Including Linking Code
Part of what determines the success
of an affiliate program is how satisfied the affiliates
are with the services and information provided to them.
We can all appreciate how nice it is when our lives
are made just a little bit easier when someone goes
that extra step. While this may not seem like the most
revolutionary concept in affiliate marketing, it is
actually a very effective one. Remember, you have about
two seconds to grab the recipient's attention; a catchy
subject line can only do so much.
LinkShare merchants have the capability to send emails
containing custom links to their affiliates from the
merchant interface. The affiliate simply grabs the code
for the link shown in an email/ newsletter and places
it onto their site. This is a great way to highlight
specific creative and help inactive affiliates become
active, by making it easy for them to put up a link.
Steps:
- Log into your affiliate account
- Go to create links
- Copy the code for the link you want to use
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Important Notes,
Tips & Tricks!
- For advanced HTML
authors try customizing the HTML for text links
so only specific words are hyperlinked! For example:
"Click here to search for your favorite wines"
- If you participate
in both B2B and B2C networks, you must use 2 separate
emails to affiliates in distinct networks featuring
linking code from an affiliate in the appropriate
network.
In other words, if you'd like to send an email to
your B2B affiliates, do steps 1, 2, and 3 in a B2B
affiliate account. If you'd like to send an email
to your B2C affiliates, do steps 1, 2, and 3 in
a B2C affiliate account. Otherwise, the links will
generate an error.
- Remember, if sending
an HTML-formatted email providing linking code,
Hotmail recipients will have incorrect linking code,
as Hotmail changes all URL's. You may want to place
a note in the email specifically calling this to
the attention of Hotmail recipients, and send a
plain text e-mail with the linking code.
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- Paste code into the body of email, replacing
the 11 character id with [SITE.CODE]
- This is VERY IMPORTANT! In order for LinkShare
to embed each affiliate's unique affiliate ID, you
MUST replace the encrypted ID twice!! The first
place you replace it is in the HREF (link). The
second place you replace it is for the IMG SRC.
- The code you copy from the affiliate account looks
like this:
- The two places you need to replace the 11 character
id are shown here:
- The completed code for your newsletter looks like
this:
We
strongly suggest that you use the "Find/Replace
All" function to replace the 11-byte affiliate
code in the link type example to "[SITE.CODE]"
(sans quotes). This will reduce the likelihood of
an error.
- Include two breaks <br>
<br> between the banner example and
the banner code.
- To include a text box around the code the affiliate
will copy use, surround the affiliate banner code
with the following tags: <textarea rows=5 cols=40>
and close with </textarea>
- Again, MAKE SURE that you replace the affiliate
id with [SITE.CODE].
See Step 4 for detail.
- Go to Merchant Interface.
- Click on Send email/newsletter.
- Choose your recipients by either the Basic or Advanced Criteria.
- Select the Email Delivery Method to use - internal, external or both.
- Enter subject line, select HTML as email type. Paste the code of your email into the text box.
- Click the Preview button to preview the HTML.
- If it's ok, click submit and confirm it to send it.
> Next: E-mail/Newsletter Symbols
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