The AffiliateWP External Referral Links Addon is an extension for AffiliateWP, which is a popular affiliate marketing plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce. This addon allows affiliates to track referrals through external links, i.e., links that point to external websites or products rather than just your own store or domain. With this addon, affiliates can still earn commissions for referring visitors or customers to third-party websites, allowing store owners to track the success of these external referrals and reward affiliates accordingly. This is particularly useful if you want to extend your affiliate program to cover affiliate promotions for products or services outside your main WooCommerce store. Here’s a breakdown of the AffiliateWP External Referral Links Addon, its features, use cases, and setup process:

Key Features of the AffiliateWP External Referral Links Addon

1. Track External Referrals:
   • This addon enables affiliates to refer visitors to external websites, such as partner stores, affiliate networks, or even affiliate products hosted on other platforms.
   • Affiliates can generate external referral links that track the referrals they send to other sites, not just those to the store or platform running AffiliateWP.
2. Generate Custom Referral Links:
   • Affiliates can create custom referral links for external websites and products. For example, if you sell a service and want to partner with another brand or product, you can create referral links that point to their site.
   • These referral links are tracked by AffiliateWP, and any resulting conversions (sales, sign-ups, etc.) are attributed to the referring affiliate.
3. Earn Commissions from External Referrals:
   • When a user clicks on an affiliate’s external referral link and completes an action (such as a purchase, sign-up, or download) on the third-party site, the affiliate will still receive commission as per your program’s rules.
   • This allows store owners to reward affiliates for generating traffic and sales outside their own WooCommerce store.
4. Customizable Tracking:
   • You can set up specific conditions or tracking parameters for the external links, ensuring that affiliates can link to multiple external destinations and track performance effectively.
   • AffiliateWP supports various types of tracking such as tracking a sale, a signup, or a click-through.
5. Reporting and Analytics:
   • The AffiliateWP reporting system will also track these external referral links, showing you detailed reports on clicks, sales, and conversions that affiliates generated from these external sources.
   • This makes it easy to monitor the performance of affiliate marketing campaigns involving external referrals.
6. Multiple External Link Types:
   • You can configure various external link types, such as:
     • Direct links to external pages.
     • Product referral links that track clicks or purchases on external eCommerce platforms.
     • Affiliate product links on third-party affiliate programs (e.g., Amazon, ClickBank).
7. Seamless Integration:
   • The External Referral Links Addon integrates seamlessly with the AffiliateWP system. The process for generating external referral links is just like generating referral links for your own WooCommerce products. This ensures a smooth experience for both affiliates and store admins.
8. Affiliate Experience:
   • Affiliates can use the same AffiliateWP dashboard to manage and track their external referral links and their performance. They can see how many clicks, sales, or conversions they've earned from external links, just as they would with internal WooCommerce links.

Benefits of Using the External Referral Links Addon

1. Expand Affiliate Program Reach:
   • The addon allows you to expand the scope of your affiliate program beyond just your WooCommerce store, increasing your network and affiliate opportunities. Affiliates can refer visitors to other products or services, increasing the number of opportunities to earn commissions.
2. Collaborate with Partners:
   • You can use external referrals to partner with other businesses or products and share commissions. For instance, if you have a collaboration with another business or product, your affiliates can promote these external offerings and earn commissions from their sales as well.
3. Incentivize Affiliates:
   • Providing affiliates with the ability to refer external products or services can keep them engaged, as they have more opportunities to earn commissions. It also encourages them to promote products outside of your store, helping you grow your brand’s affiliate network.
4. Improved Affiliate Engagement:
   • Affiliates are more likely to participate and promote your brand if you provide multiple streams of revenue, including from external sites. By allowing affiliates to refer products, services, or brands they already trust, you’re giving them more incentive to promote.
5. Increased Traffic:
   • External links often drive a different type of traffic than internal links, which could help you reach new audiences. If an affiliate links to an external product on another platform and it results in a sale, that could help boost overall traffic to your site, especially if that traffic is interested in similar types of products.

Use Cases for the External Referral Links Addon

1. Affiliate Marketing for Products on Other Platforms:
   • If you sell your products on other platforms (such as Etsy, Amazon, or a third-party marketplace), you can track affiliate referrals for those sales as well. This allows your affiliates to continue earning commissions even when they refer traffic to external eCommerce platforms.
2. Collaborations with Other Brands:
   • Suppose you have a collaboration with a different brand, and your affiliates are referring traffic to their website. With the External Referral Links Addon, you can ensure your affiliates are still rewarded for those sales by generating external links that are tracked within your AffiliateWP system.
3. Content Creators Promoting Products:
   • If you work with bloggers, influencers, or content creators who regularly recommend products from other companies, you can still track the revenue they generate through external referrals. This is useful if content creators are recommending your products alongside other brands, and you want to keep track of all the conversions coming from them.
4. Tracking Affiliate Links to Affiliate Networks:
   • Affiliates can promote products from external affiliate networks (like Amazon Associates, ClickBank, or CJ Affiliate). By using external referral links, affiliates can still get credit for any sales they generate through these programs.

How to Set Up the AffiliateWP External Referral Links Addon

1. Install AffiliateWP:
   • Make sure you have the core AffiliateWP plugin installed and active on your WordPress site.
2. Purchase and Install the Addon:
   • Visit the AffiliateWP website and purchase the External Referral Links Addon. After purchasing, download the addon zip file.
   • Go to your WordPress admin dashboard, then navigate to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin. Upload the addon zip file and click Install Now.
3. Activate the Addon:
   • After installation, activate the addon from the Plugins page in WordPress.
4. Configure External Referral Links:
   • Once the addon is activated, go to AffiliateWP > Settings > External Referral Links to configure how external links will be tracked.
   • You can set the types of external links to track (e.g., product referral, landing page referrals, etc.) and define the URL parameters that will help track external referrals accurately.
5. Generate External Referral Links:
   • Affiliates can now generate external referral links from their AffiliateWP dashboard just like they would generate links for WooCommerce products. They can use these links in their promotions, blog posts, social media, and more.
6. Track and Report:
   • Use the AffiliateWP reporting system to track external referral link performance. You can view detailed reports on how many clicks, conversions, and commissions each affiliate has earned from their external links.

Conclusion

The AffiliateWP External Referral Links Addon is a powerful tool for store owners who want to expand their affiliate program beyond their own WooCommerce store. By enabling affiliates to generate and track external referral links, this addon allows them to promote third-party products and services, and earn commissions from those sales. This feature is especially useful for businesses looking to collaborate with other brands, work with affiliates promoting external platforms, or extend affiliate tracking to products sold on other eCommerce platforms. It allows store owners to leverage a broader affiliate network, incentivize affiliates, and track referral success across various online platforms, enhancing the overall affiliate marketing strategy.