Guide for vendors
A vendor is a business that sells a product or service inside someone else's affiliate network - for example a store that joins a marketing agency's network, or a seller in the affilink marketplace. You bring the product, the network operator brings the affiliates who promote it.
How to join
By invitation from the network operator (or by self sign-up, if the network allows). After joining you have your own access - you see and manage only what's yours.
Submitting an offer
- Fill in the product details: title, description, a link to the product page, an image and a price.
- Propose a commission to affiliates - a percentage of the sale or a fixed amount. This is a proposal: the network operator can approve it or request a change.
- The offer enters a "pending review" state - the network manager reviews it before it's exposed to affiliates. This protects everyone: affiliates know every offer in the network was vetted.
- Approved? From that point affiliates can request to promote it.
Connecting your site (required before you start)
When the offer is created, a secret key (webhook_secret) is generated for it that only you receive - no other vendor in the network sees it. The key is used by your site to report sales in a signed, unforgeable way.
The implementation is about 30 lines of code on your site (there is a ready WooCommerce example) - give your developer the integration guide. Without this connection, clicks are counted but sales are not reported - and nobody earns.
What you see and what you don't
| You see | You don't see |
|---|---|
| Your offers, the clicks and conversions on them, and how much commission accrued | Data of other vendors in the network |
| The sale amounts you reported | The network's full affiliate list and its internal commission details |
How settlement works - simply
- The customer pays you the full purchase amount, directly, as usual - affilink does not touch the sale money.
- The system calculates how much commission is owed to the affiliate who brought the purchase, and produces a report: "you owe the network X".
- You settle the amount with the network according to the report (or in advance via a deposit, if agreed).
- The "paid-when-paid" principle: the commission to the affiliate is released only after your settlement is received. This way nobody in the network bears risk on money that hasn't arrived.
Refunds
A customer cancelled and got a refund? Your site reports it through the exact same connection (event_type: refund), and the commission is automatically reversed. It's important to report - otherwise you'll be charged a commission for a sale that didn't happen.
Common problems
- Offer "stuck" in review? That's with the network manager - contact them directly.
- Clicks with no conversions? Almost always a site connection issue - the troubleshooting guide.