Affiliate Program Overview
Please Note: The DPD affiliate system is currently only supported for stand alone "buy now" products, not the multi-item storefront. We're working on implementing a cart-based affiliate system for storefronts, but only standalone products are supported right now.
The DPD affiliate system is a lightweight affiliate program manager you can add to PayPal instant "buy now" products. The DPD affiliate system is included free with all paying plans and does not charge any additional commissions or fees.
With the DPD affiliate system people interested in promoting your product for a commission on the sale can sign up through a special affiliate signup URL that we provide. Once they sign up through your affiliate signup URL they are added to your product's affiliate program and provided with a special link (called a "hoplink") to your sales site that includes their affiliate information.
Affiliates will place the hoplink anywhere they promote your product. Visitors to your sales site who enter through this hoplink will have a session cookie set on their computers, and if the end up purchasing your product DPD will record the affiliate information and credit that affiliate with a sale. This affiliate sale is then be reported to both you and the affiliate in DPD.
A Summary of how the DPD Affiliate system works:
1. You create your standalone PayPal product in DPD and enable the affiliate system for it.
DPD is currently supported for standalone instant "buy now" PayPal products only. You can enable the affiliate system two ways: During product setup on the Product Options page you can expand the affiliate settings box and enable the affiliate system and set the affiliate options. Alternately, if a product is already set up and you want to enable the affiliate program for it you can visit the product details page and enable the affiliate program by following the link from there.
Product Affiliate System Options:
Enable Affiliate System: Check this to enable affiliate tracking for this product.
Hoplink Target URL: This URL should point to the website where you will place your buy button and sell your product. Affiliates who promote your product will send customers through a special hoplink to your website that attaches their affiliate information to incoming visitors. It is critical that this URL point to a page on the website where you will be selling your product. However, it does not have to point to the specific page where the buy button is- if your buy button is on "http://www.foo.com/purchase.html" you can safely link to "http://www.foo.com" or any other page on the same site.
Allow Affiliate Buy Buttons: Allows for an alternate method for affiliates to promote your product by directly selling your product from their site. More info on affiliate buy buttons is located at the end of this guide.
Affiliate Payout: Here you set how much you will pay affiliates for a sale, either in a fixed currency amount or a percentage of the total sale. For example: If your product costs $20 you can pay your affiliates 10% ($2.00) or $10 ($10.00).
Affiliate Cookie Lifetime: How long an affiliate should get credit for a sale after a visitor goes through their hoplink to your site. If the affiliate cookie lifetime is set to "until the current browser is closed" then only the current visit will count. If the lifetime is set to a longer interval then any future visit by the customer sent by the affiliate before the cookie expires will be credited to the affiliate. The accepted standard for cookie lifetime is usually 1 month.
2. You paste your DPD buy button on your sales site.
Once you complete product setup you will be provided with a buy button like normal. Place this on the sales site that you entered as the Hoplink Target URL during affiliate setup.
3. DPD provides you with your affiliate signup URL to place on your website
The affiliate signup URL is what prospective affiliates will use to sign up for your product's affiliate program. It should be placed somewhere they can find it- a popular choice is in the footer of the sales site.
4. Affiliates sign up for your product affiliate program through the special URL
When prospective affiliates click on your signup URL they will be taken to a DPD signup page for your product affilaite program. If they do not have a DPD account they will be prompted to create a free account. This is required to track affiliate sales. If they already have an account they can log in on that page and your product's affiliate program will be added to their existing account.
5. DPD provides affiliates with a special hoplink URL to your sales site.
6. Affiliates promote your product on their blog, forum posts, through email, etc
Affiliates promote your product and direct their visitors to their unique hoplink URL provided by DPD. This special URL sets an affiliate tracking cookie on visitors and then directs them to your website so the affiliate can be credited with the sale if and when the visitors buy your product.
7. When a visitor sent by the affiliate buys your product, DPD automatically records the sale under the affiliates name and stores it in the affiliate system.
DPD will process the sale as normal with no indication to the buyer that an affiliate will get commission. Both the vendor and the affiliate will get an email from DPD telling them that an affiliate sale has been made.
8. On your payout day you pay your affiliates their commissions.
You pay your affiliates via PayPal for the commissions they have earned in the previous month. DPD provides you with a list of all commissions owed to affiliates each month for that product. The list is also available as a PayPal MassPay file for your convenience. DPD maintains 3 previous months of affiliate payout records.
DPD is a tracking system for affiliate sales, nothing more. YOU are responsible for paying your affiliates their commissions. DPD will not pay your commissions for you- YOU must pay your affiliates any funds they are due.
Alternate Selling Method: Affiliate Buy Buttons
Affiliate buy buttons are unique to DPD. They allow affiliates to act as resellers of your product and they can directly sell your product through their website. This allows affiliates to completely bypass your sales site and sell direct to their customers while you maintain complete control over the product.
All payments are still made directly to your PayPal account as normal, and you still have complete control over your product in DPD. However, every sale made through the affiliate buy button on their site will be credited to the affiliate as an affiliate sale. This is convenient if you don't have a website of your own, your sales pages aren't that great, or you want to give your affiliates expanded control over how they promote your product.
The key difference between using hoplinks vs. using Affiliate Buy Buttons:
Hoplink affiliate system: Affiliates send buyers to your site where they buy your product, payments are made directly to you, and you pay the affiliate commissions.
