Setting up an affiliate program isn’t complicated, but most people get the order wrong. They pick software before they know their commission structure, or they recruit affiliates before they have anything to give them. This guide walks through the actual sequence, decision by decision, so you can launch a program that’s ready to run from day one.
Step 1: Decide who will run the program
Before you touch a single piece of software, you need to answer one question: who is actually going to run this thing?
This isn’t a formality. An affiliate program with no one managing it doesn’t just underperform, it actively damages your reputation with partners. Affiliates talk. If they email you and hear nothing back for two weeks, they won’t promote you again, and they’ll tell others.
You have three real options. You can run it yourself, which works fine when you’re just getting started and the program is small. You can hire an affiliate manager, which makes sense once you have consistent affiliate sales coming in and the program is taking more time than you can give it. Or you can work with a consultant to get the program launched and trained up before handing it off internally.
If you’re going to run it yourself, make sure you’re actually carving out time for it. “I’ll get to it when I can” is a death sentence for a new program. Affiliates need communication, resources, and someone who responds. If that’s not realistic for you right now, figure out the staffing question before you build anything else.
For a deeper look at when and how to bring someone on, this guide on hiring an affiliate manager covers the timing, where to find candidates, and what to look for.
Step 2: Set your commission structure
Commission structure is the single most important thing you’ll decide, and it’s one you need to get right before you pick software or talk to a single affiliate.
Here’s why it matters so much: affiliates evaluate programs on EPC, earnings per click, not just commission rate. A 40% commission on a $27 product that converts at 1% pays $10.80 per 100 clicks. A 25% commission on a $297 product that converts at 3% pays $222.75 per 100 clicks. Rate alone means nothing without conversion data behind it.
That said, here are the baseline ranges by product type. For digital products like courses, templates, and ebooks, 30-50% is standard. Physical products typically fall between 5-15% because margins are tighter. Software and SaaS products often pay 20-40%, sometimes recurring. Memberships and subscription products do well with recurring commissions in the 20-30% range.
I’ve managed affiliate programs for companies like Adidas, Shutterfly, and Stu McLaren. Every one of them started with this same question: what can we pay that makes affiliates want to promote us AND keeps our margins intact? Get that number right and recruiting becomes a lot easier. Get it wrong and you’ll struggle to attract anyone worth having.
Also decide upfront whether you’ll pay on upsells and downsells, how long your cookie will last, and whether you’ll use a flat rate or tiered commissions. These aren’t things to figure out later. Affiliates will ask, and “we’ll let you know” isn’t a good answer. If you want to understand the case for longer cookie windows, this post on lifetime cookies explains why they attract better partners.
Step 3: Choose your tracking software or network
Now you’re ready to pick your platform. There are two basic paths: in-house affiliate software or an affiliate network. Both work. The right choice depends on where you are and where you’re going.
In-house software means you’re running everything yourself on a platform like Tapfiliate, Rewardful, or Post Affiliate Pro. You control the branding, the approval process, the commission structure, and the affiliate experience. You pay a flat monthly fee instead of a percentage of every sale. Over time, this is almost always cheaper. The tradeoff is that you’re responsible for recruiting your own affiliates from scratch. The network isn’t sending people to you.
Affiliate networks like ShareASale, Impact, or CJ give you access to a built-in marketplace of affiliates actively looking for programs to join. If your goal is to go from zero to a meaningful volume of affiliates as fast as possible, a network gives you a significant head start. They also handle a lot of the administrative work: tax documents, payments, fraud monitoring. The cost is a percentage of each transaction on top of your affiliate’s commission, plus setup fees.
My general rule: if you need affiliates fast and you’re in a product category that networks serve well (ecommerce, physical products, mainstream digital products), start with a network. If you’re selling higher-ticket offers, have an existing audience to recruit from, or want full control over the experience, go in-house.
You can also start free. If you have an email platform and just want to test with two or three affiliates before committing to a paid solution, you can track manually using unique landing pages per affiliate and verify sales by hand. It’s not scalable, but it works long enough to validate whether the model is going to work for you.
Step 4: Create your affiliate terms and conditions
Your affiliate agreement isn’t optional. It’s the document that protects you when something goes wrong, and something will eventually go wrong.
Good terms define what affiliates can and cannot do. Can they bid on your brand name in paid search? Can they use coupon sites or cash-back platforms? What happens if they use deceptive tactics? What are the grounds for removing someone from the program? These need clear answers in writing before you let anyone in.
Your terms should also cover commission payment schedule, what qualifies as a valid sale, cookie duration, and the process for disputes. Affiliates should know exactly what they’re agreeing to when they apply.
For a detailed walkthrough on what to include, this post on creating affiliate program agreements covers the essentials. And if you want to skip the blank-page problem entirely, the Affiliate Terms Wizard is an AI-powered tool trained on 1,000+ attorney-written agreements that walks you through the whole thing in 4-15 minutes and costs a fraction of what a lawyer would charge.
