Getting started with RecruitAffiliates.ai

The setup steps that start your first search, and the brand settings that change any of it later.

RecruitAffiliates.ai lives at app.recruitaffiliates.ai. Links to its old address forward you there.

Setup is three short steps. It takes about five minutes, and there's no card at any point. Your first search starts in the background when you say who you want. When you finish setup you land on Today, and a banner at the top follows the search until your first affiliates are ready. As you go, your answers so far sit in a strip at the top of the next step. The second step shows your site, and the last one adds your offer.

Every choice has a ? beside its name. Press it, or tab to it and press Enter, and a short note opens under the name. It says what the choice changes in your search. Press it again, or Escape, to close it.

Create your account

Sign up takes three screens: your email, a six-digit code, then your name, your website and a password. The first screen also asks "How did you hear about us?". Pick one before the code goes out. You type the password once. Press Show to check it. Or press Continue with Google at the top and skip all three. Google confirms your email, and there's no password to set. Then setup shows what we read on your site and asks who you want.

The code has a box for each digit. Type it or paste it into any box. When the sixth digit goes in, it checks the code by itself, so there's nothing to press. On a phone, the keyboard can offer the code from your messages. Confirm code is still there if you'd rather press it.
A wrong code? You see "That code didn't match", the boxes empty and you can type it again straight away.
The code works for 15 minutes. If you switch apps to find it, or the page reloads, you land back on the code screen.
No code? Press Send a new code. You'll see "Code sent" when it's gone out.
Typed the wrong email? Press Use a different email under the code boxes, or on the last screen. Your email stays filled in, so you can fix it.
Already have an account? One login works for both products, so an AffiliateRail account counts. After the code you'll see "This email already has an account with us." Press Sign in. The sign-in page opens with your email filled in. Use the password or Google login you already have, and setup starts here. Or type a different email to make a new account.
Your website. The last screen asks for it. A work email fills it in for you. For example, jo@acme.com suggests acme.com. A Gmail or Outlook address leaves it empty. We start reading your site while you finish, so the first step is usually ready when you get there. Leave it empty and step 1 asks for it.
The terms. Pressing Create account means you agree to the Terms and the Privacy policy. Both are linked under the button.
Leave part way through? Sign in again and you land on the step you left, with "Welcome back. Carry on where you left off." Everything you answered is kept, on any device.

The setup steps

Is this you?

Your 7-day trial starts here. We start reading your website at signup. So this step usually opens with the card filled in, from your home page and the pricing and about pages it links to. While we're still reading, you see what we've done so far, like "Read 3 pages of acme.com". Each line gets a tick when the next starts. Nothing yet? A plain holding line fills the gap. Once the read is done, How we read it gives the real counts: pages read, competitors found, topics found.

Five lines, all open to edit. No Change buttons.

What you sell. One sentence in a text box, filled with what we read. The page we took it from shows under it until you edit it.
Who buys it. The people who pay for it, in a text box. The emails we write later mention it.
Competitors. Every one we found, as a chip. We pick up to 15 to start. Tap a chip to take it off and tap it again to put it back, or type a name to add one. You can pick 20 at most. Searches built on a competitor's name find more affiliates than any other search we run, so keep every real one. Your topics sit under them. A topic is a short phrase a reviewer would put in a title, like "invoicing software".
Customers in. The countries your customers are in. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand start picked, plus the country your browser told us. Tap one to take it off. Type a country's name to add it. Your language sits beside them.
You sell. The kind of business, as chips. We use our read of your site and mark it "Our guess". When we can't tell, it starts on "Something else" with "Tap the right one." We never guess for you. Each kind gets its own searches and starting offer. A shop never gets software review sites or a monthly commission.
A blocked site. Some sites block readers like ours. The card opens empty for you to fill in, with a Try reading again button.
A slow read. After 45 seconds the lines open to type into. A late answer only fills what you left empty.
No website yet. If signup didn't get one, this step asks for it first, with your country, and starts reading when you press Read my site.
An unconfirmed email. Signed in with an AffiliateRail login and never confirmed your email here? Press Send the code and type the six digits from your inbox. It checks them as soon as the last one goes in.

Nothing saves until you press Looks right.

Who do you want?

Pick who you want. Everything has a default, so you can press Find my affiliates straight away.

