AffiliateWP External Referral Links

Are you using AffiliateWP Are you a WordPress-based site that you would like to have affiliates promote it? If so, then this free add-on is for you.

Let’s say you have 2 websites, SiteA.com and SiteB.com:

SiteA.com

This is where it all begins. AffiliateWP Your chosen eCommerce/membership The system is already in place.

SiteB.com

Here you will install your device. External Referral Links Add-on to a separate website that has its own WordPress installation. It has been created to promote your products or services on SiteA.com.

You tell your affiliates that SiteB.com is for them and they share their referral link. This will usually look like the following:

• http://siteb.com/?ref=123
• http://siteb.com/?ref=john

Note: External Referral Links Only non-pretty affiliates links work. Also, a visit entry will not be created for the external site link, only when the outbound link is clicked to return to the main site where AffiliateWP It is now installed.

A customer clicks on the affiliate’s referral link and arrives on siteB.com. They are delighted with what they see so they click on one of your many links. “call to action” Buttons or links. After arriving on SiteA.com the customer makes a purchase, you receive a sale, and everyone is happy… or are they?

The affiliate who originally referred the customer did not receive a commission on the sale – why is that?

This is because AffiliateWP It is installed on Site A and not Site B. Nothing happened when the customer clicked on the affiliate link. There was no code on site B that interpreted the affiliate’s ID or username in the URL.

You might believe that installing a computer is easy. AffiliateWP Your eCommerce or membership system would solve this problem. Because they are different sites, they have separate databases which means they have separate data. In no way are the two site’s data shared.

How can affiliates promote site A and still earn a commission when the customer buys? It is quite simple. By collecting the affiliate’s ID or username from the URL (including the referral variable) and passing it to any links within the site that link to site A.

This is exactly how it works External Referral Links does. It will take the affiliate’s ID or username from the URL and store it as a cookie in the customer’s browser. Any link on site A that links to site B will have the affiliate ID/username intact.

The cookie allows the customer to freely navigate between pages on site A and B while it links correctly. You can also set the cookie’s expiry; if the customer leaves the site and comes back later, it will remember which affiliate referred them.