Affiliates

Volusion provides functions for 3rd parties to register with store owners to become affiliates. These affiliates act as an extended arm of advertisers, advocates, bloggers and grass-roots-style organizations that can help drive traffic to an online store.

Volusion provides tools to track, manage and even reward third party affiliates. Portions of this system are contained within Volusion's Reports pages however the data it manages in terms of affiliates registered with a store is contained and managed within the Affiliates area in the Volusion Administration Page.

Contents

• Getting Started
• Part I - Becoming an Affiliate
• Part II - Affiliate Payouts
• Part III - Paying Affiliates
• Part IV - Affiliate Settings
• Tips and Special Settings
• Summary

Getting Started

This user guide describes how customers can sign up to become affiliates with a Volusion store as well as explain the inner-workings of the affiliate system such as administering affiliate commission rates and payments. As the affiliates system within Volusion also pertains to settings or information within the Reports portion of the Volusion system, it is recommended to review the Affiliate Stats and ROI Tracking chapters of the  manual either before or after completing this chapter.

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Part I - Becoming an Affiliate

An affiliate is a special type of customer within the Volusion store. These are Volusion customers who have requested (and have been approved by the merchant) to enter in a store's affiliate program. Once approved, the customer will have their customer account's access type set to Affiliate and will be given a special URL, linked to their affiliate account ID. This URL can then be placed in any number of online marketing materials. Any visits to the Volusion store, orders and sales from this special URL will be recorded by the Volusion system - allowing merchants to track the effectiveness of their affiliates.

Typically, potential affiliates will contact merchants regarding registration for official affiliate status. Additionally, potential affiliates may be directed to the affiliate registration process from the Volusion store front via the "Become an Affiliate" link located by default in the store front footer. Additionally, merchants may wish to create website text articles or custom category pages to advertise this registration to potential affiliates.

Visitors to a Volusion store that accepts affiliates, can sign up to become a store affiliate by doing the following:

1. Near the bottom of the Volusion storefront, visitors can click on the Become an Affiliate link.
2. The Affiliate Program info page (Affiliate_info.asp) is displayed. Click Continue.

• If the visitor has an account and is logged in, the Affiliate Signup page is displayed. Here they need to enter their website address and a tax ID number (usually either a social security or EIN number), in order to verify the address payments can be made payable to.
• If the visitor has an account but is not logged in, the Login page is displayed. When the visitor logs in, the Affiliate signup page is displayed.
• If the visitor does not have an account with your store, they will have to create one before they can proceed.

3. When they have entered their information and clicked Continue, a notice is displayed to say that their affiliate account will be activated after a 24 hour approval process.

Although the message on the affiliate_thankyou.asp page states that there is a 24 hour approval process, affiliates will be able to log in and view their affiliate stats immediately by clicking on My Account and selecting Visit My Affiliate Page.

 There is not a pending functionality with the affiliate system at this time, only text to advise the customer that their account will be reviewed (and, should you choose, deactivated). See the Editing Affiliate Pages section in Tips and Special Settings below for more information.

Viewing your Affiliates

You can view a list of active affiliates within their Volusion store by doing the following:

1. Log into the Volusion Administration Page and click on Marketing > Affiliates.
2. This will redirect to the Affiliates table view page.
3. All affiliates will be listed here.
4. Note that each affiliate presented here contains the same settings as that affiliate's entry in the Volusion Customers table.
5. Click the ID number of an affiliate to view their account settings in the Volusion Customers database.

Note

Once a customer has been made an affiliate, they can log into their customer account at the Volusion store and can click on the Visit My Affiliate Page link at the bottom of the page. From here, affiliates will have access to reports on the number of click-throughs, sales and commission they have generated in their affiliate account as well as up to 4 sub-affiliates that can be registered under them.

Each affiliate's page will also contain a link to enable them to quickly create HTML banner ads that can be posted on web sites and in emails (these banner ads will contain links back to the Volusion store plus the affiliates ID information for tracking purposes).

Finally, this page will contain the affiliate's link. This link is the URL of the Volusion store accompanied with the affiliate's ID information. Clicking on this link will redirect visitors to the Volusion store and will record all sales and click-throughs under the affiliate's account. Affiliates will want to copy this URL and embed it as a hypertext link on any websites or in any email/online marketing material they have access to.

