Publisher Help Center
| Word | Description |
| ACH | Automated Clearing House (ACH) is the name of an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. LinkShare uses the ACH service for its direct deposit transactions. Therefore, ACH is synonymous with Direct Deposit on the LinkShare Network. |
| Actual Commissions | Actual Commissions represents the net commissions earned by a publisher after adjustments such as cancellation, and returns. |
| Adjusted Commissions | Adjusted Commissions represent commissions that were adjusted from the baseline commissions, usually because of special offers, cancellation or returns. |
| Advertiser | A person or organization selling products or services on the web and is a member of the LinkShare network. |
| Affiliate | Also referred to as a Publisher, an affiliate is a person or organization running a Web site that partners with one or more online advertisers. The affiliate places links on its site to promote the merchant's products or services. In exchange, the affiliate receives a commission for all valid transactions it has referred. |
| Amount | The sum of the transaction. |
| Approval | Many online advertisers will review the sites of potential publishers before agreeing to partner with them. After applying to a particular advertiser’s affiliate program, potential publishers must await the approval of that advertiser. Once an advertiser approves a publisher, that advertiser’s name appears on the publisher’s Links and My Programs pages. Then the Publisher can begin making links to that advertiser’s site. |
| Automated LinkGenerator | The Automated LinkGenerator is a web service that creates LinkShare publisher links for any product on an advertiser's site that offers Individual Product Links from their Create Links menu. This feature provides the same functionality as the Link Builder option that allows a publisher to browse an advertiser's site for a particular product, without having to log into the Publisher Interface to get links. |
| Automatic Approval | Some advertisers allow all potential publishers to participate in their programs without reviewing the publisher’s sites first. When you apply to such an advertiser, their program will be immediately available in your My Programs and Links pages, and you will be able to create links immediately. |
| Average Order Size | Average Order Size represents the Sum of Sales divided by the number of orders. |
| Bad Transaction | The sum of the transaction. |
| Banner | A banner is a hot-linked image on a Web page designed to invite the user to click. Some banners are animated, while others are static. Banners come in a variety of sizes and shapes. While other types of links that are more integrated into the content of a page have tended to lead to more sales, banners provide a splash of color on a Web page. |
| Baseline Commissions | Baseline Commissions represents commissions you’ve earned from advertiser’s baseline programs. These do not include special offers, and other adjustments such as cancellations and returns. |
| Channel | Also known as a Marketing Channel, a publisher business or website that operates as part of a larger business or website. Through a single master account, a publisher can manage multiple accounts by creating new marketing channels for each business or website. |
| Click-through | A click-through (or click) is an instance where a user clicks on a particular link. |
| Code | Generally when we talk about code, we mean HTML code. LinkShare has created an online tool that provides publishers with the lines of code they need to put links on their Web pages. Publishers can simply copy the appropriate code and paste it into their own HTML pages. |
| Commission | Commission refers to the amount of compensation paid to publishers for participation in an advertiser’s Affiliate program. Publishers generally earn a percentage of each sale made on an advertiser’s site to a visitor referred by a link on that publisher’s site. Commissions may also be a flat fee for each purchase or action. This commission varies from advertiser to advertiser. |
| Commissionable | A transaction that elects for a commission. |
| Commissionable Transaction | The transaction successfully applies to the offer terms. |
| CTR | Click-Through Rate or CTR is obtained by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions. CTR is a good way of measuring the effectiveness of a campaign. For example, if your banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions) and one person clicked on it, then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent. |
| Deal Dispatcher | Deal Dispatcher is an opportunity for LinkShare advertisers to highlight special offers/promotions targeted to publishers and/or consumers. These deals have special commission structures or offer publishers bonuses as a way to increase advertiser activity and revenue. The deals are broken into two different categories: Consumer Promotions and Publisher Promotions. |
| Direct Deposit | Direct Deposit is a method of payment allowing publishers to receive their commission through a direct transfer into their banking account. |
