What's the difference between affiliate and referral programs?

Affiliate = third parties (creators, reviewers, agencies) promote you for cash commission. Referral = your existing customers refer friends for credit/discount. They're complementary. If you have to pick one first, run referral if you have <500 customers, affiliate if you have <10K customers and need top-of-funnel reach.

What if my margins can't support 25% commission?

She'll model alternatives: lower % with longer cookie window, flat-fee per signup, or 2-tier (high % for first 3 months only). For products with <40% gross margin, she'll usually recommend a flat fee ($50-150 per paid signup) over recurring %. She'll show you the unit economics before you commit.

How do I prevent affiliate fraud?

Rewardful flags self-referrals, multi-account fraud, and bot traffic automatically. Tycoon Agent adds a manual review for any affiliate over $500/mo in commissions and a clawback clause if customers refund within 90 days. Real fraud is <2% of payouts when set up properly.

What if I get 50 signups but nobody actually promotes?

Common — most signed affiliates are dormant. The 80/20 holds: top 5 affiliates drive 80% of revenue. Tycoon Agent runs a monthly re-engagement campaign to dormant ones (new asset kit, fresh promo angle), and aggressively recruits more top-of-funnel candidates to find the next high-performer. Activation rate of 20-30% is normal.

Ask Tycoon Agent: Set up an affiliate program

You'd think this needs a partnerships hire and a $400/mo SaaS — Tycoon Agent has it earning revenue in 14 days using Rewardful or PartnerStack at <$200/mo.

The short answer

Tycoon Agent sets up an affiliate program in 14 days. Day 1-3: she picks the platform (Rewardful for SaaS at $99/mo, PartnerStack for higher tiers, or LinkMink for low volume), drafts the affiliate agreement reviewed against industry standards, sets commission tiers (typically 20-30% recurring for 12 months in SaaS), and writes the program landing page on Webflow. Day 4-7: she identifies 100 high-fit affiliate candidates by mining your existing customers (most loyal users), Twitter accounts in your niche with 5K-50K followers via Apollo + Twitter API, and SaaS review site contributors. Day 8-14: outreach via Lemlist personalized email (target: 50% open, 15% reply, 50 signed affiliates). She builds the affiliate asset kit — banners, swipe copy, demo video, comparison sheet — in Notion. After launch: monthly payout calculation in Stripe Connect, performance leaderboard, and a Lark report on top 10 affiliates with revenue attribution.

How Tycoon Agent actually does it

Pick the platform and structure
Rewardful ($99/mo) for SaaS under $50K MRR, PartnerStack for higher volume. Commission: 20-30% recurring 12mo standard. Cookie window 60d. She'll customize based on your margins.
RewardfulPartnerStackStripe Connect
Draft agreement and landing page
Affiliate terms (FTC-compliant, IP protection, payout terms) + Webflow landing page with commission breakdown, FAQ, signup form, and proof points.
Webflow
Recruit 100 candidates
Mine: top 20 NPS-promoter customers + 50 niche Twitter accounts (5K-50K followers in your category) via Apollo + Twitter API + 30 review-site contributors (G2, Product Hunt, Capterra).
ApolloTwitter APIIntercom
Outreach and onboard
Personalized Lemlist sequence (3 touches over 8 days). Target metrics: 50% open, 15% reply, 50 signed affiliates. Each gets a welcome packet via Notion.
LemlistNotion
Build asset kit + monthly ops
Banner ads, swipe email copy, 90-second demo video, side-by-side comparison vs competitors. Monthly: Stripe Connect payouts, top-10 leaderboard, Lark report on revenue attribution.
Stripe ConnectNotionLark

What it looks like in chat

YouI want an affiliate program but I have no idea what commission to offer or how to find affiliates.

Tycoon AgentRecommendation based on your numbers ($28K MRR, 65% gross margin): **Commission: 25% recurring for 12 months.** Below 20% nobody promotes you. Above 30% kills your unit economics. 25% × 12mo at your LTV ($1,800) = $54 to affiliates per signup, leaving you $1,170 LTV. Healthy. **Platform: Rewardful at $99/mo.** Cleanest Stripe integration, no setup time, will pay for itself if even 2 affiliates convert. **Affiliate sourcing — I just pulled 3 lists:** - 18 NPS-promoter customers (most likely to convert because they already love you) - 47 Twitter accounts in dev tools / AI infra space, 5K-30K followers - 26 review-site contributors who write about your category **14-day plan:** platform live by Tuesday, agreement + landing page by Friday, outreach starts next Monday. Target: 50 signed affiliates, ~5-8 actively promoting in month 2, 15-25 conversions/mo by month 3. Go?

What you get back

Live affiliate program on Rewardful with 50+ signed affiliates, full asset kit in Notion, monthly Stripe Connect payouts, and Lark performance report.

Cadence: 14-day setup, then monthly ops (payouts, leaderboard, recruiting top-up).

How do I set up an affiliate program?