How partners join your program

Every partner is a member of your workspace with a personal code. You can turn members into partners yourself, let everyone who signs up become one, let members activate themselves or create partners from another system. This article explains each way and where a new partner ends up in your team.

Open Affiliates

Before you start

New partners only join on their own while the Affiliate program switch is on and your workspace is on the Business plan. The settings below sit under Affiliates > Settings > General and need the Manage Affiliate Settings permission. Adding partners by hand needs Update Affiliates and Team Tree.

Four ways to become a partner

• You add them. On the Affiliates tab, Add partner turns an existing member into a partner. See Managing your partners.
• They sign up. With New sign-ups become partners switched on, everyone who creates an account becomes a partner right away.
• They activate themselves. Members enter a code in the Copy Referral Link element in their member area.
• Another system creates them through the API.

A member can only be a partner once. Whichever way they join, they get the same partner record with one code for all their links.

Turning new sign-ups into partners

1. Open Affiliates > Settings > General.
2. In the box Partner registration, switch on New sign-ups become partners.
3. Click Save.

From then on, anyone who signs up through your registration page, with Google or via single sign-on becomes a partner. So does anyone who signs up through the registration form embedded on your own website. Members you add or import yourself and buyers are not affected. A new partner gets a code generated from their name, for example anna-berg, or anna-berg-2 if that code is taken.

While the switch is on, the box shows Your registration link, the address of your registration page, ready to copy. Link it from your website, for example from a Become a partner button.

If your registration page is off, the box warns Your registration page is switched off. instead, because nobody can sign up. Open registration settings takes you to the login settings, where you turn on Enable registration page. See Login, registration and SSO.

Where a new partner is placed

A partner who signs up or activates themselves is placed under a sponsor in your team. The sponsor is chosen in this order:

1. The partner the member is already linked to, through an earlier purchase or because you assigned them under Managed members.
2. The partner whose code came with the sign-up: from the link the member arrived through, the registration form, the current visit or the referral cookie.
3. The Default partner from the box Partner registration.
4. Nobody. The new partner starts at the top of your team.

Only active partners can be a sponsor, and nobody is placed under themselves. The Default partner field appears once you have at least one active partner. As its help text says, it only places people in your team structure: "Commission attribution for sales is not affected."

When you add a partner yourself, you choose the sponsor in Placed under instead. The list there only offers active partners, and so does Change Affiliate when you move someone. A partner created through the API is placed under the sponsor code it sends, or at the top. The Default partner applies to neither. To move a partner later, use the team tree, described in Managing your partners.

Joining from the member area

The Copy Referral Link element on a hub or the dashboard shows partners their link. A member who is not a partner yet sees a code field with the placeholder yourcode and the button Activate instead.

The code needs at least 3 and at most 50 characters: letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores. It is saved in lowercase and becomes part of the member's referral link. If another partner already uses it, the element says "This code is already taken. Please choose another one." After Activate, the element shows the new partner's link right away.

Activating only works while your program is on and your workspace is on the Business plan. Otherwise the element shows "The partner program is not active." in place of the code field and Activate, and nobody can become a partner there. A partner you switched to inactive sees the code field as well, but cannot reactivate themselves: the element answers "Already registered as affiliate."

The registration form on your own website

The registration form you embed on another website, set up on the Registration form tab of the login settings, also brings in partners. When the page that holds the form is opened with a partner code in its address, such as ?ref=anna, ?affiliate=anna or ?partner=anna, the form keeps that code for the rest of the visit in that browser tab and sends it with the sign-up.

While New sign-ups become partners is on, the new member becomes a partner and is placed under the partner whose code came with the form. With the switch off, the code has no effect on the sign-up.

Someone who signs up with an email address that already belongs to a member gets a login link instead. They do not become a partner this way.

Adding partners from other systems

An API key can create and look up partners. Create the key under Settings > API and limit it to the permissions it needs from the Affiliates area. See API keys and developer access.

• Manage creates a partner with POST /v1/affiliates, for an existing member by ID or email address. If no member has that email address, the member is created too, which also needs Manage under Members and a first name. Optionally send a code, the sponsor's code as parent_code and send_welcome_mail. The sponsor must be an active partner: an inactive sponsor is rejected with "The sponsor affiliate is not active." (status 422), an unknown code with status 404. A member who already is a partner is returned unchanged.
• View reads a partner by code with GET /v1/affiliates/by-code/{code}, or the partner of a member with GET /v1/members/{id}/affiliate.
• Manage also links a member to a partner for future purchases with PUT /v1/members/{id}/affiliate-claim and removes that link with DELETE. Reading the link with GET needs View under Members.

The welcome email

New partners get the email "Welcome to the affiliate program" with their code, their shop link and their recruiting link. It goes out when someone becomes a partner by signing up or by activating themselves. When you add a partner yourself, it is only sent if you switch on Send welcome email in Add partner. Through the API it is only sent if the request asks for it.

If the member account was created in the same step, through the embedded registration form or the API, the email also carries a Set your password button. The new partner uses it to log in for the first time. In that case the form sends this email instead of the usual member welcome email.

Next, read Managing your partners to see how you edit, move and remove partners.