*****New CCBill Affiliate System Q and A*****
 

As I posted last week in Stephen's thread, I would like to open up a Q and A as I am sure a lot of you have questions on the new WMS (Webmaster Marketing System). Here is the launch thread from last week and I have included some main points below.


Demos and more information are located here. Post your questions and I will do my best to get back to you in a timely fashion.

i want to ask again still the same question ... why are affiliates and webmasters account passwords cut to 8 chars? do you know about that? if i have user:pass like mypornsite:password32554, it allow me to enter my stats area just with mypornsite:password, or with mypornsite:passwords56dasdgblablah also let me in ... that is something that is easy to remove and imho will be more secure for all those people who are using longer passes ... just my question ... respect and wish you best with your service! :thumbsup

We are launching a new affiliate admin front end in the next few months that will resolve this issue. I do believe this has already been addressed with the webmaster admin.

Can you explain more about how the universal ID for affiliates will work please?

A new ID number that all other ID's can be grouped under?

Is there campaign tracking with the universal ID?

How will the 'who gets the sale' differ from the current system?

I have asked to have it on my sites. How long does it take?

Will this affect any current links?

I saw someone else wondering how the cookies would now be handled. Something I hadn't initially thought about.

Suppose you have surfer clicking through to Site A with my aff ID and the cookie is set.

That surfer then clicks through to Site B using someone else's universal ID (which also happens to cover Site A)

Surfer comes back to Site and joins, who gets the affiliate credit?

I hope that is easy to understand.

How easy will it be to integrate in our current CCBill affiliate setup? We have tons of galleries, FLV's. hosted blogs etc etc that are in use right now, we don't want to ask all our affiliates to make changes or get in a situation where codes/tracking is not working.

Sebastian

Each program you signup with will still have a unique ID that our system will use for campaign tracking however you will not have to bother with these. You will just need to login with your one unique ID and then you can separate the sales in the reports.

In most cases it will not differ from the current system however if the sponsor chooses to link the consumer with the affiliate that affiliate will get credit for that consumers rebills/subsequent purchases for the duration of the consumer-affiliate link which is specified by the sponsor.

We are beginnig to migrate the first of clients on Friday. Migration time will be based on size and complexity of the programs being moved, and we're going to be moving very slowly. This is a huge implementation, and we have a very high respect for your business, and are going to take things slowly to minimize any possible disruption should any issues come up.

No, this will not affect current links.

Wow, looks pretty good. Good job guys :thumbsup

This really depends on the sponsor settings but it is mainly like the old system in that the last in will be the first out so the second affiliate will get the credit for the sale. I may be confused now :1orglaugh

nice job
http://onja.net/34/random.gif

Will ccbill ever have something like debit card?

For affiliates does the new system have NATS style campaign tracking? Currently if an affiliate wants to track a specific traffic sources with a CCBILL site he has to create new affiliate ID's as a hack to do campaign tracking.

Once an affiliate has his one universal CCBILL affiliate ID he no longer has to sign up/enroll in programs seperately? Correct?


From the paysite/program owner side does the one universal ID for affiliates mean that all sites under a master or sub-account are by default 'grouped'? Or can a program owner opt out one or more sites out of a grouping?

thanks

If you migrate, you don't need to change anything.

If your affiliates want to use the additional functionality with the new system, they will need new links. We understand that this is huge but it is necessary with all of the changes.

So just to clarify, if you as a sponsor move to the new system your affiliates do not have to change their links but they will have to if they wish to use the new system features and functionality.

I would like to keep this thread specific to the new WMS, that and I don't understand your question.

Feel free to hit me up paulk @ ccbill.com ic q 248615940 Thanks.

So let's say a sponsor currently has 5 paysites, the sponsor moves to the new system - affiliates for the current 5 sites still can use their old link codes and old affiliate ID's to track their sales - when the sponsor launches a new site (site #6) affiliates will be enrolled in the new system? or can the sponsor give the affiliate the choice to use the old system or the new system?

the old system will always be available? there's no time frame for it to be shut down i hope.

I should be signed up and ready to migrate. :-)

yes this is true

As a sponsor all my affiliates old links will still work but if they want to take advantage of the universal id then they will have to use a different link code.

I'm not sure if the question was fully answered. I use a cms for my cash program that spits out linking codes for sites, FHG, POTD, GOTD and other things. Do we as program owners need to alter hundreds if not thousands of current promo we have to make it ready for this

IE will this FHG still work in the new system as it is
http://www.hannaheartbreaker.com/fhg...?ccbill=792677

Screw NATS campaign tracking, it sucks. I want proper tracking where I can assign a tracking code of at least 8 alphanumeric characters on the fly to the link codes and they show up on the transaction list for all transactions stemming from that track code.

Our new system uses something called trackers for this if I understand your question correctly. Directly from our help file:

Trackers allow a sponsor to track marketing material hosted by the sponsor for reporting and evaluation purposes. Trackers can track clicks, number of sales, and total sales coming from link and banner advertisements. When a consumer clicks advertisements and are redirected to your site, the tracker reports the sales data from the sign up referral.

The affiliate no longer has to create a new account for every program. They can instead go to Find and Compare programs, look for other sponsor programs that are in WMS, and join zero to many of them at once. You are not, however, automatically signed up to all programs in WMS.

A program owner has a lot more flexibility here now than they used to, and can now select any number of price points for various sites across all of their subaccounts for a program. So Program A could have all of the price points from Subaccounts 2, 3, 4, and 7, Program B could have 1 price point from subbacount 1, all of the price points from subaccount 5 and 5, etc.

