Q. What is an affiliate programme?

A. Affiliate marketing, or 'revenue-sharing', as it is often referred to, is a marketing strategy used by website
owners to increase traffic and, hopefully, sales by paying other website owners a commission when they
refer visitors, who then make a purchase. The affiliate can earn significant commission revenue from a
well-placed link, as well as content for his site, usually in the form of banner ads. Please see the Directory
for details on all current UK affiliate programmes.

Q. What is an Affiliate Network

A. Affiliate networks act as the middle-man between the affiliate and the merchant. They remove the burden
from the merchant of managing the affiliate programme, which can be time-consuming and troublesome.
In return the network receives a commission on top of that paid to the affiliate. The added and main benefit
of the network, as far as the merchant is concerned, is that they will have many thousands of members
waiting to sign-up and begin generating traffic, which can hopefully be converted into sales. For information
on the top UK networks, please see the Networks section.

Q. What is a two-tier programme?

A. As an affiliate, you can recruit other affiliates beneath you (sub-affiliates). These will then earn you a
percentage of sales as well as your first tier revenue. Affiliates recruited beneath your sub-affiliates will
not earn you commission however, as three tier networks are at present not permitted in the UK.

Q. What does payment threshold and frequency mean?

A. The threshold of an affiliate programme is the minimum amount of commission an affiliate is
required to earn before a merchant will issue a payment. e.g. if a merchant sets a payment frequency
of monthly and a threshold of £50 and the affiliate earns £30 in month one, he would not receive a
commission payment at the end of month one. The commission would be rolled over. If the affiliate
then earns a further £30 commission in month two, he would receive a commission payment of £60
at the end of month two.

Q. How are cookies used in affiliate marketing?

A. When a visitor clicks-through to a merchant from your site, a 'cookie' is placed on their PC. If the
same visitor then returns to the merchant site within the cookie duration period and makes a purchase,
you will still be credited with the commission, providing they have not deleted the cookie from their
machine in the meantime! The cookie duration period varies from programme to programme,
generally 30 days, but many merchants are now increasing this.

Q. How do I link to a merchant?

A. When you join an affiliate programme, the merchant will usually provide a selection of banners in
various sizes, together with the HTML code containing your unique identifier. You can then select an
appropriate banner to be placed on your site and insert a hyperlink using the HTML code. Do not,
however, underestimate the use of text links. They can be just as effective as banners, providing
they are strategically placed.

Q. How do you determine the ratings?

A. Each programme is rated according to the following criteria, consisting of five elements. As you
can see, the maximum available rating is 10.

1. Corporate Image
Blue Chip Merchant - 3 Points
Established Merchant - 2 Points
Relatively Unknown - 1 Point

2. Commission Level
Above Average Commission - 3 Points
Average Commission - 2 Points
Below Average Commission - 1 Point

3. Cookie Length
365 days plus - 3 Points
30 to 364 days - 2 Points
Less than 30 days - 1 Point

4. Deep-Linking and/or 2nd Tier Commission
Deep-Linking/2nd Tier Available - 1 Point
No deep-linking/2nd Tier - 0 Point

5. Programme Issues
Points may be deducted if there are known issues with the operation of the programme,
e.g. reporting or conversion problems.