| Dynamic Rich Media | Dynamic Rich Media or DRM is a type of link that updates automatically. |
| Email Link | Email links are text links with special tracking code allowing you to differentiate between the two. There is no difference to the user between a text link and an email link. |
| EPC | Earnings per Click or EPC is obtained by dividing the commissions earned by the number of clicks (click-throughs) that generated these commissions. LinkShare uses Earnings per Hundred Clicks as it is easier to read. EPC is useful for measuring the revenue potential and conversion of your links. For example, if a link received 1000 clicks, and generated $5.00 in commissions, EPC would be shown as $0.50. |
| Hosting / Hosted | Hosting (also known as Web site hosting, Web hosting, and Webhosting) is the business of housing, serving, and maintaining files for one or more Web sites. LinkShare advertisement banners may be hosted on LinkShare’s servers or on the advertiser’s servers. When looking at a banner link, you will see “hosted by LinkShare” or “Hosted by Advertiser” which will indicate how the banner is hosted. |
| Impression | An impression is a single instance of a link shown to a user. |
| Lead Advantage | The LinkShare Lead Advantage Network provides publishers with compelling lead generation offers from a broad range of industries including real estate, education, automotive, financial services, insurance, mortgages, dating, telecom, and business services opportunities. |
| LinkLocator Direct | Link Locator Direct is an XML data feed that provides publishers with the ability to access updated promotions and products from advertisers without having to create links manually by logging into the LinkShare Interface. |
| Marketing Channel | A Marketing Channel is a publisher business or website that operates as part of a larger business or website. Through a single master account, a publisher can manage multiple accounts by creating new marketing channels for each business or website. |
| Merchandiser Data feeds | The Merchandiser program is designed for publishers that can support a database of product links that are updated on a daily basis. Examples of publisher partner sites well-suited for Merchandiser include: • Shopping comparison sites • Price comparison sites • Product search engine sites |
| Non-Commissionable Transaction | This can come from a number of reasons, such as a transaction not being part of an offer, or if an inavlide Affiliate ID is provided, if the return days have been exceeded. |
| Offer | An Offer represents the terms of an advertiser program available to publishers. Advertisers on the LinkShare network set their own offers, and these offers vary from one advertiser to the next. Offers can include commissions based on a set percentage of sales, on the number of impressions or click-throughs, or on a combination of these. You can review advertiser’s offer terms by clicking on an Advertiser’s name, from the Programs or Links area. |
| Order ID | The unique identifier used to refer to a specific order. It is usually an alphanumeric value. Each advertiser uses their own Order ID format. |
| Orders/Click (O/C Rate) | Orders per Click or O/C Rate is calculated by dividing the number of orders by the number of clicks. Orders/Click is a good way to measure the effectiveness of your links. For example, if you received 1000 clicks and 10 orders, the Orders/Click rate would be 1 percent. |
| Payment Terms | The terms arranged between publishers and advertisers for advertisers to compensate publishers, such as flat fee, per click rate, percentage, etc. |
| Premium Advertiser | LinkShare Premium Advertisers are advertisers that satisfy a set of best practice benchmarks set by LinkShare. Premium Advertisers are denoted wit a star symbol next to their name throughout the publisher interface. |
| Private | An offer from an advertiser that is only made to a particular publisher or group of publishers |
| Process Date | The date the advertiser processed the transaction with LinkShare. |
| Product SKU | A unique identifier, used most commonly in online business to refer to a specific product. |
| Program Level | Program Levels are different types of commissions or compensation models offered by an advertiser. Once a publisher is approved by an advertiser, the advertiser may offer different program levels. To see the program levels available to you, Go to Programs > My Programs and click on an advertiser. The program levels, if any will appear in the Program Details box with radio button selectors. You can select the program level you would like to participate in. |
| Progressive Tier | Progressive Tier (or Tiered Offer) is a commission structure where commission rate increases as total transaction amount increases. Only the portion that is over the threshold of each tier is subject to higher commission rate. |
| Publisher | A Publisher is a person or organization running a Web site that partners with one or more online advertisers. The publisher places links on its site to promote the merchant's products or services. In exchange, the publisher receives a commission for all valid transactions it has referred. |
