# Affiliate marketing Human Guide

## What This Is For
Guides affiliate marketing strategy for AI/SaaS products. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for affiliate marketing: 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 marketing 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 marketing.
- 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 marketing 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
- **Product type**: SaaS, AI tool, subscription
- **Commission model**: Pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead, pay-per-click
- **Target affiliates**: Content creators, publishers, coupon sites
- **Content creators**: Bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, social influencers
- **Publishers**: Media, niche sites, email newsletters
- **Coupon/cashback**: Price-sensitive users; see **discount-marketing-strategy** for code strategy
- **Professional affiliates**: Agencies managing multiple programs
- **Communities**: Facebook Groups, Discord, Reddit, forums
- **Existing customers**: Word-of-mouth via referral rewards
- **Dedicated landing page**: Clear commission, payout terms, cookie duration, signup flow; link in nav/footer.
- **Partner personas**: Define 5+ personas (bloggers, YouTubers, newsletter owners, community admins); list audience fit and motivations.
- **Target high-influence types**: SEO content owners ranking for your keywords; reviewers/listicle sites; media buyers.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Initial Assessment, Commission Models, Key Terms, Promotion Channels, Setup Options, Recruitment Strategies, Implementation Flow, Pitfalls and Prevention, Best Practices, Output Format.

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
- | **Affiliate fraud** | Fake clicks, self-referrals, fake conversions. Use platform fraud tools; vet affiliates; avoid auto-approve. |
- **Recruit authentic affiliates**: Align with brand; avoid low-quality networks

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Affiliate marketing 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 kostja94/marketing-skills skill entry for `affiliate-marketing`.

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

# Channels: Affiliate

Guides affiliate marketing strategy for AI/SaaS products. Affiliate marketing uses a CPS (Cost Per Sale) model—pay only when sales occur. ROI typically 5:1 to 10:1; CAC 40%–50% lower than paid ads.

**When invoking**: On **first use**, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On **subsequent use** or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

## Initial Assessment

**Check for project context first:** If `.claude/project-context.md` or `.cursor/project-context.md` exists, read it for product, audience, and positioning.

Identify:
1. **Product type**: SaaS, AI tool, subscription
2. **Commission model**: Pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead, pay-per-click
3. **Target affiliates**: Content creators, publishers, coupon sites

## Commission Models

| Model | Use | Typical Rate |
|-------|-----|--------------|
| **Pay-per-sale** | Most common; pay on conversion | 10%–20% |
| **Pay-per-lead** | Lead gen (signup, form fill) | $5–50/lead |
| **Pay-per-click** | Rare; risk of abuse | $0.01–10.50/click |

For SaaS: Prefer pay-per-sale or pay-per-lead. Recurring commissions for subscriptions.

## Key Terms

| Term | Definition |
|------|------------|
| **Cookie duration** | Attribution window (typically 30–90 days) |
| **Recurring commission** | Ongoing % from subscription renewals |
| **Sub-affiliate** | Affiliates who recruit other affiliates |
| **Performance bonus** | Extra reward when affiliate hits sales targets |
| **Attribution** | Linking sale to correct affiliate |

## Promotion Channels

- **Content creators**: Bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, social influencers
- **Publishers**: Media, niche sites, email newsletters
- **Coupon/cashback**: Price-sensitive users; see **discount-marketing-strategy** for code strategy
- **Professional affiliates**: Agencies managing multiple programs
- **Communities**: Facebook Groups, Discord, Reddit, forums
- **Existing customers**: Word-of-mouth via referral rewards

## Setup Options

*Product and website examples are illustrative only. No affiliation, partnership, or endorsement implied.*

| Approach | Use |
|----------|-----|
| **Self-build** | Forms (e.g. Google Forms); quick, low budget |
| **Third-party** | Affiliate tracking platforms (e.g. Rewardful, Tapfiliate) for AI/SaaS |

Submit program to affiliate program directories after launch for discoverability.

## Recruitment Strategies

1. **Dedicated landing page**: Clear commission, payout terms, cookie duration, signup flow; link in nav/footer.
2. **Partner personas**: Define 5+ personas (bloggers, YouTubers, newsletter owners, community admins); list audience fit and motivations.
3. **Target high-influence types**: SEO content owners ranking for your keywords; reviewers/listicle sites; media buyers.
4. **Reverse research**: Find affiliates promoting competitors; they may promote you too.
5. **Unconventional outreach**: Competitor backlink analysis; creative outreach beyond cold email and networks.

Expect a small fraction of partners to drive most sales—quality over vanity metrics.

## Implementation Flow

1. **Assess product fit**: Target audience size, product complexity, commission margin, tracking feasibility. SaaS subscriptions suit recurring commissions.
2. **Design commission structure**: 20%–40% typical; cookie 60–90 days; payment cycle (e.g., 15th of month); minimum payout (e.g., $50).
3. **Create marketing materials**: Banners, social posts, email templates; landing page with commission details and signup flow.
4. **Recruit partners**: Publish to affiliate program directories; outreach to creators and influencers.
5. **Monitor and optimize**: Track conversion rate, ROI, AOV; review affiliate performance; detect fraud.

## Pitfalls and Prevention

| Risk | Prevention |
|------|------------|
| **Affiliate fraud** | Fake clicks, self-referrals, fake conversions. Use platform fraud tools; vet affiliates; avoid auto-approve. |
| **Brand bidding** | Affiliates bid on your brand terms in Google Ads; you pay commission for traffic you already own. Prohibit in terms; monitor paid search; use brand monitoring tools. See **paid-ads-strategy** for paid ads context. |
| **Program terms** | Cookie length, performance bonus, sub-affiliate rules, payment threshold—set clearly in terms before launch. |