Income Access - FAQ

Welcome to the Income Access FAQ page, your source for answers to the most frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing and the Income Access Affiliate Network.

1. Affiliate Program Basics

1. What is an affiliate program?

An affiliate program is a type partnership between an online merchant and a website owner where the online merchant compensates the website owner for any revenue generated through the merchant's links on their website. As an affiliate you are paid a commission every time a customer referred through your website generates revenue for the merchant. It's that easy!
2. What is an affiliate?

An affiliate is an independent website that promotes a merchant's products or services. Income Access affiliates earn a commission every time a referred player generates revenue for one of our online gaming merchants.
3. What is a merchant/operator?

A merchant/operator is any website that sells a product or service, accepts payments and fulfils orders. In the case of Income Access, our merchants are reputable online casinos and poker, sportsbook/sportsbetting, and bingo websites.
4. What is a tiered affiliate program?

As an Income Access affiliate, you are entitled to additional commissions when you recruit affiliates for Income Access merchants. You will earn a percentage of the commissions paid to the website (sub-affiliates) that you recruit.

2. About the Income Access Affiliate Network

1. What is the Income Access affiliate network?

Income Access is a growing network for gaming affiliates and gaming operators. We facilitate mutually beneficial relationships that help our affiliates and merchants earn money. Affiliates can sign up and use one user name and password for multiple affiliate programs. Income Access is a trusted third party providing gaming merchants and affiliates with reliable and accurate tracking and the flexible technology that they need to be successful.

Income Access affiliates send traffic to our merchant website. When this traffic generates revenue for our merchants, the affiliate earns a commission.
2. Which gaming software platforms can I promote through Income Access?

Income Access affiliates can promote a suite of top online gaming properties. Because Income Access merchants are independent from one another, you are able to promote multiple software platforms through the Income Access affiliate network. Our merchants run on a range of gaming software platforms.
3. What is the Income Access policy on spam?

In accordance with the recent "CAN-SPAM Act of 2003" legislation, Income Access strictly prohibits affiliates from sending unsolicited mass emails or spam, whether via email, Usenet or any other form.

Any affiliate using spamming techniques for soliciting referrals will be in automatic breach of our affiliate agreement and will be immediately removed from our affiliate network and legally pursued for any resulting damages.

3. Becoming an Affiliate

1. How do I join the Income Access affiliate program?
To become an Income Access affiliate, all you need is a website and an email address. Then you need to follow our easy, two-step registration process:
1. Become an Income Access affiliate: Sign up here to join the Income Access affiliate program.
2. Sign up to promote individual merchants: Once you are registered as an Income Access affiliate, you will have the opportunity to select the individual online gaming properties you would like to promote. Simply log into the affiliate section and fill in the appropriate affiliate application form.
Once you have registered with an individual merchant, the affiliate account manager for the merchant will review your application details and send you a confirmation email.
2. Are there any fees to join as an affiliate?

Income Access is a free affiliate program. Our entire affiliate program is 100% free of charge for affiliates. What are you waiting for? Join now!
3. How do I begin joining individual affiliate programs inside Income Access?

The Income Access affiliate network gives you access to multiple merchant affiliate programs. Once you are registered as an Income Access affiliate, you can join individual affiliate programs within our network.

Simply log into our affiliate section and navigate to the "Our Merchants" section. Once in the Merchants section, you will have the opportunity to review our online gambling merchants and sign up to their individual affiliate programs.
4. What commissions do I earn from each merchant?

Each Income Access merchant offers unique affiliate commission percentages and structures. Visit our individual merchant pages to find out more about how each merchant rewards its affiliates and which commissions are best for you.
5. I have more than one website, should I apply again?

No. Whether you have one website, or 100 sites, you only need to apply once to the Income Access affiliate program.

You can easily track multiple websites under one login. Our affiliate management area enables you to create a unique code for each of your websites. This makes it easy for you to view separate traffic, referral and earnings stats for each site.
6. How long will it take for my application to be approved?

Applications are usually reviewed and approved within 48 hours of receipt
7. Will my Web site be accepted?

We accept the majority of websites that are submitted to the Income Access affiliate program. However, each of our merchants has its own criteria outlining what kinds of website content they consider acceptable and unacceptable for their program.

4. Linking, Tracking and Account Management

1. How is a customer associated with my Web site?

Each link that connects your website to one of our merchants contains a unique tracking code. This code tracks impressions, clicks and records required data such as registrations, purchases made and play activity by your referred customers at the merchant's site. This activity is recorded in our database and is viewable in your affiliate account.
2. Where do I get my tracking code?

To get your tracking code you must first sign up to an individual merchant's affiliate program. Once your application is approved you can log into Income Access and go to the "Marketing Tools" section.

