Gossamer Forum: Products: Gossamer Links: Development, Plugins and Globals: [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin

Dec 3, 2007, 5:34 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Dec 3, 2007, 5:34 AM

Post #1 of 29

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[IDEAS] Affiliate plugin

Hi,

I'm going to be working on an affiliate plugin, aimed at letting people give commissions (%, or set amount) when someone recommends someone from their site - and that person then pays for a listing on your site.

Heres what I'm envisaging at the moment:

1) Admin area (for sending payments, etc)
2) User area, for viewing stats / hits / unique visitors etc
3) They can send via a direct link on their site (as long as the referring URL is the same as whats listed on their account) - this will only work on sites that are running dynamically though (I may be able to get it to work on static sites, with a mini-image being called on the page, and setting the cookie that way)
4) They can refer with their ID, i.e http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/aff.cgi?ID=xxxx - and then that would redirect them to the main page, with their affiliate cookie sent.

Any suggestions are welcome =)

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Dec 3, 2007, 6:44 PM

socrates

Enthusiast (832 posts)

Dec 3, 2007, 6:44 PM

Post #2 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

1) If possible, make the user signup and login seperate than links login because most of the affiliate won't be buying anything and a lot will signup and only a few will produce results.

2) May be, make the affiliate link (the one they put on the site) also a static link to our site, so it will help our site with search optimization. Don't know if that is possible but might as well suggest.

3) May be make feature in the admin area to remove affiliates who haven't produced any sales for a long-time or have removed the link from their website and/or are affiliates no longer active for a certain time.

Thanks

Dec 4, 2007, 1:06 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Dec 4, 2007, 1:06 AM

Post #3 of 29

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Re: [socrates] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Quote:

1) If possible, make the user signup and login seperate than links login because most of the affiliate won't be buying anything and a lot will signup and only a few will produce results.

Ya, that sounds like a good idea :)

Quote:

2) May be, make the affiliate link (the one they put on the site) also a static link to our site, so it will help our site with search optimization. Don't know if that is possible but might as well suggest.

Yup, thats how it was going to work (I'm aiming to allow for several different ways of linking, to maximize the amount of places / ways someone can link to the site.

Quote:

3) May be make feature in the admin area to remove affiliates who haven't produced any sales for a long-time or have removed the link from their website and/or are affiliates no longer active for a certain time.

Good idea :)

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 23, 2008, 5:46 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 23, 2008, 5:46 AM

Post #4 of 29

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Re: [socrates] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

This plugin is coming along quite nicely now :)

So far I have:

1) Affiliate signup form (even has a cool "password strength" thing <G>)
2) Affiliate admin area (still working on stats bit, but the login bit etc is all sorted)
3) The tracking via the handle_page hook.

I did try doing it with a simple <img ...> tag on the footer, but there were problems with the referring URL, as it was listing that URL as the URL the image was on, instead of the actual URL it was referred from.

The main bit I need to do now - is actually working out when some one purchases a listing, it then needs to credit that to the account of the person who referred the user.

Anyway, just thought I'd post an update :)

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 23, 2008, 6:43 PM

socrates

Enthusiast (832 posts)

Jan 23, 2008, 6:43 PM

Post #5 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Quote:

The main bit I need to do now - is actually working out when some one purchases a listing, it then needs to credit that to the account of the person who referred the user.

The affilate credit part (as long as the link is added and the user reached the add_success page) should work with or without the usage of the inbuilt gossamer payment system (which is not easy to setup and a lot of us don't have it setup). The affiliate should be credited once the user reaches the add_success page and then we can remove their commissio if the user did not complete a payment. I think that is the easist way. Or you could provide options 1) inbuilt system by gossamer or 2) just a tag for completion from add_success page.

If you don't understand what I mean, let me know and I will explain.

Thanks

Jan 24, 2008, 12:29 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 24, 2008, 12:29 AM

Post #6 of 29

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Re: [socrates] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Mmm.. I think I see what you mean. I was hoping to make it a lot more automated, but as you say - it could be quite hard.

Maybe what we could do - is have a new field added to the include_form.html template, say <%AffCookieID%> -- and that then gets saved into the "Links" table.

Then, when you get the email confirming a link has been added - it will tell you that the AffCookieID exists, and which user refered them. If the link HAS been paid for, then you could go into an admin area and manually enter the amount of money they paid - and the commission would then be worked out, and credited to the person who referred.

Is this the kind of thing you are thinking of? I can see it working - but its a real shame the auto payment bit doesn't work :( (on the advantage though, it means not having to hack up postback.cgi - as there are no pluign hooks available in that).

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 24, 2008, 2:21 AM

socrates

Enthusiast (832 posts)

Jan 24, 2008, 2:21 AM

Post #7 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Let me think about it more (you do too) and I will let you know. May be other people have some ideas too. What was your idea of automating it? How would that work.

