Get your first affiliates in
After this track you can
Thirty to sixty affiliates approved in month one if you are listed, recruited from your own network first, from all four surfaces, and vetted on traffic rather than location.
Month one is recruitment. Not clicks, not revenue, recruitment. The single biggest challenge every program has is finding affiliates, and the spread between programs that see revenue in a few months and programs that see it in six is explained almost entirely by how much recruiting got done in the first weeks.
This track covers where affiliates come from, in the order that works: your own network first, then the four surfaces Reditus gives you, then outreach into demand that already exists. It ends with the question nobody prepares for, who to let in, because approval is not activation and the people you accept in month one are the people you will be trying to activate in month two.
Syllabus
Lessons in this track
- 1Treat month one as recruitment only, and judge it on affiliates rather than clicksKnow what month one produces (30 to 60 affiliates if listed in the marketplace, fewer if not), where they come from in week one, and why clicks and revenue are the wrong scoreboard until month two. 6 min read Video coming soon
- 2Start with your own network: users to the referral program, partners to the affiliate programApply the restaurant rule and recruit the people who already use your product first: users into the in-app referral program, and the consultants, agencies and partners who reach your customers in bulk into the affiliate program. 8 min read Video coming soon
- 3Know the four surfaces affiliates come from, and what each one is forTell apart marketplace inbound, partnership requests to the vetted database, the AI recruit finder for sites outside the network, and campaigns plus the affiliate newsletter, and use each for the job it does. 8 min read Video coming soon
- 4Recruit into existing demand with outreach that scales without sounding like a robotFind the sites that already rank for your topic and link to your competitors, automate the first touch, and take over by hand the moment someone replies. 9 min read Video coming soon
- 5Decide who to let in: approval mode, vetting on traffic, and the stage you are inSet review versus auto-accept for your stage, vet applicants on where their traffic is rather than where they live, read the fraud flags correctly, and know when "let everyone in and learn" is the right call. 8 min read Video coming soon
What "in trouble" looks like at this stage
Every academy teaches the happy path. These are the signals we see in programs that are going quietly wrong at this exact point, and the lesson that deals with each one.
Two weeks after listing you have a handful of applicants and none from your niche
Usually you are not listed, not featured, or your program page gives a professional affiliate nothing to evaluate.
Fix it: Treat month one as recruitment only, and judge it on affiliates rather than clicksApplicants have no website, no connected analytics, and sit outside the region you sell to
Vet on traffic, not location, and check whether your paid-ads setting is inviting them.
Fix it: Decide who to let in: approval mode, vetting on traffic, and the stage you are inPartnership requests sent, no replies
Requests to the vetted database are one channel. The affiliates who convert fastest are usually already in your own network.
Fix it: Start with your own network: users to the referral program, partners to the affiliate programAffiliates accepted, nothing published after three weeks
Approval is not activation. Track 3 is about the two weeks after the yes.
Fix it: Assume your affiliates are busy, and do their first step for them