How do affiliates work?

[krazystraw]

I want to use affiliates so that people can act as sales reps and get commissions based on if customers place order with the affiliate. I looked in the miva reference guide and it only really shows you how to set one up but i need to know how to actually use an affiliate login to place the order.

So once i set up an affiliate and assign a commission amount, how does the affiliate use this information to place an order and get the credit for it with a commission?

In the info section of the affiliate screen there are two items im unsure of, the site name and the site URL, what is supposed to go in there? Are them like a sub directory site that an affiliate can give out that if they order through this that is how the commission is logged?

If anyone has more in depth instructions on how this all work can you please let me know.

[Rick Wilson]

It walks through our built in system in detail in the Reference Guide: www.miva.com/referenceguide

I will be the first to admit that built in feature is very old, and very outdated. The Viking Coders one is far superior but it's a paid product.

[krazystraw]

Rick in the reference guide all it says it to "6. Enter all information, including site name and URL, mailing address etc." but it does not go into details about the site name or URL. Is there something im over looking where these are explained for what information they are using?

[Brennan]

When you create a user as a affiliate (or they signup as one) they get assigned a unique affiliate code. This affiliate code is used to track customers to them and gets embedded in a URL.

It will look something like this:

http://www.domain.com/mm5/merchant....filiate=bheyde

When that link is clicked, Miva reads in that affiliate code and tracks that shopper to that affiliate code. If they then place an order, Miva will automatically assign that order to that affiliate and manage the commissions based on the rules you have configured.

[krazystraw]

Rick, i got it and this all makes sense. I just placed a test order as an affiliate but it seems that the invoice does not show any reference to the affiliate? Is there any way that I can have the affiliates log in name show up on the invoice so that i know we got the order from said affiliate?

[Keitho]

Rick and/or Brennan, does Miva's Affiliate program accrue all sales to a customer or just the first? I think that was an issue a few years ago.

[Rick Wilson]

It tracks anything through the link (even multiple orders) but it does NOT cookie a customer, so if they don't come back through the link it won't catch it.