Creating an affiliate site with Drupal?

Posted by Ticktockman on March 14, 2006 at 4:38pm

Hi all - I'm wondering if anyone has created an affiliate site with Drupal? Meaning, using a datafeed from Commission Junction or LinkShare to generate pages. I'd love to take advantage of Drupal's other features such as forums/blogs in the future - but right now I need to mass-generate pages based from a spreadsheet. Is there a module that will allow Drupal to do this?

For those not familiar with affiliate feeds - the store will give you a spreadsheet containing all their product information, so I need to be able to generate pages (or nodes in this case) based on fields or variables from the spreadsheet. (a "price" variable will insert the price, description, image, shipping info, etc....)

Anyone have experience with this?

Comments

Also interested

Posted by Cool_Goose on March 15, 2006 at 1:18pm

I'm also interested. Does anyone have any ideea ? :)

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Yes, i am interested in this

Posted by magsus on March 16, 2006 at 9:11am

Yes, i am interested in this too.

anyone have a customized module of hack that can do this?

thank you

lorry

http://magazinesus.info

Guess not

Posted by Ticktockman on March 17, 2006 at 4:30pm

Well, friends, it appears not. :-(

As of now I'm planning on stalling drupal, then using this program:

http://www.fourthworld.com/products/webmerge/index.html

to generate product pages if I have to. If I come up with anything or find anthing I'll post it here.

Ticktockman

Newbie Has Untried Idea

Posted by Shai on March 17, 2006 at 4:45pm

I'm disappointed folk did not respond to your question. I have not tried the following, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Install the e-commerce module.

Find the table that has the matching fields for the data you want to upload. Using phpMyAdmin you upload the data from the spreadsheet to the database.

It's possible t he e-commerce module has its own user interface to import data from spreadsheets, but I don't know.

You still have to figure out how the e-commerce module works and configure it correctly to use on your site etc. But the data entry should be easy to do in bulk.

Shai

content2zero.com

Eh, yeah

Posted by Ticktockman on March 17, 2006 at 8:33pm

Hmm, that might work Kelev. I think it's just too much work for me :-)

I'm going to create a static site using that program I mentioned above, then later when I want to add articles/comments, I think I'll try to integrate an installation of WordPress. The time consuming part will be merging/modifying templates.

Good luck!

Datafeeds are not sql as far as I know

Posted by graemes on July 12, 2006 at 2:54pm

I could be wrong but datafeeds are xml documents and require interpretation via xml parsers.
It's more along the lines of rss technology and using xsl stylesheets and all that hoo haa.

Kinda

Posted by baschwar on June 29, 2006 at 4:02am

I've started toying with this... and found a site called GoldenCan.com. It is like and affiliate aggregator... you can basically sign up, put in your affiliate IDs for LinkShare, CJ, ShareASale, etc. They DO take credit for every 4th click on some stores (like Amazon, etc.). It functions by putting a .js code as a post on your drupal blog page. Works pretty slick. You can customize the .js style/look and feel to come close to your site colors, etc. Hope this helps.

--
brad schwartz

Sounds Good

Posted by graemes on July 12, 2006 at 2:51pm

But still a datafeed integration has other benefits. Full integration will get the site spidered and provide more search engine content since the spiders can read html, but they can't read javascript.

There is only a limited number of merchants to promote. Datafeed integration will allow selection of a wider range of affiliate programs, which is necessary for the professional affiliate.

Any Follow-Up

Posted by Shaze on July 19, 2006 at 5:45pm

Is there any new news on this subject? Anyone developing for it (or interested)??

Interested

Posted by HostDr on July 31, 2006 at 9:43pm

Count me in as intersested in this, I do not have the knowledge to create a module myself but am planning on checking out the XML feed Linkshare provides.

-Tim

Timothy B. Adams
http://www.HostDr.com

Tim
http://hostdr.com

WebMerge

Posted by Shaze on September 11, 2006 at 3:18pm

Hi,

Could a possible solution be a 3rd party integration module with the WebMerge software mentioned above? I'd like to get something in the works.

TickTockMan, how are you using that software with Drupal? Care to provide an example?

Bump Any progress?

Posted by graphicengineer on October 4, 2007 at 2:52am

Anyone else started working on this integration? I've just recently started integrating the CJ.com ProductSearch 2.0 into a products table on my Drupal DB. I'll soon have it integrated into an e-commerce products.

My concern is the "human experience" at time of checkout. To my knowledge cj is only providing a buy link for each item; what about cases where there's more than one item to be purchased? Any ideas how that should be handled? If it should be handled? (If it shouldn't, scratch out the "shopping cart" idea - and simply do direct links (eek) from the product description page to the advertiser.)

