Help File For Pro-TRACK v1.0 (Stand)
PathFinder Software


 
What The Pro-TRACK Standard Version Will Do.

The Standard version of Pro-TRACK is mainly for the affiliate program owner that wants to track their affiliate sales, but may be only starting out on a small budget. The Standard version will allow the affiliate program owner to  track the essential information.  This information will tell from which affiliate the sale originated. 

The Standard Version Of Pro-TRACK Will Do The Following:

1. Track through a cookie stored on the purchaser's computer where the sale originated from.

2. Pro-TRACK will notify you by e-mail when a new affiliate has registered to your affiliate program with the affiliate ID# listed in the subject line of the e-mail for easy storing and retrieval.

Example of Affiliate Registration E-mail Sent To You Upon Registration:

Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 19:21:33 -0400
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: New Affiliate Registration ID# 508

Pro-TRACK Informing You That A New Affiliate Member Referred By Affiliate 501, Has Just Signed Up To Your Affiliate Program. Included Is Their Registration Information:

Affiliate ID#: 508

Name: Joan Helma
Company: Affiliate Software
Email: [email protected]
Address: 2348 W. Northern
City: Phoenix  State: Arizona  Zip: 85021
Phone: (602) 864-6618

Banner located at: http://www.affiliateaoftware.net/linkpage.html


The Affiliate code ID# (which in this case was 508) is automatically generated by Pro-TRACK the moment the new affiliate clicks on the 'Sign Me Up' button.

3. Pro-TRACK Automatically E-mails the Banner Code To The New Affiliate

In addition to sending you a new affiliate notification, Pro-TRACK also sends the new affiliate their unique banner code ID to be placed on their web page. This unique code will refer to banners already residing on your server so there is not a need for the new affiliate to load up banners or graphics on their web page. Your affiliate banner will automatically appear on their web page. 

Here Is A Sample Of The E-mail Sent To The New Affiliate.

Welcome to our Affiliate Program!

We are glad that you have made the decision to be part of our team.

To begin earning money with your new affiliate account just insert the HTML code below in your web page where you want the banner to appear.

<A href="http://www.affiliatesoftware.net/cgi-bin/protrack/link?508"><img src="http://www.affiliatesoftware.net/cgi-bin/protrack/display?508"</a>

Upload the page to your server and check to make sure all is well by clicking on the banner. You should be re-directed to our site after you have clicked on the banner.
_______________________________

Your Affiliate ID# <<aff_ID_num>>
_______________________________

Keep this e-mail handy in case you forget your ID#.

Thanks again for your support,

The Affiliate Team 


4. Pro-TRACK Will Automatically E-mail You Each Time An Affiliate Makes a Sale

Pro-TRACK will send you an automatic e-mail each time your sales form is processed. The sales form picks-up the unique affiliate ID# stored in the purchaser's computer from previous banner clickthrus and inserts the affiliate ID# in the sales form e-mailed to you. Here is an example of an order:

Affiliate Software Program Registering Information:

Date: 8/31/99

Referring Affiliate# 508

Name: Dixie L. Weers
Address: 7270K 68 Highway
City: Louisburg Zip: 66053 State: KS
location: USA
email: [email protected]
URL:
Options: Pro-TRACK (pro) $497
Payment: VISA
CardNumber: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
ExpDate: 08/2002
NameOnCard: Dixie L. Weers


With Pro-TRACK Standard you will need to track your sales yourself and organize your e-mail program to be your sales database. Since at first most affiliate program owners have more time on their hands than money, you can then do your own sales and statistics management manually. Here are a couple of suggestions.  Many good e-mail programs can manage your sales quotes easily like Eudora or Microsoft Outlook. For example, you can create an e-mail folder called 'Sales' and each month move a copy of each sale e-mailed to the 'Sales' folder, or you can make a folder bearing the ID# of each one of your affiliates and move their sales to their folder. At the end of each month you go through their folders and manually total their sales and mail them a check. Also, you may elect to manually forward them a copy of the sales form e-mail after the sales or credit card has been approved. 

5. The Pro-TRACK Sign-up And Affiliate Code Generation Process (tracking your sales)

Your affiliate will be instructed to sign-up at your affiliate program page where you can either insert the 'Register Me As An Affiliate' submit button, supplied with the 'affiliate.html' page, or you can use the supplied 'affiliate.html' page and copy and paste your actual sign-up text into the 'affiliate.html' page and save it under any name you wish. The 'affiliate.html' page will work under any name.