Your tracking code is provided directly from this section in HTML format. This code will be inserted automatically into the HTML for any marketing tools - such as banners, buttons and text links - that you wish to use. Simply copy and paste the code for the marketing tool your wish to use and paste it into the HTML of your Web site.

Remember - it's important to test all tracking codes that you add to your website by clicking on them and verifying that this click is registered in your affiliate account.
3. How do I set up tracking for multiple websites or campaigns?
You can easily create unique codes for each of your websites or campaigns in our affiliate management area:
1. Log into your account and go to "My Account".
2. Click on "Affiliate Tracking Profiles" in the left hand navigation.
3. Enter your websites or campaign information in the form.
4. We will assign your campaign or website a unique ID. All your unique codes can be viewed in the grid on the top of the page.
5. To add this code to a marketing tool (banner, text link, etc.), go to "Marketing Tools" and use the drop-down menu that lists all your campaigns to choose which campaign or website will carry your link.
6. Then choose your marketing tool in the next drop-down menu. Your unique campaign code will automatically be inserted into the tool's HTML.
7. You can then view your conversions in the reports - per site ID.
4. Who should I contact if I need help?

Feel free to email or call Income Access if you have any questions or need help. Our office is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. Click here to access our contact information.
5. How do I change my account information?

You can change your account information any time in our management area. Simply log into your account and click on "My Account". Make your changes in the form and click "Submit".

5. Viewing your Stats & Getting Paid

1. How do I keep track of my earnings and referrals?

You can easily monitor your daily traffic, earnings and referrals through the Income Access software. Our "Reports" section enables you to generate detailed summaries of all your affiliate campaigns or view a quick summary of your account's overall activity.
2. How often are my stats updated?

Each merchant's stats are updated at various frequencies, depending when the client provides them to Income Access. At minimum, your affiliate stats for each merchant are updated at lease once a day.
3. How do I know how much I am owed by each merchant?

Log into your Income Access affiliate account and select "Reports". On the reports menu you will find a Payment Report. The Payment Report is a statement summary of commissions earned and bonuses issued during a specified date range for a specific merchant. This report will only populate once a merchant has generated payments. Mid month check the quick summary report (or any number of others). Any bonuses for an affiliate will only show in the payment report. If the total commission earned does not meet the payment threshold for the merchant then the commissions will be rolled over. If the threshold has been made the payment becomes due to be paid.
4. How and when do I get paid?

You will be paid on a monthly basis by each individual merchant in the Income Access Network once you reach the minimum payment threshold for the merchant. This payment minimum and associated currency (USD, CAD, GBP & EUR) generally vary between merchants. Our merchants offer a variety of payment methods, including cheque, bank draft, wire, Moneybookers, Neteller, and the Income Prepaid Card.

Each Income Access merchant has its own monthly payment schedule, payment minimum and payment methods. To find out the specifics about each of our merchants, visit our Merchants section.
5. How do I use my Income Access Prepaid Card?

First, login to your account. Then click on "Affiliate Payment Preferences" in the left hand side navigation and select the Income Access Prepaid Card as your payment option. Once you have earned $100 in revenues, you receive your Income Access Prepaid Card in the mail with further instruction on how to activate it. For more information about this payment option, click HERE

6. Consolidated Payments

1. What is "consolidated payments"?

Consolidated Payments is our way of simplifying financial transactions for affiliates. Before December 1st, 2008, affiliates would receive a separate payment for each merchant partner, but only as long as they reached each individual merchant’s threshold. These transactions could be received by different methods for different merchants.

Now Income Access combines all merchant payments into one simple sum per affiliate. This will be paid by one selected payment method. As long as the monthly sum reaches the threshold for that payment method, the affiliate will be paid.
2. By whom do I get paid?

Affiliates receive one payment a month from Income Access
3. When do I get paid and how often?

Affiliates get paid on the 10^th calendar day of each month, as long as their combined commission exceeds their payment threshold.

4. How do I get paid?

Affiliates choose just one method of payment.

The consolidated threshold depends on the payment method chosen (see below).

Payment method	Available currencies	Threshold
Wire Transfer	USD, GBP, EUR, CAD	$ 500.00
Cheque	USD, GBP, CAD	$ 60.00
Intercash	USD (may add EUR, GBP)	$ 100.00
Moneybookers	USD, GBP, EUR, AUD	$ 60.00

5. What happens if I do not reach the threshold for that month?

As before, the affiliate commission will be rolled-over to the next month until your balance reaches the threshold. But with consolidated payments, it is now even easier to generate enough commission to generate a payment.
6. When will consolidated payments come into effect?

