Quick Index

What is an Affiliate Program? What is FusionQuest?
What Is UltraLinks?
How does it work?
What are the advantages of using FusionQuest?
About FusionQuest - The Company
Comission theft and predatory advertising
Policies
Pricing, commissions and affiliate payouts
Login trouble
Multi-tier / 2-tier
Can FusionQuest do X or Y?
Does FusionQuest provide X or Y?
PayPal and shopping cart integration
Computer cookies
Miscellaneous

What Is An Affiliate Program? What is FusionQuest?

Q: What is an affiliate program? What is FusionQuest?

A: An affiliate program is an e-commerce sales tool that allows a merchant that sells online through a web site to pay a commission to the publishers of other web sites that send traffic to the merchant's web site which results in a sale.

Example:

Amazon.com pioneered the use of an affiliate program and their success is largely based on that program. If you have a web site and you link to Amazon.com using a special tracking link, whenever someone clicks that link on your site and goes to Amazon.com and buys a book, you get a percentage commission of that sale.

FusionQuest provides the tracking technology to allow any merchant to set up a similar sales channel. In other words, if you have 1,000 affiliates linking to your site, and one of them refers a visitor to your site that results in a sale, you need to know which of those 1,000 affiliates did the referring. That's what FusionQuest does.

What Is UltraLinks?

Q: What is UltraLinks? Are the affiliate links direct links? What are the affiliate links like?

A: The standard links that a third party affiliate tracking solution provides to affiliates to link to the merchant are referred to as redirect links. This means that the link actually sends the visitor to the affiliate tracking server first where a cookie is set on the visitor's computer and the visitor is then "redirected" on to the merchant's web site. These links generally look something like this:

http://www.trackingsystem.com/cgi-bin/loghit.pl?user=MerchantID&aflt=AffiliateID

The disadvantages of this method are:

1. The links are very long and cumbersome. It's not feasible for people to type them in to their browser.
2. The links do not have the merchant's domain in them resulting in a lack of branding.
3. The links interfere with the proper credit of link popularity for search engine marketing.
4. they're very obviously affiliate links.

Some affiliate tracking links are of this format:

http://www.merchantdomain.com/?AffiliateID

This link method has the advantage of being shorter and shows the merchant's domain for branding purposes.

However, there are still two drawbacks to this type of link when used as the link from the affiliate's web page to the merchant's web site.

1. They're still obviously affiliate links.
2. These links also interfere with proper search engine link popularity credit.

UltraLinks from FusionQuest are different.

There are two types of UltraLinks, depending on if the affiliate is linking from a web page to the merchant's web site or if they're putting a link in an e-mail or other plain text application.

With regard to an affiliate linking from a web page to the merchant's web site, the links are direct links from the affiliate's web-page to the merchant's web site with no query string. they're like any regular link and are therefor not obviously affiliate links and will count toward the link popularity for the merchant's web site.

It's been reported that tests performed by affiliates have shown direct links that are not obviously affiliate links get clicked on more often then links that are obviously affiliate links by a ratio of 2 to 1. Thus, UltraLinks is an advantage to the affiliate as well as the merchant.

Also, because of the way the UltraLinks works, affiliate link hijacking is not an issue. Hijacking is where a click on an affiliate link will be intercepted and changed from the real affiliate to another affiliate, effectively stealing the commission. With UltraLinks, the cookie is set at the time the affiliate web page is loaded and cannot be overwritten for a period of two days, thus preventing any hijacking.

With regard to links placed in e-mail or other plain text applications, the format of the link is:

http://MerchantDomain.com/?AffiliateID

Thus, it's easy to type and it brands the merchant's domain.

How Does It Work?

How does FusionQuest affiliate tracking work in general?

The process is complex and there are many specific variations. But, in general, the system works as follows:

When a visitor clicks through on an affiliate's link, the FusionQuest server sets a cookie on the visitor's computer that holds the affiliates ID. At the same time, the click-through is counted.