Once your affiliate clicks on the affiliate button they will be directed to your official affiliate sign-up page where they will enter their personal information and select one of your banners. The moment they click on the 'Sign Me Up As An Affiliate' button Pro-TRACK will automatically send two e-mails. One to notify you that a new affiliate has signed-up to your affiliate program (see example above) and another to the new affiliate that will contain their affiliate banner linking code and ID#.

That is all there is for a new affiliate to sign-up. Their sales tracking process begins the moment they install the banner code on their page. 

6. What's Included With Pro-TRACK Standard?

1. 1- Sign-up Program Info Page - affiliate.html
2. 1- Affiliate Registration Page - register.html
3. 1- Affidavit Agreement Page - agreement.html
4. 1- Pro-TRACK Password Protected Control Panel - PtrackStdrPanel.htm


3. Deleting An Affiliate Member

With the 'Deleting An Affiliate Member' feature you can avoid having your database filled with 'dead affiliates' that have not had any activity for over 90 days. Many affiliates will sign-up to your affiliate program, but we have found out that only about 20% will really push and work their affiliate programs. Pro-TRACK is setup to send you an e-mail notification when an affiliate has been inactive for 90 days, but it can be set to any length of time you desire at the time of the installation.

To Delete An Affiliate Member

From the control panel, enter the affiliate ID# you want to delete and click on the 'View / Edit Affiliate Record' button to view this affiliate's record. To delete this affiliate click on the 'Delete This Affiliate From The Database' button, a confirmation page confirming the deletion will appear. 

4. Setting / Changing Commission Rate

The commission rate paid to your affiliates is set globally, meaning that if you set your first tier at 20% and your second tier at 5% all affiliates in the database will be receiving the same commission amount. At any time you can change the commission amount paid to your affiliates through the Pro-TRACK Control Panel 'Configuration' option, but keep in mind that this will affect only newly registered affiliates after you have changed the commission rate. All previous affiliates will still be paid at the previous commission rate. 

How To Change Previous Affiliates Commission Rate.

We are presently working on an upgrade that will allow you to have different commission rates for each affiliate. At this time the previous affiliates can be upgraded one of two ways. One, by re-registering the affiliate (you can always do that yourself from the login screen) you can pay the affiliate at the newer rate.  Once they are re-registered at the newer rate then delete their old record. Two,  you can contact Affiliate Software Tech. support and they can perform a complete database upgrade for you with a conversion utility.    

5. E-mails Management

The E-mail Management section allows you to fully customize messages your affiliates receive upon signing up. After clicking on the e-mail option you want, just begin to type or change the existing default message to your own personal message.

The 'E-mail All Affiliate' feature is great when you want to e-mail a marketing message or memo to all of your current affiliates. It will automatically e-mail  all of the e-mail addresses you have in the Pro-TRACK database. 

6. System Maintenance

Backup / Restore Database

With Pro-TRACK's backup feature your sales data is safe. By clicking on the 'Backup' button all of your sales data will be backed-up in a special backup folder on your server. In the event that something should happen to your existing data, like data corruption, you could completely restore your affiliate database by using Pro-TRACK's  'Restore' function found on the control panel. A convenient reminder of the date you backed-up on your database is displayed in the system maintenance section. We recommend that you backup your data daily or at the minimum of once a week, depending on your affiliate program activities.  

7. Security

With Pro-TRACK's password protected desktop Control Panel your sales data is safe. Unless someone has direct access to your server you are the only one that can access your affiliate sales data. Pro-TRACK's scripts are coded with a unique password. Anytime someone tries to access that data it looks for the unique code (license) that is embedded in your Pro-TRACK control panel residing on your desktop. You can see that all measures have been taken to assure maximum privacy and security over your data. 

8. Configuring Pro-TRACK

This is the heart of the system. If Pro-TRACK is not properly configured it will not function properly. Only the program owner (licensed) can access the 'Program Settings.' In fact, after all settings have been properly set at the time of the installation of Pro-TRACK, they should not need to be changed unless you would want to change the commission ratio or the default clickthru page.

13. Troubleshooting

At times Pro-TRACK may be processing a form and temporary lock a datafile producing an error message when you try to access the system. This rarely happens but if you were to access the system at that time, all you would need to do is wait a few minutes for the file locking feature to release and everything should again work normally.

If you run into something that seems out of the ordinary and appears to be malfunctioning always refer to the Pro-TRACK 'Program Settings' accessible from the Control Panel. If you still need assistance e-mail or call Affiliate Software's Technical support.

14. Technical Support

We prefer E-mail contact and we usually respond on the same day. You can also reach Affiliate Software by phone at (602) 864-6618 and by fax at (602) 864-1780.

Internet: http://www.PathFinderSoftware.com
Email: [email protected]

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