Who first. My first 20, fast is picked to start. Bigger names asks for large audiences, though most of them want a paid sponsorship and few work on commission alone. Small and keen finds smaller audiences, who reply more.
Where to look first. Every platform starts ticked. Picking fewer only orders your list, because we still search everywhere and you never get fewer matches. YouTube is one of the platforms you can tick. Instagram and TikTok appear when that search is on.
Countries. The ones you picked on the last step, as chips, with a line naming them. Tap one to take it off, or type a country's name to add it. Both steps save the same list.
Your offer. Your offer is what an affiliate earns for sending you a customer. It starts as one line that fits what you sell. A shop, a brand, a course or a service starts at 10% of each sale they send. A free product to try is ticked, and you can untick it. Software starts at 20% of every payment, for as long as they pay. The currency follows your country, so a UK shop's fixed amounts are in pounds. If you've already saved an offer, we show that one and never swap it. Press Change to set the rate, tiers, a bonus or a pitch. Where you track affiliates is in there too.
Where do affiliates sign up? Optional. The page where an affiliate joins your program. We look for it on your own site and fill it in for you to check. A yes reply carries this link, so the person can join in one tap. It's the same link as Your signup link under Settings, What you offer.

Once your matches say what they're paid, a line under the offer gives the range, like 20 to 30%. We repeat what at least two of their pages or videos say. We never guess.

Nothing can be sent until your offer exists, and every deal you make later starts from it. Find my affiliates saves all of it and starts your first search.

Send from your own mailbox

Your emails go from your own Gmail or Outlook address, so replies come back to you. Above the step, your search's count goes up as it finds people, like "Searching. 14 found so far." If you typed who you wanted on step 2, it's shown back to you in your words.

We send at a human pace, a few an hour.
You read and approve every email before it goes.
Disconnect any time in Settings, Mailboxes.

Under those, the step says whose page you sign in on. It's Unipile's, our mail partner, not ours. We only read your outreach emails and the replies to them, never the rest of your mailbox. The ? beside it opens what we keep. Gmail works. So does Outlook, and so do most other mail providers, so the address you already send from is usually the one to connect.

Press Connect your mailbox and sign in with your mail provider, and when that's done you come straight back to this step. Easy. Once it's connected, we ask whether you've sent email from this address for a few months. An address with history can send more first emails a day. A new one warms up: it starts at 5 new people a day and rises over a few weeks. Your answer is saved at once, and a line under it says what changed. Didn't save? It says so. Pick again. Then press Go to my dashboard.

Signal gone? After three failed tries while the search runs, this step says "We can't reach the search right now", with a Retry button. The search keeps going on our side either way.

Not ready? Press Skip for now and connect one later from Settings, Mailboxes. Either way, this is the last step: you land on Today while your search keeps running. If the connection fails, nothing changes, so try again whenever you like, or use a different mailbox if that one keeps refusing to connect. Already connected a mailbox for another brand? We skip this step.

Follow the first search

Your first search usually takes 4 to 5 minutes. You can leave the page. A one-line note at the top of Today and Discover says "We're finding your first affiliates" and how long it's been running. Under it, a line promises an email when the search is done. A reload keeps it. An empty list, like Today's new matches or Discover, shows how many are found so far. It climbs. The first rows show up as soon as one source finishes, so you can start working on them well before the whole scan has ended. Later ones wait behind Show them. Nothing moves.

On Today, the new matches column becomes the search itself while it runs. Each place we search, like YouTube, websites or podcasts, lights up when we've searched it. Your affiliates join the list one by one as we find them, each with its fit, and the count at the top climbs with them. New ones always join the end, so nothing jumps while you read. When the search ends, your three best fits sit in a row with the best one highlighted. Press Start outreach to open the first campaign we drafted for you, or Review them one by one to go through them on Today. You see this once, on your first search. With less motion set on your device, everything simply appears.

At four minutes we name any source still running. If one runs out of time, you keep everything the others found, and a Search those again button tries that source one more time. If the whole search stops, press Retry search. Nothing is lost.

Then the good part. The note says "Your first affiliates are ready", with the counts and a See them link to Discover. A short burst of confetti plays. Just once. With Celebrations off or less motion set, you get the words without the confetti. The note closes itself after about 30 seconds, or sooner if you press the close button. After that a line at the top shows your next search date. A search that stopped early, ran out of time or found nobody stays until you close it.

If the first search can't start, step 2 tells you under Find my affiliates and charges nothing. Press it again to retry. Discover says what to do when a search finds nobody.

Today, the screen you open each morning

When setup is done, you land here. It's the first entry in the sidebar, and it's where you land every time you sign in, because it answers the question you'd otherwise open four screens for: what changed since you last looked?

On that first visit only, a small link under the greeting reads Book a 20-minute onboarding call. It opens a booking page in a new tab. It's optional.

That same call is also one tap away for good. Every signed-in page has a Book an onboarding call button in the top right. On a phone, press your initials in the top right and it's in that menu. Both open the booking page in a new tab.

Today opens with a greeting and how many things need you, for example "Good morning, Priya. Three things need you." Under it, four tiles count what changed: new matches, replies waiting, people who said yes and replies this week. Your email lookups are at the top of every screen.

Needs you, on the left, has a card for each thing to do, most urgent first, each with a label, one sentence and one button. Start there. The first card holds the page's yellow button.

Waiting for your yes. Campaign emails that need your review before they send.
Replies waiting. People who wrote back. Until you connect a mailbox, a card says so instead of showing a zero.
Ready for your tracking tool. People who said yes to add. The button is named for your tool. See Integrations.
Gone quiet. Partners with no click or sale for 30 days. Copy their link gives you their portal address to send with a note.
Campaign running. A campaign that's sending, with a link to it.

Nothing to do? The column says so.

New matches, on the right, shows your new matches one at a time, best first. On a trial it's the quickest way to review your top 50. Each card has the page or video that got them in, their score and what it's made of. Each card has four answers:

Save to pipeline saves them. It's free, and Undo takes it back for five seconds.
Find email saves them and looks up their email. It costs one email lookup, and only when an address comes back.
Skip moves on and keeps them for later.
Not a fit hides them. You can undo it.

The bar under the card says where you are, for example "Match 7 of 12". See all in Discover opens the full list. The tile, the "reviewed" count and See all use one number: every new match since you last looked, dealt with or not. Been through them all? The column says so. With no mailbox connected, Replies waiting reads "None" and tells you to connect one. On a trial, a line says how many more the search found beyond your top 50.

The foot of the page shows your plan, searches left and the day of your next search on one line, with See plans beside them. Discover shows the same day. A This week line sits above the tiles only when something happened, for example "This week: 3 replies, 1 new partner".

"Since you last looked" is per person. Your first visit counts the last week. After that it counts from your last visit and never reaches back further than seven days, even if you've been away for a month. Back within the hour? The lines stay put. Reloading Today doesn't count as a visit.

Leave Today open and it keeps up on its own. When a search finishes, whether it started here, from Find new or on its weekly run, the counts update without a reload. It looks for a new search once a minute, and again when you come back to the tab.

The New matches count comes from the list Discover shows, so it never beats your match count there. A match you hide leaves it.

With no new matches, the card says so and See your matches opens the whole list. While your first search is still running, it's Open Discover instead. The rows appear there as each source finishes.

The same five counts sit at the top of Pipeline as links back to Today.

Today as one list

We're testing a simpler Today. When it's switched on, Today is one list of what needs you, the same on a phone and a computer. The headline is the next thing to do, for example "Good afternoon, Maya. Answer 2 replies." Under it, each thing waiting gets one card, most urgent first:

Choose a plan when your trial or plan has ended.
Answer people who wrote back with a yes or a question. Their names link straight to the conversation.
Approve people whose emails are written and wait for your yes.
Hand on agreed deals: send each person their link.
Start your first campaign when some of its people have an email. Read the emails and start opens the first person's emails on the Outreach screen, with Approve beside them. Nothing sends until you approve.
Your first campaign when its people still need an email. Find emails for these 20 is right on the card, with the cost first. Nobody waits for your yes until they have an email, and the Outreach screen counts them the same way.
Writing when we're still writing emails for a campaign you've started. They move to Approve when they're ready.
Connect a mailbox when you have people to email and no mailbox yet. You can approve first. You come back to Today after.
Email your best 5 when you have matches and no campaign yet.
Look at the new people, one at a time, right under the list.
Check in with affiliates who've gone quiet.
Find more people when a search has finished and nobody is left to look at or email. Let's say your first search found one match and we found no email for them. Today says so, and the button opens a new search for a nearby topic or a competitor.

The first card holds the yellow button. Each card names up to three people and how many more wait. "You're all caught up" shows only once an email has gone out and nothing is waiting, so you'll never see it on day one. While your first search runs, Today says your first affiliates are on their way and offers a link to set your offer in the meantime.

Your first week

Above the list, five steps show how far you are from your first reply: Search done, Emails found, Approved, Sent and First reply. Each step is a link. The next one is dark. The ones you've done are ticked, so you can see at a glance how much is behind you. A line under them says what comes next, for example "Next: you approve your first campaign."

Most of it happens while you're away. Your first search runs for a few minutes, and we look up emails for your first campaign while it does. So when you come back and a step finished without you, it gets a stamp and a small burst, for example "Emails found". Your first reply gets confetti. Approving and sending are things you press yourself, so we don't make a fuss about them and those two steps just get a tick. Three days after your first reply, the steps leave. See Celebrations to keep the words and stop the movement.

A tile shows only when its number is above zero. The score's parts on a new person's card sit behind Why this score. The counts come from the same place as the Outreach screen, so both always name the same people. See Numbers.

Finding your way around

The rail on the left has the pages you use every day: Today, People, Outreach and Results. Settings sits at its foot. The numbers beside them say where something waits for you:

People, in pink: new matches nobody has looked at since you last opened Today.
Outreach, in pink: people whose emails are written and wait for your yes.
Outreach, in blue: replies you haven't opened yet, counted per conversation, so a long back-and-forth with one affiliate only ever adds one.

A number shows only when it's above zero. Results is there from your first day. Until your first emails go out, it says so and sends you to your next step on Today.

The card at the top of the rail is your brand. Press it to switch brands or add one. Your plan shows under the name, and on a trial, so do the days you have left.
The foot of the rail shows the email lookups you have left this month. Once you've used 90% of them, a note there says how many are left and when they reset. Close it and it stays closed until the next month. Need support? opens an email to us.
The top bar says which workspace and brand you're in, whether your searches are current, and how many email lookups are left.
The bell opens Activity. Mine leads with your notifications, then everything that involves you, and Team shows what everyone did. On your own, there is just one list. The bell's number is unread notifications.
Your initials, at the far right, open your account menu: the address you're signed in with, Settings, Help and Sign out. Help has Docs, Book a call with us, and Email us.
A small "?" beside a number or a setting opens the part of these docs that explains it, in a new tab.

When something doesn't save, a message says so and stays until you close it. If you left the tab open overnight and we've shipped a new version since, the message offers Reload. And if you try to leave a form with changes you haven't saved, you're asked first.

Change it later: brand settings

Open Settings in the sidebar. Business holds four pages, and each one says what an edit changes and when.

Tab	What's in it	When a change takes effect
What you sell	Your summary, competitors and topics	Your next weekly search
Who you want	How you'll pay them, countries, languages, hide or rank lower, plus an optional Advanced revenue estimate, then who to skip: people you already work with	Now. We re-rank your affiliates, which takes 30 to 90 seconds. Who to skip reaches Discover now, and every search after
What you offer	The rate, how long it pays, tiers, bonus, gifting, plus an optional price and payouts	Every new deal. Saved deals keep their terms. Price and payouts reach the next email we write
How you sound and send	Who buys from you, proof, things to avoid, tone, then the daily limit, signature and an optional postal address	The next email we draft or send

Worth knowing:

The number beside a competitor is how many of your affiliates name that competitor in a review, a comparison or a video. It's measured from your own search. Before your first search it says "not measured yet".
How you'll pay them sets the size. Under Who you want you answer "How will you pay them?". The choices are commission only, commission plus a bonus for results, or commission and a fee per post. Commission only favours smaller creators, a bonus the middle, and a fee per post leaves room for large ones. Each answer says in one line what to expect. Nobody is hidden. Your matches are only ranked again.
Hiding by country shows a count first. Before you save, the Who you want tab tells you how many of your affiliates would leave Discover. They aren't deleted. Switch back and they return. An affiliate with no known country is never hidden. Your trial still shows fifty.
Price and payouts are optional. Under What you offer, fill in what one customer pays and how you pay out. Then the first email can say what one customer earns them, like $54 for each customer they send. It can also say how you pay, like each month with no minimum. Enter 0 as the minimum only if there really is none. Leave a field empty and the emails say nothing about it. This applies to the shorter first email, which is rolling out now.
The revenue estimate is optional. Open Advanced revenue estimate under Who you want to enter customer value, conversion rate and tracked share. Leave customer value empty to skip it. Fill in all three and a range shows up under the fields: what every 1,000 visitors an affiliate sends you could be worth. It isn't shown on each affiliate yet.

Exclusions

An exclusion is someone you already work with, so we don't show them to you as new. There are two ways to add them.

From AffiliateRail. If you run a program there, your partners are left out of Discover on their own. Update partners now also lists them here as exclusions. It's free.
From a CSV. Any columns, in any order. Put one email, website or YouTube link in each cell. We match on all three, skip what we can't read, and tell you how many cells we skipped. A file can hold up to 5,000 lines and 1 MB.

