Need Good Affiliate Scipt for PayPal Affiliate Commissions

[Scott Million]

UPDATE 11/8/08: I went with RAP for the Warrior Webinar and it worked great. I ran into some issues with the high volume (got a 500 error)...Sid called me up and walked me through it. Best $177 I ever spent (handled the affiliate commissions nicely, and the 'tell a friend' feature paid for RAP several times over)

Thanks so much for your suggestions, guys

----- Original Post (Ages ago...lol)

I know Clickbank, PayDotCom, etc. take care of the commission split for you, but I'd like to install a script on my server that automatically puts the share of the affiliate's commission directly into their PayPal account (and the rest into mine).

I need this to be able to handle refunds as well...(how does that work if I pay the affiliate instantly? Do I get screwed and have to refund the full amount myself or can I have it take the affiliates commission as well when their customer requests a refund?)

I've had issues with John Ledger's 7 Dollar Script and would like control over % of commission...however, I don't want PayPal to get upset (since it's against their policy to allow affiliate commissions through PayPal)...

So what's the solution? HELP!

[Scott Million]

Also, I just got whim of PayPal freezing accounts that require an opt-in to get the product after purchase. I'd like to avoid this fiasco...

Experienced PayPal Merchants please share

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by Scott Million

however, I don't want PayPal to get upset (since it's against their policy to allow affiliate commissions through PayPal)...

No, it's not. That is what their Mass Pay feature is for.

[Scott Million]

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

No, it's not. That is what their Mass Pay feature is for.

I know it's okay for 100% commission, but what about 75% or less?

What about opt-in for product download?

and...What's the best affiliate script to use to do this?

Thanks

[Chris Lockwood]

Scott, PayPal doesn't care what you pay your affiliates. Like David said, they don't like the split payments, probably due to buyer confusion.

They also don't allow multi-tier programs.

But normal one-tier programs where you pay the affiliates yourself- no problem. I think the instructions for Mass Pay even mention commissions as an example of what that feature is for.

[Scott Million]

Originally Posted by TheToolWiz

First off, there's nothing against PP's TOS about this. The problem PP had with the $7 Secrets Script (7DS) was some wording that Jon used on his main sales page.

One thing that PP has not shown a liking towards is "split commissions", which is where one person makes two payments. Regardless, these kinds of payment situations result in problems when someone doesn't realize they're supposed to make TWO payments, and they only make one.

A terrific solution to your needs is Rapid Action Profits. It is modeled roughly after 7DS, but it goes way beyond what 7DS does. It pays affiliates directly by determining who's due to get paid next, then it sends the customer to PayPal using the appropriate email addy. Payments are made as 100% increments, but relative to percentages. That is, if affiliates are scheduled to get 100%, then they get every payment. If they're due 50%, then they get every other commission; 33% pays every third sale; 25% pays every fourth sale; etc.

RAP supports a whole lot of features that make it an incredibly flexible and powerful payment platform. One of the best parts is that it now supports Add-Ons.

A just-released Add-On is the Reseller Bonus Manager. This is an AMAZING Add-On!

You know how with most large launches, the resellers all offer big bonuses? Handling fulfillment on them is a MAJOR PITA. Well, RBM automates the whole bonus fulfillment end of things, and makes them viable to offer on a wider scale.

I'm about to launch something that will use RBM.

Seriously, RAP is something every IMer should have.

-David

David, this is definitely what I'm looking for! The price is steep, but from what I've found browsing various affiliate script products nothing compares...at least at the $177 level. Thank you so much for sharing this!

[e-mail2u]

Scott,

There is a script Instant split commissions. No affiliate checks to write as each affiliate get paid in real time. You can set the commission to what ever you want. You decide who gets paid first you or the affiliate.

Hi Scott,
As Chris already mentioned this is what PP mass payment is for. I coded my own and use PP mass payment and since I have knowledge of this let me tell you one thing you should be very careful of when using some other script.

You must secure your PP Auth Number that PP issues when you signup for Mass Payments. If it is not secure from hacking eyes then you could be asking for trouble.

Whatever you decide to use just make sure it is very secure.

James

[RichardWing]

David couldn't have covered it any better than I would have.

