Tips & Tricks

Using additional URL parameters (UTM parameters) in links/banners

Quick navigation - Additional parameters for the General affiliate link (#general_link) - Additional parameters in banners' destination URL (#banners) - Additional parameters in dynamic links/deeplinks (#dynamic_links) Occasionally, apart from the Post Affiliate Pro URL tracking parameters (by default a_aid, a_bid, data1, chan, etc.), customers need to track their own additional parameters, mostly Google Analytics UTM parameters. It is enough to simply add all the needed parameters...

How to add tracking code to body from header

In order for your tracking to work you have to insert tracking codes to the HTML body. However, in some cases you cannot edit your site's body and the only way to add custom codes is to do it via header. Here's a little tip on how to do it with our tracking codes. So once again, the purpose of the following HTML header script is to dynamically add a code to HTML body. <script type="text/javascript"> document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { // the custom code goes ...

How to update URL links of images

If the URL address of your installation of Post Affiliate Pro has changed (e.g. the installation has been moved to another domain or directory) and if you are using full URLs in your banner images, campaign logos, application logo, you can update these links by this script: <?php include 'PapApi.class.php'; $session = new Pap_Api_Session('url_to_your_pap_installation/scripts/server.php'); if(!@$session->login('merchant_username', 'merchant_password')) { die("Cannot login. Message: ". $...

How to track affiliate signup form

If you would like to track successful affiliate signup in your Post Affiliate Pro into some 3rd party application (like Google Analytics, etc.) then there are a few ways you can do it. 1. Use the Callback URL option under Configuration > Affiliate signup and under the General tab where you can define the URL address which will be notified about every successful signup. 2. You can do it by customizing the design of the affiliate signup page from your merchant panel where you would navigate...

Overview

In this section we will show some interesting stuff that can be done with Post Affiliate Pro. Most of articles here will be presented as examples or case studies.

Import (update) affiliates from external source using CSV

This article will explain how to import affiliates from a CSV file or how to update existing affiliates. (E.g. you can use it to mass change their details, like address or anything else.) In order to import affiliates you need to have a CSV file with the affiliate data. The file must be in UTF-8 format and ideally you should create it with a non-ritch text editor (e.g. PSPad, Notepad++) and use either a comma or a semicolon as column delimiter. At the very least your file must contain the ...

How to run only one cron task

We would like to describe you a bit about what's new in the cron job system related to your Post affiliate Pro/Network installation. As default .. everything works like before (you can execute all cron job tasks at once and several times by a single click on the execution button) but there is a really cool improvement (latest PAP/PAN versions) which you can use for execute one task only.. For example: You can run a task which is stuck due to some other stuck task and practically cron job look...

Referred affiliate signup is not registered under parent affiliate

In this case we recommend to check what tracking code you have in the signup page source code. Most of older Post affiliate pro releases have/had this one: <script id="pap_x2s6df8d" src="../scripts/trackjs.php (view-source:https://nogluepap.postaffiliatepro.com/scripts/trackjs.php)" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> papTrack(); </script> Problem was that from time to time such code did not register a parent ID (referred affil...

Implementing Google reCAPTCHA to your custom signup page

Introduction Google reCAPTCHA is a security service provided by Google that helps protect websites from automated bots and spam by requiring users to prove they are human before submitting forms or accessing certain features. It is designed to differentiate between genuine users and malicious bots by presenting challenges that are easy for humans to solve but difficult for bots. There are different versions of reCAPTCHA, including reCAPTCHA v2 and reCAPTCHA v3. In reCAPTCHA v2, users are aske...

How to login as an affiliate from the merchant panel

In some cases you might want to log in as one of your affiliates. For example to get a link or banner code for an affiliate, or simply just to have a look at what the affiliate sees in their panel. There is a simple way directly from your merchant panel; even without knowing the affiliate credentials. Go to Affiliates> Affiliate manager, then click the pencil icon next to the affiliate you want to login as. In the upper right corner of the edit affiliate screen, click the ...

How to make affiliates to accept updated terms and conditions

You can force your affiliates to accept Terms & Conditions when they are signing up to your affiliate program by navigating to Configuration > Affiliate Signup > General tab, and checking the checkbox "Force acceptance of T & C". Once it's enabled new affiliates have to agree with your terms & conditions, otherwise they will not be able to finish their registration. But as your Terms & Conditions might change over time, your affiliates may not notice it. If you need to make sure that all ...

Track subID dynamically

This article is outdated. Please review our actual article SubID / Channels tracking (https://support.qualityunit.com/438945-SubID--Channels-tracking) Several customers of ours asked: "How could our affiliates dynamically track their subID or their custom data dynamically when a customer clicks the affiliate's banner?" The answer is this: First of all the merchant (or network owner in case of Post Affiliate Network) must enable in Post Affiliate Pro at Configuration > Tracking setti...

