Links, Signups, and Referrals

Partner Links

Each approved partner has a link made from your program's link address and their code. Your program's link address is made once when you add Partners, and it never changes. Opening a partner link:

• counts one click for the partner (the same visitor again within 30 minutes is the same visit), and
• sends the visitor on to your landing page with ?ref=CODE added, so your site can keep the code with the visit.

A code that is not approved (unknown, paused, ended) counts nothing and sends the visitor to the landing page without a code. A visitor who sends more than 120 clicks in an hour is not counted any further.

Your Website

Partners Settings shows the click address for your website. A site that keeps the code from ?ref=CODE can:

• send a click to that address (a POST with ref, page, and referrer), for links that point straight at your site, and
• send a signup to the same address ending in /signup (a POST with ref, email, name, and company) when someone who arrived with a code fills in your contact or signup form.

Both work from any website and never say whether a code or email is known. One visitor can send 10 signups an hour, and 1,000 a day are taken in all.

Which Referrals Count

A signup or a registration is checked when it arrives:

• Self-referral: the partner's own email address, or an address at their own business domain (from their email, website, or CRM company), is turned down. Free mailboxes such as Gmail never count as a business domain.
• First partner wins: someone already referred by another partner (Pending or Qualified) is turned down for the second partner. It is kept, so you can see it happened.
• Already in your CRM: someone who was in your CRM before the partner's first click (a client, a former client, a prospect, a contact, or a company with an open deal) is turned down, with the reason and the date.
• Otherwise it is Qualified, credited to the partner from their first click, when the same visitor clicked their link in the last 90 days (a setting), or else from the moment it arrived.

A referral that arrives before the person is in your CRM is linked to their CRM contact and company once they appear, and checked again then: a CRM record made before the click turns it down after all.

Registered Referrals

A partner can register someone they are introducing directly, from their own page. It is Pending until the person gets in touch (a signup with their email, with or without the code), then it is checked as above. One that waits longer than 90 days (a setting) expires.

Referrals by Hand

Add Referral on a partner's page (action partners.referral.add) records a referral you know about, such as a project you quoted after an introduction by email: choose the CRM company, or give an email address for someone not in your CRM yet. It counts as Qualified.

Turn Down (action partners.referral.reject) marks a referral Rejected with your reason, which the partner sees on their page. Its commission that is not paid yet is taken back.

The Application Page

When you open affiliate applications in Partners Settings, anyone can apply from your application page with their name, email, business, website, and how they plan to refer people. Each application arrives as a partner marked Applied. Nobody's link works until you approve them. A second application from the same email is taken as the same one, one visitor can send 5 applications a day, and a hidden field catches scripts that fill in forms.