Welcome to the Share Results FAQ page! Want to learn about the affiliate marketing game and make more money online? Take a look at the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing and the Share Results Network below.
Share Results is an affiliate marketing company that provides software, support, management and marketing services to help advertisers run affiliate marketing programs. We also maintain an extensive affiliate network across numerous retail categories.
An affiliate (also known as a publisher) is a partner who promotes a merchant’s products or services. Affiliates earn commissions for all the valid transactions, sales and leads they refer to a merchant’s site.
A merchant (also known as an advertiser) is any company that sells a product or service, accepts payments and fulfills orders online.
An affiliate program is a partnership between a merchant and an affiliate, where a merchant compensates an affiliate for referred customers who make legitimate purchases on their website.
Referral program refers to affiliates referring other affiliates to the program, and earning revenue for the activity of their referred or sub affiliates. Referral commissions can also be a one-time payout for sign-up. Merchants who implement this program are giving incentive to their affiliates to encourage other affiliates to sign up. With more affiliates promoting your product, you’ll have increased exposure in the marketplace as well as a greater chance of generating revenue.
The Share Results affiliate network was launched in 2004 and continues to be a growing network for retail affiliates and merchants. We facilitate mutually beneficial relationships that help our affiliates and merchants earn money by providing the accurate tracking and the flexible technology that they need to be successful.
Once a merchant or affiliate joins Share Results, they become a member of the network. Merchants will have access to affiliate profiles, demographic statistics and performance metrics that help them decide which websites best complement their own.
Share Results plays an active role in fostering mutually advantageous partnerships between merchants and affiliates. New merchants are introduced via announcement in a network-wide affiliate newsletter, and targeted affiliates are contacted individually with opportunities especially relevant to their users. Share Results can help merchants with affiliate recruiting — on a start-up, ongoing or ad hoc basis.
You can create an unlimited number of users, and designate access levels for each. As an affiliate, you may have more than one team member, and they will all have the ability to access the account as needed. Merchants can also set up multiple accesses to an account so that members of the accounting, marketing and administration teams will all have access.
Share Results adheres to responsible business practices. If kept unchecked, website fraud and careless marketing such as spam or misleading advertising will harm affiliate programs and the Web marketing community as a whole.
For our part, we monitor websites for bogus, obscene or hate-inciting content and review statistics for any unusual results or practices. We screen affiliates before they come into the network to verify identity and quality, encourage all programs to also verify all sales for validity before approving them, and request any questionable practices to be reported to info@shareresults.com.
If you would like to sign up to the Share Results Network, click on this URL, https://www.shareresults.com/affiliates/ai_affiliatesignup.php, then follow the three simple steps and click on “Continue”.
An affiliate manager will review your application within 48 hours of receiving it. Be sure to add us to your safe list so that any emails from us do not end up in your junk folder. Once you have done that, check your inbox for an approval email from Share Results, log into your account and get started!
Once you have been approved into the network by one of our affiliate managers, you can apply to as many programs as you like. To do this you:
Once your application has been received, it will be reviewed and processed by the merchant. Be sure to log in to your Share Results account and see if your applications have been accepted so that you can start promoting and making money.
Congratulations! You are ready to start promoting and making money. To do this, follow these simple steps:
Once you have found the appropriate creative, click “Get Creative Code”.
A window will pop up with the code. You can then “Highlight and Copy” it and paste it into your website.
If you want to measure the performance of your campaigns, you can go to your traffic, transaction and earnings report. You will see impressions, clicks and transactions.
Impressions are the number of views that the banner or text link on your website gets. Clicks are the number of times a creative such as a banner, text link or widget gets clicked on. Transactions are the completion of a commissionable action, whether it is a sale that is made through your website or a lead that has completed and submitted an application.
Each merchant updates their stats at various frequencies: Share Results stats can be updated in real time or daily, depending on the merchant. At minimum, your affiliate stats for each merchant are updated daily.
Merchants review transactions before approving them to ensure their validity. If all is well, they approve the transaction and you earn your commission. The time it takes to approve a transaction varies depending on the merchant. Some approve transactions within 24 hours, whilst others may need 30 days to verify a sale. This period before approval is when you have a pending transaction.
Log in to your Share Results affiliate account and select “Reports”. On the Reports menu you will find a Payment Report. The Payment Report is a summary of commissions earned and bonuses issued during a specified date range for a specific merchant. If the total commission earned does not meet the payment threshold for the merchant, the commissions will be rolled over to the next period. If the threshold has been met, the payment becomes due to be paid.
Affiliates receive one payment a month from Share Results for commissions generated across all programs.
Affiliates get paid for approved transactions each month, as long as their combined commission exceeds their payment threshold. Payments are issued by the 10th working business day of the next month for approved transactions for the previous month.
