General Settings
This article provides a detailed explanation of each setting found in Affiliates → Settings → General.
License Settings
License Key
Enter the license key you received when you purchased AffiliateWP, and click Save Changes. This will ensure you receive automatic plugin updates and allow us to provide support for you more swiftly should you need it.
Pages
Affiliate Area
When AffiliateWP is installed and activated, it will automatically create a page on your site called Affiliate Area. This is the page where affiliates will manage their affiliate account. The default URL for this page is yoursite.com/affiliate-area/.
On this page in the WordPress editor, you’ll see the [affiliate_area] shortcode. This shortcode does several things out of the box:
- Shows the default affiliate login form provided by AffiliateWP
- Shows the Affiliate Area to logged-in affiliates
- Shows the default affiliate registration form provided by AffiliateWP only if Allow Affiliate Registration is enabled in Affiliates → Settings → Misc.
If you wish to change the page where your Affiliate Area and registration/login forms appear, you simply need to create a new page, place the [affiliate_area] shortcode on that page, and then select that page from the drop-down menu in this setting. The drop-down menu will show a list of pages on your site. Click Save Changes, and your Affiliate Area will now appear on your newly defined Affiliate Area page.
Terms of Use
Most affiliate programs have a Terms of Use, Terms & Conditions or Code of Conduct which provide guidelines and often legal boundaries of expected and allowed behavior from affiliates when they register. By default, AffiliateWP does not create a Terms of Use page on your site, as every site and affiliate program is different. To set up a Terms of Use page for your affiliate program, follow the below steps:
- Create a new WordPress page, and enter or copy and paste your affiliate program or affiliate registration terms on that page
- In the drop-down menu next to the Terms of Use setting, select the page which has your affiliate program terms.
Setting a Terms of Use page will add a required checkbox to your affiliate registration form that reads “Agree to our Terms of Use” with a link to your Terms of Use page.
Terms of Use Label
In version 2.2 of AffiliateWP, a Terms of Use Label was introduced to assist site owners with compliance regarding the European GDPR regulation changes. In this field you would enter the text you would like to show describing the Terms of Use checkbox.
Referral Settings
Referral Variable
The referral variable is part of the affiliate referral link. It is used to identify that the link is an affiliate referral link, and that it should be tracked by AffiliateWP. For example: yoursite.com/? ref=123. The default the referral variable is “ ref” but can be changed to whatever you like. We recommend making the referral variable 3 or more characters to avoid any potential conflicts with WordPress variables. Here are some examples of potential referral variables you could use:
- ref
- aff
- partner
- refer
- friend
- hello
You may leave the referral variable as ” ref” or enter your own referral variable. Make sure to click the Save Changes button if you update this setting.
Note: When setting your referral variable, make sure you do not use a reserved keyword or term in WordPress as it may conflict with core functionality. Example: “p” which is reserved for pages and posts. View this link for the complete list: https://codex.wordpress.org/Reserved_Terms.
Default Referral Format
By default, when a user becomes an affiliate on your site, they will be assigned an affiliate ID. When they are creating and using affiliate links for your site, they can use either their account username on your site, or their affiliate ID (for example,yoursite.com/?ref=jane or yoursite.com/?ref=123).
This setting allows you to choose whether the affiliate’s ID or the affiliate username will be shown to affiliates in their referral links when they are logged into the Affiliate Area.
The affiliate can still use either their affiliate ID or their username in their referral links at all times; this setting simply allows you to determine which is format is shown by default in the Affiliate Area.
Pretty Affiliate URLs
A “Pretty URL” is a URL format that does not require query strings (i.e. ?ref=), so a URL looks neat and tidy when customers visit your site. It removes the characters in the query string and replaces them with slashes (for example, yoursite.com/ref/123 or yoursite.com/ref/jane). By enabling this setting, Pretty URLs will be shown to affiliates when they are logged into their Affiliate Area.
Affiliates will still be able to use affiliate links with the regular query string (i.e. yoursite.com/?ref=123 or yoursite.com/?ref=jane) if they wish, but by showing Pretty URLs in the Affiliate Area you can help encourage your affiliates to use Pretty URLs.
Enable this setting and click the Save Changes button to show Pretty URLs to affiliates.
Credit Last Referrer
When a visitor lands on your site using an affiliate link from Affiliate A, the ID of Affiliate A who referred them is stored in their browser. They might look around your site, and consider purchasing, but not purchase right away.
