First Steps:

VMA is installable via a simple installation script. It automatically installs VMA with no hassle. The installation process creates VMA's backend and frontend:

- A new menu in VirtueMart's administration menubar, called Affiliate Administration which allows access to all of the affiliate program's parameters, logs, configuration, banners, etc. All of the affiliate program's behaviour is manageable from there.

- A new menu in the Main Menu module of Joomla!, called Affiliate Program. Immediately after installation, this menu link can be moved wherever suits better.

- The shop administrator may configure VMA the way it suits his/her needs.

- It's ready to go.

How does it work:

- A user visits your site, and is interested in your affiliate program;

- He clicks on the Affiliate Program link, and is greeted with a login page to the affiliate program, and also a link for registration, and information about what your affiliate program can offer;

- He reads the affiliate program's benefits and rules, and he signs up for it;

- He gets access to the Affiliate Panel, where amongst being able to change profile settings, preferences, check logs, etc., he gets access to automatically generated links to specific VirtueMart products, categories, or Banners & Text Ads the administrator might have created. These links contain their unique affiliate ID.

- He just clicks into the corresponding box which contains the HTML code for the ad/link which contains his affiliate ID. Upon clicking, the field's content is automatically selected, and he can just right click and copy the code, and paste it somewhere in his website.

- A user visits HIS website. He clicks on the link which leads him to YOUR website.

- VMA detects the affiliate's ID in the URL, and automatically credits the visit to that affiliate, and creates a tracking cookie in the visitor's browser. The time the cookie will last can be set in VMA's configuration.

- The referred visitor may purchase something now, or may return whenever (as long as the cookie lasts; default lifetime is one year) and purchase one or more items.

- Upon finalizing the order, VMA detects the referral cookie, and automatically assigns that order to the affiliate. But he is not yet credited for it.

- When the order is marked as Confirmed in VirtueMart (either by an IPN script or by manual approving of the order by the administrator) commission is given to the affiliate. The final status of the order, when VMA should give commission to the affiliate, can be set in the Configuration.