How to put the affiliate program into maintenance (under construction) mode

The solution goes like this: 1) Create an own 'signup page' theme at_ Configuration > Design > Signup page theme_ by clicking "_Edit theme_" on the currently active theme https://support.qualityunit.com/886156-Making-your-own-theme 1.1.) _Disabling the mini-site (information page)_ - in that own theme look up main_static_html_doc.stpl and in that template file find the <body> tag and right under that tag (so into a new line) put this: <h1>Under construction</...

How to pay click commissions only for unique clicks

Post Affiliate Pro (https://postaffiliatepro.com) tracks all clicks on affiliate links and banners. That means if you have "per click" commission defined in your campaign it will be generated for both unique and repeated clicks by default. Since Post Affiliate Pro version 5.4.27.4 we have added option to generate click commission for unique clicks only. It's located directly in click commission settings of your campaign. If you are using older version of Post Affiliate Pro software the...

Date format in templates

If you wanted to change date format for some reason, it is possible to do it within templates. The system has its own format set, but your templates can use a different one. The date variable is {$date}. The output depends on your general settings. To change it you can use this format: {$date|date_format:'%d.%m.%Y'} where %d represents days, %m represents months and %Y represents year. You can read more about the format at Smart webpage: https://www.smarty.net/docsv2/en/language.modifier.da...

Change the default wallpaper of Blue Aero affiliate panel theme

NOTE: Change of the default wallpaper is currently not possible on our hosted accounts (https://www.postaffiliatepro.com/pricing/) First of all you have to create a copy of the original Blue Aero affiliate panel theme, so that your changes do not get overwritten upon upgrade of Post Affiliate Pro. In order to create a copy of the Blue Aero affiliate panel theme navigate in the merchant panel to Configuration > Design > Affiliate panel theme > click "Edit theme" on the Blue Aero them...

How to integrate Post Affiliate Pro with Google Analytics?

Some merchants wish to be able to track statistics in their Google Analytics account regarding affiliate-referred visits. In order to achieve that, the following has to be accomplished: * Use the Google Analytics URL builder (https://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=1033867&topic=1032998&ctx=topic) to generate the URLs that lead to your e-commerce site so that they may be used as a "Destination URL" in the banners (https://www.qualityunit.com/postaffiliatep...

How to re-send data from ASP

I was looking for a solution for a long time and finally I got it. The problem originates in need to resend data from an IPN processing script to another script. This is a main problem when integrating e.g. with PayPal. In PHP this is easy, as you can use cURL code. The problem however is with ASP code. It is not possible to use cURL in ASP as you know, so you cannot use this solution in case your IPN script is ASP. The solution is to use objHttp object in ASP (VB.NET): Dim objHttp: Set obj...

Hide the "Download Our Signup & Login Form" section in the affiliate panel

In the affiliate panel at _Promotion > Advanced tools > Signup subaffiliates_ there is a section called "Download Our Signup & Login Form" If you wish to hide that section then you will have to follow the steps below: 1) in the merchant panel at "Configuration > Design > Affiliate panel theme" click 'Edit them' on the currently active theme (in case a dialog pops up claiming to create a new theme, then read here (https://https://support.qualityunit.com/knowledgebase/post-...

Import/upload custom transaction (update transactions)

You can use this for importing transactions from custom csv file or you can update existing transactions. (E.g. you can update status of existing transactions by transaction Id or by order Id) **Create csv file** For importing transactions you need to create a .csv style sheet which has to be in UTF-8 formating and also you should create it with a non-ritch text editor (e.g. PsPad) and use either a coma or semicolon separator. E.g. it could look like: affiliate id,campaign id, order...

How to add a special sale bonus to special affiliate

Lets say you have a close friend in your affiliate system and you want to pay him special commissions - not based on total cost. You can do this by the sale tracking code and some PHP coding. Or there is another case when you have a gallery shop, where you pay some commissions to the affiliates, but also to authors of the paintings... How to do it Let's say, you have an affiliate Phill, with referral ID of phil007 and affiliate ID of 53s5er28. You want to give him for each sale 5$ + his comm...

Quick launch icons in Blue Aero theme

Did you know this menu supports drag and drop? Affiliates and merchants can modify it easily... Each affiliate will have different menu. All icons in windows are possible to be dragged or added to the menu. So, if you want to have some new icon in quick menu you can do it the following way: 1) Open the desired window and drag the icon found in its top-left corner to the quick launch bar 2) Open the desired window and right-click its top bar and choose "Add to Quick Launch" ...

Invite affiliate to the campaign after signup

Some customers are interested in inviting affiliates into a campaign after signup automatically. Here is the code that was originally posted at our forum: <?php require_once("../api/PapApi.class.php"); //---------------------------------------------- // get form data from signup page $data = (isset($_REQUEST['data']) && !empty($_REQUEST['data']))?$_REQUEST['data']:''; //---------------------------------------------- // create login session for merchant $session = new Pap_Api_Session("https:/...

