TenStep, Inc. Affiliate Program Details

Benefits to You - The Details and Disclosures

For instance, let's say that you are affiliate A. You set up links to our websites to refer visitors to us. In addition, you place a link on your website to invite others to sign-up as TenStep affiliates as well. Through this link on your website, two more affiliates sign up - Affiliates B and C. These affiliates then place banners and hyperlinks on their website and refer traffic to our websites as well. This two-tier process can work for everyone. To further illustrate the example, let's say Affiliate B also likes the TenStep affiliate program and includes a hyperlink for others to sign-up as affiliates. Another affiliate, Affiliate D, signs up through Affiliate B.

The simple affiliate network looks like this.

  • Affiliates A, B, C and D are all Tier 1

  • Affiliate A is also a Tier 2 affiliate for Affiliate B and C

  • Affiliate B is also a Tier 2 affiliate for Affiliate D

Now let's say some sales are made. Here is how the commissions would work.

Referring Affiliate

Total Sale

Commission Paid

Explanation

Affiliate A

$100

$30 to Affiliate A

30% to the first tier Affiliate A

Affiliate B

$500

$150 to Affiliate B
$45 to Affiliate A

30% to the first tier Affiliate B and 9% to the second tier Affiliate A

Affiliate C

$100

$30 to Affiliate C
$9 to Affiliate A

30% to the first tier Affiliate C and 9% to the second tier Affiliate A

Affiliate D

$200

$60 to Affiliate D
$18 to Affiliate B

30% to the first tier Affiliate Dand 9% to the second tier Affiliate B. (None to Affiliate A, since the program only allows two tiers.)

Disclaimers: We want to be honest and up-front about the TenStep, Inc. affiliate program. Please note these two limitations.

  1. Disclaimer #1. The MyReferer affiliate software has an interface to our shopping cart, so any sale made through the TenStep, Inc. shopping cart is tracked. Almost all of our sales come through our shopping cart. This includes student licenses, individual licenses, consultant licenses, books, SupportStep licenses, etc. However, company licenses to the TenStep Project Management Process, TenStep PB (PMBOK Framework), LifecycleStep Project Lifecycle Process, PMOStep Project Management Office Framework, and PortfolioStep Portfolio Management Framework are not purchased through our shopping cart, so they are not tracked for affiliate sales. We do not have a shopping cart option for these sales since each sale is customized for the specific company making the request. In addition, most of these sales are paid for by company check and not through a shopping cart. It is possible that we may make a company license sale to someone that finds us through your affiliate reference. Unfortunately, we have no way to tie this sale back to the affiliate. If an affiliate is able to somehow detect these referrals and sends us prior notice, we would be happy to pay the normal affiliate commission. However, if that does not happen, we will not be able to pay commissions on these categories of sales.

The following table describes the products included in the affiliate commission structure and those that are not included:

Product Inclusion and Exclusion Table

Included in Affiliate Commission Program

Excluded from Affiliate Commission Program

  • TenStep individual license

  • TenStep consultant license

  • TenStep PB student license

  • TenStep PB individual license

  • TenStep PB consultant license

  • LifecycleStep individual license

  • LifecycleStep consultant license

  • TenStep Store products (Generally, all products in The TenStep Store not listed in exclusion column) including:

    • Electronic Project Office Version 5.0*

    • Employee Manual Template

    • Forty-one Templates for Human Resources and People Management

    • Thirty-Six (36) Project Management Templates*

    • Thirty-Five (35) HIPAA Templates

    • Ulitmate Project Managers Toolkit

    • Management Template Kits*

    • Lessons in Project Management book

    • Lessons in Project Management eBook

    • The IT Manager Development Series*

    • TenStep Project Management Process eBook

    • LifecycleStep Project Lifecycle Process eBook

    • Introductory Project Management Guide*

    • IT Management Models*

    • Online, Hypertexted PMBOK® Third Edition 

    • 52 Weekly Project Management Emails Messages

    • Project Kickstart Software Package*

    • More...

