Affiliate Frequently Asked Questions
Online Nature Mall - Frequently Asked Questions
click to join the Online Nature Mall
Earn 10% - it's FREE
Give me a quick overview.
OnlineNatureMall.com is a secure web site (run by Yahoo.com) offering 10,000 nature related items. Online Nature Mall will pay you 10% of all sales made. There is no cost to you. An independent third party called ShareaSale monitors sales and sends you a check. To begin, go to ShareaSale.com and sign up as an Affiliate. Respond to the email they will send you. Then select Online Nature Mall as a Merchant. Then paste HTML code into your web site to create text links or banners that will take your visitors to the Nature Mall. (This last step is explained in detail below.) You will receive a check the month after a sale. There is a $50 minimum check amount -- otherwise your earnings carry forward until you earn $50. This is all absolutely free to you. There are no costs of any kind and you can quit whenever you like.
Trustees must approve this at my organization. Help me.
Print out the Executive Summary for them. Or copy and edit this text yourself. Present this to the Board of Directors or Trustees at your Organization. Call us at 800-865-2473 if you have any questions.
Can individuals sign up as an Affiliate?
Yes.
How do I sign up as an Affiliate?
<-- Click this button and then scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.
Complete the Affiliate application. This takes about 3 minutes. ShareaSale will then send you an email.
Respond to the email you will receive from ShareaSale.com. Check the boxes accepting the Affiliate terms.
Now you are an Affiliate. The next step is to select Online Nature Mall (in the Shopping Mall section) as a Merchant. Once you do that, click on "Get Link" and select a banner or text link to use on your web page. Finally, paste the HTML code for that banner or text link into your web site. This creates buttons and text links that your visitors will click to get to the Online Nature Mall.
Can I see how much I earned so far?
Yes. After you sign up as an Affiliate at ShareaSale you will select Online Nature Mall as a Merchant. (You may also select other Merchants at ShareaSale.) To see how much you earned, you will visit the ShareaSale web site to see your earnings from each Merchant on a daily, monthly or cumulative basis. You can see which of the links on your web site were clicked that ultimately resulted in a sale. You can see the page in your web site that they where on when they clicked a text link or banner that took them into the store. You can see the number of "hits" you received and what percentage of those resulted in a sale.
There is an enormous amount of information at ShareaSale that is available to Affiliates. You will receive a check once your earnings reach $50. ShareaSales looks at all Merchants and combines the total. So if you earn $40 from Online Nature Mall and $10 from another Merchant, you will be sent a check.
Why should I become an Affiliate?
1. Receive 10% of any sales made at the Nature Mall. Your visitors click a banner or link on your web site to enter the Nature Mall.
2. There is no cost to sign up as an Affiliate. It just takes a few minutes.
3. The Online Nature Mall has over 10,000 items for sale -- arranged into eight different shops. Shopping is fun and easy.
4. The Online Nature Mall offers only the highest quality items -- from binoculars and scopes to bird feeders and books.
5. We make it easy to attract shoppers with our colorful banners for your web site.
6. A portion of the profits go to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
7. Product descriptions are written by nature-lovers just like you.
8. You receive a check each month. Checks are sent out when your earnings exceed $50.00
Code? HTML Code? Why do I need this?
You MUST put a banner or text link on your web site in order to get paid.
The HTML code you get from ShareaSale makes a banner or text link appear on your web page. When visitors click the banner or link, they jump to the Online Nature Mall. If they buy something, you get paid. Even if they wait 60 days to check out, you will still be paid. The code allows ShareaSale to track the visitors that come from your web site and eventually buy something.
You cannot simply put a link on your web site that points to www.OnlineNatureMall.com.
ShareaSale will have no way to keep track of the visitors at your web site that click this link. They will not be able to pay you.
OK, I need this "Code" - Where is it?
Go to ShareaSale.com and log in as an Affiliate (do NOT log in as a Merchant). In the middle of the page, near the top, look for Links. Just below this click on Get a Link/Banner. Scroll down until you see the section for Online Nature Mall. If you signed up with just one Merchant at ShareaSale, this is the only one you will see.
Now click on Get Links (this link is rather small near the lower center portion of the box.) You will see two types of links: Text Links and Banners. Click one and scroll down until you see a text link or banner you like. For text, click on the Get HTML Code link in the Action column. For banners, click on the one you want and then copy the HTML code in the box. All HTML code starts with "<a" and ends with "</a>"
Paste this code into a page on your web site. If you place the banner near the top of a page, your visitors will be able to find it easier. This HTML code will automatically make a banner or a Text Link appear on your page. The banner images are stored on the ShareaSale web site, so you will not see the banner until you visit your own web site page. Here are examples of what a banner might look like. Click them to see what happens!
Note to New Webmasters: The HTML code needs to be pasted on to a page with other HTML code. Dreamweaver and FrontPage and other web master tools usually have a "Code" view and a "Design" view. The Design view shows what your page looks like. The Code page shows the actual HTML code that makes all this happen. You paste the ShareaSale code on the "Code" page, NOT the "Design" page.
[To copy and paste this code, highlight all the HTML code in the box. Do this by clicking the mouse cursor at the beginning of the text. While holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to the end of the text. Release the mouse button. Make sure you include the beginning <a and the ending </a>. Then hold down the "Ctrl" key on your keyboard and click "C" on the keyboard. To paste into your web site, hold down the "Ctrl" key on your keyboard and click "V" on the keyboard.]
