This page is for merchants adding affiliates to a campaign and managing their approval status. AffiliateBase offers three onboarding paths: share a public campaign signup link, invite an affiliate to create their own login, or create the affiliate record directly when you already know who should be active.
Option 1: Public Signup Link
Use a public signup link to let affiliates join a campaign without a one-off email invitation. Invite-only campaigns have no public signup link; use an email invitation or direct onboarding for them.
- Open Campaigns.
- Choose the campaign affiliates should join.
- Open the campaign’s Invitations tab.
- Copy the Public signup link.
- Share that URL with prospective affiliates.
If someone creates an account from the account-level affiliate portal instead of a campaign-specific link, they join your default campaign. An affiliate account belongs to one campaign at a time. If an existing affiliate joins through a different campaign signup link, or accepts an invitation to another campaign, AffiliateBase moves them to the new campaign and gives them a new primary link for it.
Affiliates who already promote another program on AffiliateBase join yours with their existing login, and switch between programs from their portal. See Affiliates in more than one program.
Affiliates who join from a public signup link start as Pending so you can review them before approval. Pending affiliates can access their portal and use their referral link, but active-only features stay unavailable until you set them to Active.
The public signup form has an optional About you section: website or main profile, company, country, where they’ll promote (blog or SEO, YouTube, newsletter, social media, podcast, paid ads, community or forum, other), and a short note on how they’ll promote your program. Applicants can skip it, and every affiliate can add or change these later in their portal Settings.
Approve a public applicant
- Open Affiliates and choose To review.
- Open the applicant you want to admit and review their details and campaign. The Profile section on the Settings tab shows what they shared when applying: website, company, country, where they’ll promote, and how they plan to promote you.
- Open Affiliate actions and choose Approve affiliate.
- For an automatic promo-code campaign, check the code status before asking the affiliate to share it.
Approval makes the affiliate active. Automatic code generation also requires a Stripe discount on the campaign. A pending application is not a failed code sync, so approve the applicant first. Invitations that have not been accepted yet are a separate list under Invited.
If the campaign uses Manage codes individually, approve the applicant, then use Manage promo codes on the affiliate’s Links & codes tab to assign their code. Approval preserves existing individual assignments.
If code setup needs attention after approval, follow the status guidance and retry the sync when available. Do not create another code to work around a sync problem. See Use Stripe Promo Codes with Affiliates.
Option 2: Invite Flow
Use the invite flow when the affiliate should accept an email invitation and set up their own portal access.
- Open Affiliates and choose Invite affiliate, or open a campaign’s Invitations tab and choose Invite affiliate.
- Enter the affiliate email.
- Choose the campaign they should join.
- Select Send invite.
Invitation links expire after 14 days. On the Affiliates page, choose Invited to see Pending affiliate invitations, then choose Resend invite (or Renew invite once expired) or Revoke invite.
Because you chose the recipient, an affiliate who accepts a private invitation becomes Active. Accepting an invitation never overrides a Disabled, Suspicious, Rejected, or Banned state.
Option 3: Direct Onboarding
Use Affiliates -> Onboard affiliate to create the affiliate immediately from the merchant dashboard.
Direct onboarding works well for:
- founders or internal partners
- migrated affiliates from another platform
- affiliates you are helping during setup
- test affiliates used for launch verification
After direct onboarding, open the affiliate record to copy their generated referral link.
Directly onboarded affiliates default to Active. Choose Pending on the form only when you want a separate review step.
If the email you enter already has an AffiliateBase login, for example because the person promotes another program, AffiliateBase adds that login to your program and emails them that your program added them, with a link to their portal. If you chose Pending, the email says they are waiting for your approval. If the email has no login yet, AffiliateBase creates one without emailing the person, so tell them yourself.
An existing login keeps the name its owner set. You can fill in a first or last name only while that login has it blank. Names it already has show as read-only on the form.
What Happens Automatically
When onboarding succeeds, AffiliateBase creates:
- Affiliate record
- Primary referral link token for the selected campaign
- Active affiliate promo code when the campaign uses Generate codes automatically, has a Stripe discount, and the affiliate is active
- Affiliate portal access path tied to your account’s affiliate subdomain
If affiliates already have Stripe codes, or you want to choose their codes, set the campaign to Manage codes individually before onboarding them. Then open each active affiliate, go to the Links & codes tab, and choose Manage promo codes. Existing Stripe codes are not matched to affiliates automatically. See Use Stripe Promo Codes with Affiliates.
