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Affiliate Tracking Software |
If you want to use an affiliate program in your online business, you will need to get affiliate tracking software. There are five different categories of affiliate tracking (management) software. Each is different in terms of what it can do.
- Monthly Fee-based Affiliate Programs - These providers host the software
on their servers, provide email capability and online technical support.
- E-Commerce Provider Programs - that offer the sale of digital goods
usually by immediate download as well as an affiliate program.
- CGI Programs - These are programs known as scripts written to be
used directly on your website. This is the most cost-effective method
of managing an affiliate program since there is no recurring charge
or loss of commission.
If you know enough about websites and have basic HTML knowledge, you can probably install these programs yourself. Although you can find many free cgi-programs, the better ones with the most needed features are available at reasonable prices.
- Commission-based - Payment for use of these services are a percentage of revenue from sales. Whether it's a percentage of each sale, or a set percentage depends upon the service provider. Some examples of commission-based management firms are LinkShare and Commission Junction.
Monthly Fee-Based Affiliate Program Software
My
Affiliate Program
Offering the most feature-rich support for both affiliate managers and their
affiliates, My Affiliate Program easily qualifies as one of the top choices
for fee-based affiliate management software. It offers tracking on a pay-per
impression, click, lead, or sale. Paying affiliate commissions is easily managed
and direct deposit via Paypal is fully supported.
The software is easy to setup for both merchants and affiliates and offers two-tier support plus the ability to allow your affiliates to link to any page on your site. The program automatically generates an affiliate welcome message (including custom affiliate url info), and sends a message to your affiliates after every sale.
the software provides automatic submission of your affiliate program to the top 40 affiliate directories through Affiliate Announce and one of the most beneficial features is the ability to pack up all of your affiliates and take them with you switch management providers.
My Affiliate is the most feature rich software available. It is also the most expensive. Click Here to read more about My Affiliate Program here.
AssocTRAC
AssocTrac was developed by the Internet Marketing Center's creator, Corey Rudl.
Corey developed this management software for his own use managing his affiliate
program - and shortly after made it available to the public through these
same affiliates.
AssocTRAC is highly customizable, proven and reliable system designed to fit almost any affiliate campaign. While it doesn't have all the features of My Affiliate Program, it comes close - and it's a whole lot cheaper. It was designed to integrate flawlessly with any shopping cart system, e-commerce site or secure serve. AssocTRAC delivers reliable affiliate sales tracking.
Hosted on IMC's servers, AssocTRAC will automatically sign up new affiliates generate short affiliate urls and send email notification to your affiliates after every sale. AssocTrac provides real time tracking of data and you can easily download your commissions database to QuickBooks.
AssocTRAC is still easily one of the best and most affordable options available for managing any affiliate campaign. It's available for a one-time setup fee and low monthly service fee . Click Here to read more about AssocTRAC.
Interneka
Interneka offers flexible affiliate tracking management. Interneka is fully
compatible with any shopping cart. It's also extremely easy to setup. All
you have to do is cut and paste some code and you're ready to go.
Interneka allows affiliate commissions to be paid using Paypal. It's. You can also export your database to Quickbooks.
You'll have the ability to offer your affiliates the capability for deep linking to all of your individual products, lifetime commissions, two-tier functionality, lifetime cookies, and notification by email after every sale they generate.
The mail out feature is handy for sending out newsletters and product updates to all of your affiliates, and the user interface is relatively simple. With all of it's features, Interneka is a serious option for managing even the most demanding affiliate campaign without shelling out thousands of dollars.
It's available for a one-time setup fee and low monthly service fee . Click Here to Read more about Interneka.
Leadhound
Designed specifically for PayPal users this version of Leadhound
comes configured to pay affiliates via the 'mass-pay' feature within your PayPal
account, which eliminates the need to pay affiliates by check saving you hours
of time. Have your own affiliate tracking software online and operational within
a couple of hours.
All you need is a registered Domain name to operate your affiliate network
and point it to our DNS servers. Leadhound will host the Domain and create
you a private affiliate network for under $20 a month. If you have a
PayPal account you can create your own affiliate network now, as we only
accept PayPal as our payment gateway for your monthly subscription. Click
Here for more information on Leadhound.
Ecommerce Provider Affiliate Software
Synergyx
This software is designed primarily for those who want to run an affiliate
program and distribute digital products but can be used to manage the sales
of hard goods as well. It comes with a fully integrated shopping cart that
can be used with the most popular merchant accounts and payment gateways.
Synergyx offers tracking on a pay-per-sale basis and is highly flexible in terms of affiliate payout capabilities. Merchants have the option to implement a 1 or 2 tier program, establish commission rates based on percentage or dollar amount, or offer a "tiered" payout based on the size of your customers order.