In a few days, a week, a month, or even longer, that visitor might return to your site, but they have returned to your site by clicking on Affiliate B’s link. They then decide to make a purchase, but which affiliate should get the referral?
Credit Last Referrer allows you to reward the last affiliate who actually referred a purchasing customer with the referral. In the example above, the last referrer would be Affiliate B. Because the visitor did not make a purchase when Affiliate A referred them, Affiliate B may have put more effort into promoting your products, which actually convinced the visitor to buy. Therefore Affiliate B will be rewarded with the referral, and not Affiliate A.
Enable this setting if you would like the last affiliate who referred a purchasing customer to be awarded the referral.
Referral Rate Type
In AffiliateWP, you can choose between either a Percentage, or a Flat Amount referral rate type. The referral rate type you select as your default here will apply to all purchases/conversions that take place on your site.
A Percentage referral rate type will calculate a percentage of the product price or total cart value, and award that percentage to affiliates as a commission for each conversion or sale (i.e. 10% on all sales, 20% on a specific product, etc.).
A Flat Amount referral rate type is the exact dollar value that affiliates will receive as commission for each conversion or sale, no matter the cost of the product (for example, a flat rate commission could be $0.50, or $5.00, or $10.00, etc.). Flat rate commission can be useful for websites which use opt-ins, sign-ups or lead generation methods of conversion, so the affiliate can receive an instant referral on a successful conversion.
Choose your preferred referral rate type from the select menu, and click the Save Changes button.
Flat Rate Referral Basis
The Flat Rate Referral Basis setting (new in version 2.3) will be visible when the Referral Rate Type is set to use a flat amount.
There are two options to choose from when using flat rate referrals:
Flat Rate Commission Per Product Sold
This is the standard behavior of flat rate referrals and is selected by default. If a customer is referred by an affiliate and purchases multiple products in the same order, the affiliate is awarded once for every product sold.
Example: If the referral rate is set to $5.00 and the customer purchases 3 products in the same order, the affiliate is awarded $15.00 in commission.
Flat Rate Commission Per Order
If a customer is referred by an affiliate and purchases multiple products in the same order, the affiliate is awarded once for the entire order.
Example: If the referral rate is set to $5.00 and the customer purchases 3 products in the same order, the affiliate is only awarded $5.00 in commission.
Note: Flat rate commissions on a per order basis are only available for Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, ExchangeWP (iThemes Exchange) and WP EasyCart. If your integration is not supported, the standard Flat Rate Commission Per Product Sold option will be used.
Referral Rate
The Referral Rate is the default commission rate or amount you offer to your affiliates, in return for them bringing you a sale, a form submission, or other conversion. This commission may be a Percentage or a Flat Amount based on the Referral Rate Type you have set (see above).
For example:
- If you would like to offer your affiliates 20% commission on all sales, you would set your Referral Rate Type to Percentage, and you would enter the number “20” as your Referral Rate. This will generate all referrals at 20% of the final order total by default.
- If you wish to offer your affiliates $10.00 commission on all sales, you would set your Referral Rate Type to Flat amount (based on your currency), and you would enter the number “10” as your Referral Rate. This will generate all referrals at $10.00 by default.
(You can also set special referral rates on a per-affiliate basis from the Edit Affiliate screen for each affiliate.)
Enter the default Referral Rate you wish to offer your affiliates, and click the Save Changes button.
Exclude Shipping
Depending on your integration/business, you may be shipping physical products to customers and charging them a shipping fee, which is a hard/net cost. This setting allows you to exclude shipping costs from referral calculations, so the order total that AffiliateWP calculates the referral amount from does not include the shipping cost that is charged to customers.
Enable this setting to exclude shipping costs from referral calculations.
Exclude Tax
Depending on your integration/business, you may charge your customers tax, which is a hard/net cost. This setting allows you to exclude tax from referral calculations, so the order total that AffiliateWP calculates the referral amount from does not include the tax that is charged to customers.
Enable this setting to exclude tax costs from referral calculations.
Cookie Expiration
AffiliateWP tracks affiliates using cookies which are stored in the visitor’s/customer’s browser.
AffiliateWP stores three cookies:
- affwp_ref_visit_id – This cookie stores the visit ID (the visit ID increments by 1 each time any referral link is used until the cookie expires or is deleted).
- affwp_ref – This cookie stores the affiliate ID.
- affwp_campaign – This cookie stores the campaign name if/when an affiliate creates a campaign to track referrals from specific sources of traffic (i.e. email, social media, their website, etc.).