Share Results combines all merchant payments into one simple sum per affiliate. Once the monthly sum reaches the threshold for that payment method, the affiliate will be paid.
Affiliates choose just one method of payment.
| Payment method | Available currencies | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Wire Transfer | USD, CAD | $ 500.00 |
| Cheque | USD, CAD | $ 60.00 |
| PayPal | USD, CAD | $ 20.00 |
Your commissions will be carried-over to the next month until your affiliate commission total reaches the threshold.
Yes, you can! You just have to follow these simple steps to change your payment details:
Be sure to change it before the end of the month if you want your commission to be received in the NEW method you’ve updated.
There is an easy way to change your user information and you can do it by following these simple steps:
You can add new websites (also known as tracking profiles) to your account without having to create a new affiliate account. In order to do this, follow these simple steps:
Share Results keeps your original site listed in your account to preserve historical data and records any traffic that may have been generated. However, you can add as many tracking profiles as you like.
Reporting is updated in real time. This means that it is updated within minutes of an impression, click or transaction occurring. As a result, you can immediately get a good idea of how well you are doing.
Coupon feeds aggregate all the coupons on the network in one place in order to save you time from having to search for them yourself. The feed contains coupons from within your own program as well as other programs. They are easy to use and come in an XML or CSV file format.
There are a number of additional tracking options we provide to our affiliates. Our most popular is called the ACID or Affiliate Client ID. You can add a custom parameter to your links to enable more detailed tracking at the transaction level. You might use this value to track transactions in your account back to an individual member or customer. Implementing the ACID requires that the additional parameter and value be added at the end of the standard affiliate link.
To find out more or how you can add and use this feature, contact your Share Results affiliate manager at info@shareresults.com or you can message us through the internal message bank.
We are very sorry to lose you. If you would like to close your affiliate account, you simply have to contact an affiliate manager at info@shareresults.com or you can use the internal message bank and we will be happy to help you out.
We evaluate a variety of factors, including company size, e-commerce practices, number of years in operation, and marketing budget. Details vary depending on industry. Due to our interest in developing long-term partnerships, we only work with businesses and brands that maintain responsible business. Email info@shareresults.com and a member of the Share Results business development team will contact you.
Yes. We encourage you to play an active role in your program’s affiliate recruitment. Our affiliate management software allows you to manually review and approve affiliates after viewing their websites, statistics and site offerings.
Yes. Share Result’s software supports tiered or flat percentage rates (calculated from revenue generated), flat cost-per-action (CPA) or cost per lead (CPL) rates and referral commissions. We can also help you determine the right commission model for your industry and business, or create special rewards and incentives for affiliates with excellent performance.
Of course. The system allows you to offer commissions to select affiliates or groups of affiliates. You can control the amount, time period and type of commission offered.
All managed programs have a dedicated affiliate manager who will manage the day-to-day operations of the program, optimize advertising campaigns and communicate closely with affiliates, leveraging our existing relationships with them. Non-managed programs also have a dedicated contact to provide support with managing their program and helping the promotion of campaigns to the network. In all cases, your satisfaction is our priority and we are committed to giving your company and program the resources it needs to succeed.
Once you partner with Share Results, you have access to view the performance of affiliates in your program. You can track results and analyze data by creative, campaign, affiliate or time period for your various reports. Our dashboard allows you to see many of these reports at a glance.
Our self-help resource area can address many of your concerns and troubleshoot common problems. Most importantly, our support department offers a 24-hour turnaround service and will be able to help you with any additional questions that you may have about the program. In addition, you can contract our services, and a Share Results account manager or marketing consultant will help develop tailor-made strategies to meet your goals.
If you create your own marketing tools, there is a Creative menu option under which you can upload your own banners, text links and other ads. Simply log into your merchant account and fill in the details associated with your creative.
Our affiliate management software is compatible with all common payment systems and shopping carts, including PayPal and XCart. The software is optimized for Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer on all PCs.
Merchants only provide required information to Share Results—customers are identified on an anonymous basis and personal information is discarded—ensuring that your customer database is not compromised in any way.
Share Results gives you the option of licensing our software and running your own branded affiliate program. We recommend you have dedicated resources and experienced affiliate managers if you choose our white-label option. Using our affiliate management services to manage your white label affiliate program is also an option.
The software is updated regularly, generally every month. Our teams of software specialists are always on the lookout for new and engaging ways to enhance the product. Share Results is a relationship-based brand, and many of our upgrades come as a direct result of client and affiliate feedback. Share Results conducts regular surveys, and our managers are in constant contact with our partners.
No. The software upgrades are absolutely free, and are available to all of our clients. We also offer clients free training and support on new and existing features. Share Results values the partnership with our clients, and we want them to have the best quality product and service.
Migrating your affiliate program to the Share Results Network or to your own in-house program is easy. Share Results works with you to assess the required data and suggests a format to receive and import affiliate and transaction data
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