Richard Wing

[lakshaybehl]

RAP by Sid takes care of everything for you. Just plug and play kinda script.

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by e-mail2u

There is a script Instant split commissions. No affiliate checks to write as each affiliate get paid in real time. You can set the commission to what ever you want. You decide who gets paid first you or the affiliate.

That script should be called Instant Paypal Account Loss, since they banned that type of payment years ago (the type where the customer has to make 2 payments in a row to 2 different people).

[RichardWing]

Chris you are correct that paypal doesnt like those kinds of payments.

However you are incorrect that this script does that because flat out IT DOESNT WORK THAT WAY!

Richard Wing

[graphicsgenie]

Looks like Sid has commissioned someone to redo his sales page too.

Not sure who did it, but I like it a lot!

Thanks

[joblythe]

Originally Posted by graphicsgenie

Looks like Sid has commissioned someone to redo his sales page too.

Not sure who did it, but I like it a lot!

Thanks

Yeah! Must be a bit of a Graphics Genie, that one Darren!!

[ECS Dave]

Scott,

David, Jo and I are all RAP users, and speaking for myself (and them, I'm sure) Rapid Action Profits is almost better than sliced bread!

Be Well!
ECS Dave

[Chris Endres]

I need a script like this too,.. RAP I mean.

I read the whole thread and there is one thing that eludes me. How exactly is a payment for a product divited and paid if there are not 2 payments made?

If an affiliate sells my report for $7, and I want $2 and want to give him/her $5, how does RAP deal with this so everyone is happy?

Thanks for the assistance here

[Andy Fletcher]

Originally Posted by Chris Endres

I need a script like this too,.. RAP I mean.

I read the whole thread and there is one thing that eludes me. How exactly is a payment for a product divited and paid if there are not 2 payments made?

If an affiliate sells my report for $7, and I want $2 and want to give him/her $5, how does RAP deal with this so everyone is happy?

Thanks for the assistance here

It makes full payments that average out to the % you set it to. Eg if you set it to 50% it pays you then your affiliate then you then your affiliate etc. If you set it to 66% commission your aff gets 2 payments to every 1 of yours.

[Craig McPherson]

Plus it has a $47 discount only until this coming Saturday.

[RichardWing]

Also I am offering 30% off my addons for purchases that happen during RAP's Anniversary Week promotion.

Richard Wing

[Ben Roy]

How do refunds work with RAP? If you pay the affiliate immediately for the entire sale and the buyer comes back for a refund, do you then have to go chasing down the affiliate to get your money back?

[Ben Roy]

Merchant here means the person that actually purchased RAP, right? So if I have affiliates and one of them gets paid and then the person requests the refund, I will need to look up to see who actually got paid, send them an email or call them and ask them to issue the refund, and then they will actually refund the money.

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by RichardWing

Chris you are correct that paypal doesnt like those kinds of payments.

However you are incorrect that this script does that because flat out IT DOESNT WORK THAT WAY!

Then there must be more than one script called Instant Split Commissions, since the one I have from a few years ago does require the buyer to make 2 payments.

[rickjh]

Very informative thread.

Does RAP do recurring subscriptions? If so, does it handle recurring commissions the same way?

[Johnny Slater]

RAP can handle recurring billing but you have to purchase an additional plug in to do it. Sid's vision for RAP is to have a core script that does the basics then have add ons which give the script more features.

If you want all the bells and whistles it can get quite costly but for basic sites with only a few features the price is in line with most other solutions.

[Triggerkg]

Hi all, This may be a stupid question but does RAP work as a membership script also. Providing your customers with username and login

[tomw]

Post Affiliate Pro and iDevAffiliate are also good options.

Post Affiliate Pro - Affiliate Software, Affiliate Program Software
iDevAffiliate - Affiliate Tracking Software - Affiliate Program Software

Thomas

[Sid Hale]

Hey Tom,

Both of those handle Paypal payments - but NEITHER of them handle the original poster's need:

Originally Posted by Scott Million

I'd like to install a script on my server that automatically puts the share of the affiliate's commission directly into their PayPal account (and the rest into mine).

I need this to be able to handle refunds as well

... automatic payment of commissions to the affiliate's account.