How do I see if the HTML code I added is working?
Good question! After you add the code for a banner or link to your web site, you need to test it.
To do this, go to your web site, find the page where you added the HTML code and click on the banner or link that appears there. You should then jump to the OnlineNatureMall. The specific banner or link you select will determine exactly where in the Mall you end up.
ShareaSale tracks every single click of a banner or link for you. These are recorded as "Hits". You will want to check to see how many "Hits" and how many sales you are getting from your web site. Your ShareaSale "Hit" count will go up each time you click on one of your banners. Your "Hit" count will be zero if you have not put any banners or links on your web site yet.
If you do not see the banner or you see it but your "Hit" count does not increase by one at ShareaSale, check your code to see if there are any obvious problems. The code should appear only when you view your web site as HTML code. When you look at your web site using a browser, you will not see code -- you will just see a colorful banner or words that link to the Nature Mall.
It is easy to check the number of "Hits". Go to www.ShareaSale.com and log in using your Affiliate name and password. Then click Account and then click Manage / Quit Programs. You will see a report that shows your "Hits" as well as sales for the month.
How do I make a simple text link on one of my web pages? I want to edit the text.
This is extremely easy to do. Start with the code shown below. This code will display the words "Nature Mall" on one of your pages. Just type this code exactly as it appears into your web site. Then insert your own ShareaSale User ID where it says 123456789 and insert any text you want where it says Nature Mall.
<a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=34838&u=123456789&m=7670&urllink=&afftrack=">Nature Mall</a>
If you want the text to be bold, the end of the code would look like this: afftrack="><b>Nature Mall</b></a>
Be sure to test this to make sure it is appearing the way to want it to.
[Note: We will use banner 34838 in all of our examples. This is actually a very simple text link that makes the words "Nature Mall" appear. As long as you use a valid banner, such as 34838, you will be able to create all the "improved" links shown below. We also use Merchant 7670 in all of our examples, which is the merchant number for the Online Nature Mall.]
How do I link to just one of the eight shops in the Nature Mall?
This is also easy to do. Use the code shown below. Just copy and paste this code exactly as it appears into your web site. Then insert your own ShareaSale User ID where it says 123456789.
Here are the correct links:
Software: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/software.html"> Software</a>
Nature Sounds: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/sounds.html">Nature Sounds and Bird Songs</a>
Birds: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/birds.html">Bird Books</a>
Binoculars: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/binoculars.html">Binoculars & Scopes</a>
Nature: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/nature.html">Nature Books & Field Guides</a>
Feeders: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/feeders.html">Bird Feeders & More</a>
Home/Garden: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/garden.html">Home & Garden</a>
Kids: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/kids.html">Kids</a>
How do I link to just one Aisle in the Nature Mall? Here is an example of a link to Hummingbird Feeders: <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/feeders-birdfeeders-hummingbird.html"> Hummingbird Feeders</a> How do I link to just one item in the Nature Mall? Then insert the page with the item you want to highlight. In the example below, the page is 797374200104.html. You can find a page by clicking on an item in the mall and then looking at the toolbar on your browser -- it will appear there. <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=34838&U=123456789&M=7670&urllink=www.onlinenaturemall.com/797374200104.html"> Thayer's Gold edition Birds of North America DVD v5.5</a>
How do I make a full page of items to sell? Start by selecting Online Nature Mall as the Merchant. Then in the Keyword Criteria section enter (on separate lines) words like bird, guide, USA. (Note, you can elect to exclude words as well. Let's exclude CD and cassette.) Now choose the number of items per page to display and sort alphabetically. Select whatever information you would like to display. Price, retail price and description would be good here. Now click View Results. From here you can simply copy the HTML code generated onto a page on your web site. Your Affiliate code is already embedded in the HTML code so you are ready to go! Click here to see an example for North American Bird Field Guides. Try some of these key word combinations (using AND not OR) to link them: Or just experiment on your own and see what happens!
This is also easy to do. Just go to the OnlineNatureMall and click on the Aisle or Sub-aisle you want. Then use the code shown below. Just copy and paste the code shown below into your web site, changing just the very end so it links to the correct spot. Then insert your own ShareaSale User ID where it says 123456789.
This is also easy to do. Use the code shown below. Just copy and paste this code exactly as it appears into your web site. Then insert your own ShareaSale User ID where it says 123456789.
ShareaSale.com has an extremely powerful tool called "Make a Page." Lets assume we would like a page showing just North American Field Guides for Birds. Go to Share-a-Sale and log in with your Afiliate name and password. Then click Tools. Then select Make A Page. In just a matter of minutes you can make some fascinating web pages that you customize!
Click here to see an example for Plush Toy Birds.
Click here to see an example for Thayer Birding Software.
Click here to see an example for Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Click here to see an example for International Field Guides.
Click here to see an example for Backyard Birding.
bird, guide, USA (exclude CD, cassette)
bird, guide USA, east
bird, guide USA, west
bird, guide, Africa (also try Asia, South America, Central America or Europe)
bird, CD, foreign
bird, backyard (exclude, CD, cassette)
CLO, CD (exclude cassette)
CLO, cassette (exclude CD)
plush
frog
butterfly
