The 12-Point Checklist for Vetting Any Affiliate Program

Most affiliates pick programs the way most people pick stocks: a headline number, a gut feeling, and hope. Then three months in, the “60% commission” program reverses half their sales, holds the rest behind a $100 threshold, and pays NET 60.

This checklist is the due-diligence process behind every score in our database. It takes about 30 minutes per program. Run it before you build content, because the cost of promoting the wrong program isn’t the lost commission — it’s the months of content built on a foundation you have to rip out.

Part 1: The economics (questions 1–4)

1. What is the real commission model — not the headline?

“Up to 50%” means the base tier is much lower. “Recurring” might be capped at 12 months. “200% of first month” on a product where everyone starts on the cheapest plan is a small bounty wearing a big costume.

Write down the answer to one question: if I refer one typical customer, what do I earn in month 1, month 6, and month 13? For a program paying 30% recurring capped at 12 months on a $50/mo product, that’s $15, $15, $0. For a $150 one-time bounty, it’s $150, $0, $0. Now you’re comparing real numbers instead of marketing copy. Our earnings calculator does this math across a whole year of referrals, churn included.

2. What does the typical customer pay?

Commission percentage × product price = your income, and programs love to advertise the percentage while staying quiet about the price mix. A 40% commission where 90% of customers take the $9/mo plan pays $3.60/mo. Check the pricing page, look for the plan the product pushes hardest, and assume most referrals land there.

3. Is there recurring revenue — and does the cap matter?

Recurring commissions compound: every month’s referrals stack on top of the last month’s survivors. But two details change everything:

• The cap. “Lifetime” recurring (AWeber, SE Ranking, Kajabi) is structurally different from “12 months” (HubSpot, Notion). At typical SaaS churn of ~5%/month, roughly 54% of a cohort is still paying at month 12 — so a 12-month cap forfeits a large tail.
• The churn. 30% of a product nobody keeps is worth less than 20% of a product nobody cancels. If you can’t find churn data, the product’s review pattern is a proxy: complaints about billing and cancellation flows usually mean high churn pressure.

We covered the full break-even math in recurring vs one-time commissions.

4. What’s the realistic EPC?

Earnings per click is the only number that predicts profit, because it merges payout and conversion into one figure. A $200 bounty converting at 0.5% is $1.00 EPC. A $40 bounty converting at 4% is $1.60 EPC — the “worse” program pays 60% more per click. Ask the affiliate manager for 90-day EPC by traffic source; if they won’t share, estimate it yourself with the method in our EPC guide.

Part 2: Attribution (questions 5–7)

5. How long is the cookie — really?

Cookie duration ranges from session-only (Booking.com) and 24 hours (Amazon) to 365 days (AWeber). For impulse products, short cookies are survivable. For considered purchases — software, hosting, courses — a 24-hour cookie means you’re feeding the brand’s retargeting funnel for free. Our cookie duration guide includes the verified windows for every program we track.

6. What’s the attribution model?

Last-click is standard: whoever gets the final click before purchase gets the commission. That matters because if the program also runs heavy brand-name PPC or allows coupon-site affiliates, your review-content click gets overwritten by the coupon site the buyer visits at checkout. Ask specifically: do coupon and deal sites participate in this program, and is there any first-click or assist credit?

7. Does a free trial or free tier break the chain?

Products with generous free tiers (Canva, Grammarly, ClickUp, beehiiv) convert clicks into signups that may never become commissions — or become them after the cookie dies. Check whether trial signups extend or freeze the attribution window. Some programs (Grammarly, historically) pay small bounties for free signups precisely to compensate for this; that’s a good sign.

Part 3: Payout operations (questions 8–10)

8. Threshold, terms, methods

Three numbers decide when commission becomes cash:

• Threshold: PartnerStack programs commonly pay from $5; some in-house programs hold until $100–$150. If you’re starting small, a high threshold can lock up six months of earnings.
• NET terms: NET 30 is fair. NET 60+ with a “validation window” means a sale in January pays in April. Hosting programs are notorious here because they wait out refund periods.
• Methods: PayPal-only is a real constraint in some countries. Check yours before you build.

9. What’s the reversal rate?

Reversals — refunds, fraud clawbacks, “order didn’t qualify” — are the silent killer of headline rates. Verticals differ: software refunds run low single digits; hyped info-products can reverse 20–40%. Ask the manager for the program’s reversal rate. A confident program knows the number and shares it. Evasion is data too.

10. Does the program actually pay? Check the record.

Search “[program name] affiliate not paid” and read forum threads (r/Affiliatemarketing, affiliate forums, Trustpilot for networks). One angry post means nothing; a pattern across months means everything. Network-managed programs (Impact, PartnerStack, ShareASale, Awin, CJ) put an intermediary’s reputation between you and the brand — that’s worth real money in risk reduction, which is why our payout reliability subscore rewards it.

Part 4: The rules (questions 11–12)

11. What traffic is banned?

Every program has a restricted-traffic list, and violating it forfeits earned commissions. The common landmines: brand bidding (PPC on the brand’s name), incentivized traffic, email without prior opt-in, toolbar/extension placements, and geo restrictions. If you do paid traffic at all, read the terms of service line by line — “we reversed everything because you bid on a brand misspelling” is a story every paid-traffic affiliate eventually hears.

12. How stable are the terms?

Programs cut rates. Amazon has done it repeatedly with days of notice; category rates that were 8% are now 3–4%. Signals of stability: years of unchanged terms, a network contract (harder to change quietly), and an affiliate manager who answers questions in writing. Signals of risk: “promotional” rates, recently-launched programs, and any program whose terms page has no date.

The 30-minute workflow

1. Pull the program’s profile in our database — commission, model, cookie, threshold, terms, verification date — or the official page if we don’t track it yet.
2. Answer questions 1–7 from the official terms. Anything undocumented goes in an email to the affiliate manager.
3. Search the payment-record footprint (question 10). Ten minutes, maximum.
4. Run your traffic numbers through the calculator with honest conversion estimates.
5. Only then decide whether the content is worth building.

The affiliates who last aren’t the ones who find secret high-paying programs. They’re the ones who never build on a program that fails this checklist.