Affiliate Programs FAQ
- A guide for merchants

1. What is a '% Per Sale' program?
   
   A visitor is sent by an affiliate to your site. The visitor becomes a customer by placing an order using your shopping cart or online order form. Code placed on your site's 'order confirmation page' recognises that your customer was generated by an affiliate, therefore a percentage of the sale is passed on.
   
   
   
2. You can't shop online from my site. What if my site doesn't have a shopping cart?
   
   If visitors can't buy plants from your website directly you can still benefit from becoming a merchant affiliate. Instead of paying affiliates per online sale, you can choose to a 'Per Click' or 'Per Lead' program.
   
   
   
3. What is a 'Per Click' program?
   
   You set a $ amount to be paid for every new visitor sent to your site by an affiliate. This involves no work for your webmaster as your site does not need changing in any way. Don't forget, the higher you set your click rate, the more likely affiliates will want to sign up to your program. You will also have the option to decide who to accept as an affiliate. For example, leads from sites about plants or gardening are much more likely to turn into paying customers than leads from sites about yoga or knitting! You choose who to accept.
   
   
   
4. What is a 'Per Lead' program?
   
   Your site may have an online contact form, or there may be a facility to download a catalogue or request a printed copy in the post. Maybe visitors can sign up for a nursery newsletter. If a visitor does any of the above actions, this could qualify as a lead. This program will involve copying some simple html code into the final page of the lead process, for example the 'thanks for your enquiry' page. You can set the amount to be paid to an affiliate, plus you can be sure the lead is from an interested potential customer.
   
   
   
5. What changes do I need to make to my site?
   
   In most cases very few changes are needed. For 'Per Click' programs no changes are needed. For other programs a small quantity of html code will need to be inserted into an 'order confirmation page' or 'thanks for your enquiry' page. This is provided by your chosen affiliate portal.
   
   
   
6. What are affiliate portals?
   
   A portal is a site that oversees your interests as a merchant by administering all your affiliate's earnt commission and providing you with precise information about the performance of your merchant program. In the links below you can read a review and description of the services provided by each of these portals:
   
   
   • Clixgalore (most highly recommended)
   • CheckmyStats
   • Commission Monster
   • DGM Australia