What is an affiliate programme, and should I run one?

What it is

An affiliate programme rewards other people with commissions for promoting your products. They send buyers to your pages, systeme.io records who sent them, and a percentage of each sale is set aside for the person who sent it.

The free plan includes one affiliate programme.

What has to exist first

systeme.io lists three things before a programme can run.

• A systeme.io account.
• A funnel.
• An order form page inside it.

The order form is the part that matters. Commission is a percentage of a sale, so with nothing selling, there is nothing to pay a percentage of.

The settings it arrives with

The programme is configured under your profile photo, then Settings, then Affiliate program. It comes pre-filled.

systeme.io calls all four essential to fill in.

The rule that catches people out

A new order form applies an affiliate commission of 0%, whatever the default in the settings says.

So the programme can look configured and still pay nobody. The percentage has to be set on the order form itself, in the order form settings inside the funnel, before that product pays a commission.

The route runs through the funnel rather than the settings screen: open the sales funnel, open the order form configuration, and change the commission amount and the payment timeframe there. There is no Save button on it. systeme.io states the changes are saved automatically.

Who your affiliates are

Every contact on your email list is given an affiliate ID automatically, which means any of them can promote you.

The affiliate dashboard, where they see their contacts and sales, is only available to users registered as affiliates. Student accounts created for a course do not have access to it.

Because an ID exists for everyone, systeme.io recommends a dedicated opt-in page for the programme, so joiners can be tagged and told apart from the rest of the list.

Sending each affiliate their link

Nobody has to be sent a link by hand. Two variables do it inside an ordinary email.

• {affiliate_id} prints that subscriber's own affiliate ID.
• {affiliate_dashboard} gives them access to their dashboard.

An email containing https://www.yourpagelink?sa={affiliate_id} reaches every affiliate carrying their own working link.

systeme.io's worked example uses its own programme. The offer link is https://systeme.io/, and what goes in the email is https://systeme.io/?sa={affiliate_id}.

Its documented way of getting that email sent runs in two steps. Build a dedicated opt-in page for the programme so joiners can be tagged, then create an automation rule that sends an email whenever a new affiliate subscribes. The pencil icon on that rule is where the message is written.

What the programme leaves you to do

Recruiting affiliates is one job. The other is money.

Invoices for affiliate commissions are generated on the 10th of each month, and paying them is a separate step that does not run on its own. That is a monthly task for as long as the programme exists.

What you are agreeing to long-term

Affiliation in systeme.io is lifetime. Referred contacts and their own referrals carry the affiliate ID in the database, so a contact who buys six months or a year after the referral still earns that affiliate a commission.

There is one optional setting worth deciding before launch rather than after. A tick box in the affiliate program settings reads Allow your affiliates to view the email addresses of the leads they've referred, and nothing is shared unless it is ticked.

Buyer email addresses are a separate matter. systeme.io says the address may appear to the affiliate in the details of each sale on their own dashboard.