Q1: Why do I need an affiliate program?

A1: Affiliate programs are one of the best ways to get your website seen.  By linking your business with others, you have the potential to increase the number of customers being directed to your site.  The more traffic you can generate, the greater your potential for sales becomes.

 

Q2: How do the programs work?

A2: Affiliate programs are simple. One party, the “advertiser”, pays another party, the “affiliate”, a specified percent or dollar amount for each sale or lead that the affiliate generates by placing a link to the affiliate’s site.  You can be the advertiser and generate traffic to your site by paying affiliates, or you can generate revenue by sending leads from your site to advertisers. Advertisers can offer any amount, but the higher the payment, the more effort affiliates will make.

 

Q3: What affiliate programs do you support?

A3: Americart currently supports ClickBank, Commission Junction, LinkShare Network, Share a Sale and clickXchange as our recommended commercial affiliate programs.  Set up information for these programs can be found at our affiliate page on the Web Commerce Solutions menu.  Most other available affiliate programs are supported and can be set up for no additional charge.  Simply contact us at support@Americart.com.

 

Q4: Is there a cost to join these programs?

A4: Each of these programs has its own membership fee to join.   Look at each one to determine which would be the best fit for your business.

 

Q5: Does Americart offer its own program?

A5: Americart offers a free affiliate system that works much like the commercial programs.  While this system is not intended to replace them, it may provide an option for your business.  There is no charge for using this program and there is no commission taken.

 

Q6: How does Americart’s affiliate system work?

A6: Subscribers recruit their own affiliates and supply them with a code they designate to identify your business so they can put a link to your site on their site.  Americart sets a 7 day cookie on the shopper and immediately redirects the browser to your site.  If an order is placed within the 7 days, a message is put into the order stating that it is an affiliate sale and what the affiliate code is.  To change the duration of the cookie, add this argument to the string: &d=604800.  The value of the cookie duration is in seconds.  Use the following link:

http://www.cartserver.com/afl.cgi?c=a-1234&u=www.[yoursite].com&a=123abc

The fields in that link are:

c=a-1234   (replace a-1234 with your cart-id)
u=www.[yoursite].com   (shopper redirected to this URL)
a=123abc   (arbitrary affiliate code/name you assign to affiliate)

Note 1: To make a shorter link, leave out the redirect url and the system will send people to the "home url" of record in the cart.

http://www.cartserver.com/afl.cgi?c=a-1234&a=123abc

Note 2: To make a shorter link, just put in the /pathtopage.html and the system will send people to your "home url" with /pathtopage.html appended.

http://www.cartserver.com/afl.cgi?c=a-1234&u=/yourpage.html&a=123abc

 

Q7: How do my affiliates know when they have made a sale?

A7: Format the affiliate field of the click through as follows:

  123abc^them@them.com

An email with the order subtotal will be generated and sent to them. It will still be up to you complete the transaction and forward the commission, but your affiliate will have been notified a sale was made.  All payment arrangements are between you and your affiliate. Americart does not get involved with these arrangements.   Below is an example of the email notification:

http://www.cartserver.com/afl.cgi?c=a-1234&u=www.[yoursite].com&a=123abc^them@them.com

 

Q8: How do I join?

A8: There are no set-ups or agreements that need to be made with Americart.  It is not even necessary to let us know you are using the system.  Simply start issuing click through URLs to your affiliates and the system is ready to go.

 

Q9: What are the reporting features with this system?

A9: This is a basic system that we offer at no extra cost. All transaction reporting is the responsibility of the affiliate.

 

Q10: Where do I need to place the link?

A10: Links can be placed on any page at any location.  Simply change the promotional text or banner graphic to be relevant.

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