What is an affiliate programme?
It is the Internet equivalent of a vast team of salesmen in vans! - except that you only pay them by results and they pay for their own vans! Strictly speaking, an affiliate programme is a referral marketing system, where a commission is paid to the referrer after the referred site visitor makes an action, such as signing up or making a purchase on the merchant's site. So . . . . I have a busy web site. You buy thw Euraffiliates service. I sign up from your web site as your affiliate. I place your link on my site. The link contains my unique marker. When someone goes from my site to yours and buys your product, I get credited with the commission you have agreed to pay. With Euraffiliates, I get credited even if the visitor who buys comes back to you months later and without going to your site directly from mine.

Tell me more about pay-per-click or pay-per-sale
Actually, there are various ways a merchant can pay commission, which are: 1. pay per click 2. pay per sale 3. pay per impression 4. pay per lead. Euraffiliates offers you the choice of all of these. You set up your affiliate management programme just as you want it. Most businesses using an affiliate software program want to pay their affiliates only for a sale. Some web masters however, wish to attract visitors to their site even if the site sells no product or service. Others may make a commercial decision to build a large following by paying per click, regardless of whether the visitors buy. This is a commercial decision for the webmaster / merchant.

How many levels of affiliate does Euraffiliates support?
Euraffiliates supports three levels. But note that marketing at three levels may be unlawful in some US states and possibly other jurisdictions. You, the merchant, choose how many levels you want to operate.

What is the difference between a text link and a banner advertisement?
A text link is just that - text. It may be in an information section or an article, or anywhere. It may be in a newsletter and not on a web site at all. A banner advertisement is a graphic of any size. Once you have joined us, we will help you with more information about how to make the most of our promotional materials - if you need help.

What do you charge for software updates?
Absolutely nothing. You never need to upload and install an update because your whole affiliate software program is hosted on our servers. Our policy in Euraffiliates is for continuous improvement. Of course, not all changes will be immediately apparent to you. From time to time we shall send you a note of recent improvements, particularly when they include new features or improvements to your management control.

Can I customise the Euraffiliates pages so that the whole programme looks like part of my web site?
Yes, Euraffiliates gives you a “deep” interface to customise the appearance of your affiliate control panel. All other pages are actually your own.

What is an affiliate control panel?
Like you, your affiliates will have a web based control panel to see their personal “stats”. What they see includes a variety of information about visitors and individual links, to enable each of them to make any change necessary to maximise their income - and yours. Of course, they also see details of their commission in both level one and (if you operate such a scheme) in levels two and three.

Web based software or buy and install?
Can you tell me more about the difference between software I buy and install on the one hand and using a web based system like Euraffiliates on the other hand? The software you buy and install are “toy” systems. If you were an affiliate, would you not be just a tiny bit suspicious of a merchant who has the ability to fiddle the books at every turn? Even if he was honest, would you trust his webmaster skills? If he ran only one affiliate software program, his own, what level of skill and experience would he be bringing to the feast? Most affiliates would stay clear. So the big advantages of a web based system are: 1. credibility 2. consistency 3. support 4. knowledge and experience 5. software improvements 6. hosting reliability 7. almost zero set up effort 8. low cost maintenance 9. works with wider range of shopping carts and merchant service providers In fact, when you think about it, you can see there is no contest

What if I just cannot get on with Euraffiliates?
It has not happened yet, but if you cancel within one month of order, we will refund all the money you have paid and cancel your contract.

Will I be able to view statistics for all of my affiliates and activities?
Yes. The Euraffiliates web based control panel is as elegant as it is intuitive and simple to operate. You can add, modify or delete your affiliates; view their activity reports and keep commission payment records.

Will you help me generally prepare for Euraffiliates?
Our resources are entirely at your disposal, but only after you have bought the Euraffiliates service.

Do I need to be a “techie”?
We have designed the software in such a way that anyone who can use the Internet should be able to use Euraffiliates, but of course it would help if you had some access to modest level html skills to place code for the banner ads or test ads to display. But if you do not know any thing about HTML, then our support team is here to help you.

If you are a UK firm, why do you price in $US?
For two reasons. First, because our merchant service provider takes payments in $US, and secondly because we sell throughout the World, not only in the UK and Europe. The $US is the nearest we have to a World currency.

