Most affiliate programs ask how big your audience is before they ask anything else.
You open the application and there’s a box for monthly pageviews and a box for follower count, and you already know your numbers are smaller than the ones they want. Sometimes you get a polite no. More often you get nothing at all, and three weeks later you’re still wondering whether the email went to spam.
I run an affiliate program for the apps I build, and I don’t ask that question. Not because I’m generous about it. Because the number was never a good filter in the first place.
Where does the traffic minimum come from?
Big programs get thousands of applications. Reading them takes staff, and staff cost money, so somebody picks a number that trims the pile to a size a small team can handle. Your follower count mostly decides how expensive you are to evaluate.
My program is still new enough that I can read every application myself, so I do. That’s the whole reason the minimum doesn’t exist here. It’s a policy somebody chose, not a law of nature, and at my size I get to choose differently.
What I’m looking for is a real presence. A blog with posts on it, a channel with videos, a newsletter that goes out, an account where you talk to people. Small is fine. Empty is not. I turn down link farms, coupon-scraper sites, and accounts spun up last week with nothing on them.
The four things that make affiliate work feel pointless when you’re small
Every one of these is fixable. Most programs just haven’t bothered.
You never reach the payout minimum. A $50 floor sounds reasonable until you’re earning $7 a month, and then it’s a number you watch and never touch. My floor is $25, and every December 15 I waive it completely and pay out whatever’s sitting there. Your money shouldn’t get stranded across a tax year because it fell $4 short.
The cookie expires before anyone decides. Thirty days is the common window. People don’t work that way. They read your post, think about it, and come back in February. My window is 60 days, and your code works forever on top of that. If someone types your code at checkout, the sale is yours whether the cookie is alive or not.
You earn once and it’s over. One-time payouts mean you have to keep finding new people to stay flat. My commission is 20% of what a customer pays, on every payment they make for that app, for 12 months from their first one.
Nobody answers you. You email support and get a ticket number. When you email me, you get me, because there’s nobody else here.
What would you earn?
I’d rather show you the math than describe it. This is the real per-referral commission on all six of my apps, at the base rate. I’ll be adding more apps, though! I have so many ideas for products.
| App | What they pay | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| App Hub Pro | $7/mo or $59/yr | $1.40/mo or $11.80 |
| Porch Pile | $12/mo or $120/yr | $2.40/mo or $24.00 |
| Resume Prune | $14/mo or $9/wk | $2.80/mo or $1.80/wk |
| Giveaway Widget | $19/mo or $190/yr | $3.80/mo or $38.00 |
| Build a Bio | $9/mo or $69/yr | $1.80/mo or $13.80 |
| Recipe Column Cards | $2.99/mo or $19/yr | $0.60/mo or $3.80 |
Those are small numbers and I’m not going to dress them up. One person subscribing to App Hub Pro sends you $1.40 a month. What makes them add up is that they repeat, and that they stack. Ten people who stay a year is $168 from work you did once.
There are also two things the table doesn’t show. Your code gives your audience 10% off their first month, so the link is doing something for them and not only for you. And 20% is the floor, not the ceiling. I raise individual rates by hand.
Why I built the program myself
The tools for running an affiliate program start around $39 a month, and the one at that price also takes 3% of every affiliate sale, which means a cut of the commission I’d be paying you. The next one up is $89 a month. Both wanted that money before I’d paid a single person a single dollar.
So I built it instead. That’s why the terms look the way they do. Nobody’s taking a slice in the middle, so the $25 floor and the 60-day window and the by-hand rate changes are all things I can just decide. A program running on somebody else’s platform gets whatever that platform allows and nothing more.
I haven’t paid a commission yet
That’s true and I’d rather you hear it from me.
The program is live, the money path works, and my affiliates are four people I know. Nobody has sent me a paying customer yet, so nobody has been paid.
I could have waited to write this until the numbers looked better. But the ground floor is the actual offer. Nobody else is promoting these apps to your audience yet. You’re not the fortieth person competing for the same keyword and the same readers. You get a rate I’ll adjust by hand, and an email address that reaches the person who wrote the code.
A big program usually can’t give you any of that, and by the time I can’t either, the people reading this will have been here for a year.
The part where you raise your own rate
I gamify everything I build, so I gamified this too.
A Bug Healer quest is a short list of checks on one of my apps. Open this, try to break that, tell me what happened. Ten apps have live quest boards, and the day I approve you, Pro switches on for you across the five subscription apps so you can get straight in.
Every quest I approve stretches your free Pro on that app from one month to six. Twenty approved quests moves your commission from 20% to 30% permanently, on every app and every sale you ever make here. It doesn’t expire, and it applies to sales years from now.
It’s optional. Plenty of affiliates will never touch it. It’s also the only thing that changes your rate for good. Since I’ve been an affiliate for years, I thought this was a fun idea that I would personally jump all over.
Today’s action
- Look at the six apps above and pick the one your audience would use. Not the one that pays most. The one that fits.
- Open the application and tell me where you’d share it. That’s the only question I care about.
- While you wait, write the post or the caption you’d use. If you can’t picture it, that’s useful information too.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a certain number of followers or pageviews?
No. There’s no minimum of any kind. I read every application myself and I’m looking for a real audience, not a big one. A blog, a channel, a newsletter, or an account with actual posts on it all count.
What if someone clicks my link but doesn’t buy that day?
You have 60 days. If they subscribe any time in that window, the sale is credited to you. And if they use your code, it’s yours regardless of the window.
How long does an application take to hear back?
Usually within five days. It’s me reading them, so it depends on the week, but you’ll get an answer either way.
When do I get paid?
The 15th of every month, by PayPal, once your approved balance reaches $25. Under $25 it rolls forward. Every December 15 I waive the minimum so nothing sits stranded across a tax year, and I cover the PayPal fee.
Do I have to disclose that I’m an affiliate?
Yes, US law requires it. Your dashboard has a ready-made disclosure line for every platform you might post on, so you don’t have to word it yourself.
Can I join from outside the US?
Not yet. The program is US-only right now because of the tax paperwork involved. Email me anyway and I’ll know there’s demand for opening it up.
If you’ve been told no for being small
Being small is a stage, not a verdict. Every audience that’s big now was four people once, and the person who signed those creators early got paid the whole way up.
Plant this one and see what grows. Read the full program terms if you want every number spelled out, or apply here and I’ll read it myself.
A tool I built
Side Hustle Garden
Log every side hustle payment and watch it knock out your monthly bills, smallest first.
Plant your first dollar →I run an affiliate program on the tools I build. Approved affiliates earn 20% on what their referrals pay, for up to a year. US only for now. See the program →
