Frequently Asked Questions
Remember you can always contact
us if you don't find your answers here!
General Information About Sideshow Collectibles
Who is Sideshow Collectibles?
Sideshow Collectibles is a specialty manufacturer of licensed and proprietary collectible
products. We reflect a passion towards creating unique, highly sought after figure
collectibles, as well as film prop replicas and fine art collectibles. Sideshow
specializes in high end collectibles from well known film, television, comic & gaming
properties.
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What is a Sideshow Exclusive Product, and why should I care?
A Sideshow Exclusive product is a limited edition product that is only available
for purchase through the Sideshow Collectibles website. These product editions will
not typically be sold through international distributors, domestic distributors
or retail stores. Most Sideshow Exclusives come with an extra accessory or outfit
that is not included in the regular product version, and thus are more sought after
by collectors. Sideshow Affiliates are able to refer sales for all available Sideshow
Exclusive products. Affiliates may also refer sales for our regular version of products,
but our exclusive products provide a unique opportunity for you to offer something
special to your web audience.
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What is a Pre-Ordered Item, and why should I care?
Sideshow Collectibles accepts "Pre-Orders" for our collectibles many weeks or months
in advance of each product's actual release into the market. This Pre-Order acts
as a reservation for the product. The Sideshow Collectibles Pre-Order Policy states
that the customer's credit card is not billed for the item until it is shipping
to him/her. Affiliates will only receive payment for referred sales at the time
of shipment. Your commission for any referred Pre-Order sale will be 'reserved'
on a Pending status until that sale has been shipped or cancelled.
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General Information Regarding our Affiliate Program
Does it cost anything to be an Affiliate?
Nope! Being a Sideshow Collectibles Affiliate is 100% free of cost to you. We also
offer a free Product Datafeed to Affiliates.
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Do you pay Affiliates for referred clicks or leads?
No. At present, we only pay commission for referred, completed sales.
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Can I join your program if I live outside the U.S.?
Most definitely! A large number of our current Affiliates are from outside the U.S.
Please note that we pay our affiliates in US Dollars only.
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Does my website meet your requirements?
In order for your website to be eligible, it must accord to the following:
- Be content-based and not just a list or referrer of links.
- Receive a minimum of 3,000 unique page views a month.
- Be an active website.
Your website must NOT:
- Promote sexually explicit materials.
- Promote violence.
- Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual
orientation, or age.
- Promote illegal substances or activities.
- Violate personal rights, intellectual property rights, or copyrights.
NOTE: If your website is under construction, we will be happy to approve your application
after viewing some of your test pages and speaking to you about your goals. Just
drop us a line at:
affiliateinfo@sideshowcollectibles.com
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I do not have a website, can I still join your Affiliate
Program?
Please contact our Affiliate
Manager. We are more than happy to discuss your ideas for using our Affiliate links:
affiliateinfo@sideshowcollectibles.com
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My website is non-profit. Can I join the Sideshow Affiliate
Program?
Sure you can! If an Affiliate website is non-profit, any commission accrued can
be used toward your website expenses, or other related purposes. We can also make
arrangements for your Affiliate payments to be sent to an organization of your choosing,
as long as the organization does not:
- Promote sexually explicit activities.
- Promote violence.
- Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual
orientation, or age.
- Promote illegal substances or activities.
- Violate personal rights, intellectual property rights, or copyrights.
If you would like your payments to be sent to another organization, we will need
their Tax ID number in advance of the first payment.
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How much money can I earn?
Some of our Affiliates make thousands of dollars each month! Our best Affiliates
have high traffic sites with a targeted audience, but even small sites can earn
enough cash to cover website costs. The more active you are in the program, the
more commission you can earn. We're willing to work with each Affiliate to maximize
the potential of our program on your site.
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How can I get Support from your Affiliate Team?
First, we offer our Affiliates an online Help Menu, FAQs and a "Getting Started"
guide. We also love talking to our Affiliates, and you can call the Affiliate Team
between 8 A.M. and 2 P.M. P.S.T., Monday through Friday. We're available via email,
which is usually the easiest and most expedient way to get a response. Please use
the following contact information for your support needs.
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Signing Up
How do I sign up?
Potential Affiliates may sign up for our program by visiting the following URL and
filling out an applicaton: http://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Affiliates/
Additional program information and a link to our Operating Agreement can also be
found on this page as well.
