The Athletic Affiliate Program

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Become an The Athletic affiliate

Create a free account. Applications are verified once a day at a minimum.
Choose the The Athletic affiliate program.
Program application are usually processed within 24 hours.
Link to The Athletic on your blog, website, profile or social channel.
Receive commissions when other click on your link and completes a transaction.

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Account created

Thank you for creating an affiliate account with Adtraction. You will soon receive an email with instructions.

How affiliate marketing works

Affiliate links to one of our advertisers.
Visitor clicks
on the link.
Visitor purchases
from the advertiser.
Purchase is tracked
by Adtraction.
Affiliate receives commission.

Frequently asked questions

Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions about Adtraction's affiliate network and how to get started making money as an affiliate. If you have questions that are not answered below, you are always welcome to contact support@adtraction.com

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What is Adtraction?

Adtraction runs an affiliate network. We connect businesses (advertisers) who want to boost their digital marketing with website owners (affiliates) who want to earn money on advertising. Adtraction's affiliate network is made up of close to 1 000 advertisers and more than 50 000 affiliates.
What is an affiliate?

An affiliate is an individual (you!) who sends website visitors to an advertiser in exchange for commission. Examples of affiliates are blogs, shopping sites, price comparison sites and web sites that specialize in information about a particular type of product.
How do I earn money?

You make money by helping our advertisers sell. You do this by sending website visitors to our advertisers via links and banners that you get in your Adtraction account. When these visitors make online purchases from the advertisers you earn commission.
How do I get started?
This is how easy it is to make money as an affiliate:
- Create a free account with Adtraction
- Choose ads that suit your website or blog
- Get paid when you help advertisers sell
Does it cost anything to use Adtraction?

Adtraction is, and always will be, completely free for affiliates.
Do I need my own company?

No, it's fine to use Adtraction both as an individual and as a company.
Do I need my own website?

Not if you plan to advertise through paid ads via Adwords, on Facebook, etc. Pick Other as traffic source when your create your Adtraction account.
Can I use Adtraction if I'm under 18?

No, unfortunately. If you are under 18 you can not legally accept the Publisher Agreement that is required to be accepted into our affiliate programs.
Can I have multiple accounts with Adtraction?

You can only have one account per social security identity number or corporate registration number. If you want to advertise on multiple websites, add more channels to your account instead.
What is a channel?

A channel is a place where you place banners or links to earn commission. It can be a website, a blog or a newsletter. It may also be paid advertising on, for example, Adwords or Facebook.
What if I want to advertise on multiple websites?

Register one channel for each site. You can have as many channels as you want in your Adtraction account.
How long does it take for my channel to be approved?

Adtraction verifies new channels within a few hours. If your channel status is Pending review after 24 hours, it most likely has too little content to be verified.
Why was my channel not approved?
We don't approve channels that are not suitable for our advertisers. For example:
- inappropriate content, such as politics, religion, eroticism
- insufficient content or website under construction
  amateurish web design
- insufficient description, particularly important for channels of other type than websites
What is an affiliate program?

Each advertiser with Adtraction has its own affiliate program, which is a partnership where affiliates (you!) send visitors to the advertiser in exchange for commission. Each affiliate program has rules about what kind of advertising is permitted and what commission is offered.
How do I apply for an affiliate program?

Log into your Adtraction account and navigate to Programs » Program directory in the main menu on the left. Choose a program in a category that suits you and click the Apply button.
How many affiliate programs can I apply for?

There is no limit but we recommend that you use only the affiliate programs that fit the visitors of your website. A common mistake is to use too many ads or ads that are not interesting to your visitors.
How long does it take to be approved for an affiliate program?

It is different from advertisers to advertiser. Some process applications daily, others once a week. If you have waited more than 7 days, please contact support@adtraction.com and we will investigate.
How do I know if I was approved for an affiliate program?

Once your application has been processed Adtraction will send you an email that tells if your application has been approved or denied.
Why was my application for an affiliate program denied?
The advertiser decided that your channel is not suitable for carrying their ads. Common reasons are that the channel is:
- not in accordance with the affiliate program advertising rules
- not suitable for the advertiser's brand
- not suited for the target audience
- not in the same language as the target audience
My application for an affiliate program was denied. Can I apply again?

In some cases, that's fine. First check that your type of channel and way of advertising is permitted under the program's advertising rules, which can be found on the program homepage in your Adtraction account. Then contact support@adtraction.com for assistance.
How do I put a banner on my website?

Navigate to Programs » My programs in the main meny on the left in your Adtraction account. Choose an affiliate program you are approved for and click the Ads button. This will list all banners and links available in the affiliate program. Select a banner that fits your channel and click the Get tracking code button. For some ads you have the option to choose which type of code you want to use. If you do not know what to choose, we recommend that you choose JavaScript. Then click the Get tracking code button and cut & paste the code into your blog or website where you want your ad to be visible.
What type of tracking code should I use?
For some banners, you can choose between different types of tracking code:
- JavaScript - Use this if you do not know what to choose.
- HTML - Used primarily when JavaScript can not be used, for example in email marketing, or if you wish to make any type of change in how the banner is displayed.
- Cleanlink - Provides you with a JavaScript that you put in the footer of your website. It allows you to link directly (without tracking links!) to any advertiser for which your channel is approved.
How can I make sure my banners work?

