Setting up your program
Switch your affiliate program on, decide what a partner earns, and set the rules for holds, minimums and coupons.
Everything about how your program behaves lives on one screen. You fill it in once, and every partner you bring in afterwards inherits these rules unless you give them their own.
Open your program settings
- Go to Affiliates in the main menu.
- Open the Settings tab.
- Fill in the sections below.
- Click Save settings at the bottom.
Turn the program on
At the top of the Program card is the Enable affiliate program switch.
- On means your partners earn commission on the sales they bring in.
- Off pauses everything. Nothing new is earned while it is off, and fans who reach your affiliate page are told you do not have a program running right now.
Set the rules before you flip the switch
Fill in your commission, hold period and minimum first, then turn the program on. That way the first sale a partner sends is priced the way you intended.
Choose how partners join
Under How affiliates join you have two options.
- Invite only (you add affiliates) keeps the door closed. You add people yourself, one at a time. Fans who land on your affiliate page see a short note telling them the program is invite only and to get in touch.
- Application (fans apply, you approve) opens a sign-up form on your site. Anyone can apply, and nobody earns anything until you approve them.
Start with invite only if you want to hand-pick a handful of trusted people. Switch to applications when you are ready to scale and happy to review a queue.
Set the default commission
The Default commission card decides what a partner earns on every sale they refer.
Commission type
Pick one under Commission type:
- Percentage of the sale pays a share of what the buyer paid. Fill in Default rate (%). This is calculated on the amount actually paid after any discount, and excludes tax and shipping.
- Flat amount per sale pays the same fixed amount every time, no matter the order size. Fill in Default flat commission, in your program currency.
It is one or the other, not both. Switching type swaps the field you fill in.
Picking a number
There is no universal right answer, but a percentage suits stores where order sizes vary a lot, and a flat amount suits a single hero product where you know exactly what you can afford to give away per sale.
Recurring commission on memberships
Recurring on memberships decides whether a partner keeps earning when a member they referred renews.
- Off pays commission on the first payment only.
- On pays commission on each renewal, up to a limit you set. Turning it on reveals Months to pay recurring commission, where 12 means you pay commission across roughly the first year of payments.
This only affects memberships. One-off purchases like merch, tickets and courses pay once regardless.
Holds and payout minimum
The Payouts and holds card protects you from paying commission on a sale that later gets refunded.
Hold period (days)
Newly earned commission sits in a holding state for this many days before it becomes payable. Once the hold is up, TribeNest moves it to approved for you automatically, no action needed on your part.
Set it long enough to cover your refund window. If you accept returns for 30 days, a 30 day hold means you rarely pay out on a sale that later comes back.
Minimum payout
A partner cannot be paid until their approved balance reaches this amount. Small balances simply roll forward until they are worth sending.
Your partners see their progress towards this number in their own dashboard, so a minimum also doubles as a nudge to keep promoting.
Affiliate coupons
Auto-create an affiliate coupon on approval decides whether approving a partner offers you the option of giving them a discount code as well as a link.
- Off means partners promote with tracked links only.
- On means that when you approve someone, you get the chance to attach a coupon carrying their code. Anyone who uses that code at checkout is credited to them.
There is no default discount. You choose the discount type and value for each partner as you approve them, so a big podcast can carry a better offer than a casual poster.
A coupon is a real discount
The code your partner shares takes money off the buyer's total, and you still owe the commission on top. Add the two together before you decide the numbers.
Coupons and links are covered in full in Links and coupons.
Program terms
The Terms card holds the text your partners read before they join. Whatever you write here is shown on your application form, so it is the right place for the things you want agreed up front:
- What is and is not allowed (no bidding on your brand name, no spam, no misleading claims)
- When and how you pay
- What happens on refunds and cancellations
- How you handle someone using their own code on their own purchase
Keep it plain and short. A partner who understands the rules is a partner you will not have to suspend later.
Save and check
Click Save settings. You will get a confirmation as soon as the program is updated.
Worth doing right after saving:
- Open the Affiliates tab and invite yourself or a colleague as a test partner.
- Look at the affiliate area on your own site to see exactly what a partner sees.
- Check that your default commission and minimum read the way you expected.
Changing the rules later
Editing your defaults changes what future sales earn. Commission already recorded keeps the rate it was earned at, so a rate cut never quietly rewrites what someone was already owed.
Next steps
- Bring people in with inviting and approving partners.
- Understand how a sale gets matched in links and coupons.