What happens if a customer clicks my link and another affiliate’s link?
In the case of a “multiple referrer” credit will be given to the last referring affiliate. If a customer visits more than one affiliate site before making a purchase, we will always give credit to the affiliate who was last clicked before the purchase was made.
Does my personal website qualify for the CagesByDesign.com Affiliate Program?
Anyone can apply for the program. However, CagesByDesign.com reserves the right to refuse any site. Websites that contain objectionable material, including pornography, explicit language/content, or support for violent or discriminatory groups may be regarded as unacceptable for the CagesByDesign.com Affiliate Program. Sites that offer no real content but consist only of banners and affiliate links will generally not be accepted, unless they are professional in design and appearance.
Can I apply to be an affiliate with CagesByDesign.com if I don’t have a website yet?
Absolutely! You do not need to have a web site to qualify. We encourage participation from chat room bloggers, Facebook members, etc. (affiliate links placed on CagesByDesign.com’s Facebook pages or other blogs or pages created by CagesByDesign.com will not count towards commissions and will be removed).
Can I become an affiliate to get a discount on an order I would like to place?
Yes! You can get a discount on an order you are about to place by becoming an affiliate so long as you can either demonstrate a link or banner has been in place for at least 120 days in a relatively high traffic, prominent location on a relevant web site. If the link is in place for 120 days following the placement of your order you will get your discount in the form of a rebate once you demonstrate to our satisfaction the link was in place for a period of at least 120 days after your order is placed.
Can I copy the content of CagesByDesign.com to my website?
This is a BIG NO NO. When Google sees pages duplicated or copied on the Internet, they penalize all parties involved in the result of poor search listings. It will not help you any – they will blacklist your web site if they find out. Not only that, it is illegal and is considered plagiarism. You may use our pictures, banners, etc, but under no circumstances may you copy our “content”. By content, we mean the general descriptions and words that we use to describe the products and the layout of our web pages. You can use our descriptions for a guideline, but make sure you paraphrase them in your own words and vary the layout of your pages from ours. It not only helps your results but will avoid being penalized. If we find ANY pages or copy that is copied and pasted (even a sentence or paragraph) we will have no choice but to revoke your affiliate membership and disable your link.
Can I download graphics and logos from CagesByDesign.com to my website? Yes, please! Go right ahead. We have many pre-built banners you can use. We will even embed your link for you if you request it and email the final banner to you, or you can build your own banners and embed the link yourself. Remember, if you do not embed the link properly we will not be able to track your sales and track your commissions. We maintain all trademark and ownership rights of all links, artwork, and content and reserve the right to change or modify the terms of use at any time. Also, you MAY NOT reproduce our copy on your or any other web site. This is in order to avoid google duplicate content penalties. You must write and post your original copy whenever advertising for our web site.
Can I do Product Reviews? Absolutely. This is a great way to generate traffic and commissions. If there is a particular product you would like to review on your site, you may grab that image and place it on your own site with your affiliate link attached. If you do this, we just ask that you do not modify the image in any way other than resizing.
May I link to CagesByDesign.com from more than one website?
Yep. You can link from as many different websites, forums, Facebook pages or blogs as you want from one affiliate account even if you have more than one website! How easy is that!
How can I promote CagesByDesign.com most effectively? We will provide banners, buttons and text links that you can use on your site. We have found that text links and 468×60 banners are the most effective type of link for generating purchases, but it’s up to you how you choose to promote us. In addition to your website, you may promote CagesByDesign.com through an opt-in mailing list, but you must make sure you are in compliance with all rules and regulations.
You may use copy taken from any of our web sites in an email. We must avoid duplicate content penalties from the Google search engine as this is a very key advertising venue for our business. A very effective affiliate technique is to display our affiliate links in emails which you would then send to opt-in lists. If you include a personal testimonial about very specific products we find it is an excellent way increase click-throughs and sales. Be sure to visit our tips and tricks section for some more promotion ideas.
What kind of advertising is prohibited?
1. You cannot send spam or unsolicited email in any way. We hate spam as much as you do. Seriously, there should be a desert island where we put those people. There will be no leniency in cases of unsolicited or spam email. Affiliates found to be in violation of this policy will forfeit their commissions and be removed from the program and will be put on the list for possible desert island deportation.
2. You MAY bid on product keywords through PPC programs such as Yahoo Search Marketing, Google AdWords, and Kanoodle, but only to drive traffic to your own website. We would love for you to pay to drive traffic to our site, but unfortunately it is against Google’s terms and conditions to have multiple accounts point to the same web site. You may not use PPC (pay-per-click) ads to drive traffic directly to our website.
Can I change or personalize the images provided by CagesByDesign.com?
We encourage affiliates to be creative when creating custom banners, reviews, and advertisements, however it requires us to approve them in advance. If you would like to request any of these customized creative link avenues, email us your request to [email protected] for consideration. We will evaluate your custom image on a case by case basis.
When and how do I get paid? You will get paid the month after the customer’s return policy has expired (typically 30-days from date of order) and we have been paid in full for the order. Depending on what the customer orders, a customer may receive their product anywhere from 3 days to 8 weeks from the date of order. Yes, this does means sometimes you might have to wait kinda long in order to get your commission, however look at it this way, the longer the wait usually means the more custom the order – and the more custom the order, usually the more expensive the order, which means an even larger commission for you! Customers typically have 30 days from the time they receive their order to return their product. We get very few returns, but we must wait until the return policy expires (30-days) before paying commissions. 99% of customers pay in full in advance, so typically payment in full is not an issue that will hold up commissions. If a customer returns a product for a refund, or if credit card charges are reversed due to a dispute or credit card fraud, unfortunately we will need to cancel that order and you will not be paid commissions. If a product is returned in exchange for new merchandise, or if goods are lost or damaged and we ship replacement goods to the customer, you will keep all commissions.
How are sales tracked? We use cookies (but not the chocolate-chip kind) to confirm affiliate sales. When a customer clicks on one of your links or banners to our store, a cookie is set on their computer that lets track any sales that result from that click. Affiliates caught trying to earn commission from sites that they do not own OR employing cookie overwriting techniques will be immediately removed from the program and will forfeit all commissions.
How long does each store’s cookie last?
Each cookie – a small file stored on the computer of a user that clicks your affiliate link – lasts for 365 days! This means that if a user clicks on your link and doesn’t purchase right away, they will have a cookie containing your affiliate ID on their computer. If they return to the same store within 365 days and make a purchase, you will receive credit for the sale. Cookies that track click-thru’s from a visitor are reset every day, so if a visitor to your website clicks on your link multiple times in one day, it will only count as one click in your daily stats report.
What about phone orders? We are unfortunately unable to reliably track affiliate sales that come in exclusively via phone. However, many of our customers place their orders online then we follow up with them with a phone call. If a customer places an order online, then we call them and sell them more stuff, or they modify the order, you will get paid commission on the final dollar amount of the order even if it is completed over the phone so long as the original order was online. We feel that our very aggressive commission structure more than makes up for the few customers that place their order directly over the phone vs online.
What happens if a customer clicks my link and another affiliate’s link?
Can I copy the content of CagesByDesign.com to my website?
What kind of advertising is prohibited?
When and how do I get paid?
How are sales tracked?