The checklist

Until setup is done, a card called Get set up sits under Needs you. It lists two steps, done or not: connect your mailbox and send your first campaign. Each step you haven't done has a button that opens the screen that does it. While no mailbox is connected, the Needs you card asks for one instead, so the checklist waits.

The bonus. When one step is left, the card says finishing it earns 10 free email lookups. Sending your first campaign is what pays them.
When both are done. The card shrinks to one line, You've finished setup. Press Hide this and it's gone for good.
It's yours. Each person on your team has their own card and hides their own.

Three questions

Each is asked once, in a card you can dismiss with Not now. None of them blocks anything. Today shows one ask at a time, under Needs you.

For accounts made before 25 October 2026: "How did you hear about us?" on Today, for the account owner. New accounts answer it at sign-up instead. Pick one. It tells us where to spend our time.
After your first send: "How likely are you to recommend RecruitAffiliates.ai?" Pick a number from 0 to 10.
After you cancel: "What made you cancel?" Write one line, up to 280 characters. We read it. It isn't sent to any analytics tool.

AffiliateRail, where it helps

You don't need AffiliateRail to use RecruitAffiliates.ai, and setup never mentions it. The app offers it in three places, and each one goes away when you say no:

On someone who said yes with no AffiliateRail program. The deal and the hand-off has the detail.
On Today, once. When you've agreed three deals and have no program and no deal tracked elsewhere. Press Not now and it doesn't come back.
On an empty Keep screen when you have no program, with one line about the clicks, sales and commission paid you'd see there.

RecruitAffiliates.ai and AffiliateRail share one account. Sign in to either one and the other lets you straight in.

Opening RecruitAffiliates.ai from AffiliateRail. RecruitAffiliates.ai asks AffiliateRail who you are, gets a one-time code back and signs you in. The address bar flicks for a moment while it happens.
Going straight to RecruitAffiliates.ai's sign-in page? You see the form at once. It only checks with AffiliateRail first if this browser has come over from AffiliateRail before.
The code works once, for a minute, and only on the app it was made for. A one-time code is a random string that stands in for your password on one trip between the two apps. If you copy the link and open it again, it's refused and you get the normal sign-in form.
Opening AffiliateRail from RecruitAffiliates.ai. "Open in AffiliateRail" and "Create your AffiliateRail program" do the same thing the other way round, so you land there signed in.
Signed out of both? You get RecruitAffiliates.ai's sign-in form, the same as always.
Signing out of RecruitAffiliates.ai signs you out of AffiliateRail too. Press Sign out and the address bar flicks through AffiliateRail for a moment, which ends your session there as well. You land back on RecruitAffiliates.ai's sign-in form with "You're signed out of RecruitAffiliates.ai.", and it doesn't sign you straight back in. That matters on a shared laptop: the next person gets the form, not your account.
Signing out of AffiliateRail is per app. Sign out there and RecruitAffiliates.ai keeps you signed in until you sign out here.
Signed up with Google? Press Continue with Google on RecruitAffiliates.ai's sign-in page. If the address matches an account you already have, with a password or on AffiliateRail, you're signed in to that account. Nobody gets a second one. Google has to vouch for the address first, which it does for every Gmail and Google Workspace address.
Two-factor turned on? Two-factor is a second check after you sign in, usually a six-digit code from an app on your phone. Sign in with your password or with Continue with Google. If the account has two-factor on, RecruitAffiliates.ai asks for it on its own sign-in page. The prompt asks for the code from your authenticator app, one box per digit. It goes on by itself when the sixth digit is in. You can set it up yourself under Account security. If you also use AffiliateRail, the same code works there, because the account and its second factor are shared.

Forgot your password?

On the sign-in page, press Forgot your password? under the password box and type the address you sign in with. We email you a link that works once, for 60 minutes. Open it, choose a new password of at least 10 characters, and you're signed in again. If you started from a deal's activation sheet, you land back on that sheet.

Resetting signs out every other browser, and we email you to say the password changed. If you use AffiliateRail too, the new password works there as well, because the two share one account.

Cookies and screen recordings

If you accept cookies on recruitaffiliates.ai, we may record how you move around the app. A screen recording is a replay of where you clicked and scrolled. We use it to find screens that confuse people.

Nothing without a yes. Decline cookies, or don't answer, and nothing is recorded.
Every box you type in is hidden. So is every email address on the screen.
Some pages are never recorded: signing up, signing in, joining a team and billing.

Next: the deal and the hand-off.

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