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TMM Insider
2016
APR
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Highlighted Features
Server Move Service

Let us help you move your NATS installation. Too Much Media offers a service to help move your NATS or CARMA installation from one server to another. This service includes transferring files, checking that the database connections work correctly and updating necessary configurations. We will also assist you with testing once the transfer is complete. We provide this service for the fee of $195. To request a server move, please put in a support ticket with us.

Deep Linking

Deep linking within NATS allows either the owner or affiliate to link to a specific page of the specified tour by adding text after the NATS tracking link itself. This feature allows for a more precise redirect of the surfer and can allow your affiliates to take a more active roll at sending traffic to your site by providing links to specific areas of your tour.

Any NATS tracking link can be deep linked by adding text to the end of the NATS link itself. If you have a specific page you would like surfers directed to (eg: tour2.html), you or your affiliates would just add that page to the end of a NATS code link (eg: http://join.example.com/track/MjozOjE/tour2.html).

Additionally, NATS has a special deep link feature which will direct a surfer directly to the join page of the site while going through a track link. This is done by adding "join" to the end of the NATS tracking link (eg: http://join.example.com/track/MjozOjE/join).

For additional information on using deep linking with your NATS tracking links, visit our online documentation here.

Cascade Weights

NATS has many features that can be used creatively to optimize your affiliate program. For example, NATS allows Admins to split traffic between two cascades by using the weight setting. This weight can be modified so that one cascade may show up for a surfer more often than another. The cascade weight can be used in other ways such as setting the order of the cascade on the join form or changing the cascade to one of the special weights: Automatic Cascade, Gateway One Step Cascade, and Hide Cascade.

Cascades can be set to a numeric weight or a special weight.

The cascade weight is set when editing the cascade in the Billers Admin. Here you will have the option to set either a numeric weight or choose from the available special weight settings.

With a numeric weight, you can set the order of the cascades are displayed on the join page. Cascades are ordered by the highest weight at the top to the lowest weight at the bottom. Also, when multiple cascades have the same description, NATS will only display one of the cascades on the join page. Your cascade weight will determine how likely the cascade is to be displayed.

Special weight settings for Cascades set alternative behavior, sending a member through a new cascade process or preventing them from seeing the cascade at all. These special weight settings include:

  • An Automatic Cascade allows surfers to bypass the NATS pre-join page, sending them directly to the first biller in the cascade. Common uses for this feature include automatically sending the member to the first biller in that cascade, or to consolidate the join process into one page rather than two. Information about automatic cascades can be found here.
  • Gateway One Step Cascades let surfers fill out all of their sign up information on one page with your gateway billers, skipping the pre-join form. Read our article on Gateway One Step cascades here.
  • Hide Cascade will remove this cascade as an option on the NATS join page and can only be used by forcing the cascade ID on the join template. This is useful if you want to have your cascade only show up for a specific join template or to automatically submit the join form with a cascade not available on the template. More details on setting up a hidden cascade can be found here.
Adtools in Emails

Would you like to include a list of Adtools when sending Mass emails to your Affiliates? Based upon information like Site, Program and Adtool type, NATS can automatically generate the appropriate Adtool information and include it in the email body being sent out. This gives you the ability to provide more information to your Affiliates without having to create each piece of Adtool information by hand.

To include a list of Adtools in your Mass emails, you would use the {literal}{display_adtools}{/literal} function within your email body. By including the necessary parameters, NATS will automatically include the appropriate Adtool details using the template of the Adtool in question. If you would like to customize the look and feel of the Adtool information within your email, you can include the parameter "data_only=1" when calling display_adtools. This will expose the data for that Adtool to your email body, allowing you to create the specific look and feel that you need. In addition to the template function {literal}{display_adtools}{/literal}, you can also use the {literal}{nats_encode}{/literal} function to output the NATS code for the affiliate the email is being sent to.

For further details on how to use both the {literal}{display_adtools}{/literal} and the {literal}{nats_encode}{/literal} function to display Adtools in your emails, please review our online documentation here.

Newsletter Archive

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