help with 3 simple questions please.

5 replies
I've done a lot of research but I still can't find the answer to these 3 simple questions.

I understand in affiliate marketing that you are basically referring someone to someone else's product and getting a commission for this.

But how does it work? Say someone clicks your site and ends up clicking over to the company site and purchasing something. I understand you will get a commission for this but how?

1) Is it just automatically sent to your bank account or paypal? Is there any phone calls involved? Do you have to call the company or vise versa?

2) If it is a physical product and involves shipping would it still just be a done deal after the purchase or is there going to be phonework or online work involved?

3) What about if there is a refund? Someone wants their money back for the product. Does it just come out of your bank account/paypal? what happens?

I would appreciate answers to these simple questions it's been bugging me so much

Thanks guys
#questions #simple
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Trenton View Post

    I understand you will get a commission for this but how?
    It varies. You need to read the detailed explanations and terms of service (especially those relating to payment) on each site, to get the multiple answers to this question.

    Originally Posted by Trenton View Post

    1) Is it just automatically sent to your bank account or paypal?
    Sometimes one of those two things (sometimes you can even choose which); sometimes something different. You need to read the detailed explanations and terms of service (especially those relating to payment) on each site, to get the multiple answers to this question, too.

    Originally Posted by Trenton View Post

    Is there any phone calls involved? Do you have to call the company or vise versa?
    Again, this varies. For ClickBank and Amazon (just as examples), there are no phone-calls involved at all.

    Originally Posted by Trenton View Post

    2) If it is a physical product and involves shipping would it still just be a done deal after the purchase or is there going to be phonework or online work involved?
    There won't typically be any paperwork (and almost never a phone-call) involving the affiliate, no. But with some companies the affiliate's payment eligibility doesn't arise until after the product has actually been shipped to the customer. Even this varies from company to company.

    Originally Posted by Trenton View Post

    3) What about if there is a refund? Someone wants their money back for the product. Does it just come out of your bank account/paypal? what happens?
    Again, it varies. With ClickBank, for example, the affiliate never has to refund anything. ClickBank will simply deduct it from your future payments, if you've already been paid out (and stand the loss, if you disappear). With some other companies, it can work either of the ways you mentioned, or in other, different ways. These things all vary.

    Originally Posted by Trenton View Post

    I would appreciate answers to these simple questions
    Sorry, but the only simple answer that's also accurate is "You need to read the detailed explanations and terms of service (especially those relating to payment) on each site, to get the multiple answers to these questions." Different companies have different terms of service, policies and procedures, online just like offline.

    And welcome to the Warrior Forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew Servis
    Originally Posted by Trenton View Post

    I've done a lot of research but I still can't find the answer to these 3 simple questions.

    I understand in affiliate marketing that you are basically referring someone to someone else's product and getting a commission for this.

    But how does it work? Say someone clicks your site and ends up clicking over to the company site and purchasing something. I understand you will get a commission for this but how?

    1) Is it just automatically sent to your bank account or paypal? Is there any phone calls involved? Do you have to call the company or vise versa?

    2) If it is a physical product and involves shipping would it still just be a done deal after the purchase or is there going to be phonework or online work involved?

    3) What about if there is a refund? Someone wants their money back for the product. Does it just come out of your bank account/paypal? what happens?

    I would appreciate answers to these simple questions it's been bugging me so much

    Thanks guys
    It depends on the affiliate network you are using. Clickbank gives you (as an affilate) a URL to use and you put in your affiliate id into the URL. You then use this to link to the product you are promoting, this url redirects to the main sales page when anyone clicks on the link but when you look at your URL link with affiliate ID it is the same page save for the URL.

    You get paid commission when anyone clicks on your unique link and a purchase is recorded via that link by clickbank. So when you buy a product someone has promoted from clickbank you buy through clickbank as the payment processor, and the affiliate promoting that gets credited with the purchase (because clickbank "seen" the purchase was coming via their affiliate link) and they get their commission.

    Some networks do send the money to your account directly but others send out checks etc every X amount of weeks or every month, and only when it reaches a certain amount.

    Other networks are different in some ways but the basic idea is the same.

    I'm not so sure how refunds are done, if it is up to the seller to honour the refund or it goes via the affiliate network and they have to chase it up.

    Hope that helps? I know it can be confusing - but sometimes it just clicks in to place.

    Andrew
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    • Profile picture of the author jurojin
      You don't have to call the affiliate company. Usually payments are sent once a month via check or wire transfer assuming you've met the payment threshold (usually $50-100). If you are promoting physical products, there are no calls involved except for any calls that the customer might make regarding the product. In this case, your affiliate commission might be on hold (pending status) until the payment is confirmed and the product shipped.

      If the customer decides to return the product and get a refund, normally your commission for that order will be deducted from your total if this happens before your payment is sent (within the same month). If it happens after your payment was sent, the affiliate company can deduct the commission for the refunded product from your future payments, if any. My advice, if you are just getting started as an affiliate, is to work only with known reputable affiliate companies such as amazon, linkshare, cj.com , clickbank (for digital products) and so on.

      Otherwise you might not get paid at all, if you work with shady, smaller affiliate companies, which also have a bad habit of "shaving" your commissions. This means that even if you do bring customers that make a purchase, they will not credit your commission, and they will blame it on "errors" if you prove them that you did refer a customer

      I hope this helps, cheers!
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      • Profile picture of the author Kreator517
        Don't see any reason to be terrified of phone calls... They're an interesting niche to get into.

        Some Commission Junction pay-per-call Offers pay $20+ per transferred call.

        But for 99% of offers that are out there, affiliate marketing is almost entirely passive income after the Offer Page is set up.... IF your revenues are greater than costs of hosting, SEO, and/or advertising.
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  • Profile picture of the author tdanz
    Buy Bring the fresh or something similar to get started..You can get Bring the fresh for 7usd then cancel your subscription.
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