Thanks.

Jan 24, 2008, 2:29 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 24, 2008, 2:29 AM

Post #8 of 29

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Re: [socrates] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Quote:

What was your idea of automating it? How would that work.

Well, the ideal solution is to add a call to the "Affiliate" plugin in payment_success.html - so that it checks if the person who just paid for a link, was refered by an affiliate.

I almost have that bit working - but it means you need the payment system working right - i.e after the payment, they are returned to the site - and payment_success.html is shown (i.e "your payment has been successful").

However, I can't seem to get it to return back to that page after a payment (it just goes back to the "Add Link" page, with the form to add a link).

That would by far be the best option - but until I can get the built in payment system to return to that page, its not going to work Frown

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 24, 2008, 4:14 AM

Alba

Enthusiast (567 posts)

Jan 24, 2008, 4:14 AM

Post #9 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Ideas... not sure if you've incorporated them or not

Most of the other affiliate programmes I've worked with allow selection of the number of days the referral remains valid.

ie: purchase made immediately on referral only
purchase made 7 days after referral
purchase made 14 days after referral etc.etc

also they have an ability to choose whether commission is paid for leads and/or sales.

Jan 24, 2008, 4:17 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 24, 2008, 4:17 AM

Post #10 of 29

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Re: [Alba] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Quote:

Most of the other affiliate programmes I've worked with allow selection of the number of days the referral remains valid.

ie: purchase made immediately on referral only
purchase made 7 days after referral
purchase made 14 days after referral etc.etc

Yeah, at the moment the cookie is just set as 1 year, but adding in that feature shouldn't be hard :) (just trying to get a basic version go so far :))

Quote:

also they have an ability to choose whether commission is paid for leads and/or sales.

Interesting. I may have to do that as a separate plugin to be honest. Because the way it works at the moment, they get xx% of the sale. So if doing it as a lead - it would have to be a set on a fixed amount per lead. I'll look into it though :)

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 24, 2008, 11:11 PM

socrates

Enthusiast (832 posts)

Jan 24, 2008, 11:11 PM

Post #11 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Quote:

Interesting. I may have to do that as a separate plugin to be honest. Because the way it works at the moment, they get xx% of the sale.

Yes, for now if you can do pay-per-sale as a fixed-payout per link, that will be ok and may be you can do the percentage later when everything is automated.

I like your idea above to capture data from cookie in the add_success page and then we can see manually if the buyer completed the payment but I would like to work it this way :

I don't know if there will be a separate table for affilate data storage, I think that may be better :

1) caputre cookie data and credit the afffilate automatically for each referral, the per sale amount (fixed amount per sale).
2) then instead of the admin going into each link/record to credit or enter the data individually for the amount or provide credit, what we can do is to pull a affiliate report every now and then and leave the links they are supposed to get credit for and then remove the links that the buyer's didn't pay for and where there is no credit due. So, when we pull an affiliate referral report/page by affiliate ID's it should show all their referrals and next to each referral there should be a link that says, remove referral for this link or something similar. However, if in case we make a mistake hopefully we can add the credit back again to any link.

Hopefully, the reporting page will show something like - link ID, referral date, affiliate commission, remove credit and at the bottom the total commision and next to it "pay now". when we click on the link pay now, it should bring the balance to zero and record the date paid in the affiliate data/table - we can select payment by paypal or cheque (optional or not necessary for me at this time). If we select paypal the it should send us to paypal page so we can send the commission to the affiliate.

I don't what else you are planning but in my overview in the private message I sent you last month, I provided some information.

I hope this helps.

Jan 28, 2008, 2:04 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 28, 2008, 2:04 AM

Post #12 of 29

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Re: [socrates] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Ok, heres's how I'm going to approach it now:

1) A new field, AffUser is added to the "Links" table.
2) A new field, "AffPaymentSent" is also added to 5the "Links" table
3) Then, in the Affiliate Area (in the admin panel), you can select to view the links that have AffPaymentSent => No, and decide if you want to credit that sale to the AffUser (the person who referred the sale)

There will then be a separate admin area - where you can view the affiliates who have earned some money, and see if they have reached their payment level - and need paying.

Unfortunately, this is the only way I can see it working now - as the built in payment system refuses to redirect me back to the script :'(

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 31, 2008, 6:16 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 31, 2008, 6:16 AM

Post #13 of 29

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Re: [Alba] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

In regards to this "per lead" feature thats being asked for, would this be per link added (paid or not), or for new users signing up?

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 31, 2008, 9:13 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 31, 2008, 9:13 AM

Post #14 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

This plugin is coming along quite nicely now.

I'm working on the admin functions now (i.e add payment manually, view stats, get details of who needs paying, etc).

