Ben NATS WalkThrough I

Introduction

NATS - Next generation Affiliate Tracking Software

NATS is used to track surfers, internet users, as they navigate through your site. The tracking is done via a NATS linkcode which is appended to the link for your tour's landing page. A NATS linkcode identifies, in this order, the affiliate, the program, the site, the tour, the campaign, the adtool, and two (2) optional values identified as subid1 and subid2. There are three (3) types of NATS linkcodes, all of which contain the same information; encoded (common), un-encoded (rare) and shortname (rare).

Most implementations of NATS linkcodes are encoded. The encoded linkcode uses the numeric ID for all values and generates a seemingly random assortment of characters to represent that information. The un-encoded linkcode comma seperates the required information using the affiliates username, instead of the affiliate ID, and the numeric IDs of the rest of the values. The un-encoded (shortname) linkcode comma seperates the required information using the affiliate username, program shortname, site shortname, tour shortname, and the numeric ID of the rest of the values.

A surfer clicks a link via an adtool with a specified NATS linkcode which directs the surfer through a tracking script. This script writes a cookie on the surfer's browser that identifies the affiliate that should be credited with any future action from said surfer. Once completed, the specified tour's landing page will be displayed to the surfer. The tour landing page will have a join button that directs the surfer to your tour's join page. On the join page, the surfer will have payment options which will be specified by the billing cascade. Once the join page is completely processed, the surfer is converted to a member.

The first part of the NATS Walk through will cover the Affiliates, the Skins and Templates Admin, the Billers Admin, the Programs Admin, the Sites Admin, the Payments, and Admin Overview areas.

Affiliates Area

Displayed after login Displayed by clicking "Main Program Page" link at the upper right of the Admin areas

An affiliate sends you traffic in exchange for money. So, in order to successfully track surfers to affiliates, you need to add affiliates. Once an affiliate has signed-up, he can log-in to his area of your NATS install. By default, the affiliate area is divided into five (5) sections: Home, Stats, Tools, My Account, and Support. When an affiliate first logs on, his Home page will be displayed.

Home Page

On the Home page, the affiliate will be able to access general information. Working from top to bottom, then left to right, the affiliate will first be greeted with a welcome message. Below the welcome message and if there are any new messages, a link to "new messages" will be displayed, which navigates the affiliate to the messages tab in the My Account section. Below the "New Messages" link, the affiliate can view all unread "Notifications". Below the "Notifications" bar, the affiliate has access to "Quick Links". These are the most commonly used Affiliate functions. By default, the affiliate can "Quick Link" to Detailed Stats, Link Codes, Create Campaign, Hosted Galleries, My Payments, and Referrals. Next to the "Quick Links" area, the affiliate can view a graph displaying the current period's stats. (Joins are surfers that converted to members. Rebills are members that have re-billed. Join Submits are surfers that completed the Join process, but did not convert to members. Join Hits are surfers that have accessed the Join page. And, Raw Hits are surfers that have accessed a Site's Tour page.) Next to the graph, the affiliate can see a countdown clock to the end of the current period and below that he can view the recently added Ad Tools that can be used to drive traffic to your Site(s). The affiliate has the ability to filter the Ad Tools by type and time period added. Below the "Quick Links", graph, and recently added Ad Tools, the affiliate can view a summary of the current days stats. These stats display much of the same information as the graph, but in as a numeric representation. It also displays the currency amount of income and refunds. Next to that information, the affiliate can view hourly join stats. Below the daily stats snapshot, the affiliate can view a daily breakdown of the current period. Next to the daily breakdown of the current period, the affiliate can view some of his account details, the Account Snapshot. And, below the Account Snapshot, the affiliate can view the most recent "Notifications".

Stats

On the Stats page, the affiliate will have complete access to his statistics. Again working from top to bottom and left to right, the welcome message from the Home page is replaced with the Daily Snapshot of earnings. Below the Daily Snapshot, the link to "New Messages" is displayed. Below that link, the "Notifications" bar is displayed. Below the "Notifications" bar, a detailed graph of period stats is displayed and below that a numeric detail of the graphical daily stats is displayed. Next to the detailed graph, the user can access stats on any day by choosing the day from the calendar. Below the calendar, the affiliate can view summary of today's stats. And, below the Today's Summary, stat summaries are broken-down by Demographics, Sites, Programs, Campaigns, and Ad Tools. By clicking the headings of these sections, the affiliate can view detailed stats. On all Stats pages, the affiliate can filter the results displayed by time period, Sites, Programs, and Campaigns. Additionally, the affiliate can change the view, essentially the same action as clicking the headings on the Summary stats from the main Stats page. However, the summary headings are only a subset of the available views. Some of the views allow the affiliate to compare results. For example; on the Sites view, the affiliate can compare the results of multiple sites. Currently, the affiliate can only compare up to four (4) items at a time.