How to use custom fonts in PostAffiliatePro

A few customers have asked us if they are able to use custom fonts for different segments of Post Affiliate Pro. The answer is - Yes! We recommend using Google Fonts - https://fonts.google.com/ since they are free and easy to use. First of all, let's take a look at how to work with Google Fonts. How to work with Google Fonts: Once you reach the Google Fonts website it allows you to filter fonts by font style, languages, or other properties, but if you have a font family name in mind you can...

Assign limited number or amount of commissions for each affiliate

Sometimes a merchant wants to assign a limited number of commissions for each affiliate, so not to reward the affiliate for each sale he refers. You would need to activate two features: Commission groups (https://support.qualityunit.com/396052-Overview) and Performance rewards. (https://support.qualityunit.com/756351-Performance-rewards-configuration) Let's say, that you would like to give at most 5 commissions in total for each affiliate in the actual month. If more sales are made through t...

How to process IPN using Pearl

You just need to add following code into your IPN processing script: $req->uri("https://yoursite.com/affiliate/plugins/PayPal/paypal.php (https://www.workoutsoft.com/Affiliate/plugins/PayPal/paypal.php)"); $ua->request($req); Here is the full context of the script: #!/usr/bin/perl # read post from PayPal system and add cmd read( STDIN, $query, $ENV{CONTENT_LENGTH} ); $query .= &cmd=_notify-validate; # post back to PayPal system to validate data use LWP::UserAgent; use Property; use...

How to add monthly commission bonus

This scenario will show you a simple script that you can use for assigning special commission bonus to affiliates. Requirements You will need one php file into which you will add the code. If you want to do this automatically, you will need a cron job. Code <?php $array = array('11111111', '41802005', 'd71d2189'); // here you have to add all bonus affiliates IDs or refIDs for ($i = 0; $i < size($array); $i++) { echo '<img src="https://www.yoursite.com/pap_4/scripts/sale.php?Tota...

How to create PayPal non-hosted non-encrypted buttons?

Please note that your PayPal buttons can't be integrated if they are hosted so you have to follow this guide to create non-hosted, non-encrypted buttons which can be integrated. Step 1: Log into your PayPal account and navigate to Merchant Services > Buy Now Buttons Step 2: Fill the required fields with your own product name, currency, price etc. When you're finished, do no click on "Create Button", but instead click on "Step 2: Track inventory, profits & loss (optional)" in order to r...

Register click commission only in case the sale was made

Sometimes you want to pay affiliates per click too. This is quite usual, but unusual is to make sure the click ended with successful sale. If you want such check you need to hack it a little bit... To explain the logic You want to register a click commission only when the customer will also order something. It is not possible to pay real click commission in this scenario, but we will add the "click" commission right in the sale script. The sale tracking script is registering the sale only i...

How to add referral box into site

You might have wondered how to put a box on your site where your visitors can just put a referral ID of an affiliate so the affiliate will be credited even though the visitor did not came to your site via a banner or an affiliate link. Just put this code into any site with clicks tracking code: <form action="" method="GET"> Refer: <input type="text" name="a_aid"/> <input type="submit" value="Apply"/> </form> This assumes that URL parameter "Affiliate ID / referrer...

Use of site replication for rss feed purpose

If you want to offer a data feed - rss feed for your affiliates, you can use the site replication feature for this purpose. How to activate and configure the site replication feature is described here (https://support.qualityunit.com/307164-Overview). After you did all of the steps from the previous guide, you can continue. Your rss feed looks like this (example): The code of the example rss feed: Replicate your rss feed Follow this (https://support.qualityunit.com/452871-R...

Offline promotion materials with Site Replication and Rebrand PDF

Let's imagine that you are selling mountain bikes and your affiliates attend many events where they would like to promote your products. They would like to have some printed material they could give to the potential customers but they want to be sure, that when the customer goes to your shop using the URL on this paper, that they will get a commissions. How to do this? 1. Create a Replicated site (https://support.qualityunit.com/856887-Site-Replication) for your affiliates. This site can show...

Wordpress Plugin For Post Affiliate Pro

Navigate to https://support.qualityunit.com/829758-WordPress-integration-plugin (https://support.qualityunit.com/829758-WordPress-integration-plugin) if you are not automatically redirected there.

How to add a page into the mini-site

This guide applies only to our self-hosted customers. Hosted with us customers cannot create additional files in the software like this since they don't have access to files. **Adding new page to mini-site is as simple as editing existing one. Let's say we want to add new page Our products, than will contain description of the products in your affiliates can promote.** Creating a new page we'll create new file products.php in the /affiliate/affiliates directory. The contents of this file ...

