Can you please include:
1. The ability to "flag" a visitor using a cookie, so that their return-visits can be tracked, based on which affiliate link they came from.
2. It will then be very useful to be able to pick up their "recorded" affiliate-link id on their return (stored as a Tag?).

3. Adding a Trigger/Event for workflow purposes for a hit on an affiliate link

4. On registration of the visitor, linking the new user to the affiliate user (Or does this module take care of that already?).

It's awesome news to see an Affiliate module being worked on again. THANKS!

PS: The Ubercart Affiliate Module lists some great features to consider for future.

ServeLime

Comments

Ivo.Radulovski’s picture

Ivo.Radulovski commented
Version: 5.x-1.0 » 6.x-1.0

a Cookie for returning visitors would be nice...

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented
Assigned: Unassigned »
Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

I'm going to be giving this more thought tomorrow as i feel this feature request points toward some great ideas.
Please feel free to elaborate on your ideas though. When it comes to discussing new ideas you can't be to verbose
or state something to clearly. If you see how something should work in your minds eye then share your ideas completely
by giving step by step , point by point narrative of exactly what you would like to see implemented.

Best, Paul

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

Taking a look at the User referral module ..
http://drupal.org/project/referral

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented
Assigned: » Unassigned

@kbahey

It looks as though "affiliate referral" information should be drawn from the union of the affiliates and the user referrals modules working together. Can i get your thoughts on this issue before i continue working on this .

Best, Paul

fred0’s picture

fred0 commented

Question for the original poster: with item #4, are you suggesting that when a new user who followed an affiliate link registers, that new user should be added to the existing user's Buddylist or User Relationships?

I, for one, vote against that if that is the idea (or at least vote that it is an option that can be disabled). The Invite module does that and that's fine when it's a direct invite, but I wouldn't necessarily want random users who followed a link to be added as a buddy/friend.

Maybe I am misunderstanding?

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com’s picture

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com commented

Apologies for only now responding.

[Background:]
I did research on the UberCart Affiliate, Affiliate, Affiliates and User Referral modules, from which resulted the (new) features (missed User Relationships).
There are commercial applications of Affiliation which requires handling events, tracking user activity, tracking referred hits to hosted links.

[Module Co-operation/Re-use:]
I'd recommend co-operation with (at least) the developer of the Ubercart Affiliate & Affiliate modules (integration/.awareness + separation of functionality ?).
Maybe the Affiliate aspects should be separated from the Ubercart purchase-management aspect.

[Answer the above question:]
Buddy list - Definitely not, as I agree it's not appropriate
User Relationships is appropriate - it definitely makes sense to define an "Affiliated to" relationship using that module, to be used for this purpose.

[Expanding my previous post:]
1+2:
This is required to provide a "relationship-link" back to the affiliate for all activity generated by the affiliated visitor/user (e.g. for repeat purchases) {see Ubercart Affiliate module}
Cookie: Enables affiliation of unregistered visitor to be "remembered"

3+4:
It's important to be able to Trigger Actions/Workflow Events/Rules, based on an any of the following:
a. Landing on an Affiliate link page (e.g. to place the Visitor's tag in a NodeQueue, Welcome page redirect, Tracking Advertising clicks, etc.)
b. Assigning an Affiliate Cookie
c. Registering as user from an Affiliate Link
d. Purchasing/Registering for an event as affiliate visitor/user (implies new checks in those environments)

4: It is important to be able to link the newly registered user to the Affiliate, for future tracking of the relationship. (E.g. "My Affiliates" View)
Again, having a Trigger available when the linking occurs would be highly desirable.

[Summary of Stakeholders & Functionality areas:]
Thinking about it, maybe what we are seeing here is the emergence of separate aspects of Affiliation...
a. Affiliate: Tracking & Compensating for activity related to them + Reward Management (% of sale, Userpoints per link click/new-Affiliate user/etc.)
b. New-Affiliate (Affiliee?): Registration and Tracking of their activity
c. A user can be both an Affiliee & Affiliate (multi-level type relationships) - Level (depth) in the Affiliate structure
d. A User can have multiple affiliations (complex case, to be addressed last - requires knowledge of affiliation programs)

Functionality:
1. New-Affiliate Registration & Relationship establishment with Affiliate (Cookie, User Relationships)
2.1 New-Affiliate Link Handling (Events; Logging stats/date-time + "origin" of hits)
2.2 New-Affiliate Link Tracking (Stats, Views)
3.1 New-Affiliate Activity Handling (Events; Logging in NodeQueue, etc.)
3.2 New-Affiliate Activity Tracking (Stats, Views)

4.1 Affiliate Compensation administration (measurement + threshold + value earned)
4.2 Affiliate Activity Reporting & Compensation (Stats on activity, reporting on "Value earned")

5.1 Definition & Administration of an Affiliation Program (Name + Status + Root-Code)
5.2 Reporting on an Affiliation Activity (activity generated per month/Affiliate to-date/this-month)
5.2 Reporting on an Affiliation User Growth (new users generated per-month/Affiliate to-date/this-month)

Hope this clarifies what I was so cryptically asking - (items 1-3 above) ;)

Thank you for considering these features. ;))

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

Just wanted to say a big thanks now for looking into this and for your detailed report . I hope to get to this v.soon

Best, Paul

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

I think ill get to this tomorrow :-)

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

Replies ..

"Maybe the Affiliate aspects should be separated from the Ubercart purchase-management aspect."

Would you consider discussing your findings with the Ubercart project maintainer as i'm not familiar with this
module a this time.

