LinkJolt Answers

Can I run an affiliate program without spreadsheets and manual tracking links?

Yes, that is the whole point of LinkJolt. Tracking links and coupon codes are generated automatically, sales are tracked through your payment processor, and commissions are calculated and paid without a spreadsheet in sight.

How long does it take to set up an affiliate program with LinkJolt?

Most merchants are live in 5 to 10 minutes: create a campaign, connect your payment processor webhook, and add the tracking script. No engineering project required.

What is the difference between tracking links and coupon codes?

Tracking links attribute a sale by a URL parameter stored in the visitor's browser. Coupon codes attribute a sale by the discount code used at checkout. LinkJolt supports both at the same time so no sale slips through.

How are free-trial signups tracked, and when does commission count?

A free trial is tracked the moment it starts, recorded as a trial with no commission yet. When it converts to a paid subscription, it becomes a pending commission awaiting your approval.

How do I install the LinkJolt tracking script?

Copy the one line script tag from the Integration Hub in your dashboard and paste it into the head of every page a visitor can land on. Copy it rather than typing it, because the tag carries your own merchant ID and a wrong ID never raises an error.

How do I track affiliate sales without adding code to my checkout?

Use coupon code attribution. Create a discount code in your payment processor, register the same code in LinkJolt against an affiliate, and LinkJolt matches it automatically when an order uses that code. No checkout code changes needed.

How does LinkJolt decide which affiliate gets credit for a sale?

LinkJolt checks the tracking reference stored from the affiliate link first, then falls back to a registered coupon code. Whichever it finds maps the sale to that affiliate, as long as they are not rejected on the campaign.

How long does an affiliate stay credited after someone clicks their link?

30 days. A click stores that affiliate's details in the visitor's browser for 30 days, and a purchase made in that period is credited to them. The window is fixed: there is no setting to change it per campaign or per plan.

Where do I put the script when my landing page and checkout are on different platforms?

Put the script on every page a visitor sees before they pay, starting with the landing page. It only rewrites Stripe Payment Link, Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy links for you, so for any other jump to a different domain you have to carry the tc, aff and cid parameters across yourself.

Approving and rejecting commissions

Commissions are never approved for you. Every tracked sale arrives as Pending on the Commissions page, and you approve or reject it there, one row at a time or in bulk with the row checkboxes.

Can I pay affiliates in their own currency?

Yes. LinkJolt tracks each campaign in the merchant's currency, and payouts can be made through Stripe Connect or CSV export so you can settle with affiliates in the currency that suits them.

Can I reward top affiliates with a higher commission rate?

Yes, with commission tiers. Set rate bands by sales volume on a campaign, and an affiliate moves up to the higher rate as their own sales reach each band. Tiers apply to one-time sales; recurring subscriptions use the recurring rate.

Does LinkJolt hold my money or process my payments?

No. LinkJolt never holds or processes your funds. You keep your own Stripe or Paddle account, payments go straight to you, and LinkJolt only records conversions and facilitates affiliate payouts.

How are recurring commissions calculated for subscriptions?

When recurring commissions are enabled on a campaign, LinkJolt records a commission on each subscription renewal at your configured rate, until the optional cap is reached. You choose whether the cap counts months or payments.

How automatic payouts work, and what the processing fee is

Automatic payouts charge your saved payment method for the commission plus a processing fee of 2.9% and 0.30, then Stripe sends the payout to your affiliate. They are available on Professional, Ultimate and Scale, and stay off until you turn them on.

How do I pay my affiliates?

Approve the commission, then either let LinkJolt charge your saved card and send the money through Stripe, or download a file and pay the affiliate yourself through PayPal, Wise or your bank. LinkJolt never holds your funds, so there is no balance to withdraw.

Stripe for tracking and Stripe for payouts are two different things

Connecting Stripe so LinkJolt can see your sales and enabling Stripe payouts so affiliates get paid are two separate setups on two different screens. Doing one does not do the other, and each can be finished while the other is untouched.

What commission rate should I offer affiliates?

Start at 20% of the sale for a SaaS product. That is the median across the 98 percentage-based campaigns in the LinkJolt benchmarks (the average is 22.9%), and the 20-25% band is the single most common choice. Pay it on renewals too if your margin allows: 26% of campaigns do.

What does each commission status mean?

Every commission in LinkJolt sits in one of seven statuses: pending, trial period, approved, paid, rejected, refunded, or held. The status tells you whether the commission is still yours to decide on, already owed to the affiliate, or closed for good.

What happens to an affiliate's commission when a sale is refunded?

