Several Questions

[kimjcastleberry]

I have eMember, eStore & Affiliate platform, WP3.0… and (this doesnt suprise you at this point I’m sure, LOL) a number of questions.

Question 1:

We record a lot of live webinars that we want to use as various membership access products. We have a free tier that gets access to certain pages that we’ve designated free content (and also majority of the blog). We have a lifetime member tier that pretty much gets access to everything. So far so good.

I’m recording a set of webinars now that will have a Facebook mini-series (product), a Twitter mini-series (product), a Youtube mini-series (product) etc. Customers would get access to the recordings and some related resources. We had this set up similarly in nanacast with a prior series. Customer purchases it and has access to it for as long as we offer the courses.

However, if I make a Twitter membership level, and FB membership level and Youtube membership level, I get into a headache when someone purchases more than one, but not all of them for life. As far as I can tell a person can not be a member of more than one level at a time. If they are at the Twitter membership level – and then purchase the FB level, they become FB level and stop having Twitter access.

What step am I missing?

Question 2:

I understand that a cookie can not be placed or read by a different domain. However, in nanacast, I was able to point a nanacast redirect to my blog. My affiliates could then use this nanacast link to cookie the visitor they sent to my blog – and if the visitor then made a purchase that I recommended from within nanacast, because they were carrying the cookie, they would be properly credited.

Thesis has 301 redirecting for affiliate links built in, or I could use a tool like prettylink to essentially point one of my sites pages to my blog. My question is whether if I do a pass-off like that, if the cookie will be placed, even if not directly readable from my blog. Meaning if that visitor followed a non-affiliate link from my blog, back to the original sites sales page and made a purchase, if they still had the original affiliates cookie.

Will this work as I’m expecting it to?

Question 3:

I see some options available for using this plugin stack on an MU site. Has it been fully tested on wp3.0 multi-site and found to function the same way? I know that MS is essentially MU but there were some code variances and I want to be absolutely certain I can make that assumption.

Is there a page somewhere that gives some examples of how people are using this with MU/MS? More from the idea of examples of what can be done with that power.

Thank you!

Kimberly Castleberry

[amin007]

wow! lot of questions.. I am gonna have to answer in chunks

You can make additional membership levels like “twitter+facebook” so someone who wants both of these can buy this level which give access to both twitter and facebook videos.

301 redirection can redirect the user but the cookie doesn’t get carried though to the new domain. Unfortunately this is how cookies work (it must be set on that domain). What you can do is create pass thru links to your nanacast video page. Pass thru links are links that point to your site but redirects the user to the target site after it sets the cookie on your domain. WP Affiliate Platfrom allows you to do this. So for example your nanacast video page at the following URL:

http://www.nanacast.com/myvideo

so a pass thru link will be like the following:

http://www.your-domain.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/redirect.php?url=www.nanacast.com/myvideo&ap_id=kim21

this will track the click for the affiliate whose ID id “kim21” then redirect the user to the nanacase site. If the visitor then comes back to your site and makes a purchase the commission will be awarded to kim21 as the cookie is already set for it. Let me know if this makes sense.

Some of my customers are using the plugin on WPMU. I personally don’t run a MU site so can’t comment.

[kimjcastleberry]

Amin, thank you for your replies, you are a gem and a blessing!

Part 1:

That certainly makes sense for twitter+facebook if they purchase both at once. However, it doesnt solve if they buy Twitter as soon as its available (end of next week), and Facebook at a later date.

It sounds like perhaps I’m going to have to break down and allow these to be downloaded (yuck yuck and more yuck). That creates a whole second mess of problems including continuity of access over time, access to our community forum, and increase in the odds they wind up shared.

I suppose I could create the item+item levels, and include a notice that if they own a prior product it could be 48hrs before they gain access to the new product due to the fact that I would have to hand-promote them into that new level. It wont scale well and it reaches a level of chaos when they have item+item+item+item+item. However I can see the problem from a membership standpoint as well because frankly speaking a person cant be a member of two full levels at a time. What is needed is a way to recognize what that person already owns, and to find the next appropriate tier. However, I’m aware thats no simple task.

Any insight on another possible work-around that I might be overlooking?

Part 2:

The cookie issue makes a lot of sense and I’m glad to see there is a work around. What I don’t see is a way to give a link like that to my affiliates. Either I’m overlooking something or I simply not know the correct words to look for.

Would I use http://www.your-domain.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/redirect.php?url=www.nanacast.com/myvideo as the link (assuming nanacast.com/myvideo was the intended destination) and allow the platform to auto-add the &ap_id=kim21 (unique to each affiliate of course).

If there is already a guide on this that I have overlooked I’d be more than happy to go do my homework! (but I couldnt find one)

Part 3:

It may be worth being aware of when you troubleshoot “WPMU” in the future to find out if the customer/client is still on a true WP MU site (which would be pre- WP 3.0) or has migrated to the new MS format that came with 3.0. WordPress MU is no longer a separate project; it is continuing development as part of the main WordPress branch under the name ‘multi-site’ or MS. This means that there was quite a bit of coding changes from the pre-3.0 to the new version. If you start seeing more hiccups this could be a place for you to look at. Generally speaking anyone that is setting up a new “WPMU” site today is actually setting up a WPMS and while it seems like its talking in circles you know how under-the hood code can cause hiccups. Really just throwing out the information as an FYI. I’m considering going to MS myself.

Thanks!

[amin007]

I understand your point but to be honest with you I don’t know the best way to get around this. There is an option whereby you can make it so the customer can access all the digital items that they purchased from their purchase history:

How to Display a Member’s Purchase History

But that would mean that you would have to have a general membership level for the members then sell each items individually so it goes to their purchase history. This way they will be able to access what they have purchased.

Yes, you use the following as your target link when creating the affiliate ads and the affiliate ID will get appended dynamically for each affiliate:

http://www.your-domain.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-affiliate-platform/api/redirect.php?url=www.nanacast.com/myvideo

I will keep an eye out for the WPMS stuff.

[kimjcastleberry]

This might be just what I needed. I have no quams with forcing them into my free membership level to access their history. This might work, thank you!

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