FYI - Affiliate Program FAQ
Does it cost
anything to be an affiliate?
No. Joining theNMS.com Affiliates Program is completely
free!
Can I still
join if I am located outside of North America?
Yes! We have a large number of affiliates and customers
from all around the world.
Does my Website qualify to
participate?
We accept all sorts of Websites into our affiliates program.
However, we do not accept Websites that:
- Promote violence
- Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion,
nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age
- Promote illegal activities
- Include "theNMS" or variations or misspellings
thereof in their domain names
- Otherwise violate intellectual property rights
- Use existing or future software products and services
that will block, alter, direct, redirect, substitute,
insert, append itself to, or otherwise intercept or
interfere in any manner with any click through or other
traffic-based transaction that originated from NMS Affiliates
with the result of reducing any compensation or other
payment earned by or owing to NMS Affiliates
How can I earn money by recruiting
other Websites to theNMS.com Affiliates Program?
For each customer that you recruit, you can earn up to
40% of their sales for life. To qualify as your recruited
Website, a Webmaster must reference your Account Number
or Website ID when they fill out our Affiliates Program
application. You can also recruit Websites using special
recruiting banners available on our Website that automatically
reference your Website ID in the application. There is
no limit to the number of recruited Websites that you
can have.
Are
your images copyrighted? If so, can I display them legally
on my Website?
Yes. Any logos or images on theNMS.com are copyrighted,
and it is legal for you to display them on your Website
as long they are used as affiliate links. Don’t
forget to mention that you are "In association with
theNMS.com."
I operate multiple Websites.
Should I sign up each one separately?
No. You can use the same account for all Websites that
you have. If you want to track each Website’s sales
and clicks separately, you can do this by establishing
Website IDs that are part of your account. The advantage
of doing this is that you will receive a single check
for all of your Websites. This makes it easier to reach
higher commission percentage levels and quicker to reach
the minimum bank account balance needed to receive payment.
How do I sign up?
Fill
out our Affiliates Application Form and agree to the
terms of our Operations Agreement. You will then receive
an email with information on how to get started creating
links on your Website!
How many different
ways can I link to theNMS.com?
You can link to theNMS.com with logos, banners, and text
links. You can also choose to link to different destinations
on our Website such as specific items, categories, or
our homepage.
How do I build links?
It's easy. Login to our affiliates area and go to our
LinkBuilder. You choose the type of link you want and
our Website will generate the HTML (you don’t even
need to copy the images to your Website). Then you can
just copy and paste the code into your Website pages or
have it sent to you through email.
Are there a certain
number or types of links that I must place on my Website?
No. It is completely up to you in regards to the amount
and types of links you choose to display. We encourage
you to use many images, since this will increase your
click-through rate and commission earnings.
How can I check that
my links are working properly?
To ensure that your affiliate links to NMS.com are working
properly, go ahead and click through some of your links.
Give the system one day for the clicks to register to
your account and then go to Traffic & Sales -->
Statistics. Select "Yesterday" as the time frame
and "Traffic" as the report and then click on
"Generate Report". If your links are working
properly, you will see the clicks recorded in the report.
If you are still unsure whether your links are functional,
e-mail us at affiliates@NMS.com and we will take a look.
How do I know if I have
made any sales?
To check your sales, commissions, and traffic, go to the
Reports section. Select the type of report you wish to
view from the left margin (e.g. Sales Summary, Traffic
Summary). After you have selected the specific report
you would like to view, choose the Website, tracking ID
and period of time for which you would like to see results
and then click "Generate Report".
How does theNMS.com
track sales from my Website?
We track sales coming from your Website using an unique
"Website ID and Tracking ID" in your links.
Based on the "Website ID and Tracking ID" in
the link, we can identify each visitor that comes from
your Website and credit your sales and traffic accordingly.
If someone clicks on
a particular item link and then purchases a different
item(s), does the commission still apply?
Yes! Based on your unique "Website ID and Tracking
ID", we are able to track any sales referred from
your Website. You earn commission on all sales of posters,
prints, calendars, magnets, mounting, framing, etc. (excluding
shipping & handling and tax if applicable).
