Find and manage affiliates – Digistore24 Help

Are you a vendor with your own products for which you would like to make use of the advertising power of affiliates? With Digistore24 as the largest affiliate network in Europe, you have just the right partner at your side.

Below we will show you all the important settings so that you will soon be able to work successfully with affiliates and thus significantly increase your sales!

About cooperation with affiliates

Affiliates receive a commission for promoting your products through advertisements or content pages (info websites, blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts, etc.).

You decide the commission amount that each affiliate should receive. The higher the commission, the higher the motivation and the more affiliates that will sign up to promote your products. The commission is deducted from your earnings before your share is paid out and after deduction of taxes and the Digistore24 margin. You can find out more about the distribution of earnings on Digistore24 here.

The more affiliates promote your product, the more products you sell at the end of the day, which means you generate significantly higher sales. Even if your affiliates receive a share of your earnings, you will still earn more. For example, 50% of ten additional sales is more than 100% of no new sales. As a vendor, you already benefit from working with just one affiliate.

Set affiliate commission

You can set the affiliate commission generally or individually:

Step-by-step guide: Set general commission

In the vendor view, go to Account > Products.
In the list, click on the pencil icon of the product you are looking for affiliates to promote.
For Affiliate commission, enter a commission as a percentage or as a fixed amount.
If you enter the Digistore24 ID of an affiliate for Default affiliate, then this affiliate receives the commission whenever no other affiliate receives it.
Finally, click Save.

Step-by-step guide: Set individual commission

In the vendor view, go to Account > Affiliates.
Click on the button Create/update affiliations if there is no partnership with the respective affiliate yet. If a partnership already exists, click on the magnifying glass icon in the list to change the commission.
For Affiliates’ Digistore24 IDs, you can enter the Digistore24 ID of one affiliate per line. This means you can also set up multiple commissions at the same time.
Then select all Products for which you want the commission to apply.
For Use default commission, select the option No.
Enter the Commission in the field that now opens, either as a percentage or a fixed amount.
For Update existing affiliations, select the option Yes. This guarantees that already existing commission settings are changed as well.
Finally, click on Create/update affiliations.

Changes to the commission are always only valid for upcoming transactions!

An example: The vendor sets a commission of 20% for the product, whereupon an affiliate signs up and receives this 20% commission. A few weeks later the vendor increases the commission for the product to 30%. All affiliates who register now receive a 30% commission. If the existing affiliate should also receive the 30%, the vendor must increase the commission individually for this affiliate. Otherwise they will continue to receive 20%.

In the US market, it is customary to grant commissions of between 75% and 90%. The 50% variant is very common on the German market.

Set no commission for follow-up installments

All installments for subscription and installment payments are commissioned on Digistore24. However, you can also set up your product in such a way that the affiliate does not receive any commission for follow-up payments.

To do this, set up 2 products:

First set up the “(main) product” as a single payment (with commission) and then the “subscription product” (without commission). You enter the commission in the product properties (Account > Products and click on the pencil icon). The subscription product is set up as an “add-on” to the main product and is thus additionally offered to the customer on the order form. You can create the add-on in such a way that it cannot be “deselected” by the customer on the order form. So, the affiliate receives a commission for the (main) product, but not for the add-on product.

You can find an example of implementing several add-ons on the order form here: https://www.digistore24.com/product/37083

Find out how to create add-ons here.

About the setting “Automatically accept affiliations”

By clicking on the pencil icon under Account > Products, you will find the option “Automatically accept affiliations”. This is preset so that every affiliate is automatically accepted as an affiliate partner as soon as they add their affiliate ID to your product’s promolink and put it into circulation. Thus you can automatically send the promolink to all new affiliate candidates or offer it freely on your affiliate support page.

Your affiliates will also receive a commission if an end customer buys a different product (than the promolink used) that you offer on the same sales page – the setting “Automatically accept affiliations” must also be activated here.

If you deactivate the setting “Automatically accept affiliations”, you must approve each partnership individually under Account > Affiliates.