Its still quite a bit away from being finished - but its taken quite a large step forward today Cool

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jan 31, 2008, 12:49 PM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jan 31, 2008, 12:49 PM

Post #15 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Ok, heres a few screenshots of what I have so far for the admin panel functions for the plugin (attached)

Still got a few main bits to add in:

Code:
# View Stats 
    * Leads 
    * Payments 
    * Traffic

The rest of its all running really well though - I'm very happy with the outcomes so far :) Its certainly been a bigger job than I was expecting Tongue

Right, I'm off to bed in a minute. Been a really long day Unsure

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Feb 1, 2008, 3:44 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Feb 1, 2008, 3:44 AM

Post #16 of 29

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Re: [socrates] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

I've now finished the coding <G>

I'm just writing up some documentation, then it should be ready for some beta testers =) If you are interested, please let me know (I only need a couple of people).

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Feb 1, 2008, 4:53 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Feb 1, 2008, 4:53 AM

Post #17 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Just realised a couple of features I'm missing :

1) A "banner farm" (i.e a selection of images that affiliates can use on their site)
2) A way of editing the affiliates profile (via affiliate_admin.cgi)

The 1st one I've almost finished now (very happy with it too <G>)

The 2nd bit I still need to get done.

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Feb 1, 2008, 11:31 PM

socrates

Enthusiast (832 posts)

Feb 1, 2008, 11:31 PM

Post #18 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Quote:

In regards to this "per lead" feature thats being asked for, would this be per link added (paid or not), or for new users signing up?

I am looking for per-each-link added via referral.

Feb 3, 2008, 7:52 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Feb 3, 2008, 7:52 AM

Post #19 of 29

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Re: [socrates] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

socrates wrote:

Quote:

In regards to this "per lead" feature thats being asked for, would this be per link added (paid or not), or for new users signing up?

I am looking for per-each-link added via referral.

Ok, I'll try and get something like that added in (it will be optional though, and you can set how much $$$ per referral they get :))

Won't be until tomorrow though - as I'm recovering from a bit of a long week ATM :(

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Feb 4, 2008, 2:50 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Feb 4, 2008, 2:50 AM

Post #20 of 29

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Re: [socrates] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Another question regarding this "lead" feature.

What happens if someone adds a link, but also pays for it - are they credited 2 times, or just once?

Or is it going to be more of a case that you pay either for a lead, or for a paid link ?

Cheers

Feb 4, 2008, 3:39 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Feb 4, 2008, 3:39 AM

Post #21 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Ok, I've had a good think about this "per lead" thing - and I think the route I'm going to go down, is having 2 different versions of this plugin:

1) For paid listings, that you want to give a set figure commission on.
2) For people who refer users who submit a listing (that gets validated Tongue

) - they then get a commission for the link that was submitted

There are a couple of reasons I'm going down this route:

1) Having both these features in one plugin will get pretty confusing
2) I very much doubt anyone would want both of these features at once (i.e pay for paid listings, and ALSO per lead - as it would get very expensive ;))
3) The code will get very messy, and overcomplicated ( as if its not complicated enough already ;))

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Feb 4, 2008, 7:55 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Feb 4, 2008, 7:55 AM

Post #22 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

This plugin is coming along nicely - shouldn't be long until my beta testers (thanks to socrates and deadroot) have gone over the plugin, and given me their bug reports (already squished a lot of bugs, and added quite a few new features, which were missing in the first version)

Once this version is released, I'll be modifying the "Affiliates" plugin into a new plugin called "AffiliatesPerLead" - which will let you give out a commission to affiliates who refer someone to your site, and they then add a listing (which gets validated) to your site Smile

Over 4,000 lines of perl code - and goodness knows how much HTML, I think its finally coming to an end Cool

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Feb 5, 2008, 6:59 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Feb 5, 2008, 6:59 AM

Post #23 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

I think this plugin is finally ready to let you guys loose on <G>

Its available for download in our Members Area, but ONLY for ULTRA Package PRO owners.

If you spot any bugs / have any suggestions, please let me know.

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Feb 6, 2008, 4:10 AM

Matthias70

Enthusiast (893 posts)

Feb 6, 2008, 4:10 AM

Post #24 of 29

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Re: [Andy] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Looks awsome,
what a pity, that I don't need it :-(

Matthias

Matthias
gpaed.de

Feb 6, 2008, 6:53 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Feb 6, 2008, 6:53 AM

Post #25 of 29

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Re: [Matthias70] [IDEAS] Affiliate plugin In reply to

Hi,

Quote:

Looks awsome,

Thanks :)

Quote:

what a pity, that I don't need it :-(

I think I should be able to get a first "official" release out later today. I've added all the feature requests (assuming no more come up :P) - and updated the documentation / tested it all - and so far, so good.

I have to be honest - I'm very proud of the outcome Smile

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk