CasperVend 2/Affiliates

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Setting Up Affiliate Vendors

These instructions assume you've already set up your products and profiles. If you have not, please see the full manual instructions FIRST before proceeding with this page.

It is very helpful to include your store name, and the percentage (%) amount in the name of the vendors. This information reminds the affiliate know how much the vendors give them when they look at them in inventory, and the store the vendors came from.

Ideally, your item pictures should also have your store logo/name ON the product pictures in case a customer of your affiliate wants to track down your shop to see your full product line!

Where's the Affiliate Pack?

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Because each 2.x regular vendor can also function as an affiliate vendor, there is no separate affiliate pack anymore for the 2.x versions.

1. Rez out the vendor
2. Click the logo area in the bottom left. You'll get a popup box with the configuration URL.
3. Click the button to go to the website and log in if necessary.
4. Rename the vendor on the website - the vendor inworld will change it's name within a few seconds.
5. Next to the "Affiliate" heading, set the percentage % amount, then click save on the same line. The website will give you a white popup saying "saved" but there is no inworld notification.
6. Resize the vendor as desired.
7. Set the perms on the vendor as desired.
8. Take the vendor, box it up and either sell it or pass it out. All done!

Can I Use Free Vendors As Affiliates?

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Yes, free vendors can be set up to be affiliate vendors just as easily as the premium/paid vendors can.

Vendor Permissions

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Because CasperVend has transaction verification, it is absolutely safe to leave your affiliate vendors with "Modify" permissions - this allows the affiliate to resize the vendors as needed to fit the available space. Leaving vendors in a large size, and unmodifiable, means that limits the affiliate's ability to set the vendors out in rental spaces, if the space is too small. This in turn limits exposure to YOUR products.

No-transfer is often used, but that is entirely up to you.

No Need To Input Affiliate Merchant Name

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Inputting names is only required when setting up a profit share - that's different from setting up affiliate vendors.

You simply set up the affiliate vendors and either hand them out or sell them. When the affiliate merchant rezzes out the vendors, they will appear on your vendor list, in a separate "affiliate vendors" section at the bottom of the page.

The website tracks which merchant the vendor came from (you) and if the current owner is not you, then the affiliate vendor behavior goes into effect automatically.

"Take a Copy" grid-based quirk

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There's a quirk with using "Take Copy" with rental units and vendors, that you should be aware of.

Because the server is unaware of this copy being made, the copy that ends up in your inventory is LINKED to the one that is still rezzed, and is NOT a proper copy.

If you then modify the one that's still rezzed, the copy that you took *will change too*.

To avoid this, TAKE into inventory and then REZ the copy. This will create a proper copy with its own unique UUID.

Keeping Affiliates Updated

To update your Affiliate vendors, you can do one of the following:

1. Rez each of your affiliate vendors
2. Use the UpgradeBee
3. Pick them up
4. Ship them out via the "updates" tab in CasperVend

Or....

1. Send the UpgradeBee to each of your affiliates

The first method is actually the recommended way, even though it's more of a hassle for you, the merchant. You will always need the CURRENT UpgradeBee to upgrade vendors to the current version. Packing an old UpgradeBee in the box with affiliate vendors will not upgrade vendors to a newer version of the script than what the UpgradeBee has (because the then-current vendor script is packed IN the UpgradeBee).

Encouraging Affiliates to Stay Updated

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There's four big reasons why just sending the UpgradeBee to your affiliates isn't as effective:

1. Affiliates simply don't bother to update
2. If you ship vendors as no-modify, it won't work anyway
3. If they "lock" their vendors, it won't work anyway
4. If you never update your original pack, you'll still be shipping out OLD vendors in the future.

One way to motivate your affiliates:

1. Put all NEW affiliate vendors in a new affiliate profile with all the products
2. Set the OLDER profile to just one "product" with a display texture that tells them to update their vendors.

Using an update script You may use the CasperUpdate script in order to prompt your affiliates to update their vendors. See the CasperUpdate page for details on how to set this up - just be aware that there may still be some affiliates who won't update, especially if they don't log in very often.

Information For YOUR Affiliates

Affiliates now have their own control panel for affiliate vendors they have rezzed out. To access the menu, affiliates touch the main panel on the vendor to get the popup menu and choose "Affiliate", then "Control Panel".

Your affiliates may be pointed to the Affiliate Information page for information they need in order to use their new affiliate vendors.

Fees & Commissions

When Does A Vendor Become An Affiliate Vendor?

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From a CasperVend shipping crate that YOU own, vendors are regular vendors as long as they stay in your possession.

If you transfer copies from the original purchaser avatar to another avatar - doesn't matter whether the other avatar is an alt or someone else's avatar completely - it is then treated as an affiliate vendor, and subject to affiliate vendor fees.

The system has no way to tell whether the person behind "Avatar Account 1" is the same person that's behind "Avatar Account 2".

Commission Payments Note

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Commission payments can come from ANY CasperVend device (this is a time-saving measure) - not always the expected one. So you may see a payment commission coming from, for example, what appears to be a vendor that only sells freebies or demos.

