Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
Technical Questions
Q: What is an affiliate?
A: An affiliate is an individual or company that markets a merchant's (like My Software Project) products or services for a commission. Affiliate marketing is very popular these
days to promote products and services.
Q: What service does My Software Project provide affiliates?
A: My Software Project provides advertisers with a way of using their website's traffic in order to make money. We provide pre-made banners that can be used
on your website, as well as an accurate tracking system that keeps track of hits, signups, and conversions generated by your advertisements. My Software Project also keeps track of your
earnings.
Q: How does the service work for affiliates?
A: Affiliates place banners on their website in order to attract customers that might be interested in our services. The banners contain special tracking values that represent your
affiliate account in our system. When someone clicks on your banner (on your website) they are sent to a landing page (on our website). When the visitor lands on our website, we receive those
special tracking values that were hidden in the banner and use them to track the visitor's movements through our website. If the visitor then signs up, or better yet, performs an action we consider
a conversion (ie: a developer signing up for a membership would be considered a conversion), then we store this information in your affiliate account. This information can then be used to
calculate your earnings.
Q: Do I need to sign up for an affiliate account in order to become an affiliate?
A: Yes, you will need to sign up for an affiliate account on our website in order to become an affiliate. Without affiliate accounts, there would be no way of knowing which visitors you
brought to our site.
Q: Do affiliate have to pay anything?
A: No, affiliates do not have to pay anything. Here at My Software Project, we regard all of our affiliates as our business partners. We enjoy working with affiliates that we respect and trust
because we understand that good partnerships will become mutually profitable in the long-run.
Q: Why is My Software Project a great website to become an affiliate for?
A: There are a variety of reasons why My Software Project is a great website to become an affiliate for. First off, you will notice that My Software Project offers a highly competitive
commission structure, allowing advertisers to obtain up to 50% of membership prices and up to $3 for every software buyer that creates at least one project. Secondly, our development team is highly
flexible when it comes to designing custom solutions for our affiliates. Need a banner that matches the exact look and feel of your website? Simply contact our development team at support@mysoftwareproject.net!
Perhaps most importantly, you will find that we are both responsible and punctual in our dealings with affiliates. We record earnings honestly and accurately, and make every possible effort to ensure that all
affiliate inquiries are answered quickly and correctly. We take great pride in operating our own independent affiliate program.
Q: What is my affiliate account page? How do I access it?
A: Your affiliate account page is like your "home" page. It contains all of the relevant information pertaining to your dealings with us (personal information, address information, advertising statistics, earnings, etc.)
as well as some useful functions like creating banner ads. If you have already signed up for an account with us, you can access your account page by clicking on "Affiliate Login/Signup" under the "My Options" tab.
Q: What is my "Website Approval Status"?
A: All affiliates must have their websites approved before we begin tracking their advertising statistics and earnings. We do this mainly to prevent irrelevant/inappropriate websites from advertising our services.
Here at My Software Project we prefer affiliating with websites that are related (in content) to ours. When you first create your affiliate account with us your website approval status will be "Pending Approval". Please allow up to 48 hours
for one of our representatives to look over your site. If they have any questions, they will attempt to contact you using the information you provided during the signup process. When your website is approved, the red Pending Approval notice
will turn into a green "Approved" notice and you can begin advertising.
What happens if my website is not approved?
A: If your website is not approved and you do not know why this is the case, you should send an email to support@mysoftwareproject.net to inquire about
the decision. Unfortunately we are not perfect, and occasionally we do make mistakes with regard to who we allow and disallow from our program. We would be more than happy to talk over these concerns with you.
Q: Where can I get banners that I can use to display on my website?
A: You can get banners for displaying on your website by using the "Banner Generation" feature on your account page. Simply fill in the required information (target audience, landing page, size, shape, and color) and click the
"Get Code" button. This will generate the banner you have selected and will insert secret tracking values into the banner code. These secret tracking values will inform us about which visitors came from your website.