How to add Live Agent button to the application

If you want to add a chat button from your Live Agent to your Post Affiliate Pro merchant panel, affiliate panel or signup panel then you have to follow these few steps (we will show the integration with merchant panel first): 1. Login to your Live Agent and get the button code Go to menu->Buttons and click on the button, which you want to add into your Post Affiliate Pro Copy the button code somewhere. 2. Now login to your Post Affiliate Pro merchant panel. Go to menu->Conf...

How to change the information about affiliate manager

Actually, there are 2 ways to reach the correct place where you can apply the desired changes concerning the Affiliate manager information. Note: If you want to replace affiliate manager info with parent affiliate's info, you can proceed using How to replace affiliate manager info with parent affiliate's info (https://support.qualityunit.com/994054-How-to-replace-affiliate-manager-info-with-parent-affiliates-info) article. 1. So, the first one, in your merchant panel you need to click on t...

How to set up subaffiliate (multitier) commissions

The multitier commissions allows you to pay commissions to parent-affiliates for their sub-affiliate´s sales. For example if affiliate A has the sub-affiliate B and B refers a sale, B will get the standard (1st tier commission) and A will get the 2nd tier commission - for more info about affiliate tree visit this article (https://support.qualityunit.com/803025-How-does-the-affiliate-tree-work-tier-commission). To set up multitier commissions go to Campaigns --> Campaign manager --> Edit y...

How to assign a non-referred customer to a 'default' affiliate

Sometimes the merchants want to make sure, that affiliate does NOT get a commission for referring a customer, if this customer was on merchant's website before. In other words, this guide is useful if you don't want to give commission for unreferred visitors (customers) to other affiliates whose link might be clicked by the unreferred visitor later in the future. You will achieve the desired effect only if "Overwrite cookies" option from Cookies (https://support.qualityunit.com/830633-Cookie-...

How to add newsletter functionality

Though Post Affiliate Pro does not have a newsletter functionality yet, you can add it with few simple steps (and one rather advanced in case you already have running affiliate program with hundreds off affiliates). 1 Adding the newsletter option. First define field Newsletter in Configuration > Affiliate signup > Fields . Remember the data field you've chosen (in this example we use the data10 field). Set it to either mandatory or optional. Then choose type CheckBox. You can choose Li...

How to remove all statistics data

After some testing in your Post Affiliate Pro (PAP) there are a bunch of clicks, impressions and sales. If you want to start from scratch, but do not want to reinstall your PAP, so you do not loose your current settings (banners, campaigns, etc..), you will need to erase all statistics data. Through the merchant panel you can remove sales easily, also removing clicks won't be a problem, but impressions and statistics data can not be removed through the merchant panel. That is possible only by ma...

Different email templates for sale / actions

If you want to have different email per sale / action, you have to use if statements in sale notification mail template: Example: {if $actionName eq 'per Lead'} text for action per Lead {elseif $actionName eq 'per Signup'} text for action per Signup {else} Standard sale text {/if}

How to refer in the affiliate panel to a custom page or how to open an url as a custom URL page?

If you want to have a link in some screen of the affiliate panel which shall open the particular URL (e.g. www.google.com) in the Affiliate panel as if it was a custom URL page (but of course without creating any custom URL page), then you can use the following example: {literal}<a href='#Url-Page;{"url":"https://www.qualityunit.com", "openType":"P"}'>Quality Unit</a>{/literal} In case you have a Custom page (https://support.qualityunit.com/023779-How-to-create-Custom-PageURL...

How to register separate products from sale

If you pay different commission for different products, you will probably need this modified sale tracking script: <script id="pap_x2s6df8d" src="https://URL.postaffiliatepro.com/scripts/trackjs.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> <?php for ($j=0; $j<=$items; $j++){ $pap_final_price[$j] = $order_item_price[$j] * $order_item_quantity[$j]; echo "var sale".$j." = PostAffTracker.createSale();\n". "sale".$j.".setTotalCost('". $pap_final_price...

How to import/export data

You can easily export and import data about affiliates, transactions etc. All data would be stored in the CSV files. If you want to export or import data, go into Tools>Import/Export. Import When you want to import a CSV file, we recommend you to Export the same structure from your Post Affiliate Pro first (if you want to import commissions, then first export commissions from Tools > Import / Export) and edit your file to the right format - according to the Exported csv. We also reco...

How to send customer info to referring affiliate in email template

If you want to send customer information such as name or email address to your affiliate, you can add this info into Post Affiliate Pro's New sale/lead notification email, which is sent after each successful sale (if set so). Please follow this guide: 1.) you need to insert additional line / lines of code into your sale tracking code: sale.setData1('variable_of_customer's email'); sale.setData2('variable_of_customer's first name'); sale.setData3('variable_of_customer's last name'); Ba...