Q: How do I decide on a minimum payout threshold?
The threshold is the minimum a partner must earn before you send money. Set it with this checklist, not a copied number:
— Calculate your cost per payout. Wire fees, PayPal cuts, accounting time. If sending $50 costs you $4, a $50 threshold burns 8 percent on overhead.
— Match it to your average order value. A program with $300 sales can hold $100; a program with $20 sales should sit near $50 so partners actually hit it.
— Decide your hold period separately. Threshold and the wait for refunds to clear are two different levers.
— Offer faster payouts as a reward tier, not the default. Trusted partners at $25, new ones at $100.
The caveat: a high threshold quietly demotivates small affiliates who'll never reach it, leaving balances you owe but never pay. Cap unpaid time: if a partner sits below threshold for 6 months, pay out anyway or refund the network.
Got a question? Send it in.
The threshold is the minimum a partner must earn before you send money. Set it with this checklist, not a copied number:
— Calculate your cost per payout. Wire fees, PayPal cuts, accounting time. If sending $50 costs you $4, a $50 threshold burns 8 percent on overhead.
— Match it to your average order value. A program with $300 sales can hold $100; a program with $20 sales should sit near $50 so partners actually hit it.
— Decide your hold period separately. Threshold and the wait for refunds to clear are two different levers.
— Offer faster payouts as a reward tier, not the default. Trusted partners at $25, new ones at $100.
The caveat: a high threshold quietly demotivates small affiliates who'll never reach it, leaving balances you owe but never pay. Cap unpaid time: if a partner sits below threshold for 6 months, pay out anyway or refund the network.
Got a question? Send it in.
Q: How do I run a fraud audit on my existing program?
Block a quiet afternoon and pull your last 90 days. Work top-down:
— Sort affiliates by conversion rate. Anyone converting at 3x the program average gets flagged for review, not a payout.
— Check time-to-conversion. Clicks converting in under 10 seconds are cookie stuffing or direct linking, not real referrals.
— Group conversions by IP and device fingerprint. Repeat buyers from one source under different customer accounts is self-referral.
— Match refund and chargeback rates per affiliate. A partner with clean traffic refunds like your baseline; a fraudster's cohort spikes.
— Review coupon and brand-bidding partners separately. They often intercept sales you'd have made anyway.
For each flagged account, pause payouts and ask for traffic-source detail before reversing anything.
The caveat: high conversion rate alone isn't proof. Some partners are just good. Use it as a trigger to look closer, never as an automatic ban, or you'll lose your best people to a false positive.
Got a question? Send it in.
Block a quiet afternoon and pull your last 90 days. Work top-down:
— Sort affiliates by conversion rate. Anyone converting at 3x the program average gets flagged for review, not a payout.
— Check time-to-conversion. Clicks converting in under 10 seconds are cookie stuffing or direct linking, not real referrals.
— Group conversions by IP and device fingerprint. Repeat buyers from one source under different customer accounts is self-referral.
— Match refund and chargeback rates per affiliate. A partner with clean traffic refunds like your baseline; a fraudster's cohort spikes.
— Review coupon and brand-bidding partners separately. They often intercept sales you'd have made anyway.
For each flagged account, pause payouts and ask for traffic-source detail before reversing anything.
The caveat: high conversion rate alone isn't proof. Some partners are just good. Use it as a trigger to look closer, never as an automatic ban, or you'll lose your best people to a false positive.
Got a question? Send it in.