Preparing for and Signing Up Affiliates

The first step (and perhaps the most important part) of launching an Affiliate Marketing program is to design a clear, concise, and unambiguous agreement which lays the foundation of your relationship with your affiliates. This includes the terms of payment and acceptable use.

An example agreement for the Protection PLUS Affiliate program can be found at http://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/affiliate/ala.asp?a=2451871.

Convert your Affiliate User License Agreement to HTML format.
Log into SOLO Server.
Click the menu Configure / Distributors then use the Actions dropdown and select Customize Agreement.
Enter the HTML formatted License Agreement.
If you wish to have a customized look and feel for the affiliate sign-up pages, create a custom markup template as outlined in the Customize SOLO Server Storefront topic. Note that the logo image (Method 1) is not supported in this case.
Your next step is to create an affiliate welcome mailing. See Affiliate Welcome Mailings for additional details. See Sample Affiliate E-Mail Welcome below. The value of <URL> and <LOGININFO> placeholders will be filled in by the server with the correct information for this affiliate.
Next, use the Actions dropdown and select Options and then click the Edit button.
If a custom markup template was configured in step 5, select the template as the Affiliate Storefront Template.
Set the Affiliate URL to the address of the Web site that the user should be directed to when they click on an affiliate link.
Set the default Pct Cost field for new affiliates that sign-up online. This field is NOT the commission that you are awarding your affiliates for each sale. Instead, this is the percentage that your distributor pays for your products. For example, if you normally sell a product for $100 and offer an Affiliate Pct Cost of 65%, they pay $65 for your product. They can then turn around and sell the product for $100 (their commission would be $35) or use Pct Discount to offer the product for somewhere between $65 and $100.
Choose the mailing just created in step 6 as the Affiliate Welcome Mailing.
Click the Submit button.
To sign up affiliates, put a page on your Web site announcing your affiliate program and link them to the signup page as follows:
- SOLO Server Shared URL: https://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/affiliate/signup.asp?a=[Author ID]
  - replace [Author ID] with your Author ID, which can be found in the footer at the bottom of every page in the SOLO Server administrative interface.
  - If using SOLO Server Shared / Custom URL, replace secure with your custom sub-domain.
- SOLO Server Dedicated URL: https://[Domain Name]/solo/affiliate/signup.asp?a=[Author ID]
  - [Domain Name] is replaced with your domain name.
  - [Author ID] is replaced with your Author ID (generally 2451871), which can be found in the footer at the bottom of every page in the SOLO Server administrative interface.
- SOLO Server Self-Hosted: https://[Domain Name]/[SOLO Root]/affiliate/signup.asp?a=[Author ID]
  - [Domain Name] is replaced with your domain name.
  - [SOLO Root] is replaced with your SOLO Server root directory or removed if you are running SOLO Server from the web site root.
  - [Author ID] is replaced with your Author ID (generally 2451871), which can be found in the footer at the bottom of every page in the SOLO Server administrative interface.

Sample Affiliate E-mail Welcome - Must Be Edited

Thank you for your interest in our Affiliate Program! Throughout our 10-year history, many new customers find us through referrals. We are now saying "thank you" to all new customer referrals by launching our Affiliate Program.

Your account has been set up.

Choose one of the graphic buttons displayed on the following page:

http://www.yourdomain.com/affiliatebuttons.htm

Then place a link on your web site that points to the following URL:

<URL>

This URL contains your affiliate account information. The user will be redirected to our home page after a cookie is placed on their browser. Any users who download our evaluation copy or purchase our products will automatically be linked to your account and you will receive a commission. You can log in at any time and see how many hits you have gotten and how many people have purchased. Use the following login URL and information:

<LOGININFO>

Again, thank you for signing up with our Affiliate program!

Sales Department