Next question / comment request: should the calling advertiser page be iframed (can it be iframed? Any known legal restrictions?)? I haven't yet researched this case but if anyone else has success or failure stories with it - please share.

Thanks,
GNG

P.S. previous CMS integration of CJ was successful for me when I built my own product browser and placed that as an inframe into the J* CMS suite, the purchase links did go to the full page and google-analytics didn't show too high of a bounce rate.
I'm looking for a cleaner approach here and I'm quite interested with Drupal for other apps, so I figured I'd throw in the aff sites too.

shopping cart from affiliate data

Posted by marqpdx on October 13, 2007 at 4:31am

i have some queries out to other forums, but i am looking for something similar --a way to import data from vendor datafeeds and then present a single user experience to shoppers, so they don't simply pay for each item one at a time, but rather fill a shopping cart then buy at once.

if anyone has done this, please do tell here.

if i get any info from another forum, i'll post. the import part shouldn't be too hard; if i figure it out, i'll post some info as well.

best,
m

True Wheel Community Hosting

any more progress?

Posted by sonicthoughts on November 4, 2007 at 6:36pm

Also looking for an affiliate style e-commerce site.

I'm sure it is possible with

Posted by soundsational on January 10, 2008 at 3:39pm

I'm sure it is possible with Drupal. But if want the easier option, maybe use Joomla instead. There is already couple of extensions available: http://joomlashopbuilder.com/ (by the way, these are commercial extensions).

thanks,

------------------------

Any update on this

Posted by jp135 on January 10, 2008 at 9:22pm

Any update on this system??

Would really like to use datafeeds on my site

thanx

also interested in this.

Posted by trik.com on February 7, 2008 at 8:43pm

also interested in this.

Hi, Would feedapi be an

Posted by Summit on February 10, 2008 at 7:15pm

Hi, Would feedapi be an alternative? Did somebody already pull this off?
Greetings, Martijn

Hi, Would feedapi be an

Posted by Janice Harper on February 25, 2010 at 8:45am

if i get any info from another forum, i'll post. the import part shouldn't be too hard; if i figure it out, i'll post some info as well.

best,

Bucks County Real Estate | Diabetes Information

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Posted by Quint on February 16, 2008 at 3:05am

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Posted by henns20 on May 1, 2008 at 2:32am

no one has tried http://drupal.org/project/affiliate_products_shop ?

henns20

links only?

Posted by conniec on June 22, 2008 at 3:43pm

I read the documentation on this module and it looks like it imports links, only. Not all the data in the product catalogue, which is what I'm looking for. If anyone has had some experience with this module, how did it work for you?

Connie

Affiliate products

Posted by daforuiner on July 9, 2009 at 6:17pm

I tried it and it says it is not compatible with my version

_

Posted by WorldFallz on July 9, 2009 at 6:51pm

Looks like ubercart has one: http://drupal.org/project/uc_affiliate2

__{Don't be a Help Vampire - read and abide the forum guidelines.

If you find my assistance useful, please pay it forward to your fellow drupalers.}

Feedapi + CCK + Views

Posted by blairski on June 9, 2008 at 2:02pm

I'm thinking that Feedapi is probably the best module to handle the feeds from the affiliate networks. Then it is just a matter of creating nodes from the feed and using views to display the info the required way.

I'll give Feedapi a go when I get a chance. Anyone fancy giving it ago as well?

-----

My Drupal Blog

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BeFused - Drupal tutorials

Feedapi experience?

Posted by conniec on June 22, 2008 at 3:34pm

Blairski,

How did the feedapi integration go? Did you also use the Feed Element Mapper? I'm about to do the same and would appreciate any advice from your experience. I will share the same as soon as I get my site up and running.

Connie

Hi Connie, I haven't

Posted by blairski on June 26, 2008 at 8:39am

Hi Connie,

I haven't actually had a chance to try it yet as I have been busy on other things. I am hoping to give it a go at some stage in the next few weeks.

Regards

Blairski

-----
BeFused - Drupal tutorials

Posted by ghumpley on June 30, 2008 at 3:56pm

I'm interested in this, too.

same, I'd like to see

Posted by Accelerator on October 22, 2008 at 9:00am

same, I'd like to see something like that for drupal

Subscibe

Posted by bilbyggaren on November 10, 2008 at 2:05pm

Subscibe

I am doing this with Feed aggregator module.

Posted by moomba on January 12, 2009 at 9:09pm

I am doing this with Feed aggregator module and Feeds. I am still working out small glitches but for the most part its working. If you want to see what I am doing check out www.dealfrogger.com. Commission Junction does not have many RSS feeds but Linkshare does.

