What is an affiliate program? Can you please explain the tiered commission structure? What's in it for me, my site, and my visitors? Does it cost me anything to become an affiliate? Can a website outside the United States become an affiliate? Can I still be an affiliate if I operate more than one website? How do I sign up? Is my website eligible? How do I create links? Can I use Overstock.com's Content on my site? How do I know how much I've sold and earned? How often do I get paid? What about product returns? How will you know that the orders came from my site? 1. What's an Affiliate Program? Affiliate programs are the ideal way to make your web site profitable. Overstock.com's affiliate program allows you to earn revenue from your web site by sending traffic through Overstock.com advertisements (text links, banner ads, DRMs, etc.) that you have placed on your site. Maximizing site revenue is dependent on two things: increasing the amount of traffic to your site, and improving click-through ratios by finding ads that fit your visitor's interests Overstock.com uses LinkShare as our Affiliate Service Provider (www.linkshare.com). LinkShare provides Overstock.com Affiliates with one simple interface to check all sales statistics on a real-time basis. Overstock.com Affiliates also have access to monthly statements and reports that detail impressions, click-throughs, sales, and commissions that you have generated for Overstock.com. Access to site information is password protected. Furthermore, LinkShare and Overstock.com do not collect or track any information that may be sensitive, such as credit card numbers or private data. -Back to Top- 2. Can you please explain the tiered commission structure? Overstock.com offers affiliates a tiered commission structure. Affiliates earn a 3% commission on all media sales and a 7% commission on all non-media sales. The media bucket includes books, DVDs, CDs, Magazines, etc. Our Non-Media bucket includes everything else on our site (Home & Garden, Jewelry & Watches, Apparel, etc.). Every time you refer a visitor to Overstock.com through an affiliate link and they complete a purchase, you earn commission on that sale. If the visitor does not purchase immediately, but comes back within 14 days and purchases, we still credit you with the sale! Most Overstock.com affiliates average a blended commission of about 6.5%. For example, if an affiliate customer purchases a $100 sweater and a $10 CD, the commission comes out to $7.30 (7% for the sweater and 3% for the CD), or 6.6%. -Back to Top- 3. What's in it for me, my site and my visitors? Since our prices are far lower than other online merchants, our visitor-to-sale conversion rate is high. Top Overstock.com affiliates are earning THOUSANDS of dollars each week. High traffic sites can easily earn close to $10,000/month while low traffic sites can easily generate between $500-$2,000/month. Overstock's "Lowest Price Guarantee" ensures that our customers are always paying the lowest price for our products. -Back to Top- 4. Does it cost me anything to become an Affiliate? No! It's absolutely free to join our Affiliate Program. There is no charge to apply, there is no minimum sales requirement, and you can cancel at any time. Once you are approved by Overstock.com, you can place a banner on your site and start earning commissions almost immediately. -Back to Top- 5. Can a website out side the United States be an Affiliate? Yes. We welcome Affiliates from anywhere in the world (excluding Romania & Afghanistan); Overstock.com can ship to many countries all over the world. All commission checks to Affiliates are in U.S. dollars. Here is the list of countries: The Americas Europe Asia Pacific Middle East Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Dominican Republic Mexico Panama Puerto Rico Venezuela Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Holland Ireland Italy Luxembourg Norwayf Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland UK Australia Guam Japan New Zealand Singapore Taiwan Turkey -Back to Top- 6. I operate more than 1 site. Can I still be an Affiliate Yes. You can have multiple sites as an Affiliate. You will have one Affiliate account with us that will include all of your sites. You can track the progress of each of your sites through Linkshare.. -Back to Top- 7. How do I sign up? First, you must fill out our Affiliate Application and agree to the terms of our Affiliate Agreement. Once you've submitted your application, we will contact you soon (via e-mail) with east-to-follow information on how to get started and create links on your site. -Back to Top- 8. Is my web site eligible to become an Affiliate? Most sites qualify for participation in our program. Anyone may submit an application, but we reserve the right to refuse membership to a site or revoke a membership at any time if we feel the site contains objectionable material or if we feel that the affiliate is using unethical marketing practices (cookie-stuffing, overwriting links, etc.). -Back to Top- 9. How do I create links? We have an automatic tag generator on Overstock's Affiliate Site that creates HTML for you to simply cut and paste into your web site. It’s so easy to use even beginners can create links in seconds. You don’t even need to know HTML! -Back to Top- 10. Can I use Overstock.com's content on my site? Our creative is your creative! You can use logos, graphics, photos and product descriptions. All of this information is readily available in the "create links" section of the LinkShare interface. Moreover, if you want any customized links created for your pages, don't hesitate to ask! -Back to Top- 11. How do I know how much I’ve sold and earned? Through Linkshare's Overstock.com Affiliate Site you can access reports, which are updated daily, that provide information on impressions, click-throughs, orders, shipments, and commissions earned. -Back to Top- 12. How often do I get paid? Overstock.com will send you a commission check every month for a percentage of the sales you referred to our site, provided you earned more than $10. For example, if you only earn $5 in a month, and then earn $6 in the second month, you will receive a commission check at the end of the second month for $11. If you are a foreign affiliate, and need a higher payment threshold, let us know and we will adjust accordingly. -Back to Top- 13. What about product returns? If a user returns a product for a refund, or if credit card charges are reversed due to a dispute or credit card fraud, your account will be debited for any commission earned on that transaction. -Back to Top- 14. How will you know that the orders came from my site? All links from your site to our site contain a unique identifier so that every time a user comes to us via your site, you receive credit when a purchase is made. This is made possible with HTML links we create for you through a tag generator on Overstock's Affiliate Site. -Back to Top- © 2004 Overstock.com. All rights reserved.