When setting up an affiliate program with a biller (Epoch or CCbill), is it possible to have the link codes set up in a generic fashion so if in the future you want to add cascading billing, you won't need to have affiliates change their links?
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When setting up an affiliate program with a biller (Epoch or CCbill), is it possible to have the link codes set up in a generic fashion so if in the future you want to add cascading billing, you won't need to have affiliates change their links?
The only way you can cascade and the affiliate gets credit, regardless of the biller is if you use something like NATS.
So basically you'd want to set up NATS from the beginning, and then add to the cascade at a later date. Affiliates would join and the linking code would remain the same that way.
Yes, that's the way I understand it too Ren but this is my first foray into the world of affiliate programs and paysites. I don't want to invest in something like NATS right off the bat until the revenue is enough to cover the additional expense.
A while back Ade from MenAtPlay.com announced that they were going from being solely a CCbill sponsor to using NATS. Link. I was livid! I was worried that my hundreds of links to MenAtplay would need to be changed. He assured me that no changes would be necessary. I'm confused... was he incorrect?
I don't know if NATS can take a ccbill link and turn it into a NATS link. I really don't know how that would happen. he'd have to change his ccbill "send affiliate traffic to" with the ccbill system and point it to some kind of conversion script or something. Some page or script would have to pick up the ccbill affiliate ID, let NATS know, and then track it. How NATS would know that ccbill ID XXXXXXX was you, I really don't know, unless they imported their ccbill affiliate info into NATS. Maybe when you create the NATS account, it asks for your ccbill ID.. dunno. If you don't allow the webmaster to view your address in ccbill, how they would be able to import the "pay to" information, again, would be a mystery.
Does that make any sense? It just sounds like a lot of IDs and linking codes that have to be converted, imported, shared and tracked.
One of the people that uses NATS or other affiliate program software would be best to answer that. Sounds like a cluster fuck waiting to happen, but maybe its easier than I think.
I am pretty sure this can be done. I know NATS can take mpa links and forward them because that is what they did for us. I don't see why you couldn't do the same with CCBill.Quote:
Originally Posted by MWCren
Mark
because ccbill links run through ccbill, not through your site.
still, you could make it so all your links were done using a follow me - i think that would work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by IntenseCash.com
I was thinking about this, and my first thought was that there'd be no way to do it... but then I was thinking again... when you click a ccbill affiliate banner, the link is something like http://refer.ccbill.com/affiliate=00000/www.boyfunk.com or some such, which in turn takes you to the Boyfunk tour page set up in the CCBill webmaster admin panel.
I bet the way it works is the sponsor webmaster changes his CCBill admin panel so that instead of the link in the CCBill admin page pointing to the tour, it points to a URL on the NATS installation, which grabs the CCBill affiliate link, and then, in turn, forwards the surfer onto whatever tour is configured for them to see.
It sounds complicated, but in actuality, I bet it isn't that problematic. I know that it was very little work for NATS to import our CCBill affilate list, and all of the CCBill affiliates still have their CCBill IDs associated with their NATS accounts.
Thanks everyone for shedding some light on this. Now if we could just get someone from NATS, CCbill and/or Epoch to elaborate.
NATS are total board whores over at GFY. You might post there.
Jim, please send the NATS guys over here, this is something I am struggling with as well. I am 99% sure it can be done because NATS can use a different tour folder for its affiliates so if you are pumping clicks from the ccbill code to your index page, you can setup NATS clicks to go to a different set of tour pages.
I have been chatting with a techie from clickman and he said their software can do this, its got some interesting features and its a lot cheaper than nats. One thing I think is pretty kewl is that it can integrate ccbill and epoch. You can do this by having all your affiliates signup for both OR only one (say ccbill) and then pay them out yourself for any epoch sales. It could be another option.
cheers,
Luke
Uh uh! I'm not going over there! Lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by boyfunk
Btw, I'm probably not interested in NATS anymore after reading the FAQ. I learned that the sponsor itself is responsible for writing and dispersing checks to affiliates. That's a responsibility that I do not want. I'd rather let the CC processor have that task.
You might want to check out the 3xscripts partner software, i know that has the ability to keep the payouts handled by the processor :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
Regards,
Lee