Hi, Is feed-aggregator

Posted by Summit on January 12, 2009 at 9:15pm

Hi,
Is feed-aggregator module still supported in D6?
Greetings,
Martijn

Yes. I am using D6. In

Posted by moomba on January 12, 2009 at 9:51pm

Yes. I am using D6. In fact I think comes with the default install.
I went back and looked its actually called aggregator now but when enabled it shows up in your Content Management as Feed Aggregator.

Hi, What about this thread

Posted by Summit on January 12, 2009 at 10:07pm

Hi,
What about this thread then: http://drupal.org/node/230050
I am confused...greetings, Martijn

I do have that installed as well.

Posted by moomba on January 12, 2009 at 10:16pm

I may have misled you. Sorry. I thought it was aggregator. Let me look into this off my dev box.

Ok. Yes I am correct and I did not mislead you. However the FeedAPI does give some bang for the buck and here is what I am doing for using that. This module can actually create nodes for you. These are actually search able via google when you enable xmlsitemap. I use this for a feed and then only pick like 2 or 3 to post to the front page. However for my categories I use the aggregator. Hope this makes better sense. I can understand why this is confusing. I confuse myself with all these feeds from time to time.

Thanks for the info.

Posted by dealsadmin on February 3, 2009 at 9:42pm

Thanks for the info moomba. I will use your advice. I think I am going to embed the smfforum like you did. However for now check out my site http://www.eagleideals.com. I created this for everyone to use. You can post your own links without me changing them. I believe you should get credit for your findings. Your links will get posted to my front page too.

Happy Trails

I like the look of your site.

Posted by pauly99 on August 31, 2009 at 2:49am

I like the look of your site. I'm thinking of branching my real estate investing site off because I have too many
branchoff links at the bottom of my site... http://www.foxvalleypropertysolutions.com

We Buy Homes Chicagoland
http://www.foxvalleypropertysolutions.com

Just found this last week.

Posted by spicynudles on May 23, 2009 at 5:47pm

Found one which provides datafeed integration for most of popular affiliate networks - Datafeedr. But with Wordpress. The good part is they create and maintain the feeds themselves so that you don't have to sratch your head. Inspite of that there are a few challenges. But, worth checking it out.

I'm already looking for a drupal equivalent.

Software Testing Concepts - my first drupal website
http://www.softwaretestingconcepts.com

Node Import

Posted by zarrarnyc on August 30, 2009 at 8:36pm

hi,
I am working with CJ datafeeds, and perhaps the best way to get this into Drupal is the Node Import module as it takes CSV files. Its worked out wonderfully, so far, but the only thing is that I can't get my head around getting the IMAGEURL field to display the image from the URL supplied by the CJ datafeed. Instead the actual URL is displayed linking to the remote image, which cannot be accessed. I have tried to embed the URL using the emfield module, but that does not show up as one of the fields which can be mapped via the node_import module. This thing, in my opinion, that if this would be implemented, it would be revolutionary.

My best assessment is to add a default PHP code in the CCK field, which aggregates the IMAGEURL, IMPRESSIONID, and the BUYURL fields into one intelligent link, or something of that sort. My PHP skills need some tuning, so of anyone has any ideas, I would be more than appreciative. Thanks.

Zarrar Sheikh
NYC

Hi, How about feedapi and

Posted by Summit on August 30, 2009 at 10:15pm

Hi, How about feedapi and feedapi_mapper for your purpose?

greetings,
Martijn

Posted by tamitha on September 8, 2009 at 9:29pm

Hi I am newbie in this

Posted by Josh Mathews on September 11, 2009 at 10:16am

Hi I am newbie in this site.Actually I am very interested creating an affiliate with Drupal.But I dont have any idea.I am gone through soundsational's given link but I am not getting from where should I start...
Please suggest me.

gelée royale

Any News

Posted by danon1981 on November 17, 2009 at 2:29am

I have been looking into using drupal for affiliate purposes and tried several modules, feed api, feed element mapper, feeds. None of them seem to really do the trick.
So I'm curious if there is any development on this matter?

Someone found a way to load his affiliate feeds in some way?

Subscribed

Posted by anonymous07 on November 21, 2009 at 10:47am

Very interested in this as well (for D5). Especially to import + create nodes from Google Affiliate Network feeds (.CSV). Thanks

RescueMeUSB.com | MasterOfCheap.com

Just a quick update on this ...

Posted by anonymous07 on December 28, 2009 at 1:05am

I started down the affiliate path with a site ( www.MasterOfCheap.com ).