It’s already up and running. Any commission as of December 1^st or residual commission prior to December 1^st 2008 will be consolidated into one payment.

7. Affiliate Marketing Software

1. How fast can we integrate?

Integration generally takes four weeks. Income Access works with each individual client to collect all the necessary information and to set an integration timeframe. As a result, integration time has a lot to do with how quickly the client provides Income Access with all the necessary resources. Once Income Access has all the information, it generally takes two weeks.
2. What gaming software providers do you work with?
The Income Access software integrates quickly with any gaming platform. We've already worked with the following providers:
1. Microgaming/Prima
2. Playtech/iPoker
3. Chartwell
4. OnGame
5. 888
6. Vutech
7. Entraction
8. Boss Media
9. Finsoft
10. Merge
3. What does this all cost?

The cost is arranged on a case by case basis, after a thorough examination of our partner's needs, including the complexity of the data. Income Access promises its partners that there will never be any hidden costs; just one defined fee or percentage upfront.
4. How often does the software get upgraded?

The software is updated regularly, generally every month. Our team of software specialists are always on the lookout for new and engaging ways to enhance the product. Income Access is a relationship based brand, and many of our upgrades come as a direct result of customer feedback. Income Access conducts regular surveys, and our team is in constant contact with our affiliates as well as our clients.
5. Do I need to pay for these upgrades?

No. The software upgrades are absolutely free, and are available to all of our clients. Income Access will give clients training on new features, at no extra cost. Income Access values the partnership with our clients, and we want them to have the best quality product.
6. I already have an existing affiliate program how easy is it to migrate?

Migrating to the Income Access Network is easy. Virtually any data that you need to see in your reports can be easily accommodated. Income access works with you to assess the needs and then sets the detail level of data reported to the affiliate system (such as raked hands, player usernames, bonus dollars, bonus codes, number of bets, and loyalty points).
7. What commission structures do you support?
The Income Access can set up virtually any commission structure, including (but not limited to):
1. Flat or tiered % revenue share
2. Flat or tiered CPA
3. Hybrid arrangements (combination of CPA and revenue share)
4. Up to five levels of sub-affiliate referral tiers
5. Use two different revenue share commission structures at once, with different commission bases (e.g. net revenue and wagers).
With the Income Access software, you can place individual affiliates on special bonus commission rates, offering either an ongoing increase or decrease, or a one-time performance bonus.
8. Do you support multiple languages?

Yes. Income Access was the first software provider of its type to offer multiple language strings, and it has always been included free of charge. The client can use existing templates, and can manually make changes (e.g. using company lingo) or can supply Income Access with their own language of choice.
9. When I work with IA do I get the whole software or am I purchasing modules?

When you sign up with Income Access, you get the entire software and all its modules. However, the software can be set up based on the user's preferences - for example, unwanted features can be turned off with the option to activate them again at a later date through the interface itself.

8. SEM Agency

1. What is PPC?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click, and is an Online advertising process used on search engines, advertising networks and content websites, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an advertisement to visit the advertiser's website. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. When a user types a keyword query matching an advertiser's keyword list, or views a webpage with relevant content, the advertisements may be displayed. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to or above the "natural" or organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a webmaster or blogger chooses on a content page.

Minimum prices per click, often referred to as costs per click (CPC), vary depending on the search engine and the level of competition for a particular phrase or keyword list.
2. What is Adwords?

Google Adwords connects internet users who are looking for products and services to advertisers promoting those products. The key to success is relevant product placement – i.e.: Making sure your product is on display in the right place at the right time. By placing targeted ads alongside either Google search results, or relevant articles, your content is targeted.
3. How does Adwords work?

Adwords operates on a pay-per-click basis. That means you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. As a result, Adwords is both an efficient and cost-effective way of acquiring new customers.
4. Can I get Income Access to manage my PPC campaigns for me?

Yes. Income Access is also a full service SEM agency and can provide you with an Adwords certified account manager to setup and manage your entire PPC marketing channel. By working with the Income Access team, you will receive a customized campaign developed exclusively for your individual business objectives.
5. What is affiliate custom tracking and how does it work?

Affiliate custom tracking allows affiliates to add an additional variable (a keyword) to their tracking URLs, that the software will then pass to the merchant in an agreed upon fashion and is then tracked and returned in the standard files and displayed in reports.

This tracking feature allows you to append the keywords used in your campaigns to your Income Access tracking links. Once you do this you can view in your reports not only your associated traffic stats but individual player stats as well.
6. What is Google certification?

Income Access is proud to have met Google’s testing and requirements to gain recognition as a Qualified Google Adwords Professional. This certification demonstrates that Income Access and its staff members have the knowledge and experience to manage Google Adwords accounts of any size and complexity.