How to gain affiliates

There are several ways to form partnerships with affiliates:

Circle of family and friends/warm calling

It is normally the case that people from the same industry know each other not only in the professional realm, but also in their private lives. Use your contacts in the industry! Global online trading is also less anonymous than you might imagine. Large online dealers/vendors usually maintain intensive contact with their sales partners/affiliates. Don't be afraid to ask your friends and acquaintances from the industry whether they want to market your products for a generous commission.

If the people you ask are already registered on Digistore24, you can send them the promolink or the link to your affiliate support page directly. If they have not registered yet, send them the invitation link.

Cold calling

This form of acquiring affiliates is more complex; the anonymity of the internet does not make things easy for you. Acquisition emails are usually not even read. However, if you choose a clever subject line and have a promising product together with a meaningful affiliate support page, you have a good chance of reaching your potential partners, especially if your name is already known in the industry. Find other online retailers from your niche and don’t hesitate to contact them. When contacting them, it is best to be brief and precise. We recommend the “What-Who-How-Format” which is widely used in the Anglo-American world.

Your customer list

Most affiliate requests will come through your own customer list. Nothing is more effective than the real recommendation of a product by a neutral third party who recommends your product/service. Many of your customers are internet-savvy and run their own blog or are otherwise active in the relevant industry. Contact your customers and ask them to become affiliates/sales partners for you!

Here you can learn what settings you need to make a customer an affiliate.

Publish your product on the marketplace

When you publish your product on the Digistore24 marketplace, you no longer need to be on the lookout for affiliates yourself. Our marketplace is regularly visited by thousands of affiliates/sales partners who are part of our affiliate network. Many vendors don’t have to do anything more than set up their product with us in order to generate regular sales through affiliates. If you have set up a product on Digistore24, make sure you publish it on the marketplace!

Here we show you how to publish your product on the Digistore24 marketplace.

Send invitation link

With the invitation link, you can invite someone to a partnership for a specific product. Send your future affiliate the invitation link if they are not yet registered as a Digistore24 member. If they register via the link and open a Digistore24 account, then the partnership is created automatically.

If your future affiliate is already registered on Digistore24, you can send them the promolink or the link to your affiliate support page directly.

Step-by-step guide: You can find the invitation link here

In the vendor view, go to Account > Products.
In the list, click on the paper roll icon for the respective product.

You will find the invitation link under Invite affiliates. If you like, you can also select other products for which you are looking for affiliates to promote. All these products are integrated into your invitation link.

You can only use the protected invitation link if you have deactivated the option “Automatically accept affiliations” for one or more products. The affiliation is automatically accepted for affiliates that sign up using this link, regardless of the setting.

Affiliate referral program

You can have affiliates find other affiliates and also win your customers as affiliates. See here:

Display “Become affiliate link” in DigiMember as well

If you use DigiMember as your member system, you can also use the shortcode ds_buyer_to_affiliate in the member area. This causes a corresponding button to be inserted so that your customers can become an affiliate for your product with just one mouse click.

Important: To do this, you must first set up the customer to affiliate program on Digistore24.

Set commission for the affiliate manager

An affiliate manager is a person appointed by you who takes care of all your affiliates or your affiliates for certain products – they may also have the account access Affiliate manager. To find out how to assign such account access rights, click here.

Below we will show you how to set the affiliate manager commission which will enable your affiliate manager to receive a percentage of the profit made by the affiliates.

Step-by-step guide

In the vendor view, go to Account > Affiliates.
Change to the tab Affiliate manager commission policy.
Click on the button Create commission policy.
Give the commission policy a Name.
For Active, click Yes.
The Order is important if you have created several commission policies. However, you can change these in the list later on.
In the field For all affiliates, determine which affiliate profits the affiliate manager should receive. In the field For products, specify what these products are.
Then enter the Affiliate manager.
Set the Commission as a percentage that the affiliate manager should receive.
If you wish, you can set a Maximum amount that will be paid as a commission.
Finally, click Save.

You can create several commission policies. You will find a list of your commission policies under Account > Affiliates > Affiliate manager commission policy.