FAQs

Can I get a discount on an order I would like to place if I become an affiliate?

Absolutely! You can get a great discount on any order you are thinking about placing by becoming an affiliate at CagesUnder500Dollars.com! All you have to do is either demonstrate a banner or link has been in place on your website or Facebook page, chat room page, etc. for at least 120 days in a prominent, relatively high traffic area.  If you can prove the link has been in place for 120 days after you place your order you will get your discount in the form of a rebate!

Does a personal web site qualify for the Affiliate Program at CagesUnder500Dollars.com?
Sure! Anyone can apply for the affiliate program at CagesUnder500Dollars.com – the only thing is, we reserve the right to refuse any web site. Sites that contain objectionable material, such as pornography, explicit language/content, or support violent/discriminatory groups might be regarded as unacceptable for our affiliate program. Sorry! Also, websites that don’t really have any “real” content but consist only of affiliate links and/or banners will generally not be approved, unless they are very professional in appearance and design. 

What happens if a customer clicks another affiliate’s link as well as my link?

If a customer clicks on more than one affiliate link before making a purchase, we always give commission to the affiliate who’s link was last clicked on before the sale was made. 

If I don’t have a website yet, can I still apply to be an affiliate with CagesUnder500Dollars.com?
Sure thing!  We encourage participation from chat room bloggers, Facebook members, etc. You absolutely do not need to have a web site to qualify.  (But please note: affiliate links placed on the CagesUnder500Dollars.com Facebook page or other blogs/ pages created by CagesUnder500Dollars.com or CagesByDesign.com will not count towards your commissions and will be removed).    

How and when do I get paid?
We all love money right! So all affiliates (that’s you) will get paid in the month after we have been paid in full for the order from the customer, and their return policy has expired (which is usually 30 days from the date of order). We get very few returns a year, but we must wait until the return policy expires (30 days) before paying out commissions – sorry!  99% of customers pay in full in advance, but if a customer returns a product for a refund, or if credit card charges are reversed due to credit card fraud or a dispute, we will unfortunately need to cancel that order and you will not be paid commission on it. That being said, if a customer returns a product and it is exchanged for new merchandise, or if a customer’s order is damaged or lost in transit, and we ship replacement parts/merchandise to the customer, you keep all the commission – YAY! Depending on what the customer purchases, a customer may receive their order anywhere from three days to eight weeks from the date they purchased the items. Yes, this means that sometimes you might have to wait a little bit longer before you get your commission check, but look at it like this - the longer the customer has to wait usually means the more custom their order is, and the more custom the purchase, the more expensive the order, which means even MORE money for you!

Can I download logos and graphics from CagesUnder500Dollars.com to my own web site?
Yes, please – download all you want. We also have tons of pre-built banners that we have created for you to use.  We can even put your link in any banner you want if you tell us which one(s) you want, and we’ll then email the final files to you - or feel free to build your own banners and embed your affiliate ID link yourself. But if you do this, remember, if the link is not embedded properly, we will not be able to track your sales and give you lots of moola in commissions! Fine print: We maintain ownership and all trademark rights of links, banners, artwork, and all content and we reserve the right to modify or change the terms of use at any time.  Also, and this is a HUGE NO NO – DO NOT reproduce our copy/content on your or any other web site. If Google sees this, they will assess duplicate content penalties.  You must write and publish on your site / blog / Facebook page, your own original copy whenever advertising for our web site.

Can I download and use copy or content from CagesUnder500Dollars.com’s web site?

As we said earlier (if you read the previous paragraph) BIG NO NO! No, you can’t!  If Google sees pages that have been copied or duplicated anywhere on the Internet, they penalize all parties involved and give everyone crappy search listings. It will not help you OR US, and they will blacklist your web site and banish it if they find out.  Not only that, it is considered plagiarism and considered illegal!  You can, however, use pictures, banners, or any graphics or “pretty” pictures, but under no circumstances EVER may you copy our "content".  Content means: general descriptions and words that we use to describe our products and/or the layout of any of our web pages. Feel free to use our descriptions for guidelines on your own site, but make sure you paraphrase them in your own original words and change the layout of any of your web pages so they are different from ours. It will not only help your search results, but it will avoid anyone being penalized.  If we find ANY pages ANYWHERE where our descriptions/ product information is copied and pasted (even a sentence or a paragraph) we will have no choice but to disable your link and revoke your affiliate membership. That means no more cash for you!

