Design your tier ladder, and move your originals to a private tier when you lower the public rate

Tiers exist for the affiliates who carry the program. They tell your top fifth that there is somewhere to go, and they let you change the public offer without breaking your word to the people who joined early. Both jobs matter more than the numbers on the ladder.

Public tiers

A public tier promotes an affiliate automatically when they reach a number of paid referrals, and the ladder is visible on your program page, so applicants see what growing with you earns. A higher tier can pay a higher percentage, a longer duration, or both. Since schedules are static, one rate for a set number of months, the ladder is how you reward growth; there is no first-month special rate and no per-plan rate, on purpose.

Design the ladder from your own numbers, not from a template. Look at where your best affiliates actually are in paid referrals after a few months, and put the first threshold where they are or nearly are, so the ladder is climbable this quarter. A first tier nobody reaches for a year is decoration; a first tier your top three cross next month is a message to the other thirty. The higher thresholds can be further out. Reporting is per tier, so you will see who is close.

Private tiers

Some partners should not be on the public ladder at all. Agencies, consultancies and communities get a private, invite-only tier, and what is in it is rarely just a bigger percentage:

• A different percentage and a different duration from the public ladder.
• A discount code they hand to their clients or community, which is often how the money is split. The simplest version: the client gets 10% off with the code, and the agency earns 10% commission. Some programs split one pool that way, others add the discount on top.
• A free account on the product, so they use it themselves and can implement it for clients.
• Much closer contact. These partners are not traffic sources, and they do not want the automated sequence a blogger gets.

There is no standard private-tier ladder. Every one of these deals is negotiated against what the partner brings, and the rule from Track 2 applies: whenever you give more, ask for something specific in return.

When you lower the public rate

Most programs start generous and lower the public rate once the company has brand and proof. Do it in this order: create a private legacy tier with the terms your original affiliates have today, move them into it, then change the public ladder for new joiners. The other order, lowering the rate under people who built the program, is how your best early affiliates go quiet, and they do not come back.