When the visitor converts to a customer and makes a sale, the shopping cart system contacts the FusionQuest server to record the sale. This is generally accomplished by using a image tag that is 1 pixel wide by 1 pixel high and thus invisible to the customer. (Actually, FusionQuest uses a single pixel image tag in addition to a zero width and height iFrame to pass the info to ensure affiliate credit in the event that third party or all images are being blocked by the browser.) This image tag actually calls a script on the FusionQuest server rather than a graphical file. When this single pixel image tag is called, the cookie on the customer's computer is read to retrieve the affiliate ID, which is then passed to the FusionQuest server, along with the sale amount and the order number. The FusionQuest system then credits the affiliate based on the commission rate set.

The trickiest part of the integration is to have the shopping cart dynamically insert the sale amount and the order number into the single pixel image tag so that it can be sent to the FusionQuest server.

Q: How does UltraLinks work?

A: There are two different types of UltraLinks, depending on if the link is being used to link from an affiliate's web page or linking from an e-mail or plain text application like a newsletter.

When linking from a web page:

A single pixel image tag is placed on the affiliate's page next to any creatives. (Actually, FusionQuest uses a single pixel image tag in addition to a zero width and height iFrame to pass the info to ensure affiliate credit in the event that third party or all images are being blocked by the browser.) This tag does not call an image or frame, it actually calls a script (computer program) on the FusionQuest server. This script sets a session cookie (lasts until the browser is closed, thus ending the 'session') on the visitors machine referencing the affiliate's ID.

This, however, is not the primary tracking cookie and is only the first stage in a two step process. When the visitor goes to the merchant's web site, JavaScript is executed that again connects to a script on the FusionQuest server. This script reads the session cookie set in the first step to determine who the affiliate is and then sets the actual tracking cookie with the expiration set by the merchant at that time. The click is also counted in the process.

When linking from an e-mail or plain text:

Affiliate links for use in e-mail, plain text or offline are in this format:

http://MerchantDomain.com/?affiliateID

When someone clicks on or enters that entire URL including the query string (the part of the URL after the ? mark), JavaScript is executed on the merchant's web site that reads the query string to determine the referring affiliate's ID. The FusionQuest server is contacted and the affiliate ID is passed to the tracking script. The click is counted and the tracking cookie is set with an expiration that reflects the chosen number of return days.

What Are The Advantages Of Using FusionQuest?

Q: What are the advantages of FusionQuest over other affiliate tracking solutions?

A: In summary, the advantages include:

1. UltraLinks affiliate linking method
2. Low cost - high value
3. 44,000 affiliates in the FusionQuest network
4. No software to install, runs from FusionQuest server
5. Prompt, helpful support
6. Proven, stable company and technology that has been around for years
7. Flexible integration methods, such as with forms or for offline sales

Q: What are the advantages of UltraLinks?

A: UltraLinks affiliate links have the following advantages for both Merchants and Affiliates:

1. Short, easy to type and remember
2. Domain branded - uses merchant's domain in link
3. web page links are not obviously affiliate links
4. Resistant to commission hijacking
5. No redirection - direct link
6. Search engine link popularity benefits

About FusionQuest - The Company

Q: How many affiliates are in the network?

A: Over 50,000

Q: How many affiliate programs use FusionQuest?

A: Over 150

Q: How long has FusionQuest been in business? When did it start?

A: FusionQuest started operation in August of 2000 originally under the name FreeFiliate.

Q: Where is FusionQuest located?

A: FusionQuest is located in Apache Jct., AZ.

Mailing Address:

FusionQuest
1836 E. 36th Ave.
Apache Jct., AZ 85219

Commission Theft And Predatory Advertising

Q: What is affiliate link hijacking? Does FusionQuest allow it?

A: Link hijacking is generally accomplished by various forms of thiefware where the click-through on the affiliate's link is intercepted and changed from the rightful affiliate to another affiliate's ID. A variation of this is less intrusive, but still has the same effect. The visitor clicks through an affiliate's link to a merchant's web site. Some sort of malware detects the site and pops up a window with a special discount offer. The link to get the special offer is that affiliate's link. The visitor clicks through on that link to get the special offer and, since most programs credit the last affiliate, the affiliate ID is overwritten with their ID and they get credit for the sale instead of the affiliate that actually sent the visitor.

FusionQuest is fundamentally impervious to these tactics. The affiliate ID is saved in a cookie on the visitor's machine AS SOON AS THE AFFILIATE'S PAGE LOADS that has the tracking code. So, there is no click-through to intercept. Also, the affiliate ID cannot be overwritten FOR A PERIOD OF TWO DAYS. Thus preventing the theft of their commission.

