> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.bloop.plus/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.bloop.plus/getting-started/the-affiliate-journey.md).
# The Affiliate Journey
The path a partner takes from sign-up through promotion to commission.
The affiliate journey is the path a partner takes through your program: they sign up, get approved, receive a unique link and code, promote you to their audience, drive sales, and get paid a commission. Seeing the journey from the affiliate's side helps you build a program worth promoting — a confusing sign-up, a stingy commission, or a slow payout each lose you partners at a different step.
This page describes the experience, not the setup. It shows what an affiliate sees and does at each stage, so the configuration in the feature docs has a clear purpose. To build the program itself, see [Getting started with affiliates](/quick-start/getting-started-1.md).
Two lanes, because the work splits cleanly — the promotion happens entirely on your partner's side, while approving and paying happen on yours:
```mermaid
flowchart TB
subgraph P["Your partner"]
A1["Applies, or you add them"]
A2["Gets a link and an optional coupon"]
A3["Promotes to their own audience"]
A5["Gets paid"]
end
subgraph S["You"]
B1["Approve them into a campaign"]
B2["Review the sale"]
B3["Record the payout"]
end
A1 --> B1
B1 --> A2
A2 --> A3
A3 -- "an order lands inside the cookie window" --> B2
B2 --> B3
B3 --> A5
A5 -. "keeps promoting" .-> A3
```
The seven steps below expand each lane.
### Who the affiliate is
An affiliate is an external partner — a creator, blogger, publisher, or any promoter with an audience. Unlike a referral, they need no prior order with you; they bring reach you could not get on your own. In return they expect a commission that makes promotion worth their effort and a payout they can rely on. The whole journey is **pay-for-performance**: they earn only on the orders they actually drive.
### Step 1 — The affiliate applies or is invited
A partner enters your program one of two ways. They either **self-register** through your registration form — landing in your dashboard with a **pending** status — or you **add them manually** with their name and email. Either way, this first impression matters: a clean registration form and a clear value proposition decide whether good partners bother to apply. See [Managing affiliates](/affiliate-program/management/affiliates.md) and the [registration form](/affiliate-program/branding/registration.md).
### Step 2 — You approve them
Before an affiliate can earn, they need approval and a **campaign**. The campaign sets their commission structure and the **cookie window** that governs attribution. You can review each application yourself or approve every registration on signup — that's the *Affiliate approval* setting in [affiliate settings](/affiliate-program/settings.md#automation). Approving the right partners, and steering different partners into different campaigns, keeps your program aligned with your margins. Commission options live in [Affiliate campaigns and commissions](/affiliate-program/campaigns.md).
### Step 3 — The affiliate receives their link and code
Each approved affiliate gets a unique **referral link** and, optionally, a **discount coupon** to share. The link is how Bloop attributes orders to them; the coupon gives their audience a reason to buy now and gives the affiliate a clean asset to promote. From here the affiliate can log into their portal to grab their materials and watch their results.
### Step 4 — The affiliate promotes you
The affiliate puts their link and code in front of their audience — in posts, videos, newsletters, bios, or reviews. This is the work you are paying for, and it happens entirely on the affiliate's channels. A commission and offer worth talking about is what turns a signed-up affiliate into an active one.
> **Best practice:** Activation, not recruitment, is the real bottleneck. A handful of partners who genuinely promote you beat a long list who signed up and went quiet. Give affiliates ready-to-use assets and a commission they can feel, then double down on the ones who actually post. See [recruiting affiliates](/best-practices/recruiting-affiliates.md).
### Step 5 — A customer buys and a sale is recorded
When someone clicks the affiliate's link and completes a qualifying order within the cookie window, Bloop records a **sale** and calculates the commission from the affiliate's campaign. The sale is created the moment the order is *paid*, or on *fulfilment* if that suits your lead times better — see [order settings](/affiliate-program/settings.md#order-settings). It appears in your dashboard for review, and the affiliate sees the pending earning in their portal. Tracking and statuses are covered in [Affiliate sales tracking](/affiliate-program/management/sales.md).
### Step 6 — You approve the commission
You review each sale and approve the valid ones, rejecting anything that doesn't hold up. Approving a sale moves its commission into the affiliate's balance as money owed. Bloop handles the obvious cases for you: when an order is cancelled or fully refunded it revokes the commission automatically and shows the affiliate why, so the review step is yours for judgement calls rather than bookkeeping. You can also skip it entirely by approving orders immediately — but then a commission can reach a payout before the return window closes, and a paid commission is never revoked.
Every commission moves through the same four states, and this is the map to reach for when a partner asks where theirs is.
```mermaid
stateDiagram-v2
[*] --> Pending: order paid (or fulfilled) inside the cookie window
Pending --> Approved: you approve it
Pending --> Rejected: you reject it, or the order is cancelled or fully refunded
Approved --> Rejected: the order is cancelled or fully refunded
Approved --> Paid: included in a payout you record
Rejected --> Pending: you mark it pending again
Paid --> [*]
note right of Paid: A paid commission is never revoked.
A partial refund never revokes one either.
```
### Step 7 — The affiliate gets paid
Approved commissions become available to **pay out** through the payment method the affiliate chose in their portal — until they've picked one, there's nowhere to send the money and the payout is blocked. You make the transfer in your own bank or PayPal, then record it in Bloop, and the amount moves from the affiliate's outstanding balance into their payment history. A reliable, on-time payout is the single biggest reason an affiliate keeps promoting you — and the reason they recommend your program to other partners. See [Affiliate payouts](/affiliate-program/management/payouts.md).
### How the journey shows up in your dashboard
Each step leaves data you can read: applications and approvals, clicks and sales, approved versus paid commission. Together they show where partners drop off — sign-ups that never produce a sale point to weak activation; sales that never get approved point to a review backlog. Use [affiliate sales](/affiliate-program/management/sales.md) and [payouts](/affiliate-program/management/payouts.md) to keep the journey moving.
### Where to go next
* Set the commission behind steps 2 and 5 in [Affiliate campaigns and commissions](/affiliate-program/campaigns.md).
* Shape steps 1 and 7 with [managing affiliates](/affiliate-program/management/affiliates.md) and [affiliate payouts](/affiliate-program/management/payouts.md).
* See the customer equivalent in [The referral journey](/getting-started/the-referral-journey.md).
---
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