Tools

On the Tools page, the affiliate will have complete access to Ad Tools that you make available to him. Working from top to bottom, the welcome message is replaced by an Ad Tools description. Below the Ad Tools description is the link to "New Messages". Below the "New Messages" link, the affiliate can view the available Ad Tools. There are currently five (5) Ad Tool type categories shipped with NATS. A sixth, COTD, Content Of The Day, is available as a purchasable module. Along with the Link Codes, each of the Ad Tools type categories is represented in a separate tab. Additionally, the affiliate is able to filter the Ad Tools displayed by Link Code type; encoded, un-encoded or shortname, Site, and/or Campaign. The affiliate also has the ability to set a filter as the default by clicking the "Set as Default" checkbox.

My Account

On the My Account page, the affiliate will have complete access to his account information. Working from top to bottom, the welcome message is replaced by My Accounts description. Below the My Accounts description is the link to "New Messages". Below the "New Messages" link, the affiliate can view information about his account. This section is divided into six (6) tabs; Account Detail, Display Settings, Account Settings, Recent Changes, Campaigns, and Messages. In the "Account Detail" section, the affiliate can interact with information that identifies him, change his password, and change payment arrangements. In the "Display Settings" section, the affiliate change can alter the way he sees information. He can change the defaults in the main display of the affiliate area, the link codes, the Stats page, the ad tools, the news, and the My Account page. In the "Account Settings" tab, the affiliate can alter mailing, notification, and verification settings. In the "Recent Changes" tab, the affiliate can view changes made to his account. In the "Campaigns" section, the affiliate can manage campaigns that he uses to track his performance. In the "Messages" tab, the affiliate can view messages that you send to him.

Support

On the Support page, the affiliate will be able to communicate with you about his account.

There may be the need to customize the look, feel, and potentially the data shown to your affiliates. In order to alter the content as desired, you would alter the templates inside the skin that is applied. This can be demonstrated by the affiliates ability to show desired information in his Stats page. For example; One affiliate may want to view default table columns on his Stats page. While, another affiliate may want to see different columns. The first three (3) columns of any table by default are raw, unique, and join hits. In the "Display Defaults" section in the "My Accounts" area, the second affiliate could choose to set the first column to "qualified" because he does not care to see the "raw" hits that are attributed to his activities. NATS stores the affiliates preferences and uses a template to display the desired information.

Skins and Templates Admin

A skin is a collection of templates. And, a template is base document that is used to display ever changing data. Case in point, the Affiliate page is composed of numerous templates. The page looks and feels the same for all affiliates, but the data is different and pertains to each specific affiliate. Many pages in NATS are customizable via templates in "Skins and Templates" Admin. The "Skins and Templates" Admin is divided into six (6) sections. The first three (3) are skin specific, "Basic Skins", "Advanced Skins", and "Bare Skins". The fourth is "Special Templates" followed by "Import Skin" and "Export Skin".

Inheritance is an important concept in respect to Skins and Templates. Inheritance is best exemplified using biology. When two bears procreate, they create another bear. The bear attributes from the parents are inherited by the cub. The same is true when handling skins and templates. Any changes made to the children will override the parent. For this reason, NATS does not allow you to edit the "default" skin. Instead, you need to create a copy of the skin, which creates a child of the "Default" skin. Should you make any mistakes in your child skin, you will always be able to create another skin from the NATS default. Children are indicated by being indented under its parent. In addition to understanding inheritance, it is essential to understand SMARTY. For more information about Templates and Skins with SMARTY, visit NATS4_Skins

Assuming an understanding of inheritance and SMARTY, you can create a child of any skin, in this case the "Default" skin, by clicking the button associated with the "Default" skin under the Actions heading. You will prompted to give the new skin a name. After giving the skin a name and clicking "OK", you will notice that the new skin is indented and below the "Default", parent, skin, indicating that it is a child of that skin. Now, you can alter the templates collected in this skin by clicking the button associated with this skin. You can also specify to which group; admin, sales rep, and/or affiliate the skin will apply by clicking the button. Finally, if you decide that you want to delete the skin, you can do so by clicking the button.

Basic Skins

The "Basic Skins" tab allows you to edit the header and footer templates only.

