Overview

This feature allows Administrators to create Affiliate accounts. Affiliates can get a commission on referral. Each Affiliate user has its own affiliate link which they can use to bring visitors to the portal. For each converted visitor the Affiliate will get a commission which is defined by to system administrator as a percentage of the purchase value.  

Note that in the case of subscription plans, affiliates will get the commission only on the first payment, not on monthly payments.

Enabling REST API app

Before you start configuring the Affiliate feature on your learning portal, first you have to create and configure your REST API app on PayPal. To create the app login to your PayPal developer account (https://developer.paypal.com) then visit the "My Apps & Credentials" area. 

If you don't have an app, then scroll down to the REST API apps section and click the Create App button.

Give a name to the app then click Create App.

After your app is created click the Live button to see your live API credentials and configure the app.

Scroll down to the Live app settings section and make sure that the Payouts option is enabled then save your settings.

In the Live App credentials section, you will find your Client ID and Client Secret that you will use to configure the Affiliates feature on your learning portal.

Enabling Affiliates

After you created your app go to your portal to start configuring your Affiliates settings. Visit the Admin/App center area and install Affiliates. You can now start configuring your options for affiliates.

Configure

Go to Admin/Affiliates and visit the Settings tab. Enter your Client ID and Client Secret then click Save.

In the Settings area, you can enable an option that will provide commissions to affiliates if an existing user purchases a course via an affiliate link. To use this option, click Enable under "Affiliate commissions". Please note that this option is disabled by default.

If you configured the settings, go to the Tiers tab to set up your commission rate tiers. Tiers allow you to award commissions differently depending on which tier an affiliate is in. To add a new tier click Add in the upper-right corner.

Enter the name of the tier, the percent and select the checkbox if it uses Paypal then click Save.

If you have multiple tiers, you can define the default one by selecting the appropriate radio button under Default. When you add a new affiliate account it will be automatically assigned to the tier that is set as default.

To edit the name or the percent of the tier, click its icon.

To delete tiers, select them from the list and click the Delete button.

If your site has affiliate accounts, you can see their tier in the Admin/Affiliates area.

To change the tier of an affiliate, select it from the list then click the "Change tier" button.

Select the tier from the dropdown then click Save.

Adding Affiliates

To add new accounts go to Admin/Affiliates and click Add from the top right. You can add affiliates using a form or you can send out email invitations. Set the account type to Affiliate, select the organization and enter the number of accounts you want to add, then click Continue. 

Enter the account details, then click Save.

To see the affiliate accounts, go to Users and select Affiliates.

Here you can message users, edit account details, remove and archive affiliates.

Affiliate view

When affiliates log in, they will see their dashboard. On the dashboard, they can see their Referral Share Link, the email address from their PayPal account, and the Referrals section.

Referral Share Link

Affiliates can use this referral link to bring visitors to the portal and gain commission when learners enroll in courses. Select the link and copy into your email or share it on social media.

Note that if the affiliate wants to provide a link to a specific course or category, they can get the link to that area and add "?affiliate=" followed by their number. For example, https://fec.matrixlms.com/user_catalog_class/show/412483?title=How-to-use-your-DSLR?affiliate=1234556

PayPal Email

Admins can only pay the commission for the referral if the affiliate has a valid PayPal account associated with their account. To modify the PayPal email click on Edit.

Note that free personal PayPal accounts have a $3000 transaction limit. 

Referrals

In this section, Affiliates can see details about their referrals, such as:  

To see a more detailed view of the referrals, click the Details icon.

Pay/Reject referrals

When an Affiliate generates referrals to the site, they don't get the commission automatically. The system Administrator reviews the referrals and decides which will be paid and which will be rejected. To review referrals go to Admin/Referrals. In the Affiliates tab, you can pay or reject referrals in bulk. Select the affiliate then click Pay or Reject. If you reject the referral, the commission won't be paid to the affiliate.

Note that the changes will apply to all the pending referrals.

To pay or reject referrals one by one from a given user, click the Details icon of the user.

Here you will see a detailed view of the affiliate's referrals. Select the pending referrals from the list then click pay or reject.

Note that the Admin can't pay for the referral if the school's currency is one of the following: South Korean Won (KRW),  Turkish Lira (TRY), Indian Rupee (INR).

When you reject a referral you will be prompted to write a message to the affiliate regarding the reason for the rejection. Enter your message, then click Send.

Rejected referrals will have a red "X" in the Approved column. To see a detailed view of a referral, click on its Details icon.

Here you will see the details of the Order.

Reports

Admins and affiliates can download affiliate reports in CSV format. To download a report go to Reports/Catalog and select Affiliates.

Give a name to the report, select the time frame and the affiliates you want to include in the report,  then click Run. You also can choose to save the report if you want to reuse it.

Note that when an affiliate downloads the report they can't see the names of the learners.