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Part II - Affiliate Payouts

Clicking on the Affiliate Payouts  dropdown   will reveal a table containing specific affiliate settings for all affiliate active within the Volusion store. Affiliates will be listed here by their affiliate ID number. Information in this table will display the commission level the affiliate is assigned to (there are 5 levels, depending on if the affiliate is a parent or sub-affiliate). The information contained within this table is as follows:

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Part III - Paying Affiliates

Arguably, the most important part of the Volusion Affiliates system is the portion of the software that manages affiliate payments. The primary incentive for affiliates to register with and help direct traffic (and sales) to an online store is the commissioned payments affiliates can receive based on the amount of sales they can generate for the store.

Merchants can pay their affiliates by visiting the Volusion Affiliates page. From the main Affiliates page, simply click the  Pay Affiliates   dropdown to view a list of pending payments.

From within the Pay Affiliates page, merchants will be able to view a list of the following information for each affiliate that is currently owed commission:

To pay commissions to the affiliates listed in this table, define the date up to when commissioned sales will be paid for. Merchants can enter this into the text box near the top of the page and click Go.

This will reload the contents of the PayChecks for Affiliates table, displaying all affiliate commission data based on the date entered by the merchant near the top of the page.

Merchants must then click the Click here to print all checks for the selected period lto complete the payment process.

This will redirect to the Automated Check Printing page - where merchants can actually set up and print the checks they will issue to their affiliates. Here, merchants must complete 2 final steps to finish the payment process.

Step 1

Merchants can generate electronic checks for payable commissions by entering a date for the check, an optional memo, selecting to print 1 or 3 checks per page and finally print the checks by clicking the Print Checks button.

Once checks are printed, click the web browser's back button to return to this page and proceed to step 2.

Step 2

Once all checks have been printed for affiliates, click the button marked, Yes, I've Successfully printed ALL of the checks in order to have the store adjust the balances for the commissions paid. 

Note that once this button has been clicked, all eligible commissions will be marked as paid by the Volusion store. The affiliates processed will be considered paid and not further payment or checks can be processed by the system until the next applicable billing period.

Note that once Step 2 is completed, merchants will not be able to reprint checks. Be sure that all necessary checks are printed before completing Step 2.

Note on Computer Checks

As mentioned above, merchants can use the Volusion Affiliates page to pay affiliate commissions via computer checks. These are actual, printed checks that can be ordered through any major bank or financial institution. These checks then have the affiliate information, including amounts to be paid printed on them using the Affiliate page and a standard, computer printer. These checks can then be issued to affiliates by mail. The funds payable when checks are cashed can come from the merchant's bank account of choice. Please contact a local bank for more information on ordering computer printable checks.

Summary

Once the steps outlined in this portion of the chapter are complete, merchants will be able to complete payment to their affiliates. Do note that printing actual checks for payment to affiliates is an optional process - though Step 2 of the check printing/payment process must always be complete. Merchants must use electronic computer checks for their payment processing if they intend to use these functions within Volusion. Electronic computer checks can be purchased from any local banking institution.

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Part IV - Affiliate Settings

Additionally, merchants can configure the rates that future affiliates who register with their store receive payable commission at. This is within the Affiliate Settings tab in the Affiliates page and can be accessed as follows:

1. Go to Marketing > Affiliates. 
2. Select Affiliate Settings from the View dropdown.
3. Merchants should then be able to view the 7 entries in the "Affiliate System Setup" table.
4. Note that there must be a value set in every field in this table in order for the affiliate system to function.

This table contains the following settings:

Note that the settings contained within this table only affect affiliates when they initially register with the Volusion store. Changes applied to these settings do not update pre-existing affiliates. To modify these settings for pre-existing affiliates, edit the affiliate entry within the Affiliate Payouts tab as described above.

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Tips and Special Settings

Testing Affiliate Links

If you are logged into your store from your local computer and would like to test an affiliate link, be sure to clear the cookies and cache in your browser after you test the ClickID for the affiliate link. If you do not clear the cookies and cache in your browser after testing a link, then all phone orders you make using that same browser will be credited to the affiliate/ClickID that you tested.

