Blog · a series
The affiliate programme
A shop paying the people who send it customers. Why the sign-up form was built first, the four kinds of promoter it has to tell apart, and the money half that now pays them.
4 parts · about 23 minutes to read them all
Part 1 · 3 min read
An affiliate programme is a ledger with a sign-up form
A shop paying people who send it customers looks like a marketing feature. It is really money owed to outsiders, cleared against returns and posted to the books. So we built the sign-up first, and the money half waits on three decisions rather than on guesses.
Part 2 · 3 min read
Four kinds of promoter, and why one agreement cannot bind them all
An individual, a creator with an audience, a registered business and a member of the shop’s own staff carry different obligations. A company accepting an individual’s terms is not bound by them, so the affiliate programme keeps one agreement per kind.
Part 3 · 3 min read
A page of zeroes is a worse claim than nothing at all
The promoter’s page on the storefront is deliberately thin: it says where you stand, and nothing else. A dashboard of zero earnings would tell an approved promoter they have earned nothing, a different and much worse statement than "this does not exist yet".
Part 4 · 14 min read
A shop’s affiliate programme now pays the people who promote it
The Affiliate Program’s money half was built on 8 October. Codes and referral links work at the web checkout and at the till. A manager signs off each earning after the return window, and an administrator approves each payout. No shop has switched it on yet.
