Before anything else, it is important to properly configure the basic settings of your Post Affiliate Pro account to make it ready for integration & initial tests.
Enter your main site URL
The main site URL creates the general affiliate link, which is displayed at the top of the affiliate panel. In general, it is recommended to use the URL address of your home page site, or the site you want your affiliate to promote the most. The URL can be defined in Configuration > Tracking Settings > Main site URL field.
Select the default linking style
The linking style defines the format of affiliate links & banners. The default style can be selected in Configuration > Tracking Settings > Affiliate linking method. If needed, the linking style can be selected also per-campaign.
- Anchor links
https://mycompany.com/#a_aid=affiliate007
Standard type of links, containing the tracking parameters in an anchor. Not suitable for Instagram.- Short anchor links
https://mycompany.com/#affiliate007
Shortened form of anchor links, more visually appealing. Requires enabling "Support Short Anchor linking" below the linking methods.
- Short anchor links
- New style links
https://mycompany.com/?a_aid=affiliate007
Standard type of links, containing the tracking parameters directly in the URL. - Mod Rewrite links
https://mycompany.com/ref/affiliate007
Advanced linking style allowing tracking clicks even if the click tracking script cannot be added to your website. To set this style up, it is required to have access to the configuration of the server on which your website is hosted. - DirectLink style
https://mycompany.com/
This linking method allows attributing all traffic coming from a specific site (e.g. from a website or blog that an affiliate owns) to a selected affiliate, without the need to have tracking parameters in the URL of promoted links. Not recommended as the default linking method. - Redirect links
https://mycompany.postaffiliatepro.com/scripts/click.php?a_aid=affiliate007&a_bid=1234abcd
These links point the visitor first to a Post Affiliate Pro script that tracks the click and then redirects the user to the destination URL, optionally appending the visitor ID cookie value generated by the click in a URL parameter. This style is useful when promoting links from 3rd party software.
Set the cookie lifetime and overwriting
Define the default cookie lifetime in Configuration > Cookies. This number defines how many days since the click on an affiliate link the affiliate will get commissions for all sales (or actions) made by a referred customer.
Select whether you want to overwrite cookies or not by checking/leaving the "Overwrite cookie" checkbox in Configuration > Cookies, to decide whether a commission should be attributed to the affiliate whose link was clicked first or last. When a visitor clicks on an affiliate link, the information about it is saved in a cookie. If the visitor later clicks on the link of another affiliate, the system can overwrite the previous cookie. If the cookie is overwritten, the last affiliate whose link was clicked by the customer receives the commission. If it is not overwritten, the initial affiliate will receive commission.
Set up affiliate approval
Decide whether you want to approve your affiliates automatically right away once they sign up, or leave them in the pending state and approve them manually by setting up the "Affiliate approval" in Configuration > Affiliate signup.
Park your account on a custom domain
You can park your account on your own domain in Configuration > Domain settings, replacing the default domain *.postaffiliatepro.com and enhancing your brand recognition and credibility while providing a professional appearance of your affiliate program.
The custom domain can also help prevent our integration scripts from being blocked by various ad blockers, increasing the tracking accuracy.
Suggested subdomain names are partners.yourdomain.com or network.yourdomain.com. We don’t recommend affiliate.yourdomain.com or affiliates.yourdomain.com as scripts with these subdomains are usually blocked by ad blockers.