[dhudiburg]

I love RAP and highly recommend it. Most of the concerns about it come from people who have not used it.

I've rarely used such a well supported and *smartly* evolving tool.

[Paul Schlegel]

I have a question about Rapid Action Profits.

We want affiliates to be able to append an affiliate ID for an affiliate program that is handled outside of Rapid Action Profits.

What we want to happen is that when the customer reaches the download page, we want to display a free offer that has a link with that affiliate's id for the non-RAP affiliate program.

Is this possible with RAP?

Can we make it so the affiliate can enter both their RAP ID and the non-RAP affiliate ID into a form?

I'm asking this on behalf of our tech guy and he asked if the RAP code was modifiable and if so, what the limitations were for being able to modify it?

Thanks in advance.

[Paul Schlegel]

Originally Posted by TheToolWiz

Not sure if I'm following you exactly, but the DL page has a template on it where you can put whatever you like on it.

The DL link is derived from a bit of PHP script that expands upon page-load to a protected download URL.

There's no reason you couldn't put an additional piece of PHP code there that does a lookup on some other database that cross-references the given (RAP) affID with another URL. RAP itself doesn't do that, although several of us have been discussing a "custom fields" add-on that would probably do it.

-David

Thanks David. It does sound like it would work.

Paul

[Scott Million]

Wow, this is an old thread! Since it's still going I went with RAP for the Warrior Webinar and it worked great. I ran into some issues with the high volume (got a 500 error)...Sid called me up and walked me through it. Best $177 I ever spent (handled the affiliate commissions nicely, and the 'tell a friend' feature paid for RAP several times over)

Thanks so much for your suggestions, guys

[Triggerkg]

Originally Posted by Scott Million

Wow, this is an old thread! Since it's still going I went with RAP for the Warrior Webinar and it worked great. I ran into some issues with the high volume (got a 500 error)...Sid called me up and walked me through it. Best $177 I ever spent (handled the affiliate commissions nicely, and the 'tell a friend' feature paid for RAP several times over)

Thanks so much for your suggestions, guys

I have a question for you. To make this more apealling to affiliates can you set up the tell a friend to pay the affiliate also or is it just a payment you will recieve.

Also is it possible to have a free offer on the landing page for signing up to mailing list and then they pay on the back end.

My idea could go either way. Not to sure yet which way i should really go for.

thanks in advance.

[Scott Million]

Originally Posted by Triggerkg

I have a question for you. To make this more apealling to affiliates can you set up the tell a friend to pay the affiliate also or is it just a payment you will recieve.

Also is it possible to have a free offer on the landing page for signing up to mailing list and then they pay on the back end.

My idea could go either way. Not to sure yet which way i should really go for.

thanks in advance.

Yes, you can do both of those things with RAP.

In fact, the incentive for them to use 'tell a friend' is that they get XX% of each sale made.

I think 'tell a friend' sells on its own for $97...and it's included w/ RAP. It really does work like a charm (because people trust their friend's recommendations far more than an internet marketer's)

Some customers made 3 sales by sending out 5 emails to their friends instantly using 'tell a friend' (that's a 60% conversion rate!) ... and then those 3 friends do the same... it's truly one of the best viral marketing techniques I've come across and it should be part of every marketer's sales funnel.

[Triggerkg]

Originally Posted by Scott Million

Yes, you can do both of those things with RAP.

In fact, the incentive for them to use 'tell a friend' is that they get XX% of each sale made.

I think 'tell a friend' sells on its own for $97...and it's included w/ RAP. It really does work like a charm (because people trust their friend's recommendations far more than an internet marketer's)

Some customers made 3 sales by sending out 5 emails to their friends instantly using 'tell a friend' (that's a 60% conversion rate!) ... and then those 3 friends do the same... it's truly one of the best viral marketing techniques I've come across and it should be part of every marketer's sales funnel.

Thanks Scott, this software sounds better and better the more i learn about it....

[globalpro]

Hi All,

Like Scott said, this will be the best money you ever spend for something to make money.

The next version is about to release. It will solve the issue of multiple downloads for the front and back end offer.


Right after that a brand new add on will be released that is going to blow everyone away. More on this to come.