Can I link from more than one web site to CagesUnder500Dollars.com?
Yes. You can link from as many affiliate accounts and as many different web sites, Facebook pages, chat forums, blogs or wherever, as you want even if you have more than one website!  How cool and easy to make money is that!

Are product reviews allowable?
Yeppers, absolutely.  This is also an awesome way to generate traffic and more commissions for you.  If there is a particular product or item that you would like to review on your web site or blog, etc. you may download that image and paste it on your review page and add your affiliate link to it. If you do this though, we just ask that you please don’t modify any images in any way other than resizing them.

What is the most effective way to promote CagesUnder500Dollars.com?
Email, banners, buttons, links! They are all great ways to promote us. And we will even provide any of these so that you can use it on your website.  Text links and 468×60 banners are really the most effective type of links we have found for generating sales, but, it’s always up to you how you choose to promote us. In addition any web sites that you own / run / are a member of, you can promote CagesUnder500Dollars.com or CagesByDesign.com through an opt-in email mailing list, but make sure you are in compliance with all regulations and rules. Spam sucks!

You can also use any copy taken from any of our web sites in an email (without needing to change words or paraphrase any of it as you would if you duplicate this copy and put it on your website, which is a NO NO because of the penalties from Google).  A really effective technique is to put your affiliate link in emails which you would send to your opt-in email lists. And if you include a testimonial or review about very specific products/items/cages/accessories, we find it is an awesome way to increase click-throughs and sales (and commissions to you!)  Be sure to visit our tricks and tips section for some more ideas on how to promote our stuff.
 

Can I personalize or make any changes to the images or banners from CagesUnder500Dollars.com?
We absolutely encourage all our affiliates to get creative when doing reviews, creating advertising and custom banners – but this requires us to approve them in advance.  If you would like help or information or for us to provide some examples of these customized creative links and promotional ideas, please email us your request to custcagescontact@aol.com for consideration. We will evaluate any custom image on a case by case basis as we receive them.

Do you prohibit any kind of advertising?
1. NO SPAM, NO SPAM, NO SPAM! You may not send spam or unsolicited email in any way. Ever! We really hate spam as much as the next person.  Seriously, there should be a desert island where we put people who send spam!  If we find cases of unsolicited or spam email, there will be no leniency.  Any affiliate found in violation of this policy will forfeit any accrued commissions and be immediately removed from the affiliate program (and be put on the list for possible desert island deportation!)

2. You MAY, however, bid on product keywords through pay per click programs such as Google AdWords, Kanoodle, Yahoo Search Marketing, etc., but do this only to drive traffic to your own web site.  We would (of course) love for you to pay to drive traffic to our websites, but unfortunately it is against Google’s conditions and terms to have multiple accounts point to the same website, ie. CagesUnder500Dollars.com. Just to reiterate - you can not EVER use PPC (pay-per-click) ads to drive traffic directly to our web site.

How do you track sales?
MMM tasty cookies! (Not the chocolate-chip kind). We use cookies to confirm and track affiliate sales. Whenever a consumer clicks on any of your banners or links to our website, a (non-yummy) cookie is set on their computer that tracks any sales that result from the original click. Any affiliates who are trying to earn commission from sites that they do not own OR participating in cookie overwriting techniques will be immediately removed from the affiliate program and  forfeit all commissions.

How long does each store’s cookie last?
Each of the tracking cookies (small files stored on the computer of a user that clicks on your affiliate link to our website) – lasts for an unprecedented 365 days! This means if a customer clicks on a link and doesn’t make a sale right away that they will have a cookie containing your affiliate ID on their computer for an entire year! If at any time they come back to the same store within the 365 day time period and make a purchase, you will receive commission for the sale! Yay money! But note: cookies that track click-thru’s from visitors are reset every day, so if a customer on your website clicks on your affiliate link multiple times in one day, it will only count as 1 click in your daily statistics reports.
 

What happens is a customer orders over the phone?
Unfortunately we are unable to reliably track affiliate sales that come in exclusively over the phone. The good news, however, is that since a fair few of our customers place orders online we tend to follow up most of them with a phone call.  And, on the flip side, if a customer places an order online we always call them and try and sell them more product, like accessories, and/or if they make any modifications to their order, you will get paid money (commission) on the total final dollar amount of the order even if it is completed over the phone! (Just as long as the original order was placed online.)  At CagesUnder500Dollars.com, and CagesByDesign.com we feel that our aggressive commission structure makes up for the couple of customers that might place their order directly over the phone versus placing it online.

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