Affiliate Fees Are Per-Vendor Only

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Affiliate fees are set only on a per-vendor basis. This means that if you're using a multi-product vendor with a profile, that everything in that vendor is set to that affiliate percentage. If you want to have some products giving one percentage, and certain products another, then you need to set them up in two different vendors, with a different profile for each.

CasperTech Fees

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The CasperTech affiliate fee comes out of the initial sale amount on the affiliate vendor.

FREE VENDORS:
Out of every L$100 sale, this fee is L$5, which leaves L$95 that then gets split between the affiliate, you, and any possible profit sharing partners.

PREMIUM / PAID VENDORS:
Out of every L$100 sale, this fee is L$2, which leaves L$98 that then gets split between the affiliate, you, and any possible profit sharing partners.

Commission Chart

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If you want your affiliates to get the FULL percentage after the sale that you told them they would get, then you need to do some basic math - the formula is:

For 2% Fee: (percentage) divided by 98, then multiplied by 100

For 5% fee: (percentage) divided by 95, then multiplied by 100

A table of some of these percentages is here:

To give affiliate this:	Set it to this (2% fee):	Set it to this (5% fee)
10%	10.2%	10.5%
15%	15.3%	15.8%
20%	20.4%	21.1%
25%	25.5%	26.3%
30%	30.6%	31.6%
35%	35.7%	36.8%
40%	40.8%	42.1%
45%	45.9%	47.3%
50%	51%	54.7%

Default Fee Processing Order - AFTER 12 March, 2012

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On 12 March, 2012, a change was made to the default order, in order to pay the affiliates BEFORE the partner splits. Any vendors created after this point, will have this new order by default.

For any 2.x affiliates *already* created (and especially already in use) BEFORE this date, this is available ONLY via a tick box option on the website, to avoid disturbing any setup where it's important (to the merchant) that the affiliates get paid AFTER the profit sharing, for consistency.

Remember that *all* 2.x affiliate vendors incur the affiliate vendor fee, regardless of network size. This fee is necessary to keep the servers running and maintained, because affiliate networks can potentially generate substantially more web traffic than ones only in merchant shops.

The fees / discounts for 2.x vendors created ON or AFTER on 12 March, 2012 happen in this order:

Customer discounts

1) Customer discounts (i.e., if they got to a certain spending level)

2) Customer balances (i.e., spend x, get y loyalty rewards type balance)

CasperTech Fees, if applicable

3) Is it a free vendor? Then the free vendor fee applies.

4) Is it an affiliate vendor? Then the affiliate vendor fee applies.

Affiliate Gets

5) Affiliate commission

Partner Splits, if applicable

6) Vendor profit shares

7) Product profit shares, if applicable

You

8) Whatever is left

For example, If you.....

• Have a profit split with a partner @ 50/50
• Give out a (premium) affiliate vendor where product(s) are subject to that split
• Set affiliate commission at 10%

Then what happens is:

• Sell product A at L$100
• CasperTech fee of L$2, leaving L$98
• Affiliate split of 10% - L$10 (rounding up) - leaving L$88
• Partner split of 50% - L$44 - leaving L$44
• You get L$44

Default Fee Processing Order - BEFORE 12 March, 2012

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The fees / discounts for 2.x vendors prior to 12 March, 2012 happen in this order. Remember that *all* 2.x affiliate vendors incur the affiliate vendor fee, regardless of network size. This fee is necessary to keep the servers running and maintained, because affiliate networks can potentially generate substantially more web traffic than ones only in merchant shops.

Customer discounts

1) Customer discounts (i.e., if they got to a certain spending level)

2) Customer balances (i.e., spend x, get y loyalty rewards type balance)

'CasperTech Fees, if applicable

3) Is it a free vendor? Then the free vendor fee applies. (5%)

4) Is it an affiliate vendor? Then the affiliate vendor fee applies.

• Free vendors: 5% affiliate fee
• Premium / Fatpack vendors: 2% affiliate fee

Partner Splits, if applicable

5) Vendor profit shares

6) Product profit shares, if applicable

Affiliate Gets

7) Affiliate commission

You

8) Whatever is left

For example, If you.....

• Have a profit split with a partner @ 50/50
• Give out a (premium) affiliate vendor where product(s) are subject to that split
• Set affiliate commission at 10%

Then what happens is:

• Sell product A at L$100
• CasperTech fee of L$2, leaving L$98
• Partner split of 50% - L$49 - leaving L$49
• Affiliate split of 10% - L$5 (rounding up from 4.9) - leaving L$44
• You get L$44

Affiliate Vendor Options

Self-Sale Options

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By default, CasperVend allows affiliates to purchase from affiliate vendors they have rezzed out AND allows them to get the discount from such sales.

On the Overview page in CasperVend, towards the bottom, is a block of "Your account options".

If you do NOT want the affiliate to be able to get the discount from affiliate self-sales, then toggle the "Block affiliate discounts for self-sales" option to "yes".