Thanks,

John

[Scott Million]

Originally Posted by TheToolWiz

I'd like to echo what John just said... RAP V3.0.3 is just around the corner. It's not a huge update, but it's got a few internal tweaks and a free add-on that most RAP users will find very helpful.

And that new add-on that's about to come out is DA BOMB!

There are 7 or 8 add-ons for RAP now, and a bunch more in the pipeline. The thing is, if you wanted to use any of these features, you'd have to use a different script for each one. None of them would work together (even if it would make sense); none of them lets you manage your affiliates and JV Partners from a common control panel; none of them gives you as many different ways to compensate your affiliates as RAP; and none of them pays your affiliates instantly.

As for the built-in (optional) Tell-A-Friend form, your customer's email addy is used in the referral links. But keep in mind that with anything but a 100% commission rate, you (the merchant) will earn the first commission payment. It's unusual for anybody to buy something through a TAF form, and it's even more unusual to have more than one sale from five referrals like that. So the practical side of that is ... chances are VERY LOW that anybody but the merchant will earn anything from TAF referral sales. The ones where your customer DOES earn a commission will probably surprize them enough to start bugging you to tell them how they can earn MORE!

-David

Very true...TAF might not be as powerful for other offers. I think it worked so well for mine because it was a live event, something friends could participate in together.

Good point.

BTW - Sid told me about a membership add-on coming out soon! It might be available by now.

[Triggerkg]

Does anybody know when the new update is being released as i want to wait for this update and get the membership addon also, this is exactly what i am looking for

thanks all

[Louis Raven]

Hey Scoot,

I'm positive RAP is a brilliant product but surely Clickbank will save you more hassle (setup/ VAT etc.) right?

Louis

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by Scott Million

Wow, this is an old thread! Since it's still going I went with RAP for the Warrior Webinar and it worked great. I ran into some issues with the high volume (got a 500 error)...Sid called me up and walked me through it. Best $177 I ever spent (handled the affiliate commissions nicely, and the 'tell a friend' feature paid for RAP several times over)

Thanks so much for your suggestions, guys

Scott, would you recommend RAP for high volume sales, like product launches?



Thanks,

[Scott Million]

Originally Posted by Thomas Belknap

Scott, would you recommend RAP for high volume sales, like product launches?

Thanks,

Excellent question...sent you a PM. I had a bit of a nightmare with RAP during the Warrior Webinar and ended up receiving a '500' error (which is the server's issue)

The problem: Too many open congruent processes (according to HostGator)...their limit for a reseller's accounts is 25 and told me I had to mess with the script or upgrade to a dedicated server. They were able to reset everything via live chat, but that didn't solve my long term problem (as this was over a week)

So, I sent an SOS to Sid and he called me up. He asked the download size of my files and I told him: 24 MB and 433 MB (Brian McElroy had a HUGE video series)

Sid said that the file sizes in combination with high traffic and payments could definitely backup the system on a reseller's account...so I switched the download links to 'unsecure' instead of using RAP's secure download system and everything worked smoothly.

I'm not sure I can give you a 100% clear explanation of what to do for your launch, but I will say that if you expect 10,000s of visitors in a short period of time get a dedicated server (99/mo), keep the download sizes well under 433 MB!, or use a different product delivery system (DL Guard, for example...or just an unsecured download link)

I will say that I had no issues after I switched to unsecure downloads, so I'm pretty sure the file size (in combination with HostGator's congruent processes cap) is where the problem lies.

Hope that helps. I will be going dedicated server for the next WW and I'll let you know if I hit any issues.

Scott

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by Scott Million

Excellent question...sent you a PM. I had a bit of a nightmare with RAP during the Warrior Webinar and ended up receiving a '500' error (which is the server's issue)

The problem: Too many open congruent processes (according to HostGator)...their limit for a reseller's accounts is 25 and told me I had to mess with the script or upgrade to a dedicated server. They were able to reset everything via live chat, but that didn't solve my long term problem (as this was over a week)

So, I sent an SOS to Sid and he called me up. He asked the download size of my files and I told him: 24 MB and 433 MB (Brian McElroy had a HUGE video series)

Sid said that the file sizes in combination with high traffic and payments could definitely backup the system on a reseller's account...so I switched the download links to 'unsecure' instead of using RAP's secure download system and everything worked smoothly.

