Affiliate Report Concepts: Earning Periods

In general, here's how affiliate earning periods work: First, people buy stuff through your affiliate links to EdenFantasys. Then, the orders can be canceled, returned, or exchanged. Once all of that is settled, you are paid commission.

Now that you know the general process, here are the details:
1. Purchases are made during the Current Period. Every calendar month is considered its own earning period.
2. Order cancellations, returns, and exchanges are made during the Cooling Off Period. This period lasts from the time the purchase is made until the end of the next calendar month.
3. You get paid after the end of the Cooling Off Period for the original month's purchases. The original month is now called a Closed Period and you are owed the commissions you earned.

For me, earning periods always make more sense in an example:
Let's say in March 2011, some customers placed orders through your links. The orders total $300, meaning $60 commission for you (20%). All of those orders, whether they were made on March 1st, 17th, or 30th, would have to cool off until the end of April 2011. Then, at the beginning of May 2011, you would be paid your commission.

Does anyone have any questions? less

Next concept: Definitions of some common affiliate report termsBelow are definitions for some of the words on Affiliate Reports that might not be familiar to you. Feel free to ask questions about these terms.Commissions Due: Commissions from a Closed Period. These commissions are owed to the affiliate and will be paid out when the minimum payout limit is met.Estimated Commissions: Commissions calculated from orders that have been processed but could still be canceled, returned, or exchanged. This is an estimate of the commissions you will be paid but not the final dollar amount.Friends of Affiliate: This refers to people who have signed up as affiliates and entered your code as a referral during setup. You earn 3% commission on these people's sales.Net Sales: Sum of all purchases made through your affiliate links; used to calculate commission. Net Sales are calculated after coupons are applied and do not include shipping or tax.Offline Affiliate: Offline Affiliate earnings are made when people use your affiliate code as a 15% off coupon on purchases. You earn 5% commission on these sales.Online Affiliate: Online Affiliate earnings are made when people are referred to EdenFantasys through your links in text links, banners, widgets or EPS purchases. You earn 20% commission on these sales.Orders / Orders Received: These are all the orders placed through your affiliate links (or with your affiliate code) including any pending or problem orders.Pending: These orders have been placed but have not yet shipped.Problem Order: An order that has been canceled, returned, or exchanged. These orders do not count toward your commissions.Traffic (hits): When someone clicks on your link that leads to EdenFantasys, they pick up your partner code in a cookie, and this counts as a Hit in your reports. If someone already has your partner code in a cookie in their browser, the visit would not count as a hit, but you would still earn commission on their purchases.All these terms might not make sense at first, but this list is just a reference that you can use when you're looking at your reports. less

It's useful to track traffic so you know how many people are clicking your links. If you are making more of an effort to get your links out there (blogging actively, tweeting actively, etc.), it's nice to know when you are getting more of a response from your readers/followers/etc. less

I'm very enthusiatic about the commission struction and the use of the widgets and banners. I have a RUSH right now - ideas are streaming through my mind currently. I see the commission for the widget/banners are 20%, so I answered my own question that I posed earlier. I'm trying to paste and copy all your info in my notepad and review it as we type. less