Joomla is a very flexible content management system. Huge number of sites powered by Joomla and using many of it’s extensions.

Meanwhile Zen-Cart has a reputation as a stable, reliable and secure eCommerce system. Developers paying great attention to it’s security and reliability.

Combining two of these system we are able to take advantage of both

Let’s take launching affiliate program as an example of advantages of joining Joomla and Zen-Cart features.

Affiliate program is important form of the business cooperation between vendor and partners  and allows to attract more customers.

There is no such a features provided on standard Zen-Cart package but, same time there are possibilities to integration of third party affiliate programs.

There are couple of affiliate components in Joomla Extension Directory. We’ll discuss two of them: Amigos and wizAffiliates.

Now we need site powered by Joomla v1.5.x with Solid Cart v1.1.1 or higher installed.

Affiliate Program powered by Amigos

Developers of Amigos Affiliate Component offers it in two versions: paid and free. You may download component from developers site.

Install component using Joomla installer.

Now we need setup connection between Solid Cart and Amigos. To achieve it you just need download specific Solid Cart’s plugin (plg_solidcart_amigos-1.0.0-J1.5) , install and enable it. Now you need create menu item for Amigos component (for example in User Menu) and Job Done. Now you have  working affiliate program which tracking Solid Cart orders.

Affiliate Program powered by wizAffiliate

Installation and configuration procedure is quite similar to Amigos.

Visit wizAffiliate website to download component. Installation is fast and simple.

To make Solid Cart a source of commission you need download, install and activate plugin plg_solidcart_wizAffiliates-1.0.0-J1.5 and include it as a source in wizAffiliate control panel.

Now create menu item for wizAffiliate.

That’s all what you need to do. Simple!

Conclusions

So, it seems to be quite easy to run Affiliate Program when Joomla’s and Zen-Cart’s capabilities are put together.  As you can see it’s make things easier and time-saving.