How do I set up the software?
As soon as you have bought the system, we will be in touch with a list of information we need. The list covers access to your web host and details of how you want us to set it up. The set up fee you pay covers our work. You then use the elegant Euraffiliates management control panel to set up the practical matters like commission rates and affiliate categories. Then you are in business!

What help do you give immediately I have paid and joined?
Provided you follow the simple instructions, we provide all the personal support you need by e-mail or telephone. First you use the set-up panel to enter operational settings. So that you can consider them in advance, they are: 1. any modification to your own personal data; 2. description of your products; 3. list of different categories in respect of which you wish to pay different rates of commission (Note: most merchants use just one category, so that affiliates can easily understand and trust the system, but you may have some products to which your affiliate programme does not apply); 4. currency character; 5. basis of commission payment - pay per what? 6. number of operational levels 7. commission rate for each level 8. minimum payout amount; 9. messages for affiliates 10. your promotional materials

How soon can I start recruiting affiliates?
Immediately! After you have bought the system may be some delay while your merchant service provider gives us information. But so far as our work is concerned, our team will deal very quickly, probably within a day. To be realistic, you should allow 7 to 14 days for third party co-operation.

What sales material should I provide to my affiliates so that they can attract people to my site?
Ah! That is a good question. Sadly, you do need to work on providing good promotional material. The term "affiliate tools" is often used. (We hate the word, but love the tools!). What you provide depends on your product or service. Some lend themselves well to graphic images, some are best sold with plain text. It is up to you to provide a choice of suitable material. Remember that some sites present a loud presence and will take a powerful link, possibly animated. Other webmasters will accept only links in quiet colours and of small size. We advise that you should find a few of the sort of sites you would like to have as your affiliates and see what links they show. They may not all be affiliate links, but most will be. The possibilities include banners, animated banners, text links, articles, pop-ups, and so on. Then get some good graphic designer to come up with ideas that suit both your site and your affiliates. The text needs just as much attention as the graphics.

How will my affiliates actually insert their code into the promotional material I provide?
Euraffiliates provides for a unique code to be allocated to an affiliate automatically. The code is different for each promotional item taken by the affiliate, so that he can track the success of each promotion separately from the others.

How will potential affiliates know about my new affiliate software programme?
That is a marketing issue. There are very many sources of advice and assistance on the Internet. Try phrases with word “affiliate” and they will lead you to your rainbow.

What messages do I need to put into my system and how do I do it?
The brilliant Euraffiliates system allows you to insert messages and change them as often as you like, specifying which message is to be received by which category of affiliate. To make it even easier, we have arranged with our supplier of legal documents, www.NetLawman.co.uk, to show the messages they use in their Euraffiliates system. You can model your messages on these. Link to another Euraffiliates page, not yet designed.

Do I need a legal agreement with my affiliates?
Yes, terms and conditions on your affiliate web site are best. Your affiliates will judge your competence and credibility by your agreement. It should be sensible, open and legible, even if it is tough. If an affiliate intends to invest time and effort in selling your product or service, he might just read the agreement! Get one from www.NetLawman.co.uk. They will even tailor it to your business for a small fee.

What sort of on-screen help do you provide?
There is a pop-up help icon at the side of every menu item. This software has been designed as much by users as by technicians. Usability comes first, last and all places between. We provide simple explanations in plain English.

Can I add pages to my affiliate web site?
Of course! Your affiliate site is part of your main site, not ours. We host only the pages which take or provide dynamic content. Pages like FAQ’s and why affiliates should join you are entirely in your hands.

How does the affiliate know when he has earned something?
Unless you have deleted this feature when you set it up, your affiliate will receive a message from you to confirm details of the sale and amount of commission added to his account. Those messages can be sent to you too, if you wish. Of course, the database is updated instantly too, so that the affiliate will see the new transaction as soon as he logs on.

How do I know when someone has signed up as an affiliate?
You can order the system to send a message to you with the details of your new affiliate. You are then free to look at his web site and send him an additional personal message. He will of course have already received a message from you automatically

Can I contact my affiliates with news or special information?
Of course! You can download a list of addresses at any time.

Can I change the currency to my own?
Yes, the currency character can be changed as you wish. The dynamics are not affected.