Advanced Skins

Assuming that you desire to alter a template, click the button. This will list all of the available templates that can be altered. Locate the desired template and click the under the Actions heading. This will display the contents of the template in a text area. Make any desired changes and click the "Save & Continue" or "Save" button. Note: "Save & Continue" button will bring you back to the edit template page, while "Save" will bring you back to the template list page. Additionally, you can specify different header and footer templates to be used. You will notice that the button becomes disabled. The button essentially makes a copy of the default state of the template. Once altered, the and buttons become available. All future edits of the template can be accomplished by clicking the button. At any time, you can preview the template by clicking the button. Note: Clicking the button will display the preview in a new window/tab in your browser. All future edits of the template can be accomplished by clicking the button. button. Clicking the button reverts the template back to its original state. Clicking the button creates an editable copy of the template. If you create a copy of a template, the button becomes available. Clicking the button deletes that template. Note: The button is only available for new and copied templates.

Additionally, you can create custom templates. Every "Advanced Skins" template in NATS is preceded with one (1) of five (5) template types which are determined by the first word in the template name followed by an underscore (_). The custom template can either be an "affiliate_", "include_", "function_", "css_" or "external_" type. So, first choose a template type. Then supply the rest of the template name in the adjoining textbox. Note: Template names are unique. NATS will not allow you to create a template with the name of an already existing name. You can choose a specific "Header" and "Footer" and supply a description. When satisfied with the name and settings, click the "Create" button.

Bare Skins

The "Bare Skins" tab allows you to create and edit templates from scratch.

Special Templates

The "Special Templates" tab allows you to alter templates that are not directly viewable in NATS. These are used for mailings, notifications, chainInclude, which displays a pop-up to a surfer, and COTD, if purchased separately. You can alter these templates just like templates in the "Advanced Skins" area. Additionally, you can create custom "Special Templates". Every "Special Template" in NATS is preceded with one (1) of four (4) template types which are determined by the first word in the template name followed by an underscore (_). The custom template can either be a "mail_", "notify_", "COTD_", or "chaininclude_" type. So, first choose a template type. Then supply the rest of the template name in the adjoining textbox. Note: Template names are unique. NATS will not allow you to create a template with the name of an already existing name. You can choose a specific "Header" and "Footer" and supply a description. When satisfied with the name and settings, click the "Create" button.

Import Skins

The "Import Skins" tab allows you to import a skin that was developed outside of NATS but is to be used in NATS. You will be prompted to add this skin as a child of already identified NATS skin.

Export Skins

The "Export Skins" tab allows you to export a skin.

Billers Admin

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Now that you are able to get affiliates and customize the look and feel of your NATS install, you will want to set-up Billers that will handle the monetary transactions your affiliates and professional looking website will generate. This is handled in the "Billers Admin". The "Billers Admin" consists of two (2) important concepts; setting-up billers and creating cascades.

Set up Billers

Billers provide NATS with integration into their system. Therefore, you can only use the billers that NATS provides. So, you will need to initiate a relationship with one or more of the billers listed in the "Setup New Biller" drop-down list. Once those relationships have been established, you can associate your relationship with them into NATS. Assuming you have said relationship, you can set-up that biller by choosing the biller from the "Setup New Biller" drop-down list and click the "Add" button under the Actions heading. This will refresh the "Billers Admin" page and allow you to enter the "Account Info" for that biller. Enter the account information provided by the biller and click the "Save" button. Repeat this process for all billers for which you want to do business. Note: Adding multiple billers increases the chances of converting surfers into members. Once the billers are properly set-up, you will see a list of all those billers. Each biller in NATS has the following attributes: ID, Biller Name, Shortname, Account Info, Processing Type, Last Poll, Polling Date, and Actions.

Programs Admin

In order to successfully track surfers to affiliates, you need add affiliates. Once an affiliate has signed-up, he can logon to his area of your NATS install. By default, the affiliate area is divided into five (5) sections: Home, Stats, Tools, My Account, and Support. When an affiliate first logs on, his Home page will be displayed.

Sites Admin

In order to successfully track surfers to affiliates, you need add affiliates. Once an affiliate has signed-up, he can logon to his area of your NATS install. By default, the affiliate area is divided into five (5) sections: Home, Stats, Tools, My Account, and Support. When an affiliate first logs on, his Home page will be displayed.

Payments Admin

In order to successfully track surfers to affiliates, you need add affiliates. Once an affiliate has signed-up, he can logon to his area of your NATS install. By default, the affiliate area is divided into five (5) sections: Home, Stats, Tools, My Account, and Support. When an affiliate first logs on, his Home page will be displayed.

Admin Overview

In order to successfully track surfers to affiliates, you need add affiliates. Once an affiliate has signed-up, he can logon to his area of your NATS install. By default, the affiliate area is divided into five (5) sections: Home, Stats, Tools, My Account, and Support. When an affiliate first logs on, his Home page will be displayed.