How much do I get paid?
We pay you a 18%-40% commission on all sales (excluding
shipping & handling and tax). The higher your sales,
the higher your commission rate!
When do I get paid?
You get paid monthly, once your commission balance reaches
the minimum amount. The minimum payment for affiliates
is $50.00. If you have not met the minimum amount, we
will carry your commission balance forward to the next
month.
Can I use my commissions towards
purchases at theNMS.com?
Yes. You may use your available
balance towards purchases at theNMS.com, but you must
have the "Exchange for Services" option selected
as your payment type.
Can I buy products through
my own links?
Yes. Feel free to click through your own links to make
purchases. You will earn commission on your purchases.
I already sell web services
or newsletter products on my Website. Can I still participate?
Certainly. We recommend that you display our logo with
the text: "For more newsletter management options
and services, visit theNMS.com".
I operate a high-traffic
Internet web Website. Can you provide me with extra administrative
and technical support?
Of course! Let us know of your situation and any special
needs you have; we’ll be sure to help you out.
Still have questions? Contact
us and we will be glad to answer any questions you
may still have.
FYI - Affiliate Program Glossary
Affiliate marketing has a language
all its own. Below is a collection of the frequently used
terms.
Above
the Fold: part of a web page that is visible
once the page has loaded, normally it is the top part
of a web page. This term is derived from the newspaper
industry, referring to the portion of the front page that
is visible with the paper folded.
Affiliate:
a Web site owner that earns a commission for referring
clicks, leads, or sales to a merchant.
Affiliate
Agreement: terms between a merchant and an affiliate
that govern the relationship.
Affiliate
Information Page: a page or pages on your web site
that explains clearly and concisely what your affiliate
program is all about.
Affiliate
Link: a piece of code residing in a graphic image
or piece of text placed on an affiliate's web page that
notifies the merchant that an affiliate should be credited
for the customer or visitor sent to their web site.
Affiliate
Manager: the manager of an Affiliate Program who
is responsible for creating a newsletter, establishing
incentive programs, forecasting and budgeting, overseeing
front-end marketing of the program, and monitoring the
industry for news and trends.
Affiliate
Program (also an Associate, Partner, Referral, or Revenue
Sharing Program): a merchant pays a commission
to an affiliate for generating clicks, leads, or sales
from a graphic or text link located on the affiliate's
site.
Affiliate
Program Directory: directory of affiliate programs,
featuring information such as the commission rate, number
of affiliates, and affiliate solution provider. Associate-It,
AssociatePrograms.com and Refer-it are among the largest
Affiliate Program Directories.
Affiliate
Solution Provider: company that provides the network,
software, and services needed to create and track an affiliate
program.
Associate:
synonym for affiliate.
Auto-Approve:
affiliate application approval process where all applicants
are automatically approved for an affiliate program.
Auto-Responder:
an email feature that automatically sends an email message
to anyone who sends it a message.
Banner Ad:
an electronic billboard or ad in the form of a graphic
image that comes in many sizes and resides on a web site's
web page. Banner ad space is sold to advertisers to earn
revenue for the web site.
Browser:
a client program (software), such as Internet Explorer,
Netscape, or Opera, that is used to look at various kinds
of Internet resources.
Charge Back:
an incomplete sales transaction (i.e. merchandise
is purchased and then returned) that results in an affiliate
commission deduction.
Click &
Bye: refers to the process of an affiliate losing
the visitor to the merchant's site once they click on
a merchant's banner or text link.
Click-through:
the action when a user clicks on a link.
Click-Through
Ratio (CTR): percentage of visitors who click-through
on a link to visit the merchant's web site.
Client: a
software program that is used to contact and obtain data
from a server software program on another computer, often
across a great distance. Each client program is designed
to work with one or more specific kinds of server programs,
and each server requires a specific kind of client. A
Web browser is a specific kind of client.
Co-branding:
situation where affiliates are able include their own
logo and branding on the pages to which they send visitors
through affiliate links.