Was initially using the "Advertisement" module -- excellent module! -- BUT, I couldn't access some key fields from it with Node Import (with my knowledge at the time) so that I could "auto-expire" the Ads as needed by the Affiliates. Otherwise it is almost perfect (especially the "Ad Injection" technique it has similar to the AdSense "Ad Injector" module).

So, I stitched it together with a module here and a module there. (Especially Scheduler, Workflow-ng, Node Import, Views, Views Bonus among others).

Definitely have a long way to go but I don't want to invest too much coding/tinkering as the site is still on D5 and I think I will get a lot more bank-for-buck on D6; especially with the Feeds API.

I have aged a ton in the last month ... lol

RescueMeUSB.com | MasterOfCheap.com

Subscribed..

Posted by gigantortron on February 12, 2010 at 4:55pm

Subscribed..

FeedAPI

Posted by Problue Solutions on February 16, 2010 at 2:58pm

I was trying to achieve this with FeedAPI using XML feeds from tradedoubler, but FeedAPI only recognizes RSS and ATOM feeds, and ICAL feeds with the ical parser. It doesnt work with other custom types of XML feed, as I understand it you need to write your own parser to handle the type of feeds you're using and there's no documentation anywhere on how to do it.

Oh and the Ubercart module linked above is only if you are the merchant and you are offering comission to affiliates, I think most people on this thread are looking to build a site where they are the affiliate, not the merchant.

Im very surprised there is no solution to this with drupal, it's a very common type of website after all.

Problue Solutions - Web Design Northern Ireland

CSV affiliate feed

Posted by Codigo Vision on May 5, 2010 at 4:58pm

I found a way to do this with the Google Affiliate Network CSV feed using http://drupal.org/project/node_import and CCK and views + tokens, it worked great to import all the products from the feed and as for images its not as hard as it seems. I noticed some people were asking how to display images when the feed only provides a link to the image eg. "http://www.example.com/images/product_image.jpg". all you have to do is import this as a regular text field using cck, and if you want it to link to the affiliate then import the affiliate url as a text field as well. Now in views add your fields, affiliate url first, then the image url next. for the affiliate url check exclude, for the image check "Rewrite the output of this field" and grab the image token and wrap it with the img tag Only local images are allowed. then check "Output this field as a link" and paste the affiliate url token [field_product_url_value] (your tokens will be different depending on how you named your cck fields) and set your lable to none, and thats it.

I plan to try http://drupal.org/project/ni_cron next to manage the feed updates automatically.

Here's the store: www.audiolifestyles.com/store you can use the menu to select by category

Drupal Developer | Costa Rica Travel

Views 3?

Posted by ch_masson on September 29, 2010 at 2:27pm

Hello,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have a similar site (not up yet) where I use CJ (Commission Junction) feeds. I also use node_import for the initial uplioad and ni_cron for updating CCK fields.

One notable difference though is that I use the embedded image field and embedded media field modules to integrate image URLs into CCK fields. I am not sure if that is the cause but node_import is extremely slow because I believe these modules validates the URLs before they are written in their respective CCK fields. Do you have the same slowness issue with the mothod that you described above for images?

I see on www.audiolifestyles.com/store that you can sort by name/price either in asc or desc order. Are you using Views 3 to achieve exposed sorts? I am pretty sure views 2 only supports exposed filters but not exposed sorts.

Also, for the initial upload, how many records in your CSV file did you import with node_import?

Finally, when using ni_cron, how many records and how many fields in these records are you planning to update during each cron run? Have you run into any php timing out issues?

Christian

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Bitcoin Bonus

Posted by DarrellDuane on February 22, 2011 at 12:00pm

I've set up Bitcoin Bonus under D6. For now we have links from Linkshare, Commission Junction and a number of other places. I'm wondering if anyone has module or code they're willing to share that downloads confirmation of commissions from Linkshare (or other sites). I need to be able to credit my users easily when they go shopping.

--Darrell

Darrell Duane
d@duane.com
Drupal Developer
Donations via Bitcoin gratefully accepted at 1C4q7kecrDCYTUrBaSwcDnPpVWBeVyuk8J

Posted by chinhsi on March 16, 2011 at 6:27pm

modules for Linkshare & Commission Junction

Posted by DarrellDuane on March 19, 2011 at 9:19pm

I'm working on modules for these two, they're pretty well customized now
but perhaps the code would be of interest to someone, please contact me at the address below if so.

Darrell Duane
d@duane.com
Drupal Developer
Donations via Bitcoin gratefully accepted at 1C4q7kecrDCYTUrBaSwcDnPpVWBeVyuk8J

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