates
As an even more intuitive option I’d consider merging those statistics pages into only one menu item – so they feel more like filter options than completely separate areas.
Cheers,
Dice
Thanks for the input, actually the reason why Visits & Referrals is called that is because visits and referrals are shown by date along with hits and ratio. So if you were to graph it, the Date column would equal the x-axis and you’d have the other four as y-axes … actually that would be a nice addition 😉
As Affiliates & Referrals is concerned, naming that option just Affiliates would conflict with the option of the same name where affiliates are actually managed.
Combining those into one menu item is not an option, simply because they are different views.