Setting up the system

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0. Let us setup Post Affiliate Pro for you

Every new hosted with us (monthly) account includes a free setup service (https://www.postaffiliatepro.com/services/integration/) (normally worth $399) and once you sign up for a trial account you should receive an email with a questionnaire which we need answered before we can start. If you should decide to take up on this offer then you don't need to go over all the articles in this section, but you should focus only on articles 5-8 so these 4: * 5. Add banners and promo materials (https...

1. Introduction to the system

Post Affiliate Pro can be divided into these parts: Merchant (admin) panel It is the panel for the merchant (or administrator, affiliate manager). Here you can configure your campaigns, set up commissions, add banners and control everything else. The theme on the picture above is called 'Blue Aero'. It is a theme where the panel looks like a standard application run in the browser. The desktop contains: - Start button to display the menu - Menu that contains all the system functio...

2. Brainstorming

Don't underestimate this step! You should have a plan what you want to achieve with your affiliate program, and how to do it. Questions you should ask: Commissions _How much commissions can you afford to provide? Will they be attractive for the potential affiliates compared to your competition? _ The commissions differ a lot comparing any industry. For general goods the commissions are from 5% to 20%. For electronic goods, such as software, they can be up to 50%. For e-books it is not unusua...

3. Configuring the system

Post Affiliate Pro can run your affiliate program even with the default configuration. However, you should check the configuration and fine tune it for your own needs. You can find the configuration possibilities in your merchant panel under the Configuration menu item. There you'll see icons for areas that can be configured in couple sections. General settings - most important in this section is possibility to enable plugins and activate features you want to have in the system. The ch...

4. Setting up campaigns and commissions

Campaigns are used to specify different types or different levels of commissions. You can manage your campaigns in your merchant panel in Campaigns > Campaigns manager. There you'll see a list of all your campaigns, and you can edit/add/delete them from here. When you create or edit a campaign, you can edit it's details like its name, description, logo in the Edit details tab. The tab Commission settings is where you can specify the desired commissions. Here is a video depicting how...

5. Add banners and promo materials

You should give your affiliates a wide selection of promotional materials so that they can promote your website or products in a way they see fit. All promotional materials can be managed in the merchant panel in Banners -> Banners manager. In Banner Manager you can find few sample banners already created which show you how it is done. You can edit or delete those and you can also create a new ones. Every banner belongs to a particular campaign that it promotes. You can start creating a n...

6. Set up emails functionality

You should set up the emailing functionality, so that the application sends email notifications (https://support.qualityunit.com/342489-Email-notifications) or emails templates (https://support.qualityunit.com/847148-Email-templates) (you want to send) to the affiliates without any problem. All the email-related settings can be set in the merchant panel in the Configuration section. Email functionality includes: Mail Account - defines the method used to send the emails. You can choose either d...

7. Customize your affiliate signup form

You can review the standard signup form, and customize it if you want to. You can edit it in merchant panel > Configuration > Affiliate signup The signup form comes with an information mini-site that contains some information about the affiliate program, etc. You can edit the text next to signup form, choose what fields should be displayed in the form, set what fields are mandatory or voluntary for affiliates, set your terms & conditions, customize design, set signup commissions, etc...

8. Customize your affiliate panel

Affiliate panel is a place where your affiliates get all the information which helps them to promote your products. It should include training materials, information about campaigns, list of banners and other features. With Post Affiliate Pro, you have a high level of flexibility for the affiliate panel. You can change both its design and content. This includes menu items, what content you want to have there, and even write your own content or link to some external pages. Here is how you can...

9. Integrate the affiliate software with your website

Integration is a way to connect the affiliate system to your current website, shopping cart or payment gateway in a way that the affiliate system will be notified about referrals and purchases. When being notified, the affiliate system registers the click, sale, lead or any other web action, finds the affiliate who referred the particular click/sale/lead/action and creates appropriate commission for referring affiliate. This is one of the most important steps of your setting up and you really ...

10. Test everything

When you have created your campaigns, defined correct commissions, created some banners/links and integrated your website, you should test the system. Before you begin with testing please enable event logging for Sales in your merchant panel Configuration > Event logging if it is not yet enabled. Just check the checkbox near 'Sales' and hit Save. The best approach is to simulate the whole process from affiliate’s and your point of view: 1. Sign up as some testing affiliate – after approval...

11. Promote your affiliate program

After you have successfully tested the integration of your affiliate system with your website, everything is ready to start promoting your new affiliate program so that you'll attract new affiliates to join it. You should link to your affiliate program information from your own website. Name the link like Affiliate program, Webmasters make money, Affiliates etc. This will attract the visitors of your site and can convert them to your affiliates. More tips can be found in our 4 part blog po...
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