To add an established product to the affiliate program, first locate the product in the listing by logging into the Vendor Administration area and clicking on the Products main tab. Find the product in the listing and click the Edit icon next to that specific product under the Actions column.

Once you are on the page to edit the product, you will see in front of you all the product’s options. Adding the product to the affiliate program requires that you have two additional product settings defined: Product Categories, and Affiliate Commission.

First, scroll through the Product Categories list and click on the category that best fits the product.

Second, specify the commission amount that will be paid out to the affiliate in the Affiliate Commission field. This amount can be either a fixed value or a percentage of the total product price. For example, if your product is worth $10.00 and you set a fixed amount commission of $1.00, you as the vendor will receive $9.00 and the affiliate will receive $1.00. Similarly, if your product is worth $10.00 and you set a percentage commission of 10% (IMPORTANT: do not include the percent sign when specifying the number in the input box), you as the vendor will receive $9.00 and the affiliate will receive $1.00.

After you have selected the product’s category and set the commission rate, click the Save Changes button to apply the settings and add the product to the affiliate program.

Your affiliates are now ready to start offering your product on their websites! You can find a tutorial that will show your affiliates how to sign up for a free account and access products to offer here.

Once you have logged into your account you can browse our affiliate opportunities by clicking on the ‘Affiliates’ tab on your account homepage. Here you may search affiliate resale opportunities by keyword. You can also browse the affiliate resale opportunities by product category.

To search the affiliate resale opportunities please use the ‘Opportunity Locater’ to enter the keyword for your search. You may also narrow the search by selecting a category. Once the search terms have been defined please click on the ‘Search’ button.

To browse the affiliate resale opportunities please click on the ‘Browse Opportunities’ tab. From here you may select a category and browse through the opportunities.

Once you have found a product you are interested in you may click on the product name to obtain the HTML snippets and product image source. This information can then be added to your website to create the product listing and purchase button or link.

The commissions you have earned on each sale can be viewed by clicking on the ‘List Commissions’ tab on the affiliates page. This page displays a table that includes the commission amount, product name, commission status, date the order was placed and the date you were paid. You can click the column headers at the top of table to sort sales listings by the date, product, status, or commission amount.

In order to be paid out for your commissions you must fill out your payment information in our banking wizard. To do this please select the “Account” tab on your account homepage and then select “Bank Account” from the Account menu. From here, you will need to click on the “Banking Wizard” button and provide the requested information for the payment method you select. Affiliate earnings are held for 60 days before being released to the affiliate.

Once you have logged in please click on the ‘Affiliates’ tab and then select the ‘Browse Opportunities’ sub category. From here you may view the affiliate opportunities by selecting the affiliate category that you would like to browse. The affiliate opportunities page will display the following fields for each affiliate product. (You may click on each field to sort the products in the affiliate opportunities table.)

• Image- Thumbnail image of the product.
• Name- Product Name
• Price- Product Price
• Description- A short description of the product.
• Commission- The commission amount you will earn on each product.
• Category- Category listing for the product.

We’re expanding the beta program now, so if you’ve been waiting for the second round, now’s the time to apply.

UPDATE:

February 18, 2009:  All 2Checkout suppliers may now enroll in the Affiliate Program and are no longer required to apply to be enrolled. To enroll in the Affiliate Program, suppliers will first need to agree to the new Terms of Service and Operating regulations for the program. To review and agree to the new Terms of Service and Operating Regulations, suppliers will need to login to their account using the New Vendors Administration area and then click the Affiliates tab on the account home page. Suppliers will then be able read and agree to the new documentation.

To learn more about the Affiliate Program Beta, see these previous posts:

• Affiliate Program Limited Beta
• 2CO’s New Affiliate Program
• TUTORIAL: Adding Products to the Affiliate Program
• TUTORIAL: Finding Affiliate Opportunities

Our developers have been working on the new affiliate program and are now ready to release a limited invite-only beta.

UPDATE:

February 18, 2009:  All 2Checkout suppliers may now enroll in the Affiliate Program and are no longer required to apply to be enrolled. To enroll in the Affiliate Program, suppliers will first need to agree to the new Terms of Service and Operating regulations for the program. To review and agree to the new Terms of Service and Operating Regulations, suppliers will need to login to their account using the New Vendors Administration area and then click the Affiliates tab on the account home page. Suppliers will then be able read and agree to the new documentation.

To learn more about the Affiliate Program Beta, see these previous posts:

• Affiliate Program Limited Beta
• 2CO’s New Affiliate Program
• TUTORIAL: Adding Products to the Affiliate Program
• TUTORIAL: Finding Affiliate Opportunities

The 2Checkout Affiliate Signup Program is our way of rewarding suppliers with compensation for referring others to use our service. Here are some of the highlights:

• Suppliers now earn $11.00 USD for each new supplier they refer.
• Suppliers now have access to an affiliate reporting system which allows them to track their affiliate signup sales. This report can be found in the vendor reporting section of your 2CO Admin Area.
• A column has been added to the payment section of your 2CO Admin Area (’Aff Comm’). This column details money paid to you by 2Checkout for affiliate signup sales.

If you already have a supplier account, using the affiliate signup program is as easy as adding one link to your website (replace ‘XXXXXX’ with your vendor account number):

https://www.2checkout.com/2co/signup?aff_id=XXXXXX

After the account is active for 60 days you will receive payment for referring a supplier to start selling with us.

This is just the start of our new affiliate program revamp. Please keep sharing your ideas and recommendations as we continue to add to and improve this program.

Related blog post: 2CO’s New Affiliate Program
Related forum thread: Possible Integrated Affiliate Network?

About a month ago, a 2CO community member started a thread in the forums asking if 2Checkout would consider an integrated affiliate network. It was good timing, because we are. We’re currently researching the possibilities and would love to get some feedback from our suppliers and the public at large.

This is currently a high priority for our developers, so now is a great time to take advantage of this opportunity. The more information you can provide, the better. We’d love to know exactly what you want from a 2CO affiliate program, so no detail is too small.

You can follow the affiliate program discussion in the forums or leave your suggestions as a comment to this post.

We look forward to hearing from you!

We also provide you with the option to use your own third party affiliate script that works off of a hidden image tag. When using a third party affiliate script 2Checkout does not payout your affiliate commissions. Please visit this article for instructions on using a third party affiliate script.

To setup third-party affiliate script, log in to your account and click on the “Account” tab, then click on “Site Management” subcategory. From here you can fill in the string that is provided by your affiliate program as the Affiliate URL. 2Checkout.com payment routines will fill in dynamic parameters like “order number”, “order total”, “your product id”, “quantity ordered”.

The Affiliate link will only work if you have Direct Return OFF. The hidden image tag is placed on the 2Checkout confirmation page after the sale and with Direct Return ON, this page is by passed.

To have the string populated dynamically, put the following variables in the appropriate location. The payment routine will fill them in after the sale is complete:

$a_order – 2Checkout.com Order Id.
$a_total – Total Dollars Paid.
$a_product – Your product id
$a_quantity – Quantity of product id sold.

Example src string:

https://affiliate.com/sale.cgi?order=$a_order&total=$a_total&product=$a_product&quantity=$a_quantity

If the buyer bought 1 of your product id 01-Widget for $2.00, after the sale the string would become

http://affiliate.com/sale.cgi?order=123456&total=2.00&product=01-Widget&quantity=1