The commission is automatically reversed and marked refunded, and any payout still queued for it is cancelled. A partial refund reduces the commission in proportion to the amount refunded.

When and how do affiliates actually get paid?

You approve a commission, then pay the affiliate by Stripe Connect (automated) or CSV export (manual). On Professional and Ultimate you can turn on auto-payout, which queues approved commissions and pays them automatically within about 24 hours.

Which countries and currencies can automatic payouts reach?

Automatic payouts can reach affiliate Stripe accounts registered in 34 countries (the UK, US, Canada, Switzerland and the EEA), and only for commissions tracked in GBP, USD or EUR. Anything outside either list stays approved, so you can pay it yourself.

Why is my commission still pending?

A commission stays pending until the merchant reviews and approves it, and merchants approve on their own schedule. LinkJolt has no setting and no timer that approves commissions automatically, so pending means the merchant has not actioned it yet.

Can I manage my affiliate program from Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes. Add LinkJolt as a connector in claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or ChatGPT and run your program by asking: check performance, review commissions, look up affiliates, and register coupon codes in plain language.

Can I track affiliate sales for an iOS app?

Yes, for subscription apps. LinkJolt reads Apple App Store Server Notifications v2 and attributes subscriptions through Subscription Offer Codes: you create an offer code in App Store Connect for each affiliate, and every redemption and renewal is recorded as a commission. No SDK, no MMP and no changes to your app code.

Connect Stripe so LinkJolt records your sales

Two routes, and you only need one: approve LinkJolt once on Stripe's own site, which creates no webhook endpoint and no signing secret, or add the LinkJolt webhook endpoint in Stripe yourself and save the signing secret. Both live on Step 3 of the Stripe Checkout tab in Integration Hub.

Does LinkJolt have an MCP server?

Yes, a hosted one at linkjolt.io/api/mcp. Chat apps like claude.ai and ChatGPT connect with one-click OAuth; developer tools like Claude Code and Cursor pass an API key header; stdio-only clients can use the npm package.

How do I set up affiliate tracking with Stripe?

Add your LinkJolt Stripe webhook endpoint in the Stripe dashboard, then add the LinkJolt tracking script to your site. LinkJolt then records each Stripe sale and attributes it to the referring affiliate automatically.

Which payment platforms does LinkJolt support for tracking?

LinkJolt tracks conversions from Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad, GoPay, Apple In-App Purchases, and WooCommerce. You keep your own processor account and LinkJolt records sales through its webhooks.

Can I add my team to LinkJolt?

Yes, on paid plans: Professional includes up to 2 team members and Ultimate up to 20 (Starter has none). Invite them by email. Billing and team management stay owner-only, and you can grant payout or API access per teammate.

Can I run multiple brands or affiliate programs from one LinkJolt account?

Yes, on Professional and Ultimate. One account can run a separate, fully isolated affiliate program per brand. Extra brands are $30/month (Professional) or $55/month (Ultimate), and the first brand is included.

Do you take a percentage of my affiliate sales?

No. LinkJolt charges a flat monthly subscription and takes 0 percent of your affiliate revenue. Sales settle to your own payment account, so there is no per-transaction cut.

How do I cancel my LinkJolt plan, and what happens to my affiliate program?

Cancel from Settings, then the Billing tab, and confirm in the Stripe billing portal that opens at the end of the flow, because closing it early leaves the subscription live. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for, and your campaigns are paused at that point rather than deleted.

How does billing and the monthly limit work when I run multiple brands?

Each brand inherits your plan tier and gets its own monthly tracked-sales cap. You pay one bill: your base plan plus a per-brand add-on for each extra brand.

What happens when I reach my plan's monthly tracked-revenue limit?

Each plan has a monthly tracked-sales cap. Once you reach it, new conversions stop counting toward commissions until the next month or until you upgrade. Existing data and payouts are unaffected.

What is included in each plan?

Every plan includes link and coupon tracking, rule based fraud checks and 0% commission fees. Plans differ by monthly tracked-sales cap, staff seats and advanced features: Starter is $19.99, Professional $39.99, Ultimate $99 and Scale $249 a month.

Your monthly tracked-sales limit and what happens when you hit it

It is not a revenue share. LinkJolt takes 0% of the sales your affiliates drive; the limit is how much affiliate-driven sales volume your plan tracks in a billing period ($5,000 Starter, $25,000 Professional, $50,000 Ultimate, no limit on Scale), and most sales past it are held rather than lost.

Can I put my own branding on the affiliate portal?

Yes. Portal Branding, on the Professional plan and above, puts your logo and brand colour on the affiliate portal and the sign-up page, lets you call your partners affiliates, creators, influencers, partners or ambassadors, and gives you a branded yourcompany.linkjolt.io address. Ultimate and Scale can also remove the Powered by LinkJolt badge.

