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For Immediate Release - May 18, 2006
eSellerate Announces Affiliate Program Update for Affiliates
(LINCOLN, NE - USA) – eSellerate has released an update that extends the options available for promoting and tracking affiliate sales. This update includes:
- Hosted eST
- Landing Pages
- Expanded sales tracking
- Tracking IDs for all sales options
- Hosted eST Tracking report
- "My Products" data export
Hosted eST
The new Hosted eST option enables you to provide eST trial versions of a publisher’s products without having to host the downloads yourself. This differs from standard eST (now known as Downloadable eST), which requires you to host the downloads and keep them up to date.
With Hosted eST, you provide a link on your affiliate web site that allows customers to download the eST version of the product from eSellerate’s servers. (The file will be customized with your affiliate ID.) Benefits of this option include:
- The eST file accessible through the link is always current, so you never need to make a new one available when the publisher updates the file.
- By using a tracking ID in conjunction with the new Hosted eST Tracking sales report, you can track the activity of trial versions you release for special purposes – such as a sales campaign.
To identify products that offer the Hosted eST option, you can use the search functions on the My Products page or the Available Products page (Advanced Search). Both searches now allow filtering by the available options for selling the products, which are: Purchase Link, Landing Page, Hosted eST and Downloadable eST.
In addition to the updated search options, the New Products e-mail now notes when products offer Hosted eST. If you don’t already receive that e-mail, you can sign up for it on the My Account page.
Landing Pages
Landing Pages are customized web pages that you can use to promote a publisher’s individual products. All you need to do is direct your customers to the Landing Page, where they can read about the product and then either purchase it or download an eST trial version (when trials are available). Because all promotion takes place on the Landing Page, there’s no need for you to list and update product information on your own.
A publisher can offer multiple Landing Pages for a single product, which allows you to choose the ones that best fit your needs. The Landing Page tab provides links that you can use to preview the Landing Pages, which will include your own affiliate banner if you specify one as part of your My Account information.
You can identify products that offer Landing Pages by going to the My Products page or the Available Products page (Advanced Search) and searching with "Landing Page" selected as the filter. Also, the New Products e-mail now notes when products offer Landing Pages.
Expanded Sales Tracking
To capture tracking information for the new Hosted eST and Landing Page options, eSellerate now writes a cookie when the customer does either of the following:
- Downloads a Hosted eST file through a direct link to the file
- Visits a Landing Page
If the customer later purchases the product that the eST file/Landing Page offered, cookie information (if present) will be used to credit you for the sale.
These new tracking measures are in addition to the ones already in place for crediting you for your affiliate sales, regardless of the purchase method.
Tracking IDs for all Sales Options
You can now use a tracking ID in conjunction with any of the available options for selling a product. If you specify a tracking ID, eSellerate will record that ID along with other order details whenever the respective option generates a sale. You can then use the SKU Sales by Date Range report to find sales that involved the tracking ID.
More information on tracking IDs is available on the various tabs of the Product Detail page.
Hosted eST Tracking Report
You can use this new report to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns based on factors such as the number of Hosted eST downloads and Landing Page visits.
For more information, go to the list of available reports on the My Sales Reports page and click Hosted eST Tracking. Then see the provided online help.
"My Products" Data Export
Prior to this update, the only way to find information about the products you have signed up to sell was to navigate to the Product Detail page of each product, and click through the various tabs. As an alternative to this method, you can now export your "My Products" data as XML. The export option is available on the My Products page.
eSellerate provides the following resources to help you use the exported data:
- An XML Schema Definition (XSD) file with descriptions of the data format
- A PDF document with information on data field names, values, types and lengths
- A sample XML document that makes use of all the possible data fields
These resources are available for downloading in Zip format here.
About eSellerate
eSellerate is a leading software commerce provider focused on providing the tools and solutions for software publishers and other digital goods providers engaging in digital distribution and sales strategies. The company's comprehensive platforms offer groundbreaking solutions to thousands of software companies throughout the world. For more details about eSellerate, visit the web site at www.esellerate.net.
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PR Contact:
Patrick Lambrecht
eSellerate
patrick@esellerate.net
www.esellerate.net
eSellerate is a registered trademark of MindVision, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned are trademarks, registrations or copyrights of their respective holders and are hereby acknowledged.
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