Promoting a shop that uses Affiliatant.

What we are, and what we are not

We are not a network. There is no marketplace here, no list of programmes to browse and nothing to join on this page. Each merchant runs their own programme and invites their own affiliates, and your account exists inside that merchant's programme.

We never hold or pay out the money. Affiliatant works out what you are owed and produces the paperwork; the merchant pays you directly from their own bank, PayPal or Wise account. If a payment is late, the merchant is who to ask.

Joining a programme

A merchant gives you a link that looks like affiliatant.com/join/their-name. You give your name, your email address, the sites or channels you will promote on, and whatever else that merchant asks. You agree to their terms, which are published on the form, and we record which numbered version you agreed to and when.

Some merchants approve automatically and some by hand. You are told either way.

Your links

Once you are in, the portal gives you a tracking link for any page on the merchant's site you are allowed to link to. Each link carries a code that identifies you.

• You can add sub-IDs to tell your own traffic apart: which article, which video, which newsletter. They come back in your reports.
• A short form of each link exists for anywhere a long URL reads badly.
• A QR code is generated for print or a slide.
• Some merchants also give you a coupon code. That tracks a sale even when the click was not recorded, which is what makes it work in a podcast or a video.

How a sale gets credited to you

When somebody clicks your link we record the visit and send them straight on. If they buy within the merchant's attribution window, the sale is credited to you.

The decision is stored with its reasoning: the model used, the window as it stood that day, any other affiliate's clicks that lost, and why. If you ever disagree with a decision, there is a record to look at rather than an opinion to argue with.

Where a shopper arrives through your link and then uses somebody else's coupon code, what happens depends on a rule the merchant sets and publishes. Only one affiliate is paid.

Getting paid

Commission is held for a period the merchant sets, which should cover their returns window. Held commission is yours unless the order is refunded. After that it becomes payable and goes into the merchant's next pay run.

Add a payout method in the portal before the first pay run. An affiliate with no payout method is left out of it. This is the single most common reason somebody is not paid when they expected to be.

Most merchants set a minimum payout. Below it, your balance rolls forward rather than being lost, and the portal shows how far off you are.

If an order you earned on is refunded after you have been paid, the amount becomes a debt netted off your next payment, with a credit note to match. It is never clawed back out of your bank account.

Self-billing, if the merchant uses it

Some merchants raise your invoices for you instead of waiting for you to send one. This is called self-billing and HMRC sets out the rules for it in VAT Notice 700/62.

• You are asked to agree to it once, and the agreement runs for twelve months.
• You then do not raise invoices for that commission. The merchant does, and you get a copy.
• You must tell them if your VAT registration changes, which is why we ask again each year.
• You can decline. Your commission is unaffected; you would simply invoice as normal.

What the merchant can see about you

Your name, your email address, the properties you declared, your clicks and conversions, what you have earned, and your payout and tax details. They cannot see your password, and neither can we: it is stored as a hash.

You can ask for a copy of everything held about you, or ask for it to be erased. Ask the merchant first, because they decide what happens to it. Erasure strips your identity and keeps the accounting records, which have to be kept by law, and the invoices already issued in your name stay as issued.

Rules worth knowing before you start

• Disclose it. UK advertising rules require you to make clear that a link is an affiliate link. Most merchants also require it in their terms.
• Do not refer yourself. Buying through your own link is the thing every programme checks for, and it is flagged automatically.
• Check the terms on paid search. Most programmes forbid bidding on the merchant's own brand name.
• Only link to the sites the merchant allowed. The link builder will tell you which those are.

Something has gone wrong

A sale you expected is missing, or a payment has not arrived: ask the merchant first. They run the programme, they hold the money, and they can see everything you can and more.

If you think the software has it wrong rather than the merchant, write to support@affiliatant.com with the merchant's name and the order reference.

Are you a merchant instead?

If you run a shop and want a programme of your own, start with setting one up. It is free to a point and there is no card to begin.