1+2:
This is required to provide a "relationship-link" back to the affiliate for all activity generated by the affiliated visitor/user (e.g. for repeat purchases) {see Ubercart Affiliate module}
Cookie: Enables affiliation of unregistered visitor to be "remembered"

.. Is now implemented in the development branch. The User referral module creates the cookie

4: It is important to be able to link the newly registered user to the Affiliate, for future tracking of the relationship. (E.g. "My Affiliates" View)

.. Is now implemented in the development branch. The Affiliates module makes use of the User referral module to implement this feature

3+4:
It's important to be able to Trigger Actions/Workflow Events/Rules, based on an any of the following:
a. Landing on an Affiliate link page (e.g. to place the Visitor's tag in a NodeQueue, Welcome page redirect, Tracking Advertising clicks, etc.)
b. Assigning an Affiliate Cookie
c. Registering as user from an Affiliate Link
d. Purchasing/Registering for an event as affiliate visitor/user (implies new checks in those environments)

.. I need to give this some thought. Would welcome further discussion.

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com’s picture

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com commented
Title: Cookie for returning visitors » Ubercart Affiliate

Have a look at the Ubercart Affiliate module: http://drupal.org/project/uc_affiliate2

It achieves many of the business requirements I listed previously:

* User based tracking
* Role based tracking
* Monthly report of sales/commissions per affiliate in the admin section
* Ability to create affiliate links (both text and image)
* Product level link generation (e.g. generate a link for the actual product vs just the website), export to CSV or HTML
* Ability to add cookies so that affiliates get credit for return visits even though they didn't go through original affiliate link.
* Easy customer dashboard (with div's so they're themable)
* Per product commissions
* Multiple levels of commissioning

I strongly recommend co-operation between these 2 modules to establish an awesome combination. ;))

Thank You for your hard work on this important module.

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

I have installed ubercart on a clients site recently so now have a good understanding of how this module work. I shall take a look at this module in the near future and report back.

Best, Paul

socialnicheguru’s picture

socialnicheguru commented

An issue with ubercart affiliate module is that there is no userpoints integration.

Chris

bojanz’s picture

bojanz commented

Hi.

I'm the creator of the Ubercart Affiliate 2 module.

My GSoC proposal just got accepted.
As you can see, it's a new generation Affiliate module for Drupal 7, with Drupal Commerce and Rules integration.

With enough effort (and a nice API) it could become the basis of all Drupal 7 affiliate efforts.

Cheers,
Bojan

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

Hey Bojaz,

Congratulations!

I'll have to get up to speed with Ubercart Affiliate 2 module & help out with your project :-)

FYI
I have recently migrated the affiliate module on to the drupal 7 branch. We could make
a start testing the affiliate module to ensure that it is working. I also need to check that
the affiliate module @D7 conforms to coding standards.

Best,
Paul Booker
Appcoast

bojanz’s picture

bojanz commented

Thanks.

I am in the process of getting ownership over http://drupal.org/project/affiliate.

I will examine your module and do some more planning with my mentor, and then start development on GitHub at the end of May.

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com’s picture

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com commented

Awesome to see effort being combined!

bojanz’s picture

bojanz commented

Work on my gsoc project has started here.

If you want to tell us (or even contribute) what would work best for you, campaign for your pet feature, or give a comment on existing discussions, see the issue queue.

I've taken a look at the affiliates module, and it's nicely written and usable.
The banner handling is definitely something I'd like to have...

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com’s picture

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com commented

It's important that we consolidate the work done across a number of modules.

The important Affiliate-type Modules that needs merging are as follows:
1. Affiliates
http://drupal.org/project/Affiliates

2. UC_Affiliate
http://drupal.org/project/UC_Affiliate
Ubercart's UC_Affiliate module (http://drupal.org/project/UC_Affiliate).

3. Affiliate
http://drupal.org/project/Affiliate
Originally based on the Firefox Affiliate-Promo module.

Notes on Functionality:
I've posted a number of functionality suggestions to the Issues Queues of these modules.
A number of very good suggestions have also been raised as part of these discussions on modules to leverage / integrate with:
* Ubercart - http://drupal.org/project/ubercart
* Rules - http://drupal.org/project/rules
* User Relationships - http://drupal.org/project/user_relationships
* User Points - http://drupal.org/project/userpoints

I would add the ability of an Affiliate to subscribe to events by their direct Downline (multi-level) as important feature.
I recommend leveraging Subscriptions - http://drupal.org/project/subscriptions

Looking forward to your new module framework!

bojanz’s picture

bojanz commented

http://drupal.org/project/uc_affiliate is a dead project. No code, no no releases, nothing.
I opened uc_affiliate2 back in the day because even then the project was dead (didn't know about the "abandoned" module process back then).

http://drupal.org/project/Affiliate is also dead. No CVS activity in 18 months.
I tried getting the namespace for my GSoC project, but after a month of back&forth with the d.o webmasters, the maintainer showed up, and said he was still interested in the module, developing it, and doesn't want to share access.
Since then, still no activity.

This leaves "Affiliates" and my own "Ubecart Affiliate 2" as the only two active affiliate solutions (but with very different goals).

The new module will use Rules 2 (just like Drupal Commerce).
It will also use Views for each listing page (the same direction I'm going with uc_affiliate2), for easy customizability.
In the first phase it will only integrate with Drupal Commerce. However, I'm interested in porting uc_affiliate2 as soon as the new module reaches similar maturity.

I've investigated User Points (it was one of the first integrations mentioned when I was planning the module). However, it has no D7 planned at the moment (if time permits this summer, I might start the porting, but the module is huge...)

Thank you for your suggestions!

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com’s picture

SiteMaster.ServeLime.com commented

Apologies.

The correct link to Ubercart Affiliate should point to the v2 project:
http://drupal.org/project/UC_Affiliate2

Thank You for this important work you're doing!

Looking forward to using it! :)