Improvability Blog

Affiliate account holders, a new affiliate resources tab has been added to the main menu bar in your affiliate account.

• Login to your affiliate account and click on the affiliate resources option.
• A new browser window opens and the affiliate resources web page loads.

This is where we maintain a list of useful links to affiliate documentation to help you implement and maintain your affiliate account and marketing campaigns. You can also access the affiliate resources page here.

Tip: Use the RSS link below to automatically keep track of new affiliate account information.

Your affiliate account incorporates a number of affiliate programs. There is a default program and a number of product specific programs.

Default affiliate program

The default affiliate program is just that, the default program that you can use to direct your clients to www.improvability.co.uk, our main website. When your client clicks your default affiliate program link they are automatically directed to the www.improvability.co.uk home page. Your default affiliate program URL will look similar to this…

http://www.improvabilityresources.co.uk/shop/cmd.php?af=652096
(example only)

This may be OK if you are wanting to introduce your clients to Improvability, but what if you are recommending a specific Improvability product? Wouldn’t you prefer your client was taken directly to the relevant product page rather than a website home page where they might not find what they are looking for?

That’s where the product specific affiliate programs can be used to great effect.

Note, if you would like your default affiliate program to take your clients to a different location other than the Improvability home page. Contact us, it should be possible to setup a custom configuration to meet your specific needs.

Product specific programs

In your affiliate account you will see additional affiliate programs, product specific programs engineered to market a particular product.

That’s why you can see an additional affiliate program setup for the colour analysis training DVD package. You will notice that inside this program you have a selection of media, such as marketing text, marketing graphics, and special URLs. These URLs look something like this…

http://www.improvabilityresources.co.uk/shop/cmd.php?Clk=2091310
(example only)

Notice how it differs from the default affiliate program URL. Quite different, and your website technical person needs to appreciate and understand the difference.

When your client clicks on your product recommendation, using the product specific affiliate program URL, your client is taken directly to the product website www.colouranalysistrainingdvd.co.uk. The destination is relevant, and they won’t wonder why they have landed on a website showing them colour analysis training DVD information!

So the product specific programs use special URLs that take your clients directly to relevant product web pages.

The default affiliate program uses a URL that takes your client to our main website home page. So you have a choice.

Product specific media

Let’s take this a step further.

Each product affiliate program, as mentioned above, includes what we call ‘media’. The term refers to a collection of text links, banners, and graphics we have prepared, that you can put into your web page, that help you market the product without you having to work on your own marketing materials. Example below.

Each of the ready-made media have unique affiliate URLs. Why would you need URLs for each piece of media?

Like any marketing, you need a way to test your campaign, see what happens, evaluate the results, fine tune, and test again. These unique URLs enable you to accurately collect statistics for each piece of media you use. That means you can track the performance of your marketing, collect statistics for each text link, and each banner ad you use, and view the number of clicks and the number of sales for each piece of media.

Login to your account and have a closer look at the ‘media’ page and the statistics you can view there.

In time you will be able to see which media work the best for you by viewing your click to sales conversion statistics, and you can test, fine tune, and test some more, just like any other marketing campaign you might be working on.

Try customising your text and graphics, you don’t have to use just the media we provide.

You will also see that for each piece of media, we provide HTML code snippets that your technical person can use as a starting point to get your marketing up and running as quickly as possible. Customise the HTML code to your website requirements or use ’straight out of the box’.

Account Access

So with the above in mind, you may need to share your affiliate account login details with your technical person, or alternatively, give them the HTML code snippets that you would like them to insert into your web page. If you do share your account login details with your technical person, don’t worry, you can login to your affiliate account any time you like and change the password.

The Improvability Business Resources website includes lots of useful information for professional image, colour & style consultants, and one of the first resources launched is our affiliate program. You may not have come across affiliate programs before but basically they are online revenue-sharing systems that provide you with the tools you need to market our products, track your results and earn commissions on sales.

This Affiliate Program has been designed for anybody who would like to earn extra money by promoting our products. Whether you have a website, are planning on creating a website or want to use email or another medium to promote us, this Affiliate Program is for you.

It’s like selling without any of the hassles; you don’t need to maintain the ordering process, accept payment, be responsible for order fulfillment or customer service. All you do is use your provided Affiliate links, start referring traffic then sit back and collect your commission payments! It’s a great way to diversify your business without the investment or the risk.

We’ve been testing out affiliate technology for a few years and various software shortfalls have held us back, that is until now. So we’re now in a position to offer affiliate accounts for those professionals serious about diversifying their business and adding an additional income stream to their portfolio.

How does it work?

Imagine someone browsing your website and they come across content where you recommend our Colour Analysis Training in a Box product. They read a little about what you have to say about the training solution and choose to click to find out more. The link they click is a special link that has in it your affiliate information. So when the link is clicked, your visitor is taken to our product website, and our affiliate system records this visitor as having come from you. This is called a referral.

The referred visitor may browse our product website and revisit many times. It doesn’t matter how long the referred visitor takes to make their decision to purchase the product, but when they do, the sale is credited to your affiliate account and a commission is calculated and you get paid according to the referred sales made.

Cookies

Technically, what happens is a cookie is created for the visitor which doesn’t expire (some cookies may have expiration dates). The cookie contains a small amount of data that associates the visitor with you, the affiliate that referred the visitor to our product website. So as long as the cookie isn’t deleted from the visitor’s computer, your affiliate account will be credited with the visitors’ purchases.

Other media

You don’t need a website to have an operational affiliate account. You could print your affiliate link in printed material you give to your clients. You could publish your link in your newsletters (printed or email). You could even print the link on business cards to give to clients you think would benefit from our products. Basically, where appropriate, any form of communication you have with your clients could include your affiliate link. All your client needs is an Internet connection and a computer. That’s all there is to it.

Find out more

Visit our Affiliate Program pages to find out more.

Contact us if you have an queries about how you can diversify your business with an affiliate account