The deal and the hand-off

A deal is the terms one affiliate is offered and accepts. When they say yes, one press adds them to your AffiliateRail program with those exact terms. You write nothing twice.

The deal

Saving an affiliate creates their deal from your brand's offer. You can change it for that one person: the rate, how long it pays, tiers, a bonus, gifting. Every change of terms is kept, with its date, so you can see what you offered and when.

Two more fields sit on the deal:

• Verdict. Your call, for the card: recommended, yes but expensive, overpriced, maybe later, not recommended.
• Their ask. What they asked for, in their words.

Tiers step up after a number of referred customers. They can't step up on revenue, because AffiliateRail's rules count customers.

Terms agreed

When you and the affiliate settle on the terms, press Terms agreed. That stamps the date and fixes the terms. The deal page stops showing Edit deal, because nothing is left there to change. You can still update the verdict, their ask and your notes from the deal line on Saved.

What happens next

The next step depends on your answer to "Where do you track affiliates?" See Integrations. You never need an AffiliateRail program to use RecruitAffiliates.ai.

• AffiliateRail, with a program. The one button is Add to AffiliateRail. It says what it does: it creates their link, their commission plan and one email to the affiliate. You see everything first.
• AffiliateRail with no program, or "I don't have one yet". One card says "Next: give them a tracked link." It explains that AffiliateRail tracks what they sell. It pays their commission from your own PayPal or Wise. Press Set up tracking to make your program. You land back on this deal when it's ready. If you answered "I don't have one yet", the underlined link is No thanks, and it closes the card for good. Otherwise it's I already use a tracking tool: the deal moves to Activated, the card goes away for it and nothing is created.
• A named tool. The button is "Add to your tool". See Integrations.
• Another tool. Add them in your tool yourself, then press Mark as Live.
• No answer yet. The question is asked right there on the deal.

Add to AffiliateRail

Open the deal and press Add to AffiliateRail. A sheet shows what one press creates:

• A partner in your program, active, with their email, name, company, website and country.
• Their commission rule, in words. A fixed amount has to be in your program's currency.
• An invite link to their portal. It works for 30 days, and they can open it more than once. It opens the sign-in page with their email filled in, and the portal emails them a code to get in. The invite also reminds them to say they're an affiliate when they share your link, because US and UK advertising rules expect it. You can turn that line off on Brand, How you send.

Press Add to AffiliateRail. All of it happens together, or none of it does. Pressing twice creates nothing twice. If it stops, the sheet says which step and what to do.

A bonus or gifting has no home on a rule, so it goes on the partner's note in AffiliateRail.

For now you send the link yourself. Copy it from the sheet into your reply. If it runs out before you send it, press Make a new link.

Already a partner

If the email is already in your program, the deal links to that partner and adds the rule. No second partner is created. The sheet says so before you press.

After the hand-off

Once a deal is activated, AffiliateRail owns the partner, their plan and their payouts. The deal's tab in RecruitAffiliates.ai turns read-only:

• Agreed terms are the terms you and the affiliate agreed.
• Live in AffiliateRail is their plan as AffiliateRail has it now, with its rate. If someone changed it there, this line shows the change.
• Open in AffiliateRail is where you change it.

Invited, then joined

After the hand-off the deal shows Invited. It shows Joined once the partner accepts your program's terms on the portal. If your program has no terms link, it shows Joined once they finish the welcome step instead. They earn commission on sales from the moment of the hand-off, even before they join.

No program yet

Started in RecruitAffiliates.ai and don't have an AffiliateRail program? The sheet offers two ways on:

• Create your AffiliateRail program. One short form in AffiliateRail, and you're back on this sheet.
• I track them elsewhere. The deal moves to Live and nothing is created. The sheet keeps the terms as a line to copy, so you can paste them wherever you track them, now or when you come back.

The form starts filled in from your RecruitAffiliates.ai brand: its name, its website and a portal address made from the name. If your default offer pays a fixed amount in dollars, euros, pounds, Canadian or Australian dollars, the currency is picked for you too. If the offer isn't set yet, or pays in a currency a program can't use, the form tells you and you pick one. Change anything you like. When you press Create my program, you land back on the deal's sheet, ready to press Add to AffiliateRail. If you sign in first, or use Google, you still end up back here.

What the sheet refuses

• The terms aren't agreed yet.
• The affiliate has no email revealed.
• The address asked not to be emailed by your program.
• The email is your own. A partner can't be paid for referring themselves.
• The deal pays a fixed amount in a currency your program doesn't pay in.

Each refusal says what to change.

Existing affiliates

RecruitAffiliates.ai reads your program's partners and keeps them out of Discover. A partner matches on email, website domain, or YouTube channel. You'll find them under Saved, in Existing affiliates.