These cookies can be set to expire from a customer’s browser after a number of days. You can set the cookie expiration to be as long or as short as you want. This means that if a customer visits your site but does not purchase, then returns to your site using that same browser at a later date (with the browser cookie still intact), and does complete a purchase at that point, a referral can still be generated for the referring affiliate.
Enter the number of days you would like the tracking cookies to be valid for, and click the Save Changes button.
Learn more about how AffiliateWP tracks affiliates using cookies.
Cookie Sharing
Share cookies with sub-domains when using a WordPress multisite installation.
Learn more about how AffiliateWP works with multisite.
Currency Settings
Currency
With this setting you can choose which currency will be shown (to all affiliates) in the Affiliate Area. It is only possible to choose one currency out of the box (it is not possible to show currency based on the affiliate’s location).
Please note that some payment gateways in supported integrations may have currency restrictions.
Currency Symbol Position
This setting allows you to show the currency symbol before or after the affiliate’s earnings in the Affiliate Area in relation to your chosen currency.
Thousands Separator
This setting allows you to choose which thousands separator you would like your affiliates to see in the Affiliate Area in relation to your chosen currency.
Decimal Separator
This setting allows you to choose which decimal separator you would like your affiliates to see in the Affiliate Area in relation to your chosen currency.
Affiliate Form Settings
Affiliate Area Forms
This setting allows you to choose which forms you would like visible or hidden on the Affiliate Area page. This is especially useful in numerous instances. For example:
- If you have created a custom affiliate registration form and wish to hide the default AffiliateWP affiliate registration form
- If you have a different login page or different registration page for affiliates
- If you have a closed affiliate program, and only want to show an affiliate login form
- If you would like to show no forms on the Affiliate Area page, because you have placed them elsewhere on your site using the [affiliate_login] and/or [affiliate_registration] shortcodes.
Note: The default affiliate registration form will only be visible if Allow Affiliate Registration is enabled in Affiliates → Settings → Misc. The affiliate login form will only be visible when you are logged out.
Select which forms you would like visible on the Affiliate Area page and click the Save Changes button.
Required Registration Fields
By default, certain fields on the AffiliateWP default affiliate registration form are required when a user is submitting an affiliate application. The required fields are:
- Your Name
- Username
- Account Email
- Website URL
- Password (and Confirm Password)
The following fields are optional by default:
- Payment Email
- How will you promote us?
In this setting, you can choose which (if any) of the four following fields you wish to make required, or optional:
- Your Name
- Payment Email
- Website URL
- How will you promote us?
For example, you could make just the Website URL optional if you do not require affiliates to provide this information. Uncheck the boxes next to the field you wish to make optional, and click Save Changes. Similarly, check the box next to any field you wish to make required, and click Save Changes.
Note: When a user registers to become an affiliate on your website, AffiliateWP automatically creates a WordPress account with the Subscriber role for them (this is the lowest WordPress user role). In order to create a WordPress user account, the Username, Account Email and Password fields will always be required.
Miscellaneous Settings
This article provides a detailed explanation of each setting found in Affiliates → Settings → Misc.
Allow Affiliate Registration
When you first install AffiliateWP, users will not be able to register to become an affiliate on your site (however, affiliates can be manually added at any time). This is to allow you time to set up your affiliate program before you open it to the public. When you enable this setting, AffiliateWP’s default affiliate registration form will be visible on your site. By default, the page this affiliate registration form will appear on will be yoursite.com/affiliate-area/ (this can be changed in the Affiliates → Settings → General tab). Enable this option when you are ready to start receiving affiliate applications on your site.Here’s an example of what AffiliateWP’s default affiliate registration form looks like in WordPress’ Twenty Sixteen theme: default Affiliate Registration Form example.
Tip: Want to build your own custom affiliate registration form? If you have a Professional license (or historical Ultimate license), we have some pro add-ons that can help! Check out Affiliate Forms for Ninja Forms and Affiliate Forms for Gravity Forms.
Require Approval
By default, when an affiliate registers on your site, or is manually added, their affiliate account status is automatically set to Active. This means they can start earning referrals right away.If you wish to review or screen users before they become an affiliate, enable this setting to force new affiliate applications to go to a Pending status so you can review and Approve (or Reject) affiliates based on your policies, requirements, or judgment.
Auto Register New Users
If you allow visitors to register a WordPress user account on your site through some other means (via an integration, or via a regular user registration form), and you would like all new users to become affiliates, enable this setting. All new users who register a user account on your site will also have an affiliate account created for them when they register.