Q: What is FusionQuest's position with regard to predatory advertising?

A: FusionQuest takes a very strong stance against any such activity on the part of affiliates. Any activity on the part of any affiliate in the FusionQuest network that has the intent of taking commissions that they did not truly earn or divert from another affiliate by means of thiefware or any other means will result in the immediate termination of that affiliate's FusionQuest account and forfeiture of all commissions earned.

Policies

Q: Where are the terms of use for merchants setting up a program?

A: http://www.FusionQuest.com/terms.html

Q: Where are the terms of use for affiliates?

A: http://www.FusionQuest.com/terms-aflt.html

Q: Does the merchant need to file tax form 1099 on US affiliates?

A: If an affiliate is paid more than $600.00 in a year, the merchant must obtain the affiliate's SSN and file form 1099 if the affiliate is a US citizen. This is the responsibility of the merchant even if the network option is chosen.

Q: What is the affiliate relationship with FusionQuest and the merchant?

A: The affiliate relationship is directly between the merchant and the affiliate. Even when FusionQuest pays the affiliate on behalf of the merchant, it's just a payment dispersal service. For tax purposes and any liability issues, the relationship of the affiliate is directly with the merchant.

Q: What is FusionQuest position with regard to spam/unsolicited e-mail?

A: At FusionQuest, we have a ZERO TOLERANCE spam policy. All users of the FusionQuest system, whether affiliates or program administrators, shall not use the system in connection with any type of spam promotions. Spam shall include, but is not limited to, the sending of unsolicited information to a person or group that has not specifically asked to receive that particular information or is not a personal acquaintance of the individual sending the information.

Any domain associated with the FusionQuest system SHALL NOT be included in any such correspondence. This includes putting the link as HTML that does not visibly show the domain. Putting in a disclaimer providing the method for a recipient to be removed from a mailing list DOES NOT make this practice acceptable. The definition of spam shall further include, but not be limited to the following:

Sending any e-mail with the FusionQuest name or any associated web site addresses or any affiliate link provided by FusionQuest to any type of "Safe List" or through any type of "Safe List" service.

Sending any e-mail with the FusionQuest name or any associated web site addresses or any affiliate link provided by FusionQuest to any type of "lead" or "prospect" before you have received a request for more info from them.

Sending any e-mail with the FusionQuest name or any associated web site addresses or any affiliate link provided by FusionQuest as part of a confirmation/thank you letter as a result of a posting to a classified ad site or a FFA (Free For All Links) site

Sending any e-mail with the FusionQuest name or any associated web site addresses as the return address

Faxing, or Fax Blasting any message with the FusionQuest name or any associated web site addresses or any affiliate link provided by FusionQuest to any recipient that has not requested the information first.

Use of the FusionQuest name or any associated web site addresses or any affiliate link provided by FusionQuest as part of any inappropriate news group or forum postings.

Use of ANY account in a manner not specifically authorized by FusionQuest, Inc. is a misappropriation of our intellectual property and will be treated as such.

Any FusionQuest member that engages in spam in connection with the FusionQuest system in any way shall have their membership terminated immediately, and SHALL BE HELD LIABLE for any and all damages and/or losses that may result as a consequence.

Q: Can FusionQuest be held liable for any loss resulting from a system malfunction?

A: No, per the terms of use.

There is no warranty or guarantee of any kind with respect to the FusionQuest system as far as reliability, stability, quality or dependability. This means that FusionQuest, Inc. cannot be held liable or responsible for any loss or damage incurred directly or indirectly due to the use of the FusionQuest system. This shall include, but is not limited to, any system malfunction, period of being inoperative or unavailable, loss of data or discontinuation of service.

Not Responsible for Fraudulent Activity

While FusionQuest has taken considerable measures to ensure the validity of all affiliate activity, no system is 100% cheat-proof. FusionQuest, Inc. shall not be held responsible for any monetary loss due to the fraudulent activity of a merchant's affiliate or affiliates. Any such dispute shall be between the merchant and the affiliate only and shall not directly involve FusionQuest, Inc. beyond the requesting of system activity logs.