Can I track sales orders taken by phone or fax?
Yes, many affiliates will take orders in this way. Your Euraffiliates affiliate control panel provides for “manual” entry.

How do you look after my confidential information?
By all means refer to our privacy policy. Of course, we also comply with the UK data protection Act too. Most importantly, we know we are in a position of great trust and that our future business depends on our never breaking that trust. Access to our servers is limited to a very tiny number of trusted people.

How Reliable is your tracking technology?
Absolutely fool proof. The only risks you take are those associated with any web site - unforseen down time, viruses and hackers.

How safe and secure is your installation?
We are closely associated with a hosting company located near to the UK Internet backbone. Our relationship is such that we are able to make special arrangements when we need to do so. Our present arrangements are such that our data is backed up automatically to a second server, located off site and operating as a “parallel processor”. This server automatically takes over if for any reason the first server should fail. We also take nightly and weekly backups which are stored in different locations.

Do I need some special scripting language or database on my web site to run the Euraffiliates service?
No. A web server that can serve HTML is enough.

What type of advertisements does Euraffiliates support?
Euraffiliates supports the following. 1. Static image banners; 2. animated image banners; 3. static image buttons; 4. animated image buttons; 5. text ads; 6. Flash banners (you will have to place the text ad generated link in your flash file); 7. Java banners (you will have to place the text ad generated link in your flash file)

Will your affiliate software program work with the coding in my website, my shopping cart and the method I use to take payment?
Yes, without question. We have yet to find one we cannot handle!

How easy is it to change my product range once I have set up Euraffiliates?
Very easy, through the incredible Euraffiliates affiliate control panel.

Can I restrict the product range upon which some or all affiliates receive commission?
Yes, you can choose by product reference and by affiliate category. You have full control through the brilliant Euraffiliates affiliate control panel.

Can I use pay-per-click and pay-per-sale at the same time?
Yes, but only if we upgrade your affiliate software program. Using both methods at once requires us to create reports for your particular business. The minimum cost is likely to be in the order of US$ 500, but we should be pleased to give you a specific price if you contact us with details.

What is the actual dynamic process that connects an affiliate with a later sale?
We do not want to give away trade secrets, but briefly, each aff is given a unique code to ad to the links on his pages to your pages. When a visitor comes to your site from his, Euraffiliates picks up the identifying code and tags that visitor as having come from that affiliate. That tag stays in place for whatever period you chose when you set up the system. One to ten years is usual. When the visitor buys from your site, Euraffiliates recognises the tag and records the transaction details, posting credit to the affiliates account.

Can you help with coding and similar work?
We do not provide a web writing service. Our business is to provide the most brilliant affiliate software programme - bar none. But there are occasions when frankly, it is easier and far cheaper for us to work for you than for you to employ a contractor. Here are some areas where we may be able to help you: We charge only US$30 per hour for all coding and similar work relating only to your affiliate programme. We do not undertake other work of any description at this price. There is a minimum charge of US$100 for any piece of work. This sum is payable in advance.

Glossary of terms
Level: See “Tier”. Pay per click: An advertising method where the advertiser or the merchant pays for each click ("unique visitor") they receive from another web site. Pay per impression: An advertising method where the merchant pays for each banner impression ("unique visitor") on the affiliate's web site. That means every time a banner is exposed to a visitor, whether or not the visitor clicks on it. Pay per lead: An affiliate programme which pays a commission for every "lead" generated by the affiliate. The definition of a "lead" may differ from one merchant to another, but in most cases, it is defined as somebody who signs up for a free trial or free service or sends a merchant a sales enquiry. Pay per sale: An affiliate programme which pays a commission for every sale generated by the affiliate. With Euraffiliates, the amount of the commission may be a percentage of the sale, or a fixed amount per sale. Unique visitor: In pay per click and pay per impression methods, the affiliate software keeps a check that the person clicking the banner is not the same person clicking again and again. This check makes every visitor a unique visitor. Tier: An affiliate programme which pays commission not only for affiliates' direct activity (usually sales that they make), but also additional (usually lower) commission for those affiliates who recruit other affiliates, when those affiliates make sales. Upper level affiliates are often marketing experts who act as self employed marketing managers for the merchant’s product.