If you do NOT want them to be able to buy from their affiliate vendor at all, then toggle the "Block affiliate self-sales" option to "yes".

(As FYI, the typical configuration is often block the discount, but allow the sales. After all, a sale is a sale...)

A check is made for BOTH of these options against both the purchaser AND recipient names.

Affiliate Bans

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You, as the original merchant, can ban an individual from your affiliate network - use the appropriate "ban" link in the affiliate vendor list. All V2 vendors will then refuse payments made to those vendors.

You are also able to delete the existing vendors of a banned affiliate from list at the bottom of the vendors page.

In addition, any newly-rezzed vendors that are rezzed by a banned affiliate will automatically de-rez, preventing them from just rezzing new ones to get more sales.

Unbanning An Affiliate

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1. Scroll down to the bottom of the vendors list
2. Look for the section called "Banned Affiliates"
3. Find the name you want to UNban
4. Use the Unban option

No HoloVend Affiliates

The reason HoloVend is not allowed to be an affiliate is because you need to put your demo products IN the HoloVendor.

Workaround: Set up the HoloVend yourself at the potential affiliate's location, and set a profit share at that location to that person.

Affiliate Missing Commission On Sale?

The most likely cause of non-payment of commission on an affiliate sale are these:

1. You have blocked the discount on affiliate self sales AND the affiliate was either purchasing directly OR was the recipient of someone else's purchase.
2. The vendor never got an affiliate percentage set during the setup. (Rez a copy of that vendor out and check its configuration page.)

When in doubt, check both your SL transaction history (to verify payment was made as stated by the affiliate) AND your CasperVend statistics (to see who bought vs. who received the product.)

The name check is made against both purchaser AND receiver of a product.

(Note: If an affiliate has been banned, transactions won't process through those vendors at all, so there won't even be a payment to worry about having a commission from.)

Why Is There An Affiliate Fee?

To help support the CasperVend network - the servers do cost money to run, and affiliate networks from popular merchants tend to be huge, putting extra load on the servers with all the transactions.

Error Messages

 CasperVend System: Your transaction ((transaction ID string)) is currently suspended and cannot complete because 'Pay: Insufficient funds to complete transaction.

Coming via an affiliate vendor, this means the affiliate doesn't have enough L$ to send the merchant the money. This error goes to both the originating merchant, AND the affiliate, but the affiliate is the one that needs to fix the problem.

Affiliate vendors unexpectedly changing products

--- Per Casper:

  When you take a copy of a vendor and rez it again, it simply copies data over from the original. 
  So if you change the original, any newly rezzed copies will also change. 

Any copies of vendors that are already rezzed out when you change the original, should not change. But if the affiliate/franchisee rezzes new copies, the new copies will be affected.

Not What You Were Looking For?

If this doesn't answer the "How do I...?" question you have, perhaps you need the page on profit sharing instead?

FAQ/Troubleshooting

Q. I'm getting a "The server reported a failure. I'm going to try again in 2 minutes (or touch to try again now)" message and the vendor won't start up...

A. You have an old 1.x vendor. These were decommissioned in May 2013. You need to replace the vendor with one from an updated pack. (Or, if you got an affiliate pack, you need to tell the merchant that their vendors are too old, and/or get new ones from that merchant.)

Q. I'm testing some affiliate vendors, and the transaction keeps getting hung on the affiliate commission and not going through.

A. If you are using gift cards, you need to have one of YOUR regular vendors out as well, because the affiliate commission is routed through one of your instore vendors, not the vendor used as the affiliate.

Q. Can a customer user my gift cards to purchase products through my affiliate's vendors, or will they only work on my own vendors?

A1. They can use gift cards on affiliate vendors, but nothing will be paid to the affiliate unless extra is paid on top of the gift card value. So if the product costs L$200, and the gift card only has L$100, the extra L$100 is will count towards the shares and payments set on the vendor and/or product.

This means if the gift card value is equal to OR GREATER THAN the value of the product, there will be NO affiliate share paid.

A2. You can disable use of gift cards on a per-vendor basis if you wish, that option is available on the vendor configuration page. It is recommended that - if you want to take advantage of this - that you do so BEFORE passing out the vendor.

Q.Do I have to make a new affiliate vendor each time I take on a new affiliate person or affiliate location?

A. No, you can reuse ones you've already made (just make sure the vendor script is up to date.)

Q. One of my affiliates got paid for items, but the pay split did not happen and the customer didn't get their purchase.

A. Most likely reason: Scripts are off in the sim or the parcel the vendor is rezzed on, and/or vendor is not set to correct land group (This will prevent correct operation of scripts if the land is set to only allow group scripts to run).

Q. My affiliates are paying the commission / share splits twice

A1. Profit splits and commissions should never pay more than the original purchase value.

A2. If your profit shares are paying twice, see the profit sharing page for help.

Q. Is it possible to set a group discount with an affiliate vendor?

A1. Yes, group discount capability is enabled with 2.x vendors. Just remember that what group the vendor gives a discount to is ENTIRELY dependent on what group it is rezzed under. This is an LSL limitation.