Q: What is FusionQuest privacy policy?

A: The FusionQuest privacy policy can be found here:

http://www.FusionQuest.com/privacy_policy.shtml

All information of a personal or confidential nature gathered by FusionQuest, Inc. through the FusionQuest system, such as contact information including e-mail address, shall under no circumstances be divulged to any third party without the express permission of the affected individuals, unless required to do so by law. it's understood by all users of the FusionQuest system that they may receive periodic updates and information related to the FusionQuest system.

Q: Does FusionQuest provide support to merchants operating an affiliate program?

A: Each account comes with three hours of free technical phone support and consultation. After 3 hours, telephone support and consultation will be provided at the rate of $75.00 per incident plus $1.50 per minute. E-mail support that requires no 'hands-on' action by the support technician will continue to be at no cost after the 3 hour phone support limit is reached. E-mail support that requires any action by the support technician after the 3 hour phone support limit is reached will be billed at $75.00 per incident.

Any support that requires the modification of the FusionQuest system to customize the system to accommodate a merchant will incur a minimum fee of $500.00 per incident, at the discretion of FusionQuest, Inc. Cost estimate of system customization will be provided upon request. Note: modifications made at the request of a merchant to fix an error or bug in an already existing algorithm will incur no fee.

Q: Does FusionQuest provide support to affiliates?

A: The primary resource for affiliates to get support with regard to any specific affiliate program is the responsibility of that program's affiliate manager. However, FusionQuest will provide support as needed to affiliates.

Q: Are any types of web sites restricted from setting up an affiliate program through FusionQuest?

A: Affiliate programs that will be promoting violence, pornography, illegal activities or the occult or a web site with hateful or slanderous content are not permitted to be promoted through a FusionQuest Account. FusionQuest, Inc. reserves the right to deny an account to any individual or organization at its sole discretion. Non-pornographic adult oriented web sites will be accepted at the discretion of FusionQuest management.

Q: I forgot to pay my bill and now my account is deactivated and it says I must pay $149.00 again. Will you waive the $149.00?

A: Yes, we will reactivate the account and waive the $149.00. However, they will need to pay the amount due right away or the account will become inactive again. (Contact support for this to happen.)

Q: Is there any limit to the number of affiliates that can be part of a program?

A: No, there is no limit to the number of affiliates.

Q: Is there any limit to the number of clicks generated by affiliates?

A: No, clicks are unlimited. However, bandwidth surcharges do apply as stated above.

Q: Is there any limit to the number of banners and creatives that a program can provide to affiliates?

A: No, a merchant can provide as many banners, graphics or text ads as they desire. Each can point to a different page as well.

Pricing, Commissions And Affiliate Payouts

Q: What are the different commission methods?

A: There are basically two methods, CPC and CPA.

CPC stands for Cost Per Click and is a program where the merchants pays a small some to the affiliate for each click-through they generate to the merchant's web site. Due to the difficulty in mitigating fraud, FusionQuest does not currently support CPC

CPA stands for Cost Per Action. This is where the merchant pays the affiliate for sending a visitor that takes some action on the web site.

Pay Per Lead is a CPA model where the action is something like filling out and submitting an online form. This action by the visitor results in a flat-fee commission payment to the affiliate.

Pay Per Sale is a CPA model where the action is an actual sale. The commission paid to the affiliate may be a flat-fee per sale or it may be a percentage of the sale amount.

Q: What is the difference between a Network and a Non-Network account?

A: With a Network account, FusionQuest will pay affiliates on behalf of the merchant. The program will also be listed in the FusionQuest directory and will be promoted to the affiliates in the network (over 44,000). The program will also be promoted in the newsletter that goes out to the entire database of affiliates. Network accounts incur a 10% commission fee charged by FusionQuest.

A Non-Network account has access to the tracking technology only, is not listed in the FusionQuest directory and will have to pay their own affiliates.

Q: What methods are integrated for affiliate payments if merchant pays own affiliates?

A: The system will generate a PayPal mass pay file or a QuickBooks file or a file that just lists the affiliates with amounts due and their addresses.

Q: What is the percentage commission fee for a network account a percentage of?

