Trader Program: How to make referral links

Making referral links is the first thing you need to learn to be successful with the Broker Associate program. Once you’ve got this down you can concentrate on the most important part…putting useful links where people will click on them…a lot!

On every page!

At the bottom of every (well nearly every) page you will find links to that page with your trader account code ready to use! Just copy and paste to your website or email.

Anatomy of a referral link

This is a LINK. Also called a hyperlink. Using HTML we hyperlink to a specific URL ADDRESS.
http://cotradeco.com/ is a URL.

<a href="http://cotradeco.com/">link</a> is the HTML that makes a URL a LINK.

You can pass extra information to a URL by adding a question mark at the end like this:

http://cotradeco.com/?extra_information_goes_here

And that is how your referral code works with the CoTradeCo with the Trader Program!
http://cotradeco.com/?trader_ref=traderdan

When someone clicks that link we know that traderdan sent that visitor to us
and if that visitor orders we pay Trader Dan his commission.

Types of referral links

Basic text links

This is the most common form of referral link.
Use this in an ad block like Google AdWords or inline elsewhere on the site. If you understand this you can make a link to ANY page at CoTradeCo and still get your referral.

Example: Linking to the Pelican 0450 tool case

Example: Linking to a community blog post

You don’t have to link to a product to get the lead, though it is the most direct way to build sales ;)
If there is an article you want to link to at CoTradeCo that you think your visitors would be interested in just add your referral code the same way, and if they comment on the post they become your lead and will get paid even if they order 3 months from then. This is our way for rewarding your participation in the CoTradeCo community.

Image links

Sometimes you need that visual punch to get them to click. So the easiest way is to use the thumbnail image of a product and link that.

Example: Linking to the Witz Personal Watertight First Aid Kit

This code	<a href="http://cotradeco.com/products/1132-witz-first-aid-kit?trader_ref=traderdan"><img src="http://cotradeco.com/uploads/images/products/0002/0100/witz_1_thumb.jpg" alt="Witz First Aid Kit" /></a>
Does this

Example: Linking to the UCO Candle Lantern

This code	<a href="http://cotradeco.com/products/747-uco-candle-lantern-original?trader_ref=traderdan"><img src="http://cotradeco.com/uploads/images/products/0001/6590/candle-lantern-original-all-colors_thumb.jpg" alt="UCO Candle Lantern" /></a>
Does this

Putting it all together

Going into how to make complex layouts is beyond the scope of this page. However, we want to make sure you have a basic idea of how you can use a text and image link together.

Example: Basic text and image link

This code	<a href="http://cotradeco.com/products/747-uco-candle-lantern-original?trader_ref=traderdan"><img src="http://cotradeco.com/uploads/images/products/0001/6590/candle-lantern-original-all-colors_thumb.jpg" alt="UCO Candle Lantern" /></a> <br /> <a href="http://cotradeco.com/products/747-uco-candle-lantern-original?trader_ref=traderdan">Cool lantern</a>
Does this	Cool lantern

CoTradeCo will help

If you are a broker or manufacturers rep and have been running a web business for a while this is all probably pretty basic to you. But if you are new to HTML or operating a website, or even if you have been blogging for a while but never got beyond the basic templates we are here to help.

Once you are setup as an Broker Associate we will be happy to look at your website and make some custom templates that you can use to make your affiliate links/ads fit right into your layout.

Just contact zoe for help!

The links shown on this page are only examples. Make sure you use your own referral code.
DO NOT USE THESE LINKS or you won’t get credit for your referrals.

NOTE: Dealers may use referral links, but referrals pay commission at the Broker Associate rate since we must handle the customer service and shipping costs. Many sales reps and dealers operating a retail store front find referring some traffic directly to CoTradeCo is easier than operating an online store.