# How do affiliate programs work?



## yuwmic (May 2, 2008)

i tried searching but couldn't find info on how affiliate programs work in general. What's the definition? And if you could give example using numbers.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

The very basics are: You get paid a commission amount for sales you generate for a company.

So, for example, if you had a website about the underwater basket weaving. And you had lots of visitors looking for information on underwater basket weaving. You could signup for the affiliate program at amazon.com and link those visitors to books about under water basket weaving.

If any of those customers you sent to amazon via a specially coded link end up buying a book there, then Amazon.com will pay you a percentage commission for those sales.

Many companies have affiliate programs. You can even run your own affiliate program to help pay people to promote your clothing line or printing services.


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## yuwmic (May 2, 2008)

Thanks. How does it work the other way around? If I want run affiliate program. I give people links to my website, and if customer goes to their website and comes to mine and secures an order, I pay that website commission? What are the most common types of websites to advertise or have affiliate programs on for tshirt stores? What's range of commission that I would pay?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

yuwmic said:


> Thanks. How does it work the other way around? If I want run affiliate program. I give people links to my website, and if customer goes to their website and comes to mine and secures an order, I pay that website commission? What are the most common types of websites to advertise or have affiliate programs on for tshirt stores? What's range of commission that I would pay?


Yes, that's the way it would work the other way around.

You could either run the affiliate program yourself by purchasing software that you can install on your site that would handle the tracking of the links from other sites and manage logins/reports/etc for your affiliates.

Or you could outsource the management of your affiliate program to an affiliate service company like CommissionJunction (pretty expensive) or ShareaSale (reasonably priced). There are also others. The affiliate services give you the special code that you can add to your shopping cart that will help track orders. They will manage all of your affiliates, they will pay your affiliates (you give them the money to pay your affiliates), they will handle all the little details of the affiliate program so you can focus on your core business.

You can advertise that you have an affiliate program on your own site, or you can visit "affiliate marketing" type sites like Abestweb or other similar sites that can be found in google. Abestweb is where you can find a lot of top tier affiliates who can promote your program (if it is a good one). I think you have to pay to advertise your affiliate program there.

I've seen t-shirt affiliate programs range from 5% to 20% commissions. Sometimes more.


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## queerrep (Jul 18, 2006)

I have an affiliate program and I paid a one-time fee to purchase the affiliate software. It automatically assigns the affiliates their affiliate code when they sign up and tracks the sales – so all I have to do is log-in to the admin section, approve commissions and cut checks at the beginning of the month [if they reach the minimum payout balance].


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

Rhonda, care to share what program that is?


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## lizziemaxine (Nov 14, 2007)

Rodney said:


> So, for example, if you had a website about the underwater basket weaving.
> .


It's funny that you use the example underwater basket weaving. Last night I was at a Tajima-Hirsch seminar and Jimmy Lamb used the example underwater basket weaving as an example of a niche. Do you guys know each other?


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## queerrep (Jul 18, 2006)

Comin'OutSwingin said:


> Rhonda, care to share what program that is?


Absolutely! It's iDevAffiliate - Affiliate Tracking Software - Affiliate Program Software – I've been using it for two years with no problems.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

queerrep said:


> Absolutely! It's iDevAffiliate - Affiliate Tracking Software - Affiliate Program Software – I've been using it for two years with no problems.


I've heard good things about that program and I have belonged to several affiliate programs that have used that tracking software.

I think tshirthell used to use it (or maybe still does) for their affiliate program.


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## Reckless Tees (Feb 24, 2007)

Rodney, you said that sites like shareasale.com will give you code to enter into your shopping cart. Is this compatible with PayPal?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Reckless Tees said:


> Rodney, you said that sites like shareasale.com will give you code to enter into your shopping cart. Is this compatible with PayPal?


I don't know if the ShareASale tracking will work with the PayPal shopping cart. You might need to contact ShareASale and ask.

When I said shopping cart, I was referring more to the actual shopping cart programs that are available for free or for a fee like cubecart, zencart, oscommerce, shopsite, miva, etc.


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## Reckless Tees (Feb 24, 2007)

well i guess that is the first question I need to find an answer to.

Other quick question for you. I'm considering changing from PayPal to one of the other shopping carts listed but am hesitant because PayPal handles everything for me including CC processing, shipping, etc. all in an easy format. If I switch to another cart, won't I have to figure out new ways to do all this?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Reckless Tees said:


> well i guess that is the first question I need to find an answer to.
> 
> Other quick question for you. I'm considering changing from PayPal to one of the other shopping carts listed but am hesitant because PayPal handles everything for me including CC processing, shipping, etc. all in an easy format. If I switch to another cart, won't I have to figure out new ways to do all this?


You probably should start a new thread for this separate question so as not to take this thread off topic


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## Reckless Tees (Feb 24, 2007)

just as a followup in case anyone is interested, shareasale software is compatible with PayPal. The sales lady said it was a bit more difficult but they would help set it up for free.


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## BfloTees (Mar 6, 2008)

I absolutely love your forum. Ive been wondering about affiliate marketing and how it works, where to go, etc and I take 3 minutes out of my day and you got the answers. Another satisfied customer!


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

i didnt see another post about the paypal/cart system.. but i wanted to add. if you decided to install an actual shopping cart program, some of them have an affiliate addon which does the same thing as that software, but its free. I know oscommerce has one. 

AND when you get a shopping cart software (especially if its open source) you can keep using your paypal account to process credit cards, you just have to set it up for your NEW site.


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## besttshirtsever (Aug 18, 2012)

Speaking as someone on the other side, actively promoting affiliate programs, I have to say Shareasale is my favourite affiliate network. If you're considering joining a network, they have my vote.


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