Lifetime Commissions Installation and Usage

Notice: There is no legacy documentation available for this item, so you are seeing the current documentation.

How to Install and Use the Lifetime Commissions Add-on for AffiliateWP

With the Lifetime Commissions add-on a customer is linked to an affiliate, for life! This allows the linked affiliate to receive a commission on all future purchases completed by the customer. Lifetime commissions are a huge incentive for any affiliate looking to promote your products and services. Your affiliates will work much harder to get linked to a customer, and as a result your sales will increase dramatically.

In this article, we’ll show you how to install and set up the Lifetime Commissions add-on for AffiliateWP.

Supported Integrations
Installing the Lifetime Commissions Add-on
Setting up Lifetime Commissions
Linking, Unlinking and Removing Customers from Affiliates
Visual Indicator for Referrals Generated by a Linked Lifetime Customer
Setting Lifetime Referral Rates
FAQs

Requirements: You will need a Professional license level or higher to access the Lifetime Commissions add-on.

1. Lifetime Commissions currently supports the following integrations:

2. Installing the Lifetime Commissions Add-on

Before we get started, be sure to install and activate AffiliateWP on your WordPress site.

Once you’ve got AffiliateWP installed and your license is verified you’ll be able to quickly install and activate the Lifetime Commissions add-on.

After installing the Lifetime Commissions add-on, the next step is to configure your settings.

3. Setting up Lifetime Commissions

Once installed and activated, you’ll need to think about whether you’d like to enable lifetime commissions for all affiliates, or only for some.

Enabling Lifetime Commissions for all affiliates

Go to AffiliateWP » Settings » Lifetime Commissions tab
Under the Lifetime Commissions header, click on the Enable For All Affiliates? checkbox
Click Save Changes

Enabling Lifetime Commissions on a per-affiliate basis

Go to AffiliateWP » Affiliates and click the name of the affiliate from the Name column on the affiliate you’d like to enable lifetime commissions for.
On the Edit Affiliate screen, click the Enable Lifetime Commissions checkbox.
Click Update Affiliate.

Enable Lifetime Commissions per-affiliate

Enabling Lifetime Customers Access in the Affiliate Area

If you’d like your affiliates to see the customers that are linked to them in the affiliate area, click the Lifetime Customers Access checkbox.

Enable Lifetime Customers in the affiliate area

When this access is enabled, a new Lifetime Customers tab link will be added in the affiliate area.

You can enable the Lifetime Customers Hide Emails option in AffiliateWP » Settings » Lifetime Customers to hide lifetime customer emails in the affiliate area.

Hide Lifetime Affiliaite customer emails

Link Customers To Affiliates On User Registration

When this is checked, any user registration will link the new user to the affiliate being tracked.

link customers to affiliate on user registration

4. Linking, unlinking and removing customers from affiliates

Linking a customer to an affiliate from within the admin

Customers are automatically linked when they make a purchase using an affiliate’s typical referral URL, however there may be times when you’d like to link a customer to an affiliate from within the WordPress admin manually.

Go to AffiliateWP » Affiliates and click the name of the affiliate you’d like to link to a customer.
On the bottom of the Edit Affiliate screen, enter a customer’s email into the Add New Customer Email text field, and click Add Email. Repeat this process for additional customers you’d like to link to this affiliate.
When finished, click Update Affiliate to save the affiliate’s information. The customer(s) are now linked to the affiliate and their email address will be shown in the Linked Customers list.

Note: If the customer does not have a WordPress user account on your site, the email will still be shown, however, it won’t be linked to a user profile. This would apply to purchases made as a guest.

Unlinking a customer from an affiliate

Go to AffiliateWP » Affiliates and click the name of the affiliate you’d like to unlink from the customer.
On the bottom of the Edit Affiliate screen, locate the customer’s email address you’d like to unlink, and click the Unlink Customer link beside it. Repeat this process for any additional customers you’d like to unlink from this affiliate.
When finished, click Update Affiliate to save the affiliate’s information. The customer(s) are now unlinked from the affiliate.

Changing the customer’s linked affiliate

Follow the steps above to first unlink the customer from the current affiliate, then manually link them to the new affiliate.

5. Visual Indicator for Referrals Generated by a Linked Lifetime Customer

There is a visual indicator on the Referrals screen to show those referrals generated from a linked customer:

Lifetime commissions referrals linked to customers

6. Setting lifetime referral rates

This feature allows you to set a new lifetime referral rate that affiliates are awarded on subsequent purchases by a linked customer (via Lifetime Commissions). You can define the per-affiliate lifetime referral rate to be higher or lower than the global lifetime referral rate.