Logout Link
By default, there is no logout link shown in the Affiliate Area. If you would like affiliates to be able to sign out directly from the affiliate area, enable this setting and click the Save Changes button.
Default Referral URL
By default, the referral URL shown to affiliates in the Affiliate Area is your primary domain URL. If you wish to change the default referral URL shown in the Affiliate Area, enter your preferred default URL in this field and click the Save Changes button. The default URL shown to affiliates in the Affiliate Area will then show the URL defined in this setting.
Enable reCAPTCHA
Google reCAPTCHA is a free security tool provided by Google that allows you to prevent spam bots from registering false user accounts on your site. AffiliateWP integrates with Google reCAPTCHA to prevent spam bots from registering false affiliate accounts on your site when you use AffiliateWP’s default registration form (i.e. when you have enabled the Allow Affiliate Registration setting). Enable this setting to require new users to complete the reCAPTCHA security check when registering to become an affiliate.You will also need two keys from Google to finish setting up Google reCAPTCHA. Find out more about Google reCAPTCHA.
reCAPTCHA Site Key
If you enable reCAPTCHA, you will need to enter the Site Key provided by Google for your site. Enter the Site Key in this field and click the Save Changes button.
reCAPTCHA Secret Key
This is used for communication between your site and Google reCAPTCHA. Be sure to keep it a secret.If you enable reCAPTCHA, you will need to enter the Secret Key provided by Google for your site. Enter the Secret Key in this field and click the Save Changes button.
Reject Unpaid Referrals on Refund
On your website, you may be using an integration to sell your products or services that may be purchased, and potentially refunded or returned if they don’t work out for the customer. In some of these instances, a customer’s purchase may have been referred by an affiliate, and that order has a referral/commission attached to it. By enabling this setting, you can ensure that if a refunded purchase has a referral attached to it, and the status of that referral is Unpaid, the referral will automatically be rejected (the affiliate cannot be paid the commission, as the purchase was refunded). Enable this setting if you wish to automatically reject Unpaid referrals if a purchase is refunded, revoked, canceled, or failed. Automatically reject referrals if an order is refunded with these integrations.
Note: This will only reject referrals with an Unpaid status. Any referrals that have already been Paid cannot be recalled from your affiliates or their accounts. For this reason it’s best practice to wait to pay your affiliates until after your refund policy period, to allow for potential refunds to come in and be processed.
Learn more about Referral Statuses.
Use Fallback Referral Tracking Method
This setting uses an alternate method of tracking. We recommend leaving this setting disabled unless you or your developer understand JavaScript errors which can eventually be fixed, or you have been instructed to enable this setting by AffiliateWP support.
If you are having issues with referrals not being generated, please view our troubleshooting article first: Visits or Referrals are not working.
Ignore Referrals with Zero Amount
In some instances, you may have free products on your site which you do not want to track referrals for. Or, you may simply want to hide all zero amount referrals so they do not skew your data, or so affiliates aren’t confused by referrals with a zero amount. To enable this setting, check the box next to Ignore Referrals with Zero Amount and click the Save Changes button. From this point, all referrals with a zero amount will no longer be tracked and will not be saved in AffiliateWP.If you are using one of AffiliateWP’s supported form integrations for lead tracking, general referrer tracking, and/or will be paying your affiliates outside of AffiliateWP or via an alternate method, you may want or need your forms to generate zero amount referrals. If this is how you wish to use AffiliateWP, do not enable this setting, as this setting will prevent all zero amount referrals from being saved in AffiliateWP.
Note: If this setting is enabled and a referred visit results in a zero referral, the visit will be considered not converted.
Enable Debug Mode
When you first set up AffiliateWP, we recommend testing everything is working so you can see exactly how the system works. AffiliateWP provides a Debug Assistant to help you identify potential issues while you are testing the system.
Check the box next to Enable Debug Mode and click the Save Changes button to turn on error logging for the referral process. This will add a new tab called Debug Assistant under Affiliates → Tools. The Debug Assistant will log both successful and unsuccessful referral processes, as well as plugin update routines, and will help you capture any issues should they arise whilst testing.
Referral URL Blacklist
If you wish to block specific affiliates’ websites or pages from generating referrals for any reason, enter the URL of the website or page to block in this input field, and click the Save Changes button. Enter one URL per line if entering multiple URLs.
Note: This will only apply to new visits from a website after the URL has been saved.