I'm not sure I can give you a 100% clear explanation of what to do for your launch, but I will say that if you expect 10,000s of visitors in a short period of time get a dedicated server (99/mo), keep the download sizes well under 433 MB!, or use a different product delivery system (DL Guard, for example...or just an unsecured download link)

I will say that I had no issues after I switched to unsecure downloads, so I'm pretty sure the file size (in combination with HostGator's congruent processes cap) is where the problem lies.

Hope that helps. I will be going dedicated server for the next WW and I'll let you know if I hit any issues.

Scott

Thanks a lot Scott. I appreciate the feedback.

[ODA Marketing]

Hi.

This software looks better and better every time I read about it.

I have some questions about it, I think not have been asked in here before.

If I have understand it right, this script is able to split a commission into 5 different pieces.

If so, it is perfect for 2 Tier aff. program or for JV Brokering.

I also understand that this program is splitting commission with paying out 100% of the commission to different people after a fixed schedule based on the commission rate. Ex. 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc.

How do this script handle a situation where the vendor shall have 40% of the sale, the affiliate 50% and the 2 tiers/jv-broker 10%?

Another question I want to find an answer to is this:

Normally this script is installed on the vendors server.

Can this script be installed on the JV Broker's server and the product still be at the vendor's server as an protection to make sure that the split will be done after contract?

Thanks in advance for answer to those questions.

[Scott Million]

Originally Posted by TheToolWiz

I'd say the biggest difference is that
RAP pays affiliates immediately; Clickbank take 6-8 weeks.

Which do you prefer, as an affiliate?

You still have to set up a sales page and all that, no matter what mechanism you're using to make the sales.

Is there any VAT paid on eBook sales? Is there any way to get "found out" if you don't withhold it? (There's no tax needed on digital download products in the US, AFAIK, but other countries may be different.)

-David

RAP also comes with a salespage layout (and instructions of what types of literature should be placed where)

This makes it very easy for even the worst of copywriters to create a salespage that flows nicely and converts well.

It also comes with a built in Tell a Friend, Affiliate Management Center, Conversion Tracking, and you can sell more than one product...test prices (cannot do that with ClickBank)...

However, I would like to see an add-on for split testing headlines and sales copy. I know you can do this with entire sales pages, but there are a lot of stats that could be added to make this the 'ultimate' script.

Not sure how profitable those additions would be for Sid, but this might sell well as a premium priced add-on (as those most interested will be willing to pay top dollar since a .5% increase in conversions can make the difference of thousands in a matter of a few days)

Just a thought...

Scott

[JaniG]

I would use Rapid Action Profits (RAP)

you can use Paypal with them.

Jani

[ODA Marketing]

Hi again.

Thanks for your very good answer to all of my questions.

There was one question I think you overlooked.

Can this script be installed on the JV Broker's server, and the product still be at the vendor's server as an protection for both side of the table?

Thanks.

[Sid Hale]

Hi omeyer,

Originally Posted by omeyer

Can this script be installed on the JV Broker's server, and the product still be at the vendor's server as an protection for both side of the table?

If the JV Broker is the owner of the script, yes.

But that's really jumping through hoops (IMHO) in most cases.

JV Brokers come in all flavors and the arrangement with the JV Broker should determine how the system is set up.

One may supply the hosting, ALL of the traffic for a product, and therefore all of the sales. He just doesn't own the product outright. In that case, the product could stay on the vendor's server, with a "download" link that simply points to that page.

He may recruit other affiliates to promote (2nd tier works good for this), and then reap the benefits of their promotions.

He might negotiate a percentage of income (rather than a percentage of referred affiliates sales), in which case it might be better to set the JV broker up as an equity partner (still running the system on the vendor's site).

In most cases, I (as the "vendor") would want the system hosted on my server, and my JV broker could be allowed to see his/her stats simply by logging in to the affiliate center, or to the main admin panel.

