Recruiting affiliates is the step after you know who to invite. This guide covers the invite, onboarding, a first content idea, and how to keep partners promoting.
If you still need names, start with How to find affiliates. That page covers customers, creators, communities, directories, and how to shortlist. This page is the next step: you invite someone, they join, and they publish something with a tracked link.
For cookies, commissions, and tracking links, see What is affiliate marketing?.
Before you send the first invite
The affiliate page has to be readable without a login: commission rate, commission type, cookie duration, payout method, minimum payout, and terms. If those sit behind a wall, most serious creators will not apply. The find-affiliates guide covers how to get that page ready.
You also need a product people already pay for and like. Affiliates will not market something they hesitate to use. Free-plan accounts alone are a weak recruiting list. Talk to paying users, improve the product from what they tell you, then invite the people who already said they like it.
An affiliate program lets other people market the product for a commission, so you can spend more time on the product. You still have to market it yourself.
The invite
Write to people on your shortlist, starting with customers who already like the product.
Keep the first message human and short. Say why you thought of them. Name one specific thing they published, or one reason the product fits their audience. Link the public terms: commission, cookie, payout, join URL. Do not hide the offer behind "let me know if you are interested."
A simple customer note is enough: you like the product, we have an affiliate program (or we just opened one). If you want to talk about it to other people, you earn a commission.
Give them something they can use on day one: a short product blurb, a screenshot, a logo, a banner, a sample post. Extra one-pagers can wait until they have joined.
One message is enough to start. Follow up once if there is no reply. A long sequence of the same pitch reads as spam.
On video platforms (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram), send a private message. A promotional comment will get you told to leave, buried, or flagged. Only write if their content already sits next to the product.
After they join
A welcome note is what they actually read in the first week, especially if the dashboard is messy. Send it when they are approved. One email is enough:
- Affiliate link, or where to find it
- Commission and cookie in plain language
- Payout basics: currency, method, threshold if there is one
- Assets they can use (logo, blurb, screenshots, banners)
- A reminder to disclose the relationship
- Who to contact when something breaks
Most new affiliates stall after signup. They joined. They did not publish.
Give one first content idea tied to their audience. A customer writing a workflow post needs a different angle than a YouTuber who does tool roundups. Suggest a setup tutorial, a comparison they already make, or a short note on how they use the product. The first tracked click, or one published piece, is enough.
Feature early wins in a small way: a reply, a share, a mention in a changelog. Limited early-partner perks can help if they do not break the economics. A slightly longer cookie for the first month, or a unique code, is enough. Do not invent bonuses you cannot keep when the program grows.
Keep them promoting
After the first promotion, stay in touch without flooding them.
Send updates that change what they can say: new plans, new use cases, new screenshots. Refresh creatives when the site changes.
Pause or remove partners who burn trust: fake claims, leaked coupons if you forbid them, spam in communities you care about. One bad actor costs more than one extra signup.
A quiet quarterly update is better than weekly noise. People stay when the product stays worth recommending.
What to do next
If you still need people to invite, go back to How to find affiliates. If the program is not listed where creators compare offers, you can submit it on AffiliationList and check listing options. Keep the public affiliate page in sync with whatever you publish.