# Affiliate program Human Guide

## What This Is For
An affiliate program pays partners a commission for each sale they refer, making it a performance-based acquisition channel with no upfront media cost. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for affiliate program: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Affiliate program agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for affiliate program.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Affiliate program guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- When launching a creator or influencer partnership program with revenue share
- When replacing a third-party affiliate network (ShareASale, CJ) to reduce 20–30% network fees
- When needing custom commission rules (category-specific rates, SKU exclusions, tiered volume bonuses)
- When fraud in an existing affiliate program is eroding margins
- When generating 1099 tax reporting for US-based affiliates
- Go to **Refersion Dashboard → Settings → General** and configure:
- Default commission rate (start with 10–15% for most verticals)
- Cookie duration (30 days is standard)
- Minimum payout threshold ($50 recommended)
- Go to **Commissions → Commission Groups** to create tiers:
- Silver: 12% (unlocks at $5k/month referred revenue)
- Gold: 15% (unlocks at $20k/month)

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Overview, When to Use This Skill, Core Instructions, Step 1: Determine the merchant's platform and choose the right tool, Step 2: Set up your affiliate app, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Custom / Headless, Step 3: Configure commission and fraud rules.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Refersion automatically generates unique tracking links (`yourstore.com?rfsn=XXXXX`) and injects a tracking pixel at checkout — no code required
- Both apps integrate with BigCommerce's order webhooks automatically — no code required
- For headless storefronts, use **Rewardful** (SaaS) to avoid building tracking infrastructure from scratch:
- **Commission base**: set commission on subtotal only — never on tax or shipping
- **Hold commissions for 30 days** before approving — never pay out on orders that might be returned

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Affiliate program human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the finsilabs/awesome-ecommerce-skills skill entry for `affiliate-program`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Affiliate Program

## Overview

An affiliate program pays partners a commission for each sale they refer, making it a performance-based acquisition channel with no upfront media cost. The right setup depends on your platform — most merchants get 90% of the value from a dedicated app without writing any code. Custom commission rules, fraud detection, and automated payouts are where custom development adds value.

## When to Use This Skill

- When launching a creator or influencer partnership program with revenue share
- When replacing a third-party affiliate network (ShareASale, CJ) to reduce 20–30% network fees
- When needing custom commission rules (category-specific rates, SKU exclusions, tiered volume bonuses)
- When fraud in an existing affiliate program is eroding margins
- When generating 1099 tax reporting for US-based affiliates

## Core Instructions

### Step 1: Determine the merchant's platform and choose the right tool

| Platform | Recommended Tool | Why |
|----------|-----------------|-----|
| **Shopify** | Refersion or UpPromote (Shopify App Store) | Native Shopify integration, automatic coupon + link generation, built-in fraud detection, PayPal/Stripe payouts |
| **WooCommerce** | AffiliateWP ($149/yr) or Solid Affiliate | Deep WooCommerce integration, per-product commission rates, real-time reporting, Stripe payout add-on |
| **BigCommerce** | Refersion or Goaffpro (BigCommerce App Marketplace) | Native checkout integration, multi-tier commissions, real-time dashboards |
| **Custom / Headless** | Rewardful (SaaS, $49/mo) or build custom with Stripe Connect | Rewardful handles tracking, fraud detection, and payouts; use custom code only for complex commission logic |

### Step 2: Set up your affiliate app

---

#### Shopify

**Using Refersion (recommended):**

1. Install Refersion from the Shopify App Store
2. Go to **Refersion Dashboard → Settings → General** and configure:
   - Default commission rate (start with 10–15% for most verticals)
   - Cookie duration (30 days is standard)
   - Minimum payout threshold ($50 recommended)
3. Go to **Commissions → Commission Groups** to create tiers:
   - Bronze: 10% (default)
   - Silver: 12% (unlocks at $5k/month referred revenue)
   - Gold: 15% (unlocks at $20k/month)
4. Refersion automatically generates unique tracking links (`yourstore.com?rfsn=XXXXX`) and injects a tracking pixel at checkout — no code required
5. Go to **Affiliates → Recruitment Page** to enable a self-service signup portal where partners can apply
6. For Shopify Plus stores: use Shopify Flow to automatically tag high-value affiliates and trigger tier upgrades

**Using UpPromote (free plan available):**

1. Install UpPromote from the Shopify App Store
2. Go to **UpPromote → Programs → Create Program** and set commission rules
3. Enable automatic discount code generation for each affiliate under **Settings → Affiliate Links**
4. Connect PayPal or Wise under **Settings → Payment** for automated payouts

---

#### WooCommerce

**Using AffiliateWP:**

1. Install and activate AffiliateWP on your WordPress site
2. Go to **AffiliateWP → Settings → General** and configure:
   - Referral rate: 10% (start conservative)
   - Cookie expiration: 30 days
   - Credit last referrer: yes (last-click attribution)
3. Go to **AffiliateWP → Settings → Payouts** and connect PayPal or enable manual payouts
4. Enable per-product commission rates under **Settings → Misc → Per-Product Rates** — this allows you to set 4% on electronics and 20% on digital products
5. Install the **AffiliateWP – Fraud Prevention** add-on ($49) to automatically flag self-referrals and IP velocity abuse
6. Affiliates access their dashboard at `yoursite.com/affiliate-area/`

**Tier automation with WooCommerce hooks:**
```php
// In functions.php — promote affiliate to Silver tier when monthly revenue > $5k
add_action('affwp_update_affiliate', function($affiliate_id) {
    $month_revenue = affwp_get_affiliate_earnings($affiliate_id, true); // current month
    if ($month_revenue >= 5000 && affwp_get_affiliate_rate($affiliate_id) < 0.12) {
        affwp_update_affiliate(['affiliate_id' => $affiliate_id, 'rate' => '12']);
    }
});
```