Coupon Affiliates

What is Coupon Affiliates

Coupon Affiliates is a specialized affiliate marketing plugin designed exclusively for WooCommerce, the popular eCommerce platform for WordPress. Its core purpose is to enable store owners to create and manage a coupon-based affiliate program. Instead of relying solely on referral links, this plugin allows affiliates to promote products using unique discount codes. When a customer uses an affiliate's coupon, the sale is automatically tracked and commission is assigned. The plugin was developed by RelyWP Ltd., a company founded by a WordPress developer from the United Kingdom with extensive experience in creating plugins. It provides a complete solution for managing affiliate registrations, tracking performance, and handling payouts directly within the WordPress dashboard.

Coupon Affiliates Features

• Affiliate Dashboard: Provides a dedicated area on your website for affiliates to track their performance. They can view usage statistics, commission earnings, referral orders, and payment history.
• Modern Affiliate Portal: An alternative, full-screen interface for the affiliate dashboard that offers a more modern user experience. It can be customized with your brand's logo and colors.
• Referral URLs & Click Tracking: Affiliates can generate unique referral links that automatically apply their coupon code at checkout. The system also tracks clicks on these links.
• Automated Affiliate Registration: You can add a registration form to your site using a shortcode. The system allows for both manual approval of new affiliates or a fully automated registration process.
• Flexible Commission Payouts: Set global commission rates or customize them for individual affiliates or groups. Affiliates can request payouts from their dashboard, and administrators can manage and process these requests easily.
• Multi-Level Marketing (MLM): A premium module that allows your affiliates to recruit other affiliates (sub-affiliates). The parent affiliate earns a commission on the sales generated by their recruits.
• Performance Bonuses: Set up goals and reward high-performing affiliates with bonus commissions or store credit to encourage more sales.
• Detailed Reports & Analytics: Access comprehensive reports within the WordPress admin area to analyze affiliate performance, track coupon usage, and compare data over different time periods.

Coupon Affiliates Pricing Plans

Coupon Affiliates operates on a freemium model. There is a free version of the plugin available with essential features for running a basic affiliate program. For more advanced capabilities, they offer Pro plans. These paid plans typically come in different tiers, catering to single-site owners, businesses with multiple websites, and agencies. The Pro versions unlock premium modules such as Multi-Level Affiliates, performance bonuses, advanced reporting, and priority support. Each higher tier generally includes more features and licenses for use on more websites.

Coupon Affiliates Free Plan

Yes, Coupon Affiliates offers a free version of the plugin that can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory. The free plan includes core functionalities needed to start a coupon-based affiliate program, such as the affiliate dashboard, coupon tracking, and basic commission management. For users who want to try the advanced features, the company offers a 7-day free trial for its Pro version, along with a 14-day money-back guarantee on all purchases.

How to use Coupon Affiliates

1. Installation: From your WordPress dashboard, go to 'Plugins' > 'Add New', search for "Coupon Affiliates", and then install and activate it.
2. Configuration: Navigate to the new 'Coupon Affiliates' menu in your WordPress admin. Here, you can configure general settings like commission rates, cookie duration, and currency.
3. Create the Dashboard Page: Create a new page on your website (e.g., "Affiliate Area") and insert the [affiliate_dashboard] shortcode. This page will become the main hub for your affiliates.
4. Set up Registration: Create another page for affiliate registration and add the [affiliate_registration] shortcode. Link to this page so potential affiliates can sign up.
5. Approve Affiliates: When a user registers, you will receive a notification. You can approve or decline applications from the 'Manage Affiliates' section.
6. Affiliate Onboarding: Once approved, the affiliate receives their unique coupon code. They can log in to the affiliate dashboard to access their referral link, track their sales, and view their earnings.
7. Manage Payouts: When affiliates reach the payout threshold, they can request a payment. You can manage and process these requests from the 'Payouts' section in the admin area.

Pros and Cons of Coupon Affiliates

Pros:

• Deep WooCommerce Integration: Built specifically for WooCommerce, ensuring seamless compatibility.
• Coupon-Centric Approach: The focus on coupons makes it very easy for both affiliates and customers to use and understand.
• User-Friendly Dashboards: Both the standard and modern affiliate dashboards are intuitive and provide valuable information to affiliates.
• Highly Customizable: Offers extensive settings to tailor the affiliate program to your specific needs.
• Good Scalability: With free and pro versions, it can support businesses from small startups to large enterprises.

Cons:

• WooCommerce Dependent: It is not a standalone solution and works only with WordPress sites running WooCommerce.
• Advanced Features are Premium: Key features like multi-level marketing and performance bonuses require purchasing the Pro version.
• Can be Complex for Beginners: The large number of settings and options might be overwhelming for users who need a very simple referral system.

Coupon Affiliates Integrations

Coupon Affiliates is built to work directly and deeply with WooCommerce. While it is not designed with a wide range of third-party integrations, it can function with other eCommerce plugins that have their own WooCommerce integration addons. This means that as long as another plugin can process orders through the WooCommerce system, Coupon Affiliates should be able to track the coupon usage for affiliate commissions. Its primary integration is with the WordPress and WooCommerce ecosystem.

Coupon Affiliates Alternatives

• AffiliateWP: A comprehensive affiliate marketing plugin for WordPress. It is more feature-rich out of the box and integrates with many other plugins beyond WooCommerce, but it is a premium-only product.
• Solid Affiliate: A powerful and user-friendly affiliate plugin for WooCommerce. It prides itself on a quick setup process and includes many pro-level features in its core offering.
• Easy Affiliate: Developed by the same team behind MemberPress, this plugin offers strong reliability and integrations with other popular WordPress plugins like Easy Digital Downloads and MemberPress.
• SliceWP: A lightweight and easy-to-use affiliate plugin. It has a generous free version and offers affordable add-ons for specific features, making it a good choice for those on a budget.

Coupon Affiliates API

Coupon Affiliates does not provide a public REST API for external applications to connect to. As a WordPress plugin, its functionality is designed to be extended within the WordPress environment. Developers can use WordPress hooks and filters to interact with the plugin's data and customize its behavior. This allows for custom development and integration with other plugins or themes directly within the website's code, but not for communication with outside software via an API.

Coupon Affiliates Affiliate Program

Yes, Coupon Affiliates runs its own affiliate program for users who wish to promote the plugin to others. Affiliates can earn a commission for every sale of the Pro plugin that they refer. To join, you typically need to fill out an application form on their official website. Once approved, you receive a unique referral link to share. Payouts are usually made through PayPal after a certain holding period to account for refunds, and commissions are a percentage of the referred sale. This is a great way for bloggers, developers, and marketers in the WooCommerce space to earn extra income.