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I do not live in the U.S.. What do I need to know before applying?
International applicants may apply for our program, and do not need to provide a
Social Security number or Tax ID number. We pay all Affiliates in U.S. dollars via
check, or International Affiliates may choose to receive payment via PayPal.
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How long does it take to be accepted or declined?
We review new applications each weekday. If your application is approved, you will
receive an approval email no more than 48 hours after your application submission,
unless you submit on Friday evening (P.S.T.). If your application is rejected, you
will receive a rejection email within the same time frame. If your website is under
construction, or if we have questions before approving your application, we will
be in touch within 48 hours after your application is submitted. We will not keep
applications pending for longer than two weeks. PLEASE BE CERTAIN TO USE AN ACTIVE
EMAIL ADDRESS ON YOUR APPLICATION, and it will help to add our email address to
your Address Book: affiliateinfo@sideshowcollectibles.com.
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How does Sideshow qualify applicants in order to prevent fraud
in the program?
Although it is impossible to guarantee a 100% fraud-free system, we pride ourselves
in making every effort to maintain a clean program. Among other things, our application
requires accurate personal contact
information for each applicant. We verify applications using WHOIS and other online
resources before approving any application. In addition, our software includes tools
to spot suspicious behavior by Affiliates. The Sideshow Affiliate Team is dedicated
to running a fair program for all of our members.
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I have multiple websites. Do I need to fill out an application
for each site?
If you need separate tax records for your sites, it is best to fill out separate
applications for each of your websites. If tax records are not an concern for you,
you may list up to three websites on one application. We prefer that you list the
websites that will be most active in our program if you have more than three URLs
to provide. You do not need to fill out another application if you have more than
three URLs to list, but we appreciate a courtesy email to inform us of the other
websites where our banners and links will be posted.
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Where would I log into my account?
Once you have been approved for our program, you can log in to your Affiliate account
here:
http://affiliates.sideshowtoy.com/Affiliates/
Just log in with your Username and your pre-selected Password. You will find convenient
links to this page in the left menu and footer of our main website, www.SideshowCollectibles.com.
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Commission and Payments
How often do you pay Affiliates?
We calculate all affiliate payments at the end of each month (or payment period),
and send payments up to 31 days after the close of each payment period. If your
earned commission is less than $50 at the close of any payment period, we will hold
payment until your total amount due is at least $50. You also have the option of
changing your Payment Threshold within your Account Details. You may select to raise
your threshold if you'd like to receive larger payments Some International affiliates
may prefer this to save on Bank Fees. International Affiliates may also opt to receive
payments via PayPal.
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What is the difference between a "Pending" and "Completed"
commission?
A "Pending" commission is a commission that has not been paid to you yet, because
your referred sale has not been shipped. A "Completed" commission is a commission
that is ready to be, or has been paid, because the referred sale has been shipped
from our warehouses. We will only pay commission when each item has been shipped.
Sideshow's Shipping Policy states that we will ship products from the same order
at separate times if the products are not in stock at the same time. Please read
our section on "Pre-Orders" for more information regarding Pending commission.
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Can I use my commission towards Sideshow Purchases?
We do not accept commission as credit towards our merchandise at this time.
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Which Products are eligible for Affiliate Referrals?
Nearly all of our inventory is eligible for Affiliate Referred Sales. As a rule
of thumb, if you can't find the item in our Affiliate Program, it does not offer
a commission. Please take note of the following exceptions:
- 0% Commission for Sideshow Apparel
- 0% Commission on Sales in which a Sideshow Gift Card was redeemed
- 0% Commission on Sales in which a Coupon Code with a value of greater than $15.00
was used
- $100.00 Flat Commission Fee for all items priced $1450.0 and higher
- 0% Commission for all products within our Star Wars 12-inch Figure license, including
12-inch figures, Figure Accessory Packs & Figure Environments.
- 5% Commission of the Discounted Price for any sale in which Sideshow Rewards Points
are redeemed. Ex. If a customer redeems $25.00 of Sideshow Rewards Points on a $100.00
item, Affiliates earn 5% commission on $75.00
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Tracking Clicks and Sales
How do you track my Affiliate activity?
