Multi-level Marketing

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Programs > Edit > Multi level marketing
1. What is Multi-level marketing?
Multi-level marketing (MLM), also known as network marketing or referral marketing, is a well-known and promising strategy to make it easier to sell goods and services by encouraging existing employees or affiliates to recruit new affiliates. As a result, your business could reach out to more potential clients via a variety of channels and advertising campaigns.
MLM Model
The fundamental of Multi-level marketing is represented by a pyramid, in which each affiliate asks another affiliate to join his or her affiliate network system as a downline level. The more people who are invited, the more products or services will be able to reach out to their target market.
The affiliate in the pyramid network is not only paid for the sales he/she generates, but also for a share of the sales revenue made by their downline affiliates which is called network commission. Therefore, people in MLM network would be incentivized to recruit more affiliates under them instead of just directly selling products to customers.
Note: The network commission that upline affiliates receive will be provided separately, not deducted from the commission of the downline affiliate.
2. How to set up MLM?
To set up MLM for your programs, go to Programs tab > locate the program you want to set up and click Edit > Multi level marketing and turn on the Enable button. You can activate/deactivate the MLM and set MLM rule for each program separately.
Note: When a new program is added, its MLM status is turned off by default. Please go to Multi level marketing section in each program to activate the feature.
In addition, to incentivize affiliates on bringing other affiliates, we have the option for you to add the recruitment bonus. The reward will then be added as a new conversion in the Conversions tab after the recruited affiliate is approved.
Network commission can be set in flat rate or percentage:
If it is in percentage, you can choose to calculate it based on the total orders amount or commission of the affiliate that brings order. 
If it is in flat rate, the amount is fixed in dollars. 
If you want to have a further look at how network commission is calculated, go to the next section.
Merchant can set a maximum MLM levels of 20. In case the relationship level is more than the level that has been set, affiliates with the furthest distance from the original one will not receive network commission.
For example, if merchant sets 5 levels of MLM, upline affiliates who are in commission level 6 onwards will not get network commission.
Plus, to see how the MLM works in action, take a look at the Live example.
Once you are done with MLM settings, remember to click Save.
3. How network commission is calculated?
The type of each affiliate's network commission can be set separately, in percentage or flat rate. In terms of flat rate, it would be a fixed amount in dollars that upline affiliates receive whenever their downline ones bring sales. 
For percentage, you can choose to whether calculate network commission based on program commission or total sale. If you select program commission, network commission will be the percentage of commission of the affiliate who directly brought the sales. If you select total sale, network commission will be the percentage of total orders amount.
For example:
Affiliate 1 signed up the program as an affiliate. Then he invited Affiliate 2, Affiliate 2 invited Affiliate 3 and Affiliate 3 invited Affiliate 4. 
After that, Affiliate 4 brings a order with total amount of 100$. Assume that program commission is 10% so Affiliate 4's commission will be: 10% x 100$ = 10$.
Assume that other upline affiliates will get network commission as below:
Affiliate 3 (who invites Partner 4) gets 5% (commission level 1)
Affiliate 2 (who invites Partner 3) gets 4% (commission level 2)
Affiliate 1 (who invites Partner 2) gets 3% (commission level 3)
a. When you select to calculate network commission on Program commission:
Their commissions will be calculated as follows:
b. When you select to calculate network commission on Total sale:
Their commissions will be calculated as follows:
4. How affiliates invite others?
After the MLM feature is enabled, each affiliate will have a network link in their dashboard to recommend others to join the network. 
When other people click on this network link and sign up as a new affiliate, they will be considered as a downline affiliate with one lower level than the link owner. 
Plus, downline affiliates' performance will be updated on both merchant and upline affiliates page.
5. Set Parent for an existing affiliate 
One affiliate can be connected to other by merchant. If you wish to set upline affiliates for an existing affiliate, go to Affiliates tab > click on affiliate name > Network section > Set Parent.
Now, you can fill in the affiliate name or email to search for affiliates. When you finish choosing, click Save.
There is a limit of one upline affiliate for each affiliate. Additionally, the merchant cannot make a current downline affiliate to be an upline affiliate.
6. How MLM is displayed?
If a conversion is placed thanks to an affiliate in the MLM network, the order commission for that original affiliate as well as the network commission for the upline affiliates will be shown in the Conversions section. The network commission amount is indicated by a short note with a “+” below the original affiliate commission.
By clicking the Explanation button in Actions column > Network Explanation, the merchant can view MLM commission details, including commissions for associated affiliates and their level.
In Payouts tab, figures are presented by affiliates' total commissions (a sum of program commission and network commission). So, you may click the Details button in the Actions column to see their detailed earnings, including program commission (Conversion) and network commission (Network).
Each affiliate can also keep track of how much money they've made. In the Network tab of the Affiliate account, they can examine their downline affiliates' performance and network commission to see if their team is bringing them any interest.