Can affiliates start promoting before I approve them?

Yes. Pending affiliates can generate tracking links and drive conversions right away, but those commissions stay unpaid until you approve both the affiliate and the commission. Nothing is paid out without your approval.

Connect Stripe so your commissions can be paid automatically

Connecting your own Stripe account in the affiliate portal is what lets a merchant's automated payout reach you. Your commissions are tracked and approved either way, but without a connected account the merchant pays you by hand through PayPal, Wise or a bank transfer instead.

How do I get affiliates into my program?

Four ways: email an invitation, share your campaign's partner link, list the campaign on the Discovery marketplace (Professional and up), or create affiliates programmatically with the Developer API (Ultimate and Scale).

How do affiliates get their tracking links?

Once an affiliate joins your campaign, their unique tracking links and short links are generated automatically in the affiliate portal. They copy and share them, and any registered coupon codes work alongside.

How do affiliates join my program?

Six ways: a personal email invitation, a shareable signup link, a pasted list of addresses, the Discovery marketplace on Professional and above, importing your existing roster from another platform, or the Developer API on Ultimate and Scale.

How does the Discovery marketplace help me find affiliates?

Discovery is a public marketplace (Professional and up) where affiliates browse live programs and apply to yours. Your campaigns are listed by default, you can auto-approve applicants, and featured placement is available for $39 per week.

Where do I find my affiliate link?

Your link already exists, there is nothing to generate. Sign in to the affiliate portal, open Campaigns, and press Copy Link in the Tracking link column of any campaign you have been approved for.

How does LinkJolt detect affiliate fraud and self-referrals?

LinkJolt uses rule-based checks, not AI. It compares signals like the email address, IP address, and device between the buyer and the affiliate to flag likely self-referrals, so you can reject suspicious commissions before paying them.

How does LinkJolt's tracking handle data and privacy?

LinkJolt stores a small referral reference in first-party cookies and local storage for 30 days to attribute a sale. You remain the data controller for your own customers, so include affiliate tracking in your cookie and privacy notices.

Is it safe to connect an AI assistant to LinkJolt?

Yes, within deliberate limits. The connector uses OAuth so you never hand over an API key, access is scoped to one brand, the approval page lists exactly what the assistant can read and write, and approving payouts is never possible.

A sale is missing from my dashboard. What do I check?

A missing sale almost always traces to one of six causes: a webhook signing secret that no longer matches, an endpoint added in Stripe's Test mode, no tracking reference reaching checkout, a purchase outside the fixed 30 day window, an unregistered coupon or an inactive affiliate, or your plan's tracked sales limit. Check them in that order.

An affiliate's coupon code is not being attributed. What should I check?

Confirm the exact code is registered in LinkJolt against the affiliate, that the code on the order matches it, and that the affiliate is not rejected on the campaign. Codes are matched by id, promotion code, then text.

I installed the tracking script but clicks are not being tracked. What now?

Make sure the script is in your site head and loads on every page, including where checkout begins. Some website builders only inject custom scripts on certain pages or defer them, which stops LinkJolt from storing the affiliate reference.

My Stripe webhook shows 200 but no conversions are recorded. Why?

Almost always because your Stripe checkouts are not carrying tracking data. The webhook is connected (that is the 200), but if a checkout completes with no tracking reference and no registered coupon, there is nothing to attribute, so no conversion is created.

My sales suddenly stopped being tracked

The usual cause is a webhook signing secret that no longer matches, so every event from your payment provider fails its security check and is rejected before any sale is recorded. The fix is to re-save the signing secret in Settings, Payment Providers.

My team member cannot sign in or is stuck choosing a role. How do I fix it?

They need to accept their team invitation before signing in. Until the invite is accepted, their account is not linked to your merchant, so they land on the role screen with nowhere to go.

Why is an affiliate conversion not showing up?

The usual causes are a missing or misconfigured payment webhook, the tracking script not installed, no tracking reference reaching checkout, or a rejected affiliate. Work through these in order to find the gap.

Why is my coupon code not tracking sales?

A coupon only credits an affiliate when LinkJolt holds a registration that matches the discount data your payment processor sends with that order. The usual causes are a code registered on one side only, a Stripe promotion code id that was never entered, a Paddle discount id left blank, or a code registered on the wrong campaign or with a test key.

Why is my dashboard showing the wrong currency?

Each campaign keeps the currency it was created in, and your account currency is the default for new campaigns. Set your account currency in Settings; changing it affects new campaigns only, not existing ones.