A: it's a percentage of what the merchant pays to the affiliates. So, if they pay out $100.00 to all affiliates in a given month, FusionQuest will charge a commission of $10.00 thus, their total payout for the month would be $110.00. This only applies to Network accounts.

Q: Is there a discount for multiple related accounts?

A: Yes. If it's necessary to set up more than one FusionQuest account, additional accounts are discounted as follows.

For Option #1, setup fee is waived and just the monthly fee is charged.

For Option #2, the one time payment is discounted $295.

Bandwidth surcharges and network percentages remain the same.

Login Trouble

Q: I can't log in.

A: Are you at www.FusionQuest.com? Are you a merchant operating your own affiliate program or are you an affiliate of a current program?

If you are an affiliate of a program, you should click on Affiliate Login. The login URL is:

https://www.FusionQuest.com/afltlogin2.shtml

If they're an affiliate and forgot their affiliate ID, ask their e-mail address and use the interface to get their affiliate ID.

If they're a merchant and forgot their username, ask their e-mail address and use the interface to get their username.

If they have their username or affiliate ID and have lost their password, ask if they have used the retrieve password function to have their password e-mailed to them. If you need to find out what e-mail address they have on file, use the interface to enter the affiliate ID or merchant Username and retrieve the e-mail address on file.

The retrieve info page is here:

http://www.FusionQuest.com/cgi-bin/main/retrieve1.pl?ps=fq-getdo

Multi-tier / 2-tier

Q: What is a multi-tier affiliate program? How many tiers does FusionQuest support?

A: A multi-tier program is where the merchant pays commissions on multiple levels. For example, in a two-tier program, you would pay the affiliate that referred a customer a commission. You would also pay the affiliate that got that affiliate to join your program (their sponsor) a percentage of the commission you paid to the first affiliate. FusionQuest supports an unlimited number of tiers.

Q: How are multi-tier commissions set up and calculated by FusionQuest?

A: In the merchant control panel, you click on Program Profile. Then click View/modify tier structure. In the text box, enter the percentage paid for each tier one per line. The first line would be tier-two. The second line would be tier-three. Etc. The percentage entered is a percentage of the first-tier commission not of the original sale!

Example:

• 25.0
• 50.0
• 10.0

If the primary commission was 50% and the sale was $100.00, the first affiliate, the one that actually referred the customer would receive $50.00 (50% of $100.00). The second tier affiliate would receive $12.50 (25% of $50.00 - what the first affiliate earned). The third tier affiliate would receive $25.00 (50% of $50.00 - what the first affiliate earned). The forth tier affiliate would receive $5.00 (10% of $50.00 - what the first affiliate earned).

Can FusionQuest Do X Or Y?

Q: Can FusionQuest tracking integrate with online forms? How?

A: Yes, FusionQuest does integrate with online forms that are submitted by a visitor. However, this does require a bit of specific customization of the FusionQuest code for the specific form. This customization is included in the setup fee.

Customized code is inserted into the online form web page that will capture some identifying data being submitted. The submitter's e-mail address or phone number are good choices as they're always unique to the one submitting the form. When the form is submitted, the FusionQuest server is contacted and the identifying data and the ID of the referring affiliate are passed to FusionQuest and recorded in a database. However, the affiliate is not credited at that time.

When the merchant logs into their control panel, they will see a notice at the top indicating that there are affiliates that are awaiting credit. There will be a button to click to view these affiliates. This shows a page with all affiliates awaiting credit, along with a text box to enter the sale amount and, optionally, the actual amount to credit the affiliate if it's different than the standard commission rate. There is also an option to credit the transaction as a Pay per Lead with no sale amount. Or, the transaction can be deleted if the form submission was not valid or legitimate.

Q: Can sales completed offline be tracked?

A: Yes they can.

If the prospective customer submits a contact form that is passed to the sales department for follow-up, the form integration method mentioned above will work. Otherwise, the affiliate ID of the referring affiliate can be displayed on the web page next to the sales contact phone number and called something like a referral code. The sales person will ask the caller to provide the referral code and will then have a record of the affiliate responsible.

Q: Can the affiliate ID and other info be displayed on the merchant's web site?

A: Yes, the affiliate ID of the referring affiliate can be displayed on any page on the web site. The affiliate name and e-mail address can also be displayed, thus creating a pseudo replicated site.