Our Affiliate Software generates both JavaScript & HTML code for Product and Banner
links to Sideshowcollectibles.com. You, the affiliate, can select which type of
code to use. Each time an end user clicks on your links, the unique code places
a cookie in their browser. This cookie is recognized by our system, and signals
our Affiliate software to credit your account for any clicks or purchases a customer
makes for up to 90 days, even if the customer visits our site directly at a later
date.
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What is a Unique Click?
Our Affiliate software tracks your website traffic to SideshowCollectibles.com,
and can distinguish between visitors who click on your Sideshow links once, and
those who click on your links more than once. Clicks are tracked according to their
unique IP addresses, like online fingerprints, and Unique Clicks are counted only
once, no matter how many times that particular user clicks on your links. Sideshow's
Affiliate software tracks 'clicks' in most areas of our reporting. We track 'unique
clicks' when calculating EPC (Earned per Click) averages.
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What is Cookie Retention? Why does Sideshow's Affiliate
Program offer a 90 Day Cookie Retention?
Cookie Retention refers to the amount of time our unique Affiliate cookie will remain
in an end user's web browser. Sideshow's Affiliate cookies are designed to remain
in a browser for 90 days. Any time within the 90 days that your referred customer
returns to shop at SideshowCollectibles.com, you will receive commission on all
eligible purchases he/she makes. We offer the 90-day cookie retention as an incentive
for our Affiliate to join the program and earn commission! Please note that your
cookie can be removed from an end user's browser via the following circumstances:
- Manual deletion
- The end user clicks on another Sideshow Affiliate link
- The end user has implemented browser settings or add-ons that prevent 3rd party
tracking
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How will I know if I referred any sales?
Your account, by default, will send an email notification every time you refer a
sale. You can also keep track of your sales by using our Affiliate Statistics reports,
available once you have logged into your account. You can choose to update your
Sale Notification email settings once you have an active account.
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If someone clicks on my link to a particular page, then
makes a purchase from another page, do I still get credit for the sale?
Yes, you will get credit for referring any qualifying sale at SideshowCollectibles.com,
regardless of which affiliate link was used.
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Miscellaneous
I run a high traffic, successful website. Can you provide me
with additional time-saving support?
Of course we can! Just get in touch with us to discuss your needs, and we will create
a plan that works for your schedule.
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Your stuff is cool. Can I use it for Web Promotions?
If you are an actively earning Affiliate, we are happy to support you by offering
promotional items for a giveaway or review on your website. Your web promotions
should be designed to increase your website's traffic and referred sales. Send us
a request, and we will put our heads together to come up with some creative ideas.
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Tell me more about the typical Sideshow Customer/Sale?
Sideshow takes great pride in the supportive community we have built around our
products and company. We enjoy a dedicated customer base, and many customers purchase
several collectibles each year. Our products are high-end collectible items, and
our average sale value is just over $200.00. Please refer to our Operating Agreement
for complete details regarding our Commission Structure.
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Can I buy products through my own links?
If you are an active affiliate referring sales from a variety of customers, you
may purchase our products through your own affiliate links. You may not use our
affiliate links for the sole purpose of purchasing your own collectibles. You may
not purchase products through your own links for resale or commercial use of any
kind. At our sole discretion, Sideshow Inc. will determine if an affiliate is abusing
this agreement, and reserves the right to charge back and/or disallow any and all
commission to the affiliate. Additionally, this activity may result in the termination
of this agreement.
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What size banners to you offer?
Our current banner sizes are as follows:
- 468x60 (GIF)
- 234x60 (GIF)
- 100x130 (GIF)
- 130x200 (GIF)
- 145x120 (GIF)
- 120x90 (GIF)
- 120x120 (GIF)
- 300x150 (GIF)
- 600x400 (JPEG)
- 120x600 (GIF)
- 160x600 (JPEG)
- 728x90 (JPEG)
- 300x250 (JPEG)
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Do you offer flash banners?
Flash banners are not yet available from Sideshow, but we hope to make them available
soon.
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Can I use product images from your site to promote your company?
We provide our Affiliates with a wide selection of product-specific banners, in
many different sizes. We also provide you with the option to build text links to
our webpages. If you feel that these do not suit your needs, you may choose to download
Branded product images directly from the Sideshow website. Most of our product pages
offer a JPG gallery, and this is where you will find our branded images.
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Can I become a wholesale client?
To become a Wholesale Client you must own a brick and mortar store. If you are interested
in our Wholesale program, Please contact:
linda.carter@sideshowcollectibles.com
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