Program Terms

The public rulebook of an affiliate program — commission structures, qualification rules, payment schedules and conduct requirements.

Program terms are the standing public offer: baseline commission rates, what qualifies as payable, when and how payments run, permitted marketing conduct, and change procedures.

Public terms vs negotiated deals

Public terms anchor the floor; individual agreements override them for negotiated partners. The order of precedence should be explicit, because disputes love the gap between a 2019 public page and a 2024 email thread. Keep a dated changelog of term revisions — courts, regulators and angry affiliates all ask “what did the terms say on the date in question,” and programs that can answer win arguments cheaply.