We are surprised how many users want to create affiliate website but don’t have any basic knowledge about affiliate networks and publishing of products. So, these are basic help.
Table of Contents
How does affiliate commission and publishing work?
You publish link on product (external), link your site has special link part, it’s called deeplink. If somebody clicks on link, he goes to original site and special cookie will be added to his browser (or to his account), then, if he makes purchase, you will get commission.
How to get deeplink?
Some shops has own affiliate program. Usually, they have link with details in their footer
But if you plan to use several shops, it’s better to use Affiliate networks. Each network has thousands of shops. So, you don’t need to register on each shop to get deeplinks for all of them. There are many networks, each network has own conditions and commission. There is no BEST network, each region has own popular networks, like AWIN, Tradetracker, VComission, Admitad, Optimisemedia. So, google which network is popular in your country, check reviews from users about it and make decision. When you register in network, you must also request to approve your account to get access to each shop which you want to promore on your site
How to import products and links from networks and shops?
Of course, you can add all links, deeplinks manually, but it’s not best way, because you will need too much time. There are better ways to make affiliate website.
Technically, there are 3 common ways to get products. Our theme cover all of them (and also manual way). Some ways require additional paid plugins, some are included.
Bulk import xml or csv
We provide addons and plugins for easy import this type of data. You must send us request for plugin, so, it’s available only for buyers of theme. You can also create price comparison site with this type of data. More details about bulk import
Absolutely all networks provide xml feeds. For example, this is Affili.net account
Usually you can find this data in tab with name “Product data” or “Product feed”, “xml feed”, etc
You will have access to xml file.
Affiliate network API
API is something like special access to database of networks. API is much powerful than product feeds, because it allows to filter all data and get most relevant for you. It also gives access to more advanced modifications and possibilities.
We added plugin Content Egg Lite version in theme bundle. You can find several networks in this plugin, most big is Amazon. Plugin has also PRO version. PRO version is the same as Lite version but has more supported networks. We provide coupon for theme buyers for this plugin. API is most common way to make price comparison site.
Is it required for theme? No. But I recommend it, because it’s real great plugin which can make your site more smart and useful for buyers. You can also use bundled version and decide if you need PRO version or you can stay with bundled. You can see how to work with plugin in docs
Direct Web parsing
This is not the best way, because web parsing is not stable (because sites can change their structure very often), but sometimes it’s the only one possible way, because many local shops (in Asia, Africa) don’t take a part in affiliate networks and don’t provide xml product feeds in their affiliate program. For web parsing, i recommend to buy plugin Affiliate Egg. See how it works in theme Good thing in plugin is that it can be used as integration with bundled Content Egg plugin
It has a lot of ready parsers and Keywordrush team provide service to make custom parsers for your shops. Price for each parser is $10-25.