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How Signature works
LinkShare SignatureSM Technology is able to track commerce to the transaction level of each individual member, organization or sub-site through the use of the Member ID Field.
Member ID Field
The Member ID is the identifier that represents each member or organization of the Signature Affiliate, and it is denoted by a "&u1=" that the Signature Affiliates must append to the merchant link codes provided in their LinkShare Account. The value following the "=" sign is representative of the Signature Affiliate's specific member, organization or sub-site and is created by the Signature Affiliate. This identifier can be up to 72 alphanumeric characters in length.
How to use the Member ID Field
The Signature Affiliate must place &u1= plus the identifier at the end of the first href string in LinkShare merchant links. We suggest using a placeholder such as &u1=defaultmemberid. If you only have a few codes to edit, it would be easiest to do so manually. For those employing a login for its site's services, a unique identifier can be passed to the link code, or swapped out in place of defaultmemberid via any number of methods, including Java scripts. Each member/sub-site/organization should be correlated to a certain alphanumeric character, such as Jane Doe equals 1234 and Bob Smith equals 5678. Please note that the use of cookies is not advised because if one of your members has disabled its cookies, the Member ID Field will not be tracked. Also, note that the Member ID is case sensitive, therefore a lower case "u" and the numeral "1" must be used for the Member ID identifier to be tracked.
A LinkShare merchant link that has been properly appended with the Member ID identifier may look like this:
<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=/FYI6fQ9PWs&offerid=7097.10000015&type=3&subid=0
&u1=Bob123 " >LinkShare Referral Program&;t;/a><IMG border=0 width=1 height=1 src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=/FYI6fQ9PWs&bids=7097.10000015&type=3&subid=0" >
In this example, &u1=Bob123 would be representative of one particular member or organization of the Signature Affiliate. The identifier changes for each individual member or organization belonging to that Signature Affiliate's site. The unique Member ID makes it possible for the Signature Affiliate to distinguish between members or organizations within the Member ID Field Report located in its LinkShare Account. Here you can see the benefit of using a placeholder such as &u1=defaultmemberid. If you find that a transaction in your reports shows a u1 value of defaultmemberid instead of Bob123, that will demonstrate that an error could have occurred on your end with the way the Member ID was being appended.
Merchant Compliance
LinkShare Signature Technology works exclusively for merchants within The LinkShare Network®. More than 99% of LinkShare merchants are compliant with Signature technology. If a merchant is not able to work with Signature Affiliates, this will be noted in the Account section of the affiliate interface, where it will state "Signature Compliant: Yes or No". Additionally, transactional level data will only be recorded within the Signature Affiliate's Member ID Field Report if they have acquired the LinkShare merchant links through its LinkShare Account and have had that Account enabled with LinkShare Signature.
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