How to Promote Commission Junction With Zen Cart

Commission Junction lets you promote third-party products via your site.

Commission Junction is an affiliate marketing company. It provides coded banner ads and link text to its affiliates, who post those links on their websites. When a third-party clicks on an affiliate's link, Commission Junction records the sale and pays the affiliate. Zen Cart is a virtual shopping cart plugin. Once installed on your website, Zen Cart provides visitors to your site with an automated sales platform. Zen Cart's interface also can be used for hosting Commission Junction banner and link code, so you can sell your own products and affiliate products via the same platform.

Instructions

1. Log in to your website control panel. Note: This is not your hosting account. You website control panel is a specific URL where you access the back-end controls for your site. For example, if your website is integrated with Wordpress, your control panel URL will be yourwebsite.com/wp-admin.

2. Open the "Plugins" menu. Zen Cart is a third-party application, so it will not be part of the default dashboard controls. Typically, the plugins menu appears on the left of the screen.

3. Select Zen Cart from the menu and then click "Admin" to make edits to your Zen Cart settings.

4. Open a separate Web browser tab. If using a Mac, hit "Command" and "T." If using a PC, hit "Control" and "T." This enables you to retrieve code from Commission Junction without exiting your own website control panel.

5. Go to the Commission Junction homepage and log in using the credentials you provided when signing up.

6. Click the "Get Links" tab at the top of the page and browse for an offer you want to promote on your site. For example, if your website sells soccer equipment, browse for soccer equipment deals. It makes no sense to host banners for soccer equipment if your site primarily sells fish tanks.

7. Highlight the text, right-click it and select "Copy." The code text is specific to your Commission Junction account and contains a tracking ID. This ID tells Commission Junction which affiliate promoted the link.

8. Go back to the admin section of Zen Cart. Click "Tools" and "Banner Manager," then click "New Banner." Right-click in the dialog box and select "Paste." This puts the banner text into the box.

9. Click on a "Banner Style" option from the sidebar, then click "Save" to publish the banner to your site.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you copy all of the banner text. Typically the end of the text code contains your tracking ID. One missing character can mean you don't get paid for sales made via that banner.

References

• Tutorialsl; Zen Cart; How do I Set up Banner Ads?
• Commission Junction: FAQ

Resources

• Commission Junction