Q: Can I use my own banners to advertise the My Software Project website?
A: We aren't going to try and stop you if you want to use your own banners in order to promote our website, but we are going to advise against it. We make no garuntees about the accuracy/authenticity of our tracking statistics by banners
that were not generated at our website. By using the banners generated on your account page, you ensure that the banners are never out of date (since all of the banners generated on the account page reference images that are contained
on our server) so we prefer that you use this method.
Q: How can I tell if My Software Project is tracking my advertising statistics correctly?
A: It's fairly easy to determine if My Software Project is tracking your advertising statistics correctly. Try clicking on the banner (on your website) and then going to your account page (on our website) and checking if the hit was
recorded correctly (it should appear in the "My Statistics" section of your account page). You can also sign up for buyer/developer accounts (which are always free) to check if we are tracking signups correctly. If hits and signups are being correctly recorded, then you know that the system is working and will track other
things like conversions and earnings. Note: We recommend that you use this testing procedure when you first begin advertising with us.
Q: What is all that data in the "My Statistics" section of my account page?
A: This is the raw data (hits, signups, conversions, earnings) that your advertisements have generated, along with some key ratios (hit conversion ratio, signup conversion ratio, and earnings per hit). You might have to use the legend in order
to make sense of the data. We briefly describe the meaning of each symbol below:
Q: How do I keep track of how much My Software Project owes me?
A: We keep track of this figure internally so that you do not have to. The amount that My Software Project owes you appears as "Unpaid Earnings" (UE) in the My Statistics section of your account page.
Q: How does My Software Project pay affiliates for their advertising services?
A: My Software Project uses PayPal in order to make payments to affiliates. This is why you need to specify a valid PayPal e-mail address when signing up with us.
Q: How do I request payment for my unpaid earnings? What happens when I request payment?
A: You can request payment for your unpaid earnings directly from your account page. Please note that we will only process payment requests greater than $25. Additionally, we will automatically send you
your unpaid earnings whenever they exceed $250 (since it is part of our policy not to allow the owings on any account to exceed this value). When you request payment for the amount owed to you, one of our representatives
must first review your payment request. You can expect the funds to be deposited into your PayPal account within 24 hours.
Q: Is it posible for My Software Project to refuse my payment request?
A: Although it is extremely rare, it is possible that a payment request may be refused by us. This would only ever happen in cases where we suspect that abuse of our affiliate program has occurred (for
example, if we discover fake project postings that were created with the sole intention of earning a commission). If your payment request is denied by one of our representatives, do not panic. We will be in contact with you
shortly to present you with the evidence we have that suggests abuse, and work with you to determine how this may have happened. If no abuse has actually occurred, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about and the funds
will be promptly sent to you.
Q: What are the different commission structures at My Software Project and what conditions apply to them?
A: Here at My Software Project we have two different commission structures (one for software buyers and one for software developers). The following description explains how My Software Project calculates affiliate earnings:
There are a few things that the affiliate should note about this commission structure. First off, you will note that it takes far more buyer conversions than developer conversions to move up the ladder. This is done to reflect
the relative difficulty of obtaining each type of conversion (buyer conversions are easier because signing up and posting projects is FREE, and developer conversions are more difficult because they are required to make a monthly payment).
The second thing to note is the (* project requirement) and (* once only) conditions. The "project requirement" condition simply means that we consider a buyer signup to be a conversion from the moment that they create their first project posting.
The "once only" condition implies that affiliates receive their percentage of the membership price only once, and not every month that the developer is billed for their recurring membership.
Q: What should I do if I no longer want to be an affiliate for this website?
A: If you no longer want to be an affiliate for our website, simply stop showing our ads on your website and request payment on your unpaid earnings (if they are less than $25, you will need to send us an e-mail). We will leave your account open
in case your change your mind (or in case you generate more earnings from visitors who return to our site after a while and convert).