Q: Can commission rates be set for individual affiliates that differ from the default commission rate?

A: Yes, a different commission rate can be set for specific affiliates that will override the default rate.

Q: Can different commission rates be set for individual products?

A: No, not at this time. Only one commission rate can be set for all products.

Q: Can FusionQuest be used for tracking lifetime commissions?

A: Yes, it can, but not in itself. No affiliate tracking solution can legitimately claim to provide lifetime tracking. Cookies do not last a lifetime. For lifetime commissions to be paid, the merchant needs to have a shopping cart system that uses customer accounts.

When the visitor that clicked through an affiliate link first becomes a customer and submits their contact info to set up a customer account, the affiliate ID is captured and saved in the merchant's database along with all the contact info of the customer. From that point forward, when the customer returns and makes a purchase, the merchant's shopping cart system will retrieve the affiliate ID and pass the ID and sale info to the FusionQuest server. In this way, lifetime commissions can be accommodated.

Q: Can FusionQuest be used to track recurring commissions?

A: Yes. There are several methods for doing this. The best way is to use PayPal for subscriptions and use IPN to integrate with FusionQuest (see next question).

If PayPal IPN is not possible, the way recurring commissions work is you set the amount and frequency of the recurring commission by editing the iFrame/image tag used for back-end tracking integration. This amount will be arbitrarily credit to the affiliate's account on the specified schedule until it's canceled by the merchant. The control panel has an area to view current recurring commissions and cancel any as necessary.

By modifying the query string on the iFrame/image tag, the following parameters can be set. The recurring amount. The number of days between crediting the recurring amount. Or, the percentage of the sale to make the recurring amount. And the ID for that recurring commission.

Q: Can affiliate's be pre-screened? How does that work? Can the affiliate application be customized?

A: Yes, you can require affiliate's to submit a more detailed application and approve the ones you want. The way this works is when the affiliate goes to join your program, they will be presented with a more detailed application that asks the following:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Phone number
• URL of web site
• Purpose of web site
• Average hits per week
• Age of web site

Currently, this application form is not customizable.

Q: Can merchants require that affiliates agree to their affiliate program agreement to join their program?

A: Yes. You can post an affiliate agreement on your web site and enter the URL of that agreement. When affiliates go to join your program, they will have to check a box that they have read and agree to the terms.

Q: Can a merchant broadcast an e-mail to all affiliates with each customized with the affiliate's name and ID? Can e-mail be sent in Plain Text or HTML?

A: Yes, merchants can broadcast an e-mail to all affiliates at one time. Codes can be inserted into the text that will be replaced with the affiliate's name, ID and affiliate link.

Broadcast e-mail can be sent either as plain text or as HTML format.

Q: Can customized training/welcome letters be set up to automatically be sent out to new affiliates? How many?

A: Yes, merchants can enter an unlimited number of training/welcome letters that will go out to new affiliates when they join on any schedule desired. The affiliate's Name, ID and affiliate link can be included in these, being inserted automatically.

Q: Can the affiliate areas be customized to match the merchant's web site?

A: Yes, a template can uploaded through the control panel (Customize Affiliate Area) that will allow the affiliate's stats and link area to match the web site of the merchant. If the merchant chooses to not be part of the network and not list their program in the directory, the affiliates may never know it's FusionQuest.

Q: Can affiliates be grouped?

A: Not at this time. Such functionality will be incorporated into the new enterprise edition of FusionQuest currently in process.

Q: Does FusionQuest support deep linking (affiliate links to pages other than the home page)?

A: Yes. The affiliate has the option to generate affiliate links for any page on the merchant's web site. Also, merchants can provide creatives that link to specific pages of the site. (Please note that in such a case, the JavaScript integration code must be on each of those pages.)

Q: Can crediting of commissions be delayed for verification purposes?

A: Yes, merchants can delay crediting affiliates and manually credit each. When affiliates are in the waiting list to be credited, a notice will appear at the top of the merchant's control panel that will allow them to list all transactions waiting to be credited and provide the opportunity to credit each.

Q: Can special accounts be set up specifically for tracking online and PPC ads?

A: Yes, ad campaigns such as Google Adwords can be tracked through a FusionQuest account.

Does FusionQuest Provide X Or Y?