Joint Venture Partners and JV Brokers both have (in my mind) an elevated status over standard affiliates, but not elevated to the point that I let them control my business. How much information/access is given them, is really decided separately for each situation.

[Scott Million]

Yes, 'concurrent processes' is the correct term.

Thank you very much. I wish HostGator spent a fraction of the time you did in explaining what happened.

Originally Posted by TheToolWiz

I suspect that error was "too many open concurrent processes".

And please understand, this has NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH RAP, per se!

It's a combination of prudent management techniques combined with a script that's acting as a proxy for serving up an extremely large download that can take an unusually LONG time (tens of minutes) to complete. That's a recipe doomed to failure!

Shared servers MUST limit the number of concurrent current processes they allow at a fairly small number or they'd risk swamping the entire server's resources very quickly. Even on a dedicated server it can be a problem.

Note that Apache ALWAYS imposes a limit on this. If it didn't, any of a number of otherwise innocent scripting errors could completely crash the server.

When you attempt to load a web page, it sends a page request to the Apache web server. That loads up the web page, frequently processing it through something like the php interpreter. Every include file, every image, every embedded object, is loaded by spawning a concurrent process. Most of the time these processes complete in a fraction of a second, so even web pages with hundreds of things on them are not a problem.

When you have a script like RAP or DLGuard or something else that "hides" download links behind a bit of script code, Apache spawns off a concurrent process to do the download -- it's basically acting as a proxy. This is different than if it passes the URL to your browser directly and the browser does the download itself. Even if the URL is to the same server and domain, a separate Apache process is invoked to handle that download, so it's not a "concurrent process" attached to the script that served up the link.

But if you start serving up things in concurrent processes that take more than a few seconds to fulfill, you can run into that wall pretty quickly. A 400MB download could take an HOUR or more to complete, tying up resources for that entire script on the server the whole time.

It wouldn't take very many people trying to access that script in a given 5 minute period to have it hit the wall, so to speak and start generating "500" errors.

That's why it's not a good idea to serve up videos, audios, and large protected files through your script, either on the sales page or on a download page.

Again, you wanna know why servers die during big launches? This is a very common cause. Only if it's a dedicated server, chances are you aren't knowledgeable enough to figure it out! You just hit the reset button and continue on your merry way.

Sometimes admins just crank up the number of concurrent processes that Apache can handle, thinking it's just not high enough, without realizing they'll bring the server to its knees at some point.

The solution is not to switch to a dedicated server so much as it is to host your large media and download files somewhere else, and do NOT force the script to act as proxy to load them up. In RAP's case, that means you might want to re-think using immediate downloading of large files. Consider hosting them on Amazon S3 and providing a separate DL link in a PDF they download, or even in an email.

Basically, separating the DL link from the download web page will solve the problem, although it defeats the purpose of having protected links on the DL page.

Choose your poison.

-David

[Jesus Perez]

Brilliant post. Thank you for explaining this in a way that others can comprehend. I'm saving this post into a swap file for future clients that have this exact same issue.

Originally Posted by TheToolWiz

I suspect that error was "too many open concurrent processes"....

Choose your poison.

-David

[globalpro]

Hi,

Just a quick note. I have one client who is using RAP on a dedi server. High traffic with about 2000 products. No issues.

The next release is right around the corner. I know is thorough and wrapping some last minute things and the documentation.

The big change in this next release will be the file structure for ease of future updates and the ability to manage multiple downloads for both the front and back end products.

Part of the problem that Scott has is the size of the downloads. With only the one secure download file available, it's been a problem. Sid has corrected this and now you can split the download up into smaller files and add as many as you need to complete the package.

It's an excellent solution.

Once Sid releases the next version, the membership add on will be released. It requires the next version of RAP to work. It's ready to go, so it will be right behind Sid's release.

While the add on is a seperate purchase, it will fill a void that has existed for a very long time. It will be coupled (as I understand) with the subscription add on as a package. Now you will be able to have the full functionality of RAP with an integrated membership area and recurring billing.

Not only is this great for you the vendor, but for your affiliates and partners as well.

It will be money well spent.

Thanks,

John

[ODA Marketing]

Hi, Sid.

You are something. If all of the product owners had given the support you are given, there had been no problem.

Thanks in million.