In addition to setting the actual lifetime referral rate, you can specify a new rate type (percentage or flat amount) making it easy to fine-tune the rates. And finally, you can also set a lifetime length limit for the number of days a customer is connected to an affiliate for lifetime commission referrals.

Enabling lifetime referral rate and length settings

Go to AffiliateWP » Settings » Lifetime Commissions
Locate and click the Enable Lifetime Referral Rates checkbox.
The Lifetime Referral Rate input field will be automatically set to the Referral Rate set under AffiliateWP » Settings » Commissions, the Lifetime Referral Rate Type dropdown list field will be set to Site Default , and the Lifetime Length input field will be set to 0.

Setting the global lifetime referral rate, rate type and length

The global lifetime referral rate will set a rate that all affiliates will receive on lifetime referrals. That is, referrals generated with the Lifetime Commissions add-on.

In the Lifetime Referral Rate input field enter the rate that all affiliates should receive for lifetime referrals. For example, enter 20 for 20%.
For a different global referral rate type, set the Lifetime Referral Rate Type dropdown list field to Flat or Percentage.
To limit the length of time a customer is connected to an affiliate, enter a number of days in the Lifetime Length input field.
Click Save Changes.

Setting a per-affiliate lifetime referral rate, rate type and length

A per-affiliate lifetime referral rate will only apply to the affiliate that it is set for.

Go to AffiliateWP » Affiliates and click the affiliate’s name for the affiliate you’d like to set a lifetime referral rate for.
On the affiliate edit screen, and within the Lifetime Commissions section, enter a custom referral rate in the Lifetime Referral Rate input field. For example, enter 20 for 20%. Continue on to set the Lifetime Referral Rate Type and Lifetime Length if you’d like these to be different values than the global settings above.
Click Update Affiliate.

Priority order of referral rates

Depending on how Lifetime Commissions is configured, certain referral rates will take priority over others. Here’s the order in which commission rates are calculated. If a rate is not set, the next rate will be used (and so forth).

Per-affiliate Lifetime Referral Rate set from AffiliateWP » Affiliates » Edit (the affiliate’s edit screen)
Lifetime Referral Rate set from AffiliateWP » Settings » Lifetime Commissions
Per-affiliate Referral Rate set from AffiliateWP » Affiliates » Edit (the affiliate’s edit screen)
Referral Rate set from AffiliateWP » Settings » General

Priority order of lifetime referral rate types

Just like lifetime referral rates, certain referral rate types (percentage, flat) can take priority over others. Here’s the order of which referral rate type will be used.

Per-affiliate Lifetime Referral Rate Type set from AffiliateWP » Affiliates » Edit (the affiliate’s edit screen)
Lifetime Referral Rate Type set from AffiliateWP » Settings » Lifetime Commissions
Per-affiliate Referral Rate Type set from AffiliateWP » Affiliates » Edit (the affiliate’s edit screen)
Referral Rate Type set from AffiliateWP » Settings » General

7. FAQs

How does Lifetime Commissions link a customer to an affiliate?

When a customer clicks on an affiliate’s referral URL and makes a purchase from your website, they are instantly linked to the affiliate. When the customer returns to make another purchase on your website, the linked affiliate will receive a commission, even if they visit your website without using the affiliate’s referral link. A customer can only be linked to one affiliate at a time.

If the customer makes a guest purchase (logged out) their email address is used to look up the linked affiliate. If the customer is a user on your site, and is logged in when they purchase, their WordPress email address is used.

Additionally, if the customer ever uses a different email address whilst purchasing (logged in) or changes their email address from their WordPress profile, the new email address is also stored with the linked affiliate. This ensures that if the customer ever makes a purchase while logged out, the linked affiliate will still receive commission on the sale.

Can Lifetime Commissions track and link affiliates to customers through a tracked affiliate coupon?

Yes! For integrations that support discount codes and coupons, you can create a discount code or coupon, and attribute it to an affiliate so they can share it to potential customers. When a customer visits your website (even without an affiliate referral link), adds an item to their cart, uses the affiliate coupon code at checkout and completes the purchase, the customer will be linked to the affiliate (and a referral will be awarded to the affiliate). When that customer returns at a later point and purchases from your site again, the linked affiliate will be awarded a new referral.

Note: If a linked customer uses a discount or coupon code assigned to a different affiliate, that will override the linked affiliate via Lifetime Commissions.

Affiliate Lifetime Customers

The following shortcode can be used to display a list of the customers linked with the currently logged in affiliate:

[affiliate_lifetime_customers]