Synergyx can also track hits and referrers to an affiliate's page as well as ad code tracking which is a highly useful feature for tracking which ad campaigns are the most effective. Product download URLs can be set to expire after a specified amount of time. This prevents customers from distributing free copies of your products.
Synergyx comes completely installed on your servers so you control everything for a one-time flat rate. The only drawback is that the software must be hosted on a UNIX or Linux web server. Click Here to read more about Synergyx.
CGI Program Affiliate Program Software
While there are many very inexpensive and sometimes free CGI programs available,
most require a good bit of programming knowledge and web server administration
know how. I've chosen to review one that is a little more user friendly.
TWSC Affiliate Lite - I use this program on one of my other websites. It is PHP based and installed on your web server. It works with PayPal, clickbank and most other shopping cart software. It does require programming knowledge to install and make the necessary modifications to make it work for different landing pages. The company that hosts my websites, DPW Enterprises will install it for $100 and that includes the purchase price of the software.
Ultimate
Affil ate
Ultimate Affiliate is provided by Groundbreak software is a CGI script that
provides a clear, user-friendly interface using your web browser. It is easy
to setup provided you have some HTML and web site maintenance experience. The
programs integrates with a variety of billing systems, allows up to 12 levels
of commissions to your affiliates, provides a customizable sign up form. Allows
you to email your affiliates. Provides fraud protection. Can process recurring
commissions for subscription-based sites. Provides affiliate stats tracking.
The program uses a My SQL database.
The software is inexpensive and Groundbreak will even install the program
for a very reasonable one-time fee. Click
Here to read more about Ultimate affiliate.
Commission-Based Affiliate Program Software
Commission Junction
You can quickly establish a pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale program, and benefit
from publicity generated by this prominent affiliate network. Here's the
description from their site:
"With a pay-per-lead program, you pay a commission when an authorized affiliate refers a customer to your site and that customer fills out a form or performs another action that allows you to follow up on the sales process."With a pay-per-sale program, you pay a commission when an authorized affiliate refers a customer to your site and that customer buys a product or service. The purchase may occur when the visitor is at your site or it may occur at a later time.
"Whether you want to start a new program or upgrade your existing program, we can get you started in a matter of days at a price that any organization can afford. We professionally manage all the details of your revenue sharing operations including affiliate sign-ups, approvals, tracking, reporting, and commission payments."
Commission Junction has a do-it-yourself set-up option and a paid installation option. They charge an annual fee plus transaction fees.The system works well. A huge advantage of using a network is that it promotes your program for you. Also, Commission Junction consolidates payouts (payouts from other CJ programs get lumped together into one large check), making it a favorite of affiliates. Still, you will still have to promote your affiliate program yourself. A large percentage of the affiliates who sign up through a major affiliate network will be newcomers who don't know how to sell on the Net. Click Here for more information on Commission Junction.
LinkShare
LinkShare is one of the leading commission-based affiliate networks around.
Commissions are tracked via impressions, clicks, leads, and sales. There
is no second tier support, but affiliates will be credited with US$3 for
each new LinkShare affiliate they refer.
LinkShare provides the ability to send out "external" mailings to your affiliates. This comes in handy for providing your affiliates with their unique, pre-generated affiliate linking codes. LinkShare provides the ability to upload individual products to your Linkshare database. This makes it simple for affiliates of your program to log onto their account and receive links to individual products or services.
A major drawback of LinkShare is the inability to send affiliates email notification after each order you receive. Periodically having to hunt down your orders can become a time consuming task. Click Here to read more about LinkShare.
clixGalore
clixGalore allows you to build your own affiliate program and boost your sales,
leads and website traffic by promoting and building your own large 'pay for
performance' sales team. clixGalore works seamlessly with 99% of all shopping
carts and stores. These include Yahoo Store, Paypal, PaySystems, WorldPay,
Miva, DigitalRiver, CCNow, 2Checkout, Digibuy, EziMerchant as well as many
others.
This is feature-rich management solution. Payouts include pay-per-click, pay-per-sale, and pay-per-lead. Affiliates will have access to an incredible, resource packed control center where they can monitor click-throughs, sales, impressions, create deep links to individual products, and much more. Merchants also use several international currencies.
On a cost-per-click basis, using a pre-approved/preferred pool of affiliates, clixGalore is able to send you qualified leads to your merchant program at budget pricing. You have complete control over spending limits and the overall growth of your program through clixGalore's online monitoring tools.
It is definitely one of the best. Click Here to read more about clixGalore