Accessing Affiliate Banner Ads

Once an affiliate has their account created, they can access both their personalized tracking URL as well as any banner graphics configured for use within the Affiliates page.

After having logged into their account, at the bottom of the account page, affiliates will find the Visit My Affiliate Page link.

Once affiliates have clicked on this link, they will be able to view their affiliate account stats. Within this page, affiliates can then click on the Generate Banner Ads link within the Advertising Tools section.

This will allow affiliates access to one of several possible banner ads for the Volusion store that they can implement within their own blog, online forum or web site.

Each banner ad contains the affiliate's personalized tracking URL as a hypertext link which can be used to redirect visitors to the store.

Affiliates can simply copy the HTML provided in the banner ad forms on this page and then implement this code in any web page they may have access to.

Note that before affiliates can use the store's banner ads that merchants will need to create or generate the actual graphic content for use with the banner ads and upload them to the Volusion store. Note the following:

Volusion supports up to 3 different types of affiliate banner ads. These banner graphics will need to be contained within the following locations within the Volusion store:

• v/vspfiles/templates/X/images/banners/banner1.gif
• v/vspfiles/templates/X/images/banners/banner2.gif
• v/vspfiles/templates/X/images/banners/banner3.gif

Banner graphics can be created using a variety of imaging software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or other, similar software products.

Once banner images have been created, they can be uploaded to the directory locations listed above, using the Volusion store's built-in FTP account. See the following article for more information on accessing the Volusion store via FTP: Setting Up Volusion FTP

Note that the banner graphics for the affiliate banner system only support the .GIF image file type and are required to be named "banner1.gif", "banner2.gif" and "banner3.gif" as stated above.

Affiliates vs. Sub-Affiliates

As mentioned above, the Volusion Affiliates system can track affiliates and sub-affiliates. A sub affiliate is essentially an affiliate of an affiliate. In fact, sub-affiliates can even have their own sub-affiliates. This hierarchy is broken down into level 1 (primary), level 2, level 3, level 4 and finally level 5 affiliates.

The importance of having a sub affiliates is that it allows merchants the ability to distribute affiliate-based marketing across a wide range of individuals.

Signing up to become a sub-affiliate (an affiliate's affiliate) is equally simple to do with Volusion. A prospective sub-affiliate simply needs to visit the Volusion store by clicking on a pre-existing affiliate link. Once they have been redirected to the Volusion store, the prospective sub-affiliate can sign up to become an affiliate with the Volusion store. Once the affiliate sign up process is complete, the visitor will now be an affiliate of the owner of the affiliate link they used to visit the Volusion store.

Editing Affiliate Pages

The article category "Affiliate System" contains ArticleIDs 8, 9 and 10 which control the text that displays to your customers on relevant affiliate pages. Affiliate_info.asp contains basic information for your customers about how the affiliate program works and what tools the potential affiliate will be provided. The information is not specific to your store and does not include information about the percentage commission or payout dates. You should change this information to make it more specific and instructive for your potential affiliates.

Affiliate_signup.asp is basic text that instructs customers to confirm their information. This article is available to be edited in case you would like to add additional advice to your potential affiliates, but otherwise will not need to be changed.

As you may have noted, the Affiliate_thankyou.asp by default includes a message about an activation period for affiliate accounts. There is not an activation period or a pending notification to the store's administrator regarding affiliate signups. The message in the Affiliate_thankyou.asp article is to allow you as a merchant to opt-out of affiliating with a customer, should you choose. You can update the text in the Affiliate_thankyou.asp article to make the pending or approval period longer or less specific, but it is advised that you maintain some text that legally allows you to reject affiliates if necessary.

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Summary

The Affiliates page within Volusion is a powerful tool that can help merchants extend the reach of their online store by marketing across a broad range of areas through the use of 3rd party affiliates. The Affiliates system allows merchants to track affiliate performance and easily administer the payment of commissions to 3rd party advocates who drive traffic and sales to the online store. Becoming an affiliate is equally simple as this process is tied into the Volusion store's customer registration functions. Prospective affiliates simply need to request to be come one and provided they are approved by the merchant, Volusion takes care of the rest. Additionally, please review the ROI Tracking and Affiliate Stats articles for further information and tips on how to manage affiliates in Volusion.

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