Affiliate States
Affiliates have one of six states:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Applied through a public signup link, or created with Pending selected. Awaiting your review. |
| Active | Approved. Can promote and earn commissions. |
| Disabled | Stopped by you. Earns no new commissions. |
| Suspicious | Under review. See the paragraph below. |
| Rejected | Application declined. Earns no new commissions. |
| Banned | Removed from the program, set only through Ban affiliate. |
To change a state other than Banned, open Affiliate actions -> Edit affiliate and change State.
Only Pending and Active affiliates can drive new attribution. Do not use Disabled, Suspicious, Rejected, Banned, archived, or deleted affiliates for new referral links.
Rejecting, disabling, or archiving an affiliate stops their future commissions, including renewals from customers they referred earlier. Commissions they already earned are not changed.
A suspicious affiliate is under review. Their links stop tracking new visitors, but payments from people they already referred are still recorded. Each commission from those payments is held for review and does not become due. If you approve the affiliate by changing their state directly from Suspicious to Active, AffiliateBase releases the held commissions, and they follow your campaign’s normal commission delay. If you reject or disable the affiliate instead, or move them through another state first, the held commissions stay on hold so you can review each one in commission review. A ban voids them.
A banned person cannot rejoin through a public signup link, a campaign signup link, or an invitation. See Ban an affiliate.
Ban an affiliate
Use a ban when an affiliate broke your program’s rules, for example fraud, fake traffic, self-referral, or brand abuse. Rejecting or disabling stops new earnings but keeps what the affiliate already earned. A ban also cancels what has not been paid yet.
Owners and admins can open the affiliate and choose Affiliate actions -> Ban affiliate. Before you confirm, AffiliateBase shows exactly what the ban will do:
- which of the person’s affiliate records are banned. A ban applies to every affiliate record that person has in your account, including archived ones;
- the unpaid commissions that will be voided, with totals per currency. This includes commissions already grouped into a payout that has not been exported or sent to Stripe;
- payouts that will be removed or reduced because their commissions are voided;
- payouts that were already exported or sent to Stripe. These are not changed, because the money may already have been paid; recover it through your usual process if needed;
- how many links will be archived and promo codes stopped.
Choose a reason (fraud, fake or bot traffic, self-referral, terms of service violation, brand or trademark abuse, spam, or other) and add an optional note, then confirm.
After a ban:
- the affiliate earns nothing more, including renewals from customers they referred earlier, and their links and codes stop working;
- voided commissions stay voided. Any clawback the affiliate still owes stays on record, and refunds and disputes on sales you already paid still create clawbacks as usual;
- the person cannot rejoin through your signup links or accept an invitation;
- in the affiliate portal they see only a notice and their past payout history;
- AffiliateBase does not email the affiliate; tell them through your usual channel if appropriate.
To lift a ban, choose Affiliate actions -> Unban affiliate and add a note. The affiliate moves to Disabled, not Active, so you decide separately whether to reactivate them. Voided commissions, archived links, and stopped codes stay as they are.
Every status change, including bans, appears in Status history on the affiliate’s Settings tab with who made it, when, and why.
Before You Invite
Confirm:
- The campaign destination is correct.
- For link tracking, the tracking script is installed on the destination or checkout-start page. Promo-code-only campaigns do not need a website script.
- The affiliate portal subdomain is saved in account settings.
- The account default campaign is set when you want the account-level portal signup to place affiliates into your main campaign.
- Your payout method and affiliate payout-detail expectations are clear.
Before an affiliate starts promoting
- Confirm the affiliate is in the intended campaign, and check their status.
- Explain the commission rules, attribution window, refund handling, and payout timing.
- Confirm they can sign in to their portal and copy their ready promo code or referral link, depending on your setup.
- Provide a short product explanation and examples suited to their audience.
- Agree on a first promotion, then check for a real referral and an attributed sale.
Use the affiliate link guide and tracking verification checklist to check the handoff. If you are still planning the offer or recruiting partners, start with how to launch a SaaS affiliate program.