* - These are third-party products. Commissions are calculated based on TenStep, Inc. revenue - not total revenue. See Disclaimer #2 below.

The following products are not purchased through the TenStep, Inc. shopping cart and cannot be tracked as a part of the affiliate program.

  • TenStep, TenStep PB, LifecycleStep, PMOStep and PortfolioStep company licenses

  • Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet (from The TenStep Store)

  • Complete PMP® Prep Class Material for Instructors

  • WhiteCloud Total Project Management Solution

The following miscellaneous sales are not a part of the affiliate program.

  • Services (classes, consulting, etc.)

  • License renewal fees

 

  1. Disclaimer #2. Almost all of the products sold on our websites are the property of TenStep, Inc, and we will share revenue with affiliates based on the full purchase price. The TenStep Store, however, contains some exceptions. We are trying to make The TenStep Store as diverse a marketplace as possible by including many third-party products. Of course, when we sell third party products, we pay a fee to the original owner of the product. Therefore, the commission structure for these third-party products is based on the TenStep revenue, not the total price.

For instance, let's say we have a third-party product in The TenStep Store that sells for $100. Our arrangement with the owner may be to pay them $60 for each sale. Therefore, if you refer a visitor that purchases this product, the first tier commission would be based on the TenStep revenue of $40. The actual commission will be $12.00 for a tier one affiliate (30% of $40.00) and $3.60 for a tier two affiliate (9% of $40.00). (We typically receive at least 40% from all third-party sales, and this revenue is what would be shared with the affiliates for referral sales.)

How the Program Works - Details

  1. You read and agree to the TenStep affiliate terms and conditions.

  2. You sign up to be a TenStep, Inc. affiliate by clicking on this hyperlink http://www.myreferer.com/mydb/signup.myreferer?M=tenstep and filling out the one page sign-up form. Please note that this form needs to be fully completed. If we do not have your name and address, we cannot make payments to you. If we do not have your email address, we cannot contact you. If we do not have your website URL, we cannot validate your affiliate status.

  3. Your approval as a TenStep, Inc. affiliate is not automatic. We need to review and approve the affiliate request. Usually this just means that we will review your website to make sure it is valid and appropriate for an affiliate. If we have questions, we will email you and we will need you to respond. Normally, we will approve affiliate requests within one business day, unless we have questions or need more information.

  4. Once we approve you as an affiliate, you will receive an email welcoming you as a TenStep, Inc. affiliate.

  5. You will also receive a link to a customized affiliate webpage with "stats" for you. You can login using the username and password that you established in the registration process (step 1 above). On the stats webpage, you can run reports to determine your traffic, sales, commissions, etc. (Note that the commissions are approximate, since the commissions for some products in the TenStep Store have to be calculated manually.)

  6. Also in the affiliate stats page, you will see an option called "Get Links".  This is where you will get the hyperlinks and graphics to place on your website to direct traffic to us. You need to copy and paste one or more of these hyperlinks and graphics onto your website to refer traffic to us.

  7. Along with our graphics and hyperlinks, feel free to add any other comments regarding our products. You can add testimonials, product descriptions, etc. Remember that you are trying to get a visitor on your website to link over to our website - hopefully to make a purchase!

  8. The person that you refer to us gets a cookie added to their machine. If they purchase something from us, the affiliate software checks the cookie and knows that the referral came from you. Using the cookie is how the referral software knows a sale came from you - even if the person you refer buys something months in the future. If a visitor makes a purchase on any of our websites, you make money. This is true even if you refer the visitor to one of our websites, but the person ends up purchasing something from a different website of ours. The commission is based on the use of our common shopping cart - not the specific website that the purchase came from.

  9. The person that you refer to us may also sign up to become an affiliate. Again, the affiliate software knows that the person came from you through the cookie, and automatically assigns you as the Tier 2 affiliate.

  10. You can use the affiliate stats webpage to see your referrals and track your sales.

  11. We will pay commissions on a quarterly basis, by January 31, April 30, July 31 and October 31 for the prior quarter.