Website Accounts and Affiliate Program
I'm not sure if everyone is aware of this, but we have an affiliate program here at the magazine. The reason that I am posting about it is that we just wrapped up some changes to the subscriber account on the website. When you have an account (a username and password, not to be confused with an active subscription) with our website, you can log in and click on "my account" at the top of the page. This will take you to the account home which we have modified a bit.
The first thing is that you can edit your account profile there, which also corresponds to the mailing address that we have on file for your printed magazine (if you have susbcribed to the printed magazine). Sometimes people will contact us saying that they have moved, or that they want to change the address that we ship the magazine to. This can all be done now in the account center on our website. On that point, I would suggest that everyone double-check their account information, especially if you receive the printed magazine. We have noticed quite a few people that have chosed foreign countries as their country, despite living in a US state.
The other account features relate to our affiliate program, which anyone is welcome to participate in. If you are a subscriber, you are already set up as an affiliate in our system. If you are not a subscriber, you can create an account with our website for free to begin. It works something like this. Log in to your account home by clicking "my account" on our website. Then click "Get Affiliate Banners & Links". This will take you to a page that shows our Affiliate agreement.
You must agree to the terms of our affiliate agreement to participate (of course), but simply check the box to agree and you will be presented with some HTML text links and banner links to choose from. Decide on the link you want to use, and then copy the HTML code for that link. This code contains a unique identifer in it that allows us to track your affiliate commissions. Paste the link code onto your website or emails, and anyone that clicks those links and subsequently subscribes (within 30 days) will generate a commission for you. Good times.
The best part is that not only can you get the links through your account at our website, you can also review the affiliate commissions that you have already earned. Simply click "Review Your Affiliate Statistics" to see your commissions earned broken down by day. Additionally, if you would like your commission check made out to a different name than your magazine subscription, you can modify that as well by clicking "Update Your Commissions Payout Info" from the account center. All pretty great features that allow anyone to participate in our affiliate program and manage their commissions on a self-serve basis.
I think that this is a cool feature, hopefully people will enjoy it. Better yet, hopefully people will REALLY use it and we end up with a ton of subscriptions and our affiliate end up with a ton of commissions. Well, at least for now it's a cool new feature we've added to the website.
More cool features coming soon. Wait until you see what kind of real-time goodies we are working on for our advertisers...
Update: As of July 2008, we have release a new website. We no longer offer an affiliate program, as we are no longer offering our printed magazine. We apologize for any confusion.
