How to check if affiliate codes are working?

[attis]

I was wondering how do you check if the affiliate codes for the sites you promote are actually working. I'm promoting a few sites for quite some time now and I've actually never made a sale with them.

I've checked the codes and the sites belong definitely to the right niche I'm promoting. They are also not crappy sites, so they should convert at least a little bit. But no, nothing at all. I've also checked the hits they get on my sites and they are in good middle position comparing to other sites.

So I was thinking about buying a test membership to see if my codes are working properly. Do you think that's a good idea or are there other ways to check if everything works like it's supposed to be?

Also, if I found out there is something wrong. What kind of action would you suggest? Just dropping the site? Trying to talk to them? Reporting them to their payment processor?

[DEVELISH]

you could - if possible - set up some promoting campain and use it to click the link once, then check if your click shows up in your stats...

I usually buy a trial membership after setting up a long term partner and than have him cancel it about 5 minutes later, or I just spend that euro, dollar or so

[HunkyLuke]

you could - if possible - set up some promoting campain and use it to click the link once, then check if your click shows up in your stats...

This is the best and prolly only way to do this, or ask friends to click and then check stats to ensure the click is being recorded.

I usually buy a trial membership after setting up a long term partner and than have him cancel it about 5 minutes later, or I just spend that euro, dollar or so

buying memberships under your own linking code is against most site terms, we ban affiliates for this.

[DEVELISH]

The programs I work with have absolutely no issues with testing the signups "in real life" cuz usually they do not withdraw the money until at least later that day or for another 2 or 3 days. I guess they just like to send a bulk of debit datas to the banks rather than sprinkle them around.

But everybody does it a little different and our sponsors here in the EU usually have their own billing system in the backend and not use a third party biller.

[Fortuna]

The first stage I would advise is if you don’t have access to a reporting tool that registers clicks with the affiliate contact the affiliate network and ask them how you can check if the links are working, or if they can give you more info. If they can’t change to a different affiliate program.

It’s always a good idea to use multiple affiliates so you can compare stats between programs as some just don’t perform (or skim commissions).

[attis]

Thanks guys. I'm going to follow your advice and check it by creating a separate promoting campaign. Once it's done it can be a nice tool for future use as well.

buying memberships under your own linking code is against most site terms, we ban affiliates for this.

Didn't know that this is against site terms. I've actually never read it, but even if it is I'd thinks that's kinda odd. I mean why would a program ban affialiates for buying one test membership if everything is alright with them? In general I'd say that business partners should trust each other, but if there is any doubt there should be some ways to check if your concerns are wrong.

Also when reviewing sites it's sometimes necessary to buy a membership because some sites don't give free access and also sometimes I don't want free access to have a look around. Of course I could buy I a membership without using the linking code, or the code of some fellow affiliate, but again.. if there's nothing to hide, why bother?

[hotdudesnude]

There really isn't a way to know for sure, you can look at stats all day long and see that you got hits, even if you get a sale, you could still be getting skimmed.

Just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Five years ago I signed up for a site that I really liked through my link (wasn't against their terms at the time) and stayed with them ....got paid 50percent at signup, got paid rebill number one, got paid rebill number two, but did not get paid for rebill number three....so I cancelled my membership and stopped promoting them.

I also promoted a site I'll call ABCX.
I used to make a sale with site ABCX 1 to 3 times a week EVERY week.
Site ABCX added a few new tools to their affiliate program and for some reason I never got a sale with them again (not even the rebills), even though I was getting about the same number of hits to their link.
In their terms I can't do a test signup, so I deleted all my links to site ABCX.

[Lee]

The easiest way to check is to signup using your own affiliate ID and then tell the program owner that you did so, 99.99% of programs on the straight side of the industry will let you do this so long as you tell them that you made a test transaction to check your stats.

So long as you arent issuing chargebacks after running the test, you have nothing to worry about.

Again, its also another reason why promoting programs that use CCBill is a good idea as you know your hits are being counted and will be paid via CCBill affiliate programs whereas lately, there seems to be a whole slew of issues with people getting paid by programs utilizing NATs.

Regards,

Lee

[attis]

That sounds like a fair option. They will know that you are checking them and it shows that you are really interested in working with them. It also shows that you are honest enough to tell them what you are doing. And no, chargebacks never came to my mind.