Paid to Sign Up

The Cash Crusader "Paid to Sign Up" section is a useful revenue earner, but it must be said there is one big disadvantage. The principal one is the fact that members have to copy their sign-up e-mail, and paste it into a text box on your site, by way of proof that they have signed up.

This is not ideal, because there are numerous ways that the member could cheat the system, and leave you out of pocket. For example, they might have already joined the sponsor site at some time in the past, and it would be quite easy to paste in a copy of the e-mail received at that time.

Because of this problem, I would recommend that you use a plug-in called Paid to Affiliate instead. With this, you upload the affiliate codes of any programs that will pay you a fixed amount for sign-ups to free-to-join programs. These must be programs from affiliate networks that allow a unique user ID code to be appended to the affiliate code (most affiliate networks now allow this).

The variable that needs to be added to the affiliate code is:

#USERNAME#

You just append it to the affiliate code when uploading the combined site address and banner address code to Cash Crusader. The table below shows the way the coding is implemented with various affiliate networks:

The coding is usually positioned just after the site address portion of the affiliate code, but be sure to place it in exactly the right place as specified by a particular network, otherwise you may not be credited for sales or leads. Check their help pages for details.

When it comes to checking who has signed up for the programs, all you need to do is examine the affiliate program's statistics, where the user names of genuine applicants will be listed alongside the sale or lead.

Cashback Section

The trend for "cashback" payments to members when they buy goods and services can be catered for with the Paid to Affiliate add-on too. You just create another PHP page called Cashback or something similar (as directed in the add-on's instructions, or get Scripts-R-Us to do it for you), and upload affiliate programs that pay you a fixed monetary amount for sales or leads.

You can offer cashback on programs that pay you a percentage of sale value as well, if the program is offering a decent commission. In this case, you will need to stipulate that the member must spend a certain minimum amount to qualify for cashback, otherwise the percentage earned may not cover your cashback payout amount.

For example, if you affiliate with a software company that offers 15% of final sale value, and you stipulate a minimum order value of $100, it would mean that you would receive at least $15 on every qualified sale. You can therefore offer your members a percentage of that $15 by way of cashback (the exact amount is up to you).

Note that it is not possible to sell the Paid to Affiliate type of advertising to outside advertisers, as the complications of adding the user code to their supplied address code, and subsequently tracking it, makes it rather impractical. Nevertheless, it is a great way to earn money with affiliate programs you have personally selected for their revenue earning ability.

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