I love the new additions. Is the Cascade to URL active now?

well even better - i'm just asking whether they have any type of campaign tracking/managing in the new system that is an improvement from the old system.

OK, I think you may be confused, so am I :) Let me try and clarify...

Suppose you have a surfer clicking through to paySite A with my aff ID, affiliate Y, and the cookie is set for me. He doesn't join, just bookmarks for now.

That surfer then clicks through to paySite B using someone else's universal ID, from affiliate Z site. Affiliate Z also promotes paySite A.

Surfer comes back to paySite A via bookmark and joins, who gets the affiliate credit?

paySite A and paySite B have no connection with each other whatsoever.

Does Affiliate Z cookie overwrite Affiliate Y cookie for paySite A?

Pity so few programs support proper tracking and automated data retrival for affiliates, I have had to beg some programs to implement it.

ok - i hope an affiliate can still enroll in a program via a form from a free-standing affiliate program site i.e. FTVCash.com

wouldn't be thrilled to spend money and time promoting my own program only to be forced to send a new affiliate over to CCBILL's Find and Compare to enroll where others can benefit from my investment and promotion. I have no problem with the Find and Compare thing, we all can benefit from a tool like that - but not if that's the only way a webmaster can get enrolled in a program.

thanks for the answers

Not automatically, although the sponsor does have the option of inviting anyone in a current program to their new program.

If the program is generated in the new system, the affiliate will need to use the new system for that program.

The old links will always be usable, but we do plan on eventually phasing out the old system for the new one. So, eventually we will migrate all programs to the new system, but not at the expense of your existing links.

That's something different than I'm talking about - that's something for sponsors to use. I'm talking about campaign tracking for affiliates. i.e. an affiliate buys a gallery spot or ad space on site A to promote my site, he wants to be able to track sales from that traffic source/campaign - does the new system have anything in it along those lines for affiliates?

Those will still work fine as long as you as the program owner opt to still use the old system. So you can use the old system and the new system concurrently. If you were to switch to only using the new system than the old links would no longer work.

Hope that helps. We are not going to kill the old linking codes unless the program owner requests it. :helpme

Thanks! and yes that is active now.

It really does depend on the sponsor settings and once you join a sponsors program in the new system you will be able to see what I mean.

There are many different settings with the new system now though so it is hard to answer your question because of that but if the sponsor has the default settings enabled their program will act the same as the old system in this regard and Affiliate Z will get credit.

Yes, yes, an affiliate can still enroll in a program via a form on the sponsors site. They can also join via the admin once a sponsor enrolls their program.

Thanks for the questions :thumbsup

Everything sounds cool! Right now what I am looking for is a program that will manage my hosted galleries so that the affiliate's code is automatically assigned to the gallery ala NATS. Is it in the new setup?

Will there be real demo,i mean demo account where it is possible to login?

ok what about affiliate newsletters that sponsors send out? would they go out to ALL affiliates signed up to WMS? Sounds like a lot of unwanted spam from programs they don't promote.. also for the other affiliates that don't go to this new WMS do we as sponsors have to send out a 2nd newsletter to reach them?

currently a affiliate can go into their ccbill tools area and pick and choose who they receive emails from, can you with this?

Marketing Materials in the new system does this. The sponsor can register each gallery as a MM (with a link to its location), and assign them to appropriate programs. Then, when an affiliate wants to use it, they find the MM and make a link for it. That link includes the affiliate ID, program ID, and the marketing material's ID.

Is there a list to get on to receive the programs as they are migrated?? I tried the old system years ago, and always avoided ccbill programs ever since, but as soon as programs get this new system, I want to know and signup.

A sponsor can not send an e-mail out to an affiliate in WMS unless the affiliate belongs to a program the sponsor runs.

No, you will not have to send out a 2nd newsletter. If they belong to your program via old or new system they will receive your newsletter.

Yes, this is in the new system as well.

No, but once you have joined one program in WMS, you have access to the Find Programs option and can just check it periodically.

Hi Paul! :)

If i started a new program now, can i start right away with the new system?

cant wait to start using the new system. im all for better reports.

are you adding referal urls so affiliates can know the url they are sending hits from?

Hello Sir! was good to see you as always.

The migration queue still exists but we will prioritize easy new migrations as well.

OK. I guess I'll wait and see what it's actually like. Thanks.

I plan on signing up with ccbill for a new site here soon. Hopefully we will hear some reviews about all this soon as programs switch over.

OKay just to make sure I understand this right from a program prospective, for example all the tools etc that we would have available on LTC for example would become worthless (flash videos, page peels, potd, votd, etc)? If we wanted to utilize this new system we would have to do everything via CCBill's new system and the tools etc will then be all through there?

Not entirely. If you have a ton of marketing materials with links already, and wish to continue using them, they WILL still work, even when migrated. But if you wanted, for example, to register those marketing materials with us to be able to track them through our new WMS marketing materials reports and make them available to new affiliates through our marketing materials screens, then yes, they would need be registered through WMS, and likely links would need to change.

Okay so say if we would want to make them available to affiliates via your new marking screens, would we be able to have the exact same tools we currently have (flash videos, potd, votd) but they would just have new links?

Why did you guys launch this without training your customer service (Live Chat)?

I am not sure if WMS has this... but will you add a feature so that you can pay percentage to affiliates from NET and not GROSS. Currently our only choices are to pay the affiliates % of GROSS or split the fee... we would like to split the NET after fee.