Banner impressions and clicks are registered within 60 seconds in your Adtraction account. Thus, you can easily test that your banners and links are working by clicking them and verifying that the clicks are tracked in your account. You can for example use the Ad report, located under Statistics » Ad report in the main menu to the left in your account.
Can I create custom text links?

Yes, you can. Use the Custom link function which is available for all affiliate programs your channel is approved for. Select code type HTML and click Get tracking code. Replace Link text in the code with any text of your choice before placing the link on your website.
How do I create a deep link to a product page on the advertiser's website?

Use the Custom link function which is available for all affiliate programs your channel is approved for. Paste the URL you want your link to point to in the Target URL text field. Please note that the target URL must be located on the same domain as the affiliate program.

If you build deep links manually, make sure that the parameter "url" is always placed last in the tracking link.
Can I purchase items through my own affiliate links?

Yes, you can! For example by clicking the Shop for yourself button available on the program page of each affiliate program your channel is approved for.
How and when do I get paid?

Payment specifications are created in your account the 5th of each month and payments are made the 10th the same month according to the information you provide under Account » Settings.
Do I need to pay taxes on the commission I earn?

For residents of Sweden, Adtraction will automatically deduct taxes from payments to individuals and add VAT to payments to companies. Individuals and companies residing outside Sweden must report earnings to their national tax authorities on their own account.
My account balance has decreased, why?

Most likely, a payment specification was created in your account and your balance decreased by a corresponding amount. You can find your payment specifications under Account » Payments in the main menu to the left in your Adtraction account. It is also possible that one of the transactions in your account was rejected and the associated commission was removed from your account. You can list any rejected transactions by navigating to Statistics » Transaction Report.
Why was not my entire account balance paid?

We pay on a monthly basis. Commissions earned in January will be paid on March 10, commission earned in February will be paid on April 10, and so on. Thus, if your account balance includes commission earned over several months, your entire account balance will not be paid at the same time.
What are iSales?

iSales, also called Impression sales or View-through sales occur when someone makes a purchase from an advertiser after he or she has been shown (but not clicked on) a banner from that same advertiser. iSales are normally tracked during 72 hours after the ad impression. Not all advertisers offer commission for iSales.
How does Adtraction tracking work with parallel tracking in Google Ads?
Parallel tracking does not affect Adtraction’s legacy cookie tracking. However, for advertisers using first-party tracking or server-to-server tracking a simple update by affiliates in their Google Ads account is required:
1. The Final URL for the ad ("final URL" or "final URL suffix" field) must be appended with a static identifier cn=at_gd as well as two instances of Google’s unique click identifier; cv={gclid} and at_gd={gclid}. Example: https://www.advertiser.com?cn=at_gd&cv={gclid}&at_gd={gclid}
2. The Adtraction tracking link ("tracking template" field) must have gb=1 appended to it to indicate parallel tracking. It also needs to carry the parameter at_gd={gclid} which holds Google’s unique click identifier. Example: https://track.adtraction.com/t/t?a=24209996&as=24577691&t=2&tk=1&gb=1&at_gd={gclid}
Information about which tracking solution an advertiser has implemented is available on each advertiser’s program page in your Adtraction account.
What are pending transactions?

Some advertisers review all transactions manually. Transactions will have status Pending until they are approved or rejected by the advertiser. Transactions that are rejected are removed from your account balance and marked as Not approved in the Transaction report in your account.
How does EPI work?

By using EPI in your Adtraction tracking links you can send custom information to Adtraction's system, which is shown in the Transaction report in your account. This can be used, for example, to identify exactly what link a particular transaction originated from.

EPI is limited to 128 characters and can be used in all Adtraction links of type HTML or URL. Make sure the landing page parameter (url) is always placed last in your tracking links.

Example:
http://track.adtraction.com/t/t?a=243&as=110183&t=2&tk=1&epi=your-text-here&url=http://www.abc.com/page.htm
Does Adtraction have an API?

Yes we do. You generate your API key under Account » Settings in your Adtraction account. API documentation is available at https://adtractionapi.docs.apiary.io/.
I get a traffic error message in my account, why?
You have a banner or link that is not implemented correctly. Possible causes:
- You're using a tracking code on the wrong website. A tracking code only works on the website (domain) it was created for.
- You're using a banner from an affiliate program that is not active anymore.
- Your channel is not approved for the affiliate program.
What is a data feed?

A data feed is a file filled with information about an advertiser's products, such as prices and product descriptions. A data feed can contain anything from a handful of products up to hundreds of thousands of products. You can access the information by downloading the file from Adtraction and extracting the data you need.
Can I load the Cleanlink script asynchronously?

Add the defer attribute to your script tag. It specifies that the script is executed when the page has finished parsing. Example:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://track.adtraction.com/t/t?as=111&t=1&tk=0&trt=2" defer charset="ISO-8859-1"></script>