Step 5: Build your affiliate application and approval process
Don’t auto-approve everyone. That’s not me being gatekeeping, it’s basic program hygiene. Auto-approving applicants is one of the fastest ways to let fraudsters, coupon stackers, and low-quality partners into your program before you realize what’s happened.
Your application should be easy to complete, but thorough enough to give you real information about the person applying. Ask for their website or platform, their audience size and niche, how they plan to promote your product, and whether they’ve promoted similar offers before. You don’t need a 20-question essay, but a few targeted questions will tell you a lot.
Set up a review process where you look at each applicant before approving them. Check their site. Google them. See if their audience actually overlaps with your buyers. A small, engaged audience in your exact niche is worth more than a massive general list.
Set expectations in your approval email about the timeline. If you’re reviewing applications every Monday and Thursday, say so. Affiliates waiting to hear back with no idea when they’ll get an answer assume the program is poorly managed. First impressions matter here.
Step 6: Set up your affiliate portal and resources
Once affiliates are approved, they need to know three things immediately: how to get their links, where to find promotional materials, and who to contact if they have questions. If any of those answers require more than 60 seconds to figure out, you’re going to lose them before they ever send traffic.
Your affiliate portal, whether it’s inside your tracking software or a dedicated page on your site, should have everything in one place. That means banner ads in multiple sizes, email swipe copy, social media graphics, product images, and a quick-start guide. The quick-start guide doesn’t need to be long. Three pages covering how to get links, how to find materials, how to track their stats, and who to email for support is enough. Make it feel easy and they’ll actually use it.
Also add a footer link to your affiliate program page on your main website. When I ran Shutterfly’s affiliate program, we got an average of four new affiliate applications per day just from that single link. It takes two minutes to add and keeps working indefinitely.
If you want an example of what an effective affiliate training looks like in practice, you can access a sample affiliate training webinar I put together for one of my clients. It’s the actual webinar we shared with their affiliates, with the slides included. Free to download.
Step 7: Create your welcome sequence
The most critical moment in an affiliate relationship is the first 72 hours after approval. If an affiliate hears nothing from you in that window, they file you in the “eventually” folder, and eventually never comes.
Your welcome sequence should go out immediately and cover everything a new affiliate needs to hit the ground running. Welcome them personally. Give them their links. Point them to your promotional materials. Tell them what’s coming up (if you have a launch or a promotion in the next 30-60 days, tell them now). And give them a specific, easy first action to take.
The goal is to get them to their first sale as fast as possible. Early wins create momentum. Affiliates who make their first commission within the first two weeks of joining are dramatically more likely to become active, long-term partners than those who join and sit dormant.
If you struggle with affiliate activation, meaning affiliates who sign up but never actually promote, the Affiliate Activation Templates are a free download with the exact emails I use to get dormant affiliates moving. It solves one of the most common problems programs run into after launch.
Get the EXACT Template We Give to Our Affiliates to Get Them to Promote More and Generate More Sales! Click Here to Download it Now!
For ongoing communication after the welcome sequence, look at this guide on onboarding new affiliates for the full framework on building the early relationship.
Step 8: Recruit your first affiliates
A lot of people build everything above and then wait for affiliates to show up. That’s not how it works. Recruiting is active, not passive, especially in the early days.
Start with people you already know: customers who love your product, complementary businesses that serve the same audience, content creators your buyers already follow. These are your warmest leads and the easiest place to start.
Your outreach email matters more than almost anything else at this stage. I’ve used one recruiting email to bring in 330,000 affiliates across multiple industries. The structure isn’t complicated, but it’s specific. You can download the exact template at mattmcwilliams.com/bestemail, free. It’s the same email we’ve used across programs that have driven over $1 billion in affiliate sales.
Don’t try to recruit everyone at once. Start with 10-20 targeted partners, get them active, learn what they need, and refine your support materials before you scale. A few affiliates who are genuinely engaged are worth more than 500 who never log in. For strategies on where to actually find people worth recruiting, this post on three surprising affiliate sources covers some of the most overlooked places to look.
What to set up before you go live: a quick checklist
Before you open your program to affiliates, make sure you’ve got these covered:
- Commission structure defined and tested in your tracking software
- Affiliate terms and conditions finalized
- Application form live and review process in place
- Affiliate portal built with links, swipe copy, and graphics
- Welcome email sequence loaded and ready to fire on approval
- Payment method set up (PayPal, ACH, or your network’s system)
- Footer link added to your main site
- First recruiting list built, even if it’s just 10-20 people
You don’t need everything to be perfect before you launch. But you do need everything to be functional. An affiliate who can’t find their link on day one isn’t coming back.
If you want the complete system, from launching your first program to scaling it to six and seven figures, The Book on Affiliate Management covers every step in detail. It’s 300+ pages built from the same system I’ve used with Tony Robbins, Michael Hyatt, Stu McLaren, Shutterfly, and Adidas. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle.