As long as the blog owner has added the correct tracking Javascript to the header of the blog, any page can be linked to by simply adding the affiliate number at the end of the link (preceeded by a ? symbol).

For instance, for Jeff Johnson’s most recent promotion, his affiliates could link to his “super affiliate” blog entry like so:

http://www.undergroundtraininglab.com/975/super-affiliate/?336674

(I have no idea whose affiliate ID that is — probably someone’s — this URL was just in my browser history, so I grabbed it . . .)

With regards to affiliate-specific instructions (e.g. bonus instructions), Synergyx has provisions for up to 9 “custom” fields for each affiliate account. These could conceivably be used to pass affiliate-specific instructions to the customer. However, there would be length and special character limitations — it really wasn’t designed for that kind of use.

It would be fairly straightforward to add that capability on a per-product/per-affiliate basis though — I’ll add it to my “to-do” list! :-)

The same method could be used for affiliate-specific tracking codes, which I’ll also add to my list.

Synergyx already has the ability to include any/all customer information in the affiliate notification emails, so that’s just a matter of convincing the merchant to include what you want . . .

How well the customer’s receipt email could be integrated with an autoresponder service depends on the service. (For instance, Aweber has an email parsing feature that would lend itself very well to this kind of thing.)

Best,

Paul
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On the deep linking side, wouldn’t that still require the vendor to assign landing pages for the blog, or can a parameter just be added to the end of a permalink?

I realised the documentation was intended for merchants, but I had an itch that had to be scratch, as it was limiting my ability to market a great product.

If you are looking for features to add, the ability for an affiliate to include their own tracking pixels to various thank you pages would be very welcome

With alomst every affiliate system there are some kinds of privacy issues… the more data you provide an affiliate, the bigger issues with distribution of private data. Certainly for purchases the data is made available.

My personal preference would surprisingly enough be for you to default with providing as much data as possible with a customer’s receipt, including the possibility of an affiliate adding further instructions.
If you can manage it this could also be integrated within an email confirmation from an autoresponder signup.

It would then be very easy to automate the parsing of an order receipt for bonus delivery, and it is something that would be very hard to fake.

I just want to change the focus a little away from optimizing the backend monetization, to enabling affiliates to market in the most efficient way possible.

Just happened to stumble on this whilst doing an unrelated search related to Jeff Johnson, and thought I’d comment on some of your points regarding Synergyx.

First off, Jeff Johnson doesn’t use exactly the same affiliate tracking script as Jeff Walker — he uses pieces of Synergyx bolted onto the front end, with some custom reporting code (something I had to put together very quickly for him some time back) — but he uses 1shoppingcart for the actual order processing and affiliate commission functions. Still, the tracking fundamentals are the same . . .

Also keep in mind that Jeff Walker isn’t using the latest version of Synergyx. We’re going to upgrade him, but don’t want to do it in the midst of a launch cycle. (Plus, he has some customized code in there, so the upgrade will be a little more complex than what we typically have to do…)

“No leads tracking” — Synergyx does have the ability to track leads, and I believe Jeff has done this in the past — probably just an oversight on my part this time around. All it requires is a tracking pixel on the optin “thank you” page . . .

“Notification sent to affiliates doesn’t include the ad code” — All that requires is a merge code to be added to the outgoing email. The data is available to be included in email messages if desired.

“The sales reports don’t include ad codes” — You’d think that would be classified as a “glaring omission”, wouldn’t you? But incredibly, you’re the first one to ever mention this. I’ve just now added that information to the reporting in question.

“SubID tracking is only partially documented” — Yes, I readily concede my documentation is not as good as it could/should be. I’m working on it! ;-) However, that documentation is directed at the merchant, not the affiliate. Armed with a knowledge of the system’s capabilities, it’s up to the merchant to educate their affiliates about what they can and cannot do . . .

“Synerqyx also doesn’t directly support deep linking as far as I know” – All that is required is to add some PHP or Javascript to any page you wish for affiliates to link to. Or if your site supports a common header, the tracking code could be put there, allowing your affiliates to link to any page. For blogs, the simplest way is to add some Javascript code to a sidebar “text widget” . . .

“I have no idea how Synergyx would cope with 10,000 different SubIDs and how that data could be exported in real time or near real time” – There is theoretically no limit to the number of subcodes — when compiling the reports, the same code is executed regardless of the number of subcodes found in the dataset. There would be higher memory usage, but that’s about the only difference (at least at first glance). There would be absolutely no affect on the order processing, affiliate tracking, etc. functions.

With regards to data export, this is something the merchant can do, but is not available to the affiliate. That being said, I HAVE done some custom programming for one client that allows his affiliates to download a CSV file containing their customer information — the adcode could easily be included in that data.

The client wanted this feature so their affiliates could easily see who was owed a bonus and send it to them via email. I caution against giving affiliates access to customer data though, unless your privacy statement clearly discloses that practice.

Just “FYI”, the data is real-time, and currently the safest limit to adhere to is 40 characters (including affiliate ID and tracking code). The visit and lead logging routines have a 40 character limit, but the affiliate cookie code and shopping cart have no length limit. (I’ll soon remedy this so that only the affiliate ID has a 40 character limit, with probably a much larger limit for the tracking code (I’m thinking 200 characters) . . .

I hope this provides some illumination for you and your readers — let me know if you have any other questions regarding Synergyx.

Best,

Paul

Great post, very informative!

Matt