Affiliate FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
As Affiliates ask questions we will ad them here with the answers. Please send any questions you have to Charlie@HorseTrainingResources.com and be sure to put the word Affiliate in the subject line somewhere.
1. Do Affiliates get the 20% commission on www.TheHorseLibrary.com?
Yes! Any product, including The Horse Library, that is ordered and paid through our shopping cart system will be eligible for the 20% commission.
2. Do we continue to get 20% commissions on the recurring (monthly, 6 month or yearly) payments for The Horse Library?
YES! Except for the Lifetime subscriptions (which you get the initial 20% commissions on), you will continue to get 20% commissions on the respective rebillings as long as that subscription is active. This could amount to quite a bit over time.
3. Can we use our own Affiliate link to purchase products for ourselves and get the commission on them, even though they are for us?
We actually debated this one for a while. Here’s both sides of our concern: the goal of the Affiliate program is to encourage Affiliates to sign up and promote our site to others by referring visitors. For doing that, we offer a generous 20% commission – one of the highest paid. However, we don’t want people signing up for the Affiliate program just to get an effective 20% discount on products. It wasn’t designed for that.
Here’s what we decided: we hope that our Affiliates will buy our products. We would rather that they buy the products that they are encouraging others to purchase. But we also want them to promote our site. So, we WILL pay the 20% commission on ALL sales through the Affiliate’s link, even if it is for themselves. However, if we don’t see any referral activity by the Affiliate other than their own purchases (not sending others to our site through their link) then we reserve the right to cancel their Affiliate status. We will always warn Affiliates prior to doing so.
We will NOT pay commissions on purchases made prior to signing up as an Affiliate.
4. Can we use sales copy or pictures on www.HorseTrainingResources.com for our own websites, blogs, etc?
Yes – but in a limited form. First – we will be producing more banner ads, text ads, etc. for you to use and will put them on a special page in the near future. In the meantime, if you want to use short paragraphs from our website to describe a product you are promoting somewhere then you can do so. We would prefer, in most cases, that you use your own description, in your own voice though. Use our web copy as a guide or sample to copy. PLEASE – do not copy entire sections of our pages. We will ask you to edit the content to make it unique or to remove it completely.
Again, if you have any questions about this please send in an email.
5. Do you offer second tier referral commissions? (Get a percentage of sales by referring other Affiliates.)
Not at this time – perhaps in the future. We want to walk before we run.
6. I am considering starting my own website and putting your banners on my site. Do you have any suggestions on how to do that?
Well, yes and no. We don’t currently do business consulting and are up to our necks trying to build our own business. However, we have learned a lot over the last 7 years or so since we started this. We hope to put together some notes and suggestions on how to approach a new business, how to determine what to focus on and some resources we used or are familiar with that we could refer you to.
7. I have a product I would like to have you sell on your website. Would you be interested?
Very possibly! We are always looking for good, solid products to carry that would be of interest to many of our visitors or readers. Please send us the information on what it is, what it sells for, etc. Where are you selling it now? We’ll want to see the actual product before we carry it. Please do NOT send anything to us until you talk to us.
8. How long do the cookies last?
For those new to the term, cookies are a small file written to the visitor’s computer disk that indicate they have been to our site. As an Affiliate, your Affiliate ID is written to that file as well. That way, when the computer user returns to our site to purchase something, you will get credit for it. Most websites write their own cookie files. The cookies can be set to expire after so many hours, days, etc. We do NOT set any expiration date on our cookies and they will last as long as the computer user doesn’t clear them.
Note that some users have software that automatically deletes cookies after a certain amount of time. We have no control over this. The only suggestion we have to overcome this is to encourage visitors to click your link often. It is a problem for us as well – it’s something Affiliates from almost all programs have to deal with.
9. I’m referring visitors and see in my stats that some are clicking to go to the website but haven’t seen any sales yet.
Not all visitors buy on their first visit! Did you? In fact, for first-time visitors it is likely that only 1% – 3% or so will buy on the first visit. But understand that if they sign up for our email horse tips, a higher percentage of them will eventually buy. It comes down to building a relationship with the visitor. That is why setting the cookie on their computer is so valuable for you as an Affiliate. As they come back to our website by clicking on links in our emails and then eventually buy, you will get credit for the sale as long as the cookie is still there.
Our Affiliate program is even more valuable in that respect. Few other horse websites send out useful tips like we do. As you have probably found out, we offer valuable tips but also encourage folks to buy our products. But it takes time for new visitors to warm up to us. The bottom line is people buy from those they know, like and trust. We do our best to build that relationship.