Links and coupons
Give partners a tracked link, a discount code, or both, and understand exactly how a sale gets credited to the right person.
Partners need something to share. TribeNest gives them two things: tracked links that can point at any page of your site, and a personal coupon code they can say out loud on a podcast. Both lead back to the same commission record.
Tracked links
A tracked link is a short web address that sends a visitor to one of your pages and remembers who sent them. Each one carries the partner's code, so you can tell at a glance whose link it is.
Create a link for a partner
- Go to Affiliates then the Affiliates tab.
- Click the partner's row to open their panel.
- Stay on the Links tab.
- Paste the page you want the link to point at into Create tracked link.
- Click Add.
The link appears in the list underneath, with its own short address and a running click count. The copy button puts the destination on your clipboard, and the bin icon removes the link.
Links must point at your own site
A tracked link can only send people to a page on your own site. Anything else is refused. This keeps your links from being used to bounce traffic somewhere you have no control over.
Partners can create their own
Approved partners do not have to ask you for links. From their own affiliate dashboard they click New link, paste a page (or just a path, like the product they want to push), and click Create. It appears in their list with a copy button and a click counter, ready to post.
Most creators set up one link for a partner to get them started, then leave them to make their own for each campaign.
What to point a link at
Anything on your site works, so aim at the page that makes the sale:
- A single product for a partner reviewing that product
- Your event page ahead of a tour
- A course landing page for a partner in that niche
- Your membership page for a partner selling the community
- Your home page when they just want a general link in their bio
Affiliate coupons
A coupon is the offline half of the story. Not every partner has a website to hang a link on, but everybody can say a code.
The code is the partner's own affiliate code, so it is short, personal and easy to remember. Anyone who redeems it at checkout gets a discount, and the partner gets credited with the sale.
Give a partner a coupon
- Open the partner's panel from the Affiliates tab.
- Go to the Coupon tab.
- Choose the Discount type: Percentage or Fixed amount.
- Enter the Value.
- Click Attach.
You can also do this at the moment you approve someone, if you switched on affiliate coupons in your program settings.
The partner sees the code in their dashboard with a copy button, ready to share.
Coupons cost you twice
The discount comes off the buyer's total, and the commission comes off what is left. A 20% code with a 20% commission is a big chunk of one sale. Run the numbers before you set both generously.
How a sale gets credited
This is the part worth understanding, because it decides who gets paid.
A code always wins
If the buyer used a partner's coupon code at checkout, that partner gets the commission. Full stop. A code is a deliberate act by the buyer, so it beats anything else.
Otherwise, the last link they clicked
If no code was used, TribeNest looks at whether the buyer arrived through a tracked link. If they did, that partner gets the credit.
Clicks are remembered for 30 days
People rarely buy the moment they click. A tracked link is remembered on that person's browser for 30 days, so a partner still earns when someone clicks today and buys three weeks later.
After 30 days the trail goes cold, which stops a very old click from stealing credit from a partner who did the real work today.
Same browser, same device
The click is remembered in the browser that was used. If somebody clicks on their phone and later buys on a laptop, the link cannot follow them. This is exactly why a coupon code is worth giving to partners with an audience that shops across devices.
Partners cannot pay themselves
A partner buying through their own link or their own code earns nothing. That sale is simply not commissionable.
If a code is redeemed by the partner's own email address, the commission is still recorded but it is marked as Flagged for you to look at, rather than sliding through to a payout. How to handle a flagged commission is covered in tracking commissions.
What partners can see
From their affiliate area on your site, an approved partner has:
- Clicks and Conversions counters
- Pending earnings that are still inside your hold period
- Paid out to date
- A Next payout progress bar showing how close they are to your minimum
- Their Referral links, each with a click count and a copy button
- Your coupon, if you attached one
- Payout details they fill in themselves
- Payout history
That is deliberately the same set of numbers you see, so nobody has to ask you for an update.
Next steps
- Follow the money in tracking commissions.
- Compare with your ordinary discount codes in Coupons.