Regnow Affiliates

[Byte me]

I'm a bit confused about affiliate sales... :confused: I hope someone can help me...
I've joined Regnow's Affiliate Network to sell a few games on my website. For each game I want to have a link to the developers order page ('Buy now' button) and a link to the demo file ('Download now' button).

If someone clicks the 'Download now' button on my site, download the game and then order the full version from the developer's website or from the in-game links do I get my commission? Or do I have to have a custom build? It seems to me that the Regnow cookie system only works when I link to web pages, not files, so what's the point of having a link to the demo? It would make more sense just to link to the developer's home page...

I see so many websites, portals, etc, using Regnow, so they must be getting sales and commissions, I'm sure I'm missing something here.

[Valen]

The best way is to have a custom build for each game, with links that have your RegNow number in them. I think there may be a way that it can be set up to work without that using cookies if RegNow hosts the demo (?) but I would suggest getting a custom build from each developer whose game you want to sell. I've given custom builds to a few affiliates already, and it works well for both of us. :)

[Scorpio]

For RegNow affiliates that request custom builds, I just edit our installer script to add their Affiliate ID to the registry at install time

The RegNow builds of our games look in the registry for an (optional) affiliate ID and use that for the "Buy Now" buttons. This makes it so I don't have to recompile the game in addition to allowing a non-programmer to create custom builds for RegNow affiliates.

So far, it's worked out well.
-Scorpio

[Redclaw]

If a custom demo is not forthcoming, the next best thing is to link to the regular demo like so:



https://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?action=site&vendor=VENDORNUMBERHERE&affiliate=AFFILIATENUMBERHERE&ref=http://DEMOURLHERE


This apparently sets a cookie with your affiliate id before serving the demo. Said cookie should then be picked up by the regnow order form if the person buys the game.

(Oh, and Jack will be along in a minute to tell you to forget Regnow and just use Plimus instead. :D)

[Jack Norton]

Damn I'm getting old, took me more than one minute!

Forget about Regnow, use Plimus! :D hahaha
Jokes apart, you can use Regnow if you want... but you know that you get only 10% commission from Plimus? also that if you have to refunds Regnow keep his commission anyway (so you actually lose more money beside the one of the sale?) ?

Ok I'll stop for now... I've already done my support-plimus job today :D

[Byte me]

If a custom demo is not forthcoming, the next best thing is to link to the regular demo like so:



https://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?action=site&vendor=VENDORNUMBERHERE&affiliate=AFFILIATENUMBERHERE&ref=http://DEMOURLHERE


This apparently sets a cookie with your affiliate id before serving the demo. Said cookie should then be picked up by the regnow order form if the person buys the game.

Thanks, that's what I was looking for :) I'm gonna try that, until I don't have custom builds.

I agree with you Jack, but if you want to sell other developer's games the best choice is Regnow, very few people use Plimus (I know you, clifski and patrox use it, but a lot of developers use Regnow), I hope that change in the future but for now Regnow is the way to go.

[nemo54321]

I agree with you Jack, but if you want to sell other developer's games the best choice is Regnow, very few people use Plimus (I know you, clifski and patrox use it, but a lot of developers use Regnow), I hope that change in the future but for now Regnow is the way to go.

Don't you just hate that? You want to use another site, but you have to go where the customers are.

[arcadetown]

Regnow cookie should work as long as the game points to regnow for the order processing and doesn't doesn't overly try to draw the customer to buy directly from the developer's site instead since the developer's site wouldn't use the regnow cookie.

We don't need custom builds for affiliates by allowing the affiliate to pass their affiliate id to our download page and if using an online game, to embed their affilate ID into the online version using html tags.

For example...

http://www.arcadetown.com/bloxforever/download.asp?aid=test

Then to see the site pick it up later (see affiliate value displayed at bottom)...

http://www.arcadetown.com/order/choosemethod.asp?gameid=bloxforever

[Loover]

https://www.regnow.com/softsell/visitor.cgi?action=site&vendor=VENDORNUMBERHERE&affiliate=AFFILIATENUMBERHERE&ref=http://DEMOURLHERE

I used this type of url from my webpage (with my affiliated id, the vendor id and the url of the product) for selling an Alawar game. Then, to try the system, I download myself the game from my web, I installed it in my computer and I bought it with the "register" program.

After buying the game, I came back to my Regnow control panel and I got
surprised when I saw that my balance was 0$. Also de Billing Page Hits were 0.

Nevertheless, I tried the same operation but this time with a "custom build" and I saw a hit in the Billing Page Hits (I didnt buy the game this time, too much for one day :))

I have cookies on and I'm asking myself what was the problem. I have sent a mail to Alawar and I hope they will help me, but do anybody knows what I did bad?