Some LinkShare newbie questions

[rickyy]

Some quick questions:

1. If a user from Asia (area without Affiliate coverage) click a US iTunes link and installed the app, will I be paid (I am using a US linkshare account)?

2. In the LinkShare admin page, I assume the statistics are not real time (suppose need to sync data from Apple), how long does it take?

Thanks.

[LEARN2MAKE]

Originally Posted by rickyy

Some quick questions:

1. If a user from Asia (area without Affiliate coverage) click a US iTunes link and installed the app, will I be paid (I am using a US linkshare account)?

2. In the LinkShare admin page, I assume the statistics are not real time (suppose need to sync data from Apple), how long does it take?

Thanks.

1. No, you will only be paid for clicks originating in the US for a US linkshare account. Most likely, the link won't even work correctly in Asia. In order to get paid for clicks in other markets, you can use a service called GeoRiot Global iTunes Affiliate Links - Geotarget, Translate, Encode - GeoRiot It is a small company and they will help you out with anything. You can contact Jesse at GeoRiot at "contact at georiot dot com" We use geoRiot and are able to make money with our linkshare account in the USA and Mexico (Canada rejected us ) and also from our TradeDoubler account in Europe and Brazil. All from the same link! We also know our links are not dead in other countries. There are programs in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Japan that we still need to try to get into, and those would work with the same links also.

2. TradeDoubler seems to update clicks in real time, but for your actual sales data and commissions you have to wait 2-3 days. there are a lot of reports you can run. I like to click Reports > Advanced Reports, then from there I like to select "revenu" from the right hand drop down, and click the radio button by the current month. It is an easy way to see day to day clicks, sales, avg sales, total sales and commissions.

Oh, and I am not affiliated with GeoRiot in any way, I just think it is a GREAT service for capturing the maximum amount of affiliate income and also ensuring your affiliate links work in all countries (even if there is no affiliate program, the link will still go to the right place and not return and error).

They do make money too, and it is explained on their website how they do it. They mostly make money from affiliate links in countries where you don't have an account- for example we got rejected from Canada, and Japan is difficult to get accepted to, so they are getting all our revenue from those clicks which is fine because we can't get those accounts active anyways.

[rickyy]

Really thanks for your reply.

I have used the LinkShare deeplinking tool to generate some US app link and send to people in China, they do click on them and LinkShare reported the clicks, but the revenue is zero, so I am not sure if because they need time to update the sales, or in fact really due to zero revenue for China users.

Also, in the apple linkmaker, seems I can create China link with LinkShare?
iTunes Link Maker

[LEARN2MAKE]

Well, maybe you can make the links but since there is no affiliate program in China you can't make money from the clicks. LinkShare is only for USA, Canada and now Mexico for iTunes Affiliate Links. TradeDoubler handles Europe and Brasil, and there are one or two more that handle Australia, New Zealand and Japan. I don't think there are any more countries where you can make affiliate income from the app store. In Canada, if you get accepted, you only can make money on Music, Movies and TV shows, not apps.

[JesseP]

Thanks Learn2Make!

Hi Ricky,
Please let me know if you would like to try out our service with a free trial.

Everything Learn2Make mentioned is true -- Each iTunes / App Store is it's own entity where one store's link won't necessarily work in another (more true for music, less true for apps), and each affiliate program supports a specific country's store (or set of stores for EU/TD).

Eg. The US/LS affiliate program will on commission on sales in the US iTunes / App Store / iBookstore / Mac App Store in the US. You will never earn commissions from sales in China (or Japan even) with the US/LS program.

There are 36 affiliate programs worldwide and we can help you maximize your affiliate commission and ensure a good user experience (with better reporting metrics to boot!).

You also asked about the reports in LinkShare. Clicks are updated hourly on their dashboard but sales take anywhere from three to five days to filter through.