Opt into Beta Versions
When we are almost ready to release a major version update to AffiliateWP, we will make a beta version available to our customers who wish to try the latest working (not final) version of that release. Enable this setting if you wish to opt-in to beta versions. Opting in to beta releases will allow you to preview and test new features live on your own site. When a beta version is available, an update notification will be shown on your Plugins page. Simply update AffiliateWP to the beta version, and you’ll be able to use the latest working beta of our upcoming major version.
Remove Data on Uninstall
ONLY enable this setting if you are about to completely delete AffiliateWP. Checking this box and clicking the Save Changes button will delete all data saved by AffiliateWP.
Opt-In Form Settings
As of AffiliateWP 2.2, there is an Opt-In Form settings tab for the new Opt-In email list feature. This feature allows you to display an opt-in form that creates a referral for the affiliate tracked, along with adding the subscriber to your email marketing platform provider: MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, or ConvertKit.
This article provides a detailed explanation of each setting found in Affiliates → Settings → Opt-In Form.
Opt-In Referral Amount
Enter the flat amount for each opt-in referral, or you can leave the default amount of 0.00.
Opt-In Referral Status
Select the default status for the opt-in referrals:
- Pending
- Unpaid
Message shown upon opt-in success
Enter the message you would like to show subscribers after they have successfully opted-in.
Platform
Select the opt-in platform provider you would like to use:
- MailChimp
- ActiveCampaign
- ConvertKit
Next click Save Changes and the provider-specific settings will appear to configure.
Display
To display the opt-in form, place the shortcode on any page or post: [opt_in]
MailChimp Settings
MailChimp API Key
Enter your MailChimp API key for your account.
Where to find your MailChimp API
MailChimp List ID
Enter the List ID for the MailChimp list you would like to add the new subscriber to. Where to find your MailChimp List ID
Double Opt-In
Check this box if you would like your new subscriber to receive a MailChimp double opt-in email.Single Opt-In vs. Double Opt-In
ActiveCampaign Settings
ActiveCampaign API URL
Enter your ActiveCampaign API URL for your account.
ActiveCampaign API Key
Enter your ActiveCampaign API key for your account.Obtain your ActiveCampaign API URL and key
ActiveCampaign List ID
Enter the ID for the ActiveCampaign list id you would to add your new subscriber to.TWhat is an Opt-in list?
ConvertKit Settings
ConvertKit API Key
Enter your ConvertKit API key for your account.Your ConvertKit account settings
ConvertKit Form ID
Enter the ID of the ConvertKit form you would like to subscribe contacts with. ConvertKit – Beginners Guide to Forms
Email Settings
This article provides a detailed explanation of the settings found in Affiliates → Settings → Emails.
Email Options
Logo
Click the Upload File button to upload the image you would like to appear at the top of emails.
Email Template
Select the template to use for your email messages. The Default Template is selected by default. If you’d like to customize the default template, see how to modify template files.
From Name
Enter the name that emails will come from. This is usually your site name.
From Email
Enter the email address to send emails from. This will act as the “from” and “reply-to” email address.
Email Notifications
Check the box next to each email notification that will be sent to the general site admin or affiliate:
- Notify admin when a new affiliate has registered
- Notify admin when a new referral has been created
- Notify affiliate when they earn a new referral
- Notify affiliate when their affiliate application is accepted
- Notify affiliate when their affiliate application is pending
- Notify affiliate when their affiliate application is rejected
Affiliate Manager Email
As of version 2.3, you now can specify an Affiliate Manager Email where all admin notifications will be sent. Adding more affiliate managers is also possible by separating each email address with a comma.
Registration and New Referral Email Admin Options
Enter the subject line and email content for each email sent to the general site admin:
- Registration email sent when a new affiliate registers.
- New referral email sent when new referrals are earned.
New Referral and Application Accepted, Pending, and Rejection Email Affiliate Options
Enter the subject line and email content for each email sent to the affiliate:
- New Referral email sent when new referrals are earned.
- Application Accepted email sent when affiliates are approved.
- Application Pending email sent when affiliates are pending.
- Application Rejection email sent when affiliates are rejected – the rejection reason (if you add the {rejection_reason} email template tag) will be added to the affiliate rejection email from what you add to the Review Affiliate screen when reviewing the affiliate and you choose to reject the affiliate.
Note: The Application Pending Email and Application Rejection Email sections will only be visible if you have Require Approval enabled under Affiliates → Settings → Misc.