Collaborative
Commerce Networks: networks of merchants and web
sites that work hand in hand as true business partners.
Merchants treat their affiliates as sales and distribution
channels worthy of any and all support that manufacturers
would give to their resellers.
Commission:
income an affiliate receives for generating a sale, lead
or click-through to a merchant's web site. Sometimes called
a referral fee, a finder's fee or a bounty.
Cookies:
small files stored on the visitor's computer, which record
information that is of interest to the merchant site.
With affiliate programs, cookies have two primary functions:
to keep track of what a customer purchases, and to track
which affiliate was responsible for generating the sale
(and is due a commission).
Context-Centric:
matching your product or service offer closely to the
visitors of an affiliate's site. Place the product or
service in-context (closely related to the content it's
next to) and more people will buy.
Contextual
Link: integration of affiliate links with related
text.
Contextual
Merchandising: placing targeted products near relevant
content.
Conversion
Rate: percentage of clicks that result in a commissionable
activity (sale or lead).
CPA (Cost
Per Action): cost metric for each time a commissionable
action takes place.
CPC (Cost
Per Click): cost metric for each click if an advertising
link.
CPM (Cost
Per Thousand): cost metric for one thousand banner
advertising impressions.
CPO (Cost
Per Order): cost metric for each time an order
is transacted.
Customer
Bounty: pays the affiliate partner for every new
customer that they direct to a merchant.
HTML code:
the lines of code that affiliates use to put links on
their Web sites. Affiliate solution providers often provide
a tool where affiliates can simply copy the code for an
affiliate link and paste it into their own HTML pages.
Impression:
advertising metric that indicates how many times an advertising
link is displayed.
Merchant:
an online business that markets and sells goods or services.
Merchants establish affiliate programs as a cost effective
method to get consumers to purchase a product, register
for a service, fill out a form, or visit a Web site.
Mini-site:
prefabricated HTML page for affiliates that displays
new or specialized products with integrated affiliate
links.
Pay-Per-Sale:
program where an affiliate receives a commission
for each sale of a product or service that they refer
to a merchant's web site. Pay-per-sale programs usually
offer the highest commissions and the lowest conversion
ratio.
Pay-Per-Lead:
program where an affiliate receives a commission for each
sales lead that they generate for a merchant web site.
Examples would include completed surveys, contest or sweepstakes
entries, downloaded software demos, or free trials. Pay-per-lead
generally offers midrange commissions and midrange to
high conversion ratios.
Pay-Per-Click:
program where an affiliate receives receive a commission
for each click (visitor) they refer to a merchant's web
site. Pay-per-click programs generally offer some of the
lowest commissions (from $0.01 to $0.25 per click), and
a very high conversion ratio since visitors need only
click on a link to earn the affiliate a commission.
Residual
Earnings: programs that pay affiliates not just
for the first sale a shopper form their sites makes, but
all additional sales made at the merchant's site over
the life of the customer.
Storefront:
prefabricated HTML page for affiliates that displays
new or specialized products with integrated affiliate
links.
Super Affiliates:
those small percentage of sites - the top 1% of affiliates,
based on performance and earnings - that generate the
lions share of the revenue for your program. They are
born marketers and are very successful with the affiliate
program they promote from their sites
Targeted
Marketing: offering the right offer to the right
customer at the right time.
Tracking
Method: the way that a program tracks referred
sales, leads or clicks. The most common are by using a
unique web address (URL) for each affiliate, or by embedding
an affiliate ID number into the link that is processed
by the merchant's software. Some programs also use cookies
for tracking.
Text Link:
link that is not accompanied by a graphical image.
Two-tier:
affiliate marketing model that allows affiliates to sign
up additional affiliates below themselves, so that when
the second tier affiliates earn a commission, the affiliate
above them also receives a commission. Two-tier affiliate
marketing is also known as MLM (Multilevel Marketing).
Viral Marketing:
the rapid adoption of a product or passing on of an offer
to friends and family through word-of-mouth (or word-of-email)
networks. Any advertising that propagates itself the way
viruses do.
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out all of these great benefits!
How
much can I earn?