Advanced External Affiliate Tracking
In some cases, it may be desirable to perform more advanced Distributor/Affiliate tracking at your Web site, as well as optionally track Promo codes (which can be used to differentiate, for example, between different banners clicked on the Distributor/Affiliate site). This allows you to append the Distributor/Affiliate ID and/or Promo code to the "Buy Now" links at your site in order to pass them directly to the Shopping Cart. This can be used in place of, or in addition to, the standard method of Tracking Affiliate Hit Counts.
To perform advanced tracking, you must include a common file in each page on your Web site. A sample of this common file written in ASP can be found at http://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/templates/AffiliateTrackingSample.htm.
Once you click on the preceding link, you will be re-directed to what initially appears to be a blank window. Position your mouse anywhere within the white space, right-click, and select "View Source" to view the contents of the sample. Save it to disk, changing the file extension to .TXT and view it using Notepad to see the correct formatting of this file.)
Also, a sample of this common file written in PHP can be found at http://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/templates/AffiliateTrackingSample_PHP.htm. Right click this link and save to disk. Rename the file to .TXT and view it in Notepad to see the correct formatting of this file.
Once you click on the preceding link, you will be re-directed to what initially appears to be a blank window. Position your mouse anywhere within the white space, right-click, and select "View Source" to view the contents of the sample. Save it to disk, changing the file extension to .TXT and view it using Notepad to see the correct formatting of this file.)
To integrate advanced Distributor/Affiliate tracking into your Web site, follow these steps:
- Take the source of the sample page noted above and place in a common include file for your site. Rename the include file to something like AffiliateInclude.asp or AffiliateInclude.php.
- If necessary, convert the ASP or PHP code to the language used by your Web site.
- Include the file (server side) in every page on your Web site. The file should be included near the top of each page so that processing occurs before any links on the page are written. Here are some examples of what you would add at the top of the file:
- Classic ASP
- <!--#include file="AffiliateInclude.asp"-->
- PHP
- <?php include_once("AffiliateInclude.php"); ?>
- On all "Buy Now" links or trial sign-up links/forms on the site, wrap the URL in the WrapLink function. This will automatically append the proper parameters to the query string. Here are some examples:
- Classic ASP
- <a href="<%=WrapLink("http://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/products/Cart.aspx?action=add&actiondata0=1234")%>">Buy Now</a>
- PHP
- <a href="<?php echo(WrapLink("http://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/products/Cart.aspx?action=add&actiondata0=1234")); ?>">Buy Now</a>
Once this is implemented into your site, you can test by visiting a page on your site with ?a=XXXX&Promo=YYYY in the query string. This should save the a/Promo values to cookies in the browser. Next, navigate to a page with a "Buy Now" link and verify that the query string on the "Buy Now" link has d=XXXX&PROMO=YYYY appended to the query string.