Referrals & Affiliates

RankNest has two ways to earn from recommending it. The referral program is open to every user and pays in account credit that offsets your subscription. The affiliate program is application-only and pays cash commissions on paid signups. Both use the same personal link.

Where to find it

Click Account Settings in the dashboard sidebar, then open the Referrals tab. If you're an approved affiliate, a separate Affiliate tab appears next to it.

How to refer someone

1. Open the Referrals tab. The Invite & Earn card shows Your Referral Link and your personal Referral Code.
2. Click Copy Link and share it by email, on social, or anywhere your audience is.
3. When someone signs up through your link, they appear in your Referral History, and your credit is queued according to the reward structure.

The person you refer benefits too: they get a discount on their first invoice, which shows up on their own Billing page as a Referral discount line. Current reward amounts for both sides are listed in the Reward Structure card and on the referral program page.

How rewards work

• Trial signups earn a smaller credit, applied quickly. Trial rewards are capped per month. The Monthly Trial Cap gauge in the Earnings card shows how much of the cap you've used.
• Paid subscriptions earn a larger credit after a short waiting period (this protects against refunded signups). Subscription rewards are not capped.
• Credits apply to your billing balance and reduce your future invoices.

Each row in Referral History carries a status: Pending, Waiting Period, Credited, Credit ready (subscribe to apply) (you earned credit but need an active subscription for it to land), Expired, or Cap Exceeded.

The affiliate program

If you have an audience (a blog, a channel, a community), the affiliate program pays cash commissions on paid subscriptions instead of account credit. Commission terms are published on the affiliates page.

How to apply

1. Visit the affiliates page while logged in.
2. Fill in the application: your Website URL, a description of your Audience, your Promotion methods, and optionally social links and a note on why you want to promote RankNest.
3. Click Submit Application. Every application is reviewed by hand, and you'll hear back by email.

The affiliate dashboard

Once approved, the Affiliate tab appears in Account Settings with:

• Your referral link: the same link you already share. Paid signups now earn cash commissions instead of credit.
• Balance cards: Cleared (payable now), In holdback (recent commissions held briefly to cover refunds), and Lifetime paid.
• Payouts: the first time, click Complete payout setup to connect a payout account through our payment provider. After that, your full cleared balance pays out automatically on the 1st of each month, or click Request payout now for an on-demand payout (limited to once per 24 hours, with a small minimum).
• Commissions and Payout history tables showing every commission and transfer with its status.

Troubleshooting

No Affiliate tab in Account Settings. The tab only appears once your application is approved. Check the affiliates page for your application status.

Request payout now is disabled. Either your cleared balance is below the minimum shown, or you already requested a manual payout in the last 24 hours. The automatic monthly payout still runs regardless.

A referral shows "Credit ready (subscribe to apply)". You earned the credit, but credits apply to invoices. Start a subscription and it lands on your billing balance automatically.

Related

• Billing & Usage
• Email Notifications