| Report | A document showing the performance of various data points such as impressions, clicks, sales, and earnings, used to identify trends and patterns, and to improve campaigns effectiveness. |
| Return Days | Return Days indicates the number of days after a visitor clicks on a publisher link for which the publisher will still receive commissions if the customer returns within that time frame to complete a transaction, even if the visitor returns directly to the advertiser’s site. Visitors may not always complete a purchase at the point of click through. The Return Day feature allows advertisers to compensate you for sales that occur after a visitor's initial click through from your site. For example, if return days = 0, compensation will only be credited for transactions made at the point of click-through. And if return days = 30, compensation will be credited to your account for any transaction made by the user for up to 30 days after the initial click through, even if the user visits the advertiser’s site directly within that time period. Please note, however, that compensation is typically credited to the last referring affiliate site. Refer to advertiser’s terms and conditions for more information. |
| Rotating Banner | A Rotating Banner is a banner placeholder that cycles through different banner advertisements each time a user visits a page. You can create a rotating banner by going to Links, selecting an advertiser, and clicking Rotating Banner in the Link Type section. Note that not all advertisers offer rotating banner functionality. |
| RSS Feeds | RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, which is a computer readable format for syndicating information on the web. The feed itself is written using XML, which can be read by a RSS reader or application server (e.g. a PHP server) and parsed into a user readable form or database. |
| Search Box | A Search Box is a link type that allows visitors to a publisher site to conduct a search of the entire inventory of an advertiser's site. The visitor types a keyword into the text box provided and clicks Go. The visitor is taken to a search results page with links to the appropriate places on the advertiser’s site. This is a good way to send visitors directly to what they want, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will make a purchase. |
| Signature | LinkShare Signature allows publishers to track and generate detailed reports on the commerce activity generated by its site down to the transaction level of each individual member, organization, or sub site. Using Signature makes tracking, managing, and optimizing internal programs efficient and cost-effective for publishers. |
| SKU List | A list of product SKU numbers in text format that a merchant uploads to LinkShare, so that we can keep track of publisher referrals, products and commissions. Publishers should be sure to study the SKU list that's linked to product-specific offers and become aware of which products are included. |
| SKU number | Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) number is a unique identifier, used most commonly in online business to refer to a specific product in inventory. It is usually an alphanumeric number set by advertisers. |
| Special Offer | Special Offers can be public or private offers that are available for a limited time, or at increased commission, or for a particular product, or some combination of these. |
| Storefront | Storefronts are prefabricated pages that display new or specialized products in an appealing way. LinkShare dynamically updates each storefront, so publishers don't have to change the code on their pages to make sure that they are linking to an up-to-date storefront. |
| Synergy Analytics | The SynergyAnalyticsTM applications provide in-depth reporting and analysis beyond the reports that are included in the Publisher Interface. |
| Terms & Conditions | The terms between an advertiser and its publishers will differ from advertiser to advertiser. Publishers are bound by each advertiser’s terms when they enter into the agreement, so it is important to review these terms in each instance when joining an advertiser’s program. |
| Text Link | A text link is a hot link that is not accompanied by a graphical image. Publishers can use text links rather than graphical links on their sites. They are easy to use, they save download time, and they are the best performing type of link available. |
| Tiered Offer | Tiered Offer (or Progressive Tier) is a commission structure where commission rate increases as total transaction amount increases. Only the portion that is over the threshold of each tier is subject to higher commission rate. |
| Transaction | The act of transacting between a consumer and a website. Usually, this refers to placing an online order or performing a qualifying event such as registering or completing a form. |
| Transaction Date | The date the customer purchased the product/service. |
| Web Service | An application program interface (API) that can be accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services. Web Services typically communicate using XML messages that follow the SOAP standard. |
