AffiliateWP - External Referral Links
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About AffiliateWP - External Referral Links
Your affiliates promote a site where there is nothing to pay for
Many companies separate their sales site from their marketing site: one WordPress installation with the store or membership, and another, different one that only exists to attract visits. If the affiliate shares the link to the second, the customer arrives, gets excited, clicks and buys on the first, and nobody pays the commission. It is not a bug: the marketing site has no code that reads who sent that visitor.
How the affiliate travels from one site to the other with AffiliateWP - External Referral Links
This add-on is installed on the marketing site, not the sales site. There it does three things:
- It reads the affiliate's ID or username from the URL (for example, ?ref=123 or ?ref=john).
- It stores it in a cookie in the visitor's browser.
- It adds that identifier to every link on that site that points to the sales site, whether it sits in a page or in a menu.
Because a cookie is used, the visitor can move across several pages of the marketing site and the links will keep pointing to the right affiliate. You can also configure how long the cookie lasts: if the customer leaves and comes back later, the system remembers who referred them.
What happens with visits and pretty links
There are two details worth being clear on before you explain this to your affiliates:
- It only works with non-pretty links, that is, with the parameter format in the URL. Affiliate links that use a pretty permalink structure are not supported.
- The visit is not recorded when someone lands on the marketing site. It is only created when the visitor clicks a link that sends them back to the main site where AffiliateWP is installed. If you look at visits expecting to see every entry to the external site, you will not find them.
What each of the two sites needs
The sales site must already have AffiliateWP and your eCommerce or membership system. The marketing site must be a separate WordPress installation with its own database. There is no need (and no point) to install AffiliateWP and the store there too: the data of two installations is not shared, and this add-on exists precisely to avoid that duplication. It is an AffiliateWP add-on, so without AffiliateWP on the main site it makes no sense.
How to decide if this add-on fits you, and common questions
It fits you if you have a separate WordPress-based marketing site that sends visitors to the sales site. If your affiliates already promote the site where AffiliateWP is installed directly, you do not need it. It will not help either if the external site is not WordPress.
Do I install it on the sales site or the marketing site?
On the marketing site, the one that receives the affiliate's traffic. The sales site keeps AffiliateWP as usual.
Can the affiliate use their username instead of the ID?
Yes, the link can carry either one, for example ?ref=123 or ?ref=john.
What if the visitor comes back days later?
The cookie keeps the affiliate for as long as you have configured, so attribution still stands when they return.
Does it work with pretty affiliate links?
No. Your affiliates must share the link with the parameter visible in the URL.
Will I see visits to the marketing site in AffiliateWP?
Not directly: the visit is recorded when the customer clicks a link back to the main site.
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Version history
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1.2 Current 13 May 2024
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Frequently asked questions
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GPL (General Public License) is the license under which WordPress and most premium plugins/themes are distributed. It grants you the right to use, modify and redistribute the software in as many projects as you want, with no domain restrictions.
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Yes. With membership you get automatic updates via our GPLClub Updater plugin (installed on your WP, detects new versions and applies them). With individual purchase, you get one year of manual updates from your account.
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Depends on the plan. Monthly: 3 domains. Semi-annual: 7. Annual and Lifetime: 15. Individual purchase: 1 domain.
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GPLClub offers its own support for installation, configuration and compatibility. For direct support from the original author (feature requests, product-specific bugs), a license purchased from the author is required.