Q: Does FusionQuest provide replicated web sites?

A: No, not per se. However, the same thing can be accomplished by displaying the affiliate info on the web site as stated above.

Q: Does FusionQuest serve the banners and ads?

A: No, the banners and graphics must be posted on the merchant's web site. The URL of the creative is entered into the FusionQuest system.

Q: Does FusionQuest support Flash banners?

A: Yes, because of the way UltraLinks works, it's very easy to provide Flash banners or any other type of creative.

Q: Is there fraud prevention measures in place to prevent an affiliate being credited multiple times for a sale by refreshing the page?

A: Yes. If an order ID is passed to the FusionQuest server, affiliates can only be credited one time for any specific order ID. If order IDs are not passed, the FusionQuest system uses cookies and IP tracking to prevent multiple credits for a specific sale.

PayPal And Shopping Cart Integration

Q: Does FusionQuest integrate with PayPal IPN?

A: Yes. FusionQuest has very good integration with PayPal by use of Instant Payment Notification. This results in a much more secure integration and also allows recurring commissions from PayPal subscriptions. By using PayPal IPN, you are ensured that commission will not be paid unless the payment has cleared PayPal. Thus, if a subscription is canceled or there is fraudulent activity to bypass PayPal, the commission will NOT be credited all automatically.

Q: Can FusionQuest be integrated with PayPal when IPN is being used for some other purpose?

A: Yes. You can specify another URL to pass the IPN on to in the back-office control panel of FusionQuest by clicking on Program Profile.

Q: What shopping carts has FusionQuest integrated with?

A: FusionQuest can integrate with many shopping cart systems. Any system that can support putting a single pixel image tag on the Thank You/Confirmation page and dynamically insert the sale subtotal amount and the order ID can integrate with FusionQuest. Check with the cart provider to see if they integrate with third party affiliate tracking solutions or ROI tracking systems that track sale amounts (such as is used with Google Adwords).

Specific instructions with customized code are provided in the control panel by clicking on Integration Instructions for the following shopping carts:

• PayPal
• Yahoo Stores
• CCNOW
• 2Checkout
• JustAddCommerce
• Cart Manager
• LinkPointCart
• Revecom/Paysystems
• King Cart
• E-gold
• StormPay
• IntGold
• Mals-e.com
• Miva Merchant
• ShopSite.com (Pro version)

Q: Does a FusionQuest account include a shopping cart?

A: Yes, a basic, pre-integrated cart is included.

Computer Cookies

Q: What are cookies? Does FusionQuest use cookies for tracking? Are they third party cookies?

A: Yes, the FusionQuest affiliate tracking system is cookie based.

Cookies are small bits of data stored on a visitor's computer. they're completely harmless in themselves. FusionQuest does not store any personally identifiable information in the data cookies. The only information stored is the affiliate ID of the affiliate that referred the visitor.

FusionQuest cookies are third party cookies. A third party cookie is a cookie set for one domain when the visitor is actually at another domain.

Q: Are FusionQuest tracking cookies P3P privacy compliant?

A: Yes. They will not be blocked by Internet Explorer by default even though they're third party cookies.

Q: What are return days? Can I set the expiration of the cookie?

A: Return days is the length of the lifetime of the tracking cookie. The merchant can set the number of return days from 1 to 999 days. it's not practical to set expirations longer than 999 days. This sets the number of days of interval there can be between when the visitor clicks through the affiliate link and when they actual make a purchase and still have the sale tracked.

Miscellaneous

Q: When multiple affiliates refer a customer, does the first affiliate or the last affiliate get credit?

A: FusionQuest follows the industry standard of crediting the last affiliate that referred the customer with the sale. However, the first affiliate cannot be overwritten for a period of 2 days and will receive credit for any sale even if the customer subsequently goes through another affiliate's link. This is to prevent commission hijacking.

Q: What is the difference between a unique click and a raw click?

A: A unique click only counts a specific visitor one time no matter how many times they actually click through the affiliate link. Raw clicks on the other hand count the number of times the visitor clicks through the affiliate link even on repeated clicks.

© Copyright 2006 FusionQuest, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Spam Policy • Privacy Policy

Featured Program: Independent Insurance Agency Mesa AZ Arizona