Affiliate buy buttons: Affiliates sell directly to buyers, payments are made directly to you, and you pay the affiliate commissions.
The DPD affiliate system is a lightweight affiliate program manager you can add to PayPal instant "buy now" products. The DPD affiliate system is included free with all paying plans and does not charge any additional commissions or fees.
With the DPD affiliate system people interested in promoting your product for a commission on the sale can sign up through a special affiliate signup URL that we provide. Once they sign up through your affiliate signup URL they are added to your product's affiliate program and provided with a special link (called a "hoplink") to your sales site that includes their affiliate information.
Affiliates will place the hoplink anywhere they promote your product. Visitors to your sales site who enter through this hoplink will have a session cookie set on their computers, and if the end up purchasing your product DPD will record the affiliate information and credit that affiliate with a sale. This affiliate sale is then be reported to both you and the affiliate in DPD.
A Summary of how the DPD Affiliate system works:
1. You create your standalone PayPal product in DPD and enable the affiliate system for it.
DPD is currently supported for standalone instant "buy now" PayPal products only. You can enable the affiliate system two ways: During product setup on the Product Options page you can expand the affiliate settings box and enable the affiliate system and set the affiliate options. Alternately, if a product is already set up and you want to enable the affiliate program for it you can visit the product details page and enable the affiliate program by following the link from there.
Product Affiliate System Options:
Enable Affiliate System: Check this to enable affiliate tracking for this product.
Hoplink Target URL: This URL should point to the website where you will place your buy button and sell your product. Affiliates who promote your product will send customers through a special hoplink to your website that attaches their affiliate information to incoming visitors. It is critical that this URL point to a page on the website where you will be selling your product. However, it does not have to point to the specific page where the buy button is- if your buy button is on "http://www.foo.com/purchase.html" you can safely link to "http://www.foo.com" or any other page on the same site.
Allow Affiliate Buy Buttons: Allows for an alternate method for affiliates to promote your product by directly selling your product from their site. More info on affiliate buy buttons is located at the end of this guide.
Affiliate Payout: Here you set how much you will pay affiliates for a sale, either in a fixed currency amount or a percentage of the total sale. For example: If your product costs $20 you can pay your affiliates 10% ($2.00) or $10 ($10.00).
Affiliate Cookie Lifetime: How long an affiliate should get credit for a sale after a visitor goes through their hoplink to your site. If the affiliate cookie lifetime is set to "until the current browser is closed" then only the current visit will count. If the lifetime is set to a longer interval then any future visit by the customer sent by the affiliate before the cookie expires will be credited to the affiliate. The accepted standard for cookie lifetime is usually 1 month.
2. You paste your DPD buy button on your sales site.
Once you complete product setup you will be provided with a buy button like normal. Place this on the sales site that you entered as the Hoplink Target URL during affiliate setup.
3. DPD provides you with your affiliate signup URL to place on your website
The affiliate signup URL is what prospective affiliates will use to sign up for your product's affiliate program. It should be placed somewhere they can find it- a popular choice is in the footer of the sales site.
4. Affiliates sign up for your product affiliate program through the special URL
When prospective affiliates click on your signup URL they will be taken to a DPD signup page for your product affilaite program. If they do not have a DPD account they will be prompted to create a free account. This is required to track affiliate sales. If they already have an account they can log in on that page and your product's affiliate program will be added to their existing account.
5. DPD provides affiliates with a special hoplink URL to your sales site.
6. Affiliates promote your product on their blog, forum posts, through email, etc
Affiliates promote your product and direct their visitors to their unique hoplink URL provided by DPD. This special URL sets an affiliate tracking cookie on visitors and then directs them to your website so the affiliate can be credited with the sale if and when the visitors buy your product.
7. When a visitor sent by the affiliate buys your product, DPD automatically records the sale under the affiliates name and stores it in the affiliate system.
DPD will process the sale as normal with no indication to the buyer that an affiliate will get commission. Both the vendor and the affiliate will get an email from DPD telling them that an affiliate sale has been made.
8. On your payout day you pay your affiliates their commissions.
You pay your affiliates via PayPal for the commissions they have earned in the previous month. DPD provides you with a list of all commissions owed to affiliates each month for that product. The list is also available as a PayPal MassPay file for your convenience. DPD maintains 3 previous months of affiliate payout records.
DPD is a tracking system for affiliate sales, nothing more. YOU are responsible for paying your affiliates their commissions. DPD will not pay your commissions for you- YOU must pay your affiliates any funds they are due.
Alternate Selling Method: Affiliate Buy Buttons
Affiliate buy buttons are unique to DPD. They allow affiliates to act as resellers of your product and they can directly sell your product through their website. This allows affiliates to completely bypass your sales site and sell direct to their customers while you maintain complete control over the product.
All payments are still made directly to your PayPal account as normal, and you still have complete control over your product in DPD. However, every sale made through the affiliate buy button on their site will be credited to the affiliate as an affiliate sale. This is convenient if you don't have a website of your own, your sales pages aren't that great, or you want to give your affiliates expanded control over how they promote your product.
The key difference between using hoplinks vs. using Affiliate Buy Buttons:
Hoplink affiliate system: Affiliates send buyers to your site where they buy your product, payments are made directly to you, and you pay the affiliate commissions.
Affiliate buy buttons: Affiliates sell directly to buyers, payments are made directly to you, and you pay the affiliate commissions.
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