The Signature Publisher must place (&u1=) plus the identifier at the end of the first href string in LinkShare advertiser links. We suggest using a placeholder such as &u1=defaultmemberid. If you only have a few codes to edit, it will be easiest to do so manually. For those employing a login for their site’s services, a unique identifier can be passed to the link code or swapped out in place of defaultmemberid via any number of methods, including JavaScripts. Each member, subsite, and organization should be correlated to a certain alphanumeric character, such as Jane Doe equals 1234 and Bob Smith equals 5678. Please note that the use of cookies is not advised because if one of your members has disabled his or her cookies, the Member ID Field will not be tracked. Also, note that the Member ID is case-sensitive; therefore, a lowercase “u” and the numeral “1” must be used for the Member ID identifier to be tracked.

A LinkShare advertiser link that has been properly appended with the Member ID identifier may look like this:

<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=/FYI6fQ9PWs&offerid=7097.10000015&type=3&subid=0&u1=Bob123" >LinkShare Referral Program</a><img src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=/FYI6fQ9PWs&bids=7097.10000015&type=3&subid=0>

In this example, &u1=Bob123 is representative of one particular member or organization of the Signature Publisher. The identifier changes for each individual member or organization belonging to that Signature Publisher’s site. The unique Member ID makes it possible for the Signature Publisher to distinguish between members or organizations within the Member ID Field Report located in their LinkShare account. Here you can see the benefit of using a placeholder such as &u1=defaultmemberid. If you find that a transaction in your reports shows a u1 value of defaultmemberid instead of Bob123, an error could have occurred on your end with the way the Member ID was appended.

For privacy reasons, never use a customer’s Email address, phone number, social security number, or any other private or sensitive information in the u1 field.

 or see the Signature Overview  attachment.