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?

On Stripe, 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 on Stripe, Paddle or Apple. Create a discount code in your payment processor, register it in LinkJolt against an affiliate, and LinkJolt matches the discount when an order uses it. 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 or suspended 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.

What is an affiliate code?

An affiliate code is the unique identifier that tells a merchant which partner sent a sale. It comes in two forms: the code inside an affiliate's tracking link, and a coupon or discount code a customer types at checkout. Either one credits the right affiliate with the commission.

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. Amounts are recorded in the currency of the sale. Stripe payouts cover commissions in GBP, US dollars or euros to affiliates in 34 countries, and CSV export covers every other currency and country.

Can I reward top affiliates with a higher commission rate?

Yes, with commission tiers on the Professional and Ultimate plans. Set rate bands by sales volume on a campaign, and an affiliate moves up as their approved sales reach each band. The sales counter resets monthly unless you switch it to Lifetime.

Does LinkJolt hold my money or process my payments?

No. Your customers' payments go straight to your own Stripe or Paddle account and never pass through LinkJolt. LinkJolt records conversions and helps you pay affiliates, and keeps none of the money.

How are recurring commissions calculated for subscriptions?

Recurring commissions are a Professional and Ultimate feature on percentage campaigns. Once enabled, LinkJolt records a commission on each subscription renewal at your configured rate until the cap is reached, and re-checks your plan on every renewal.

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, where your processor reports that amount.

When and how do affiliates actually get paid?

You approve a commission, then pay the affiliate from your own saved payment method, or by CSV export to pay by hand through PayPal or Wise. Card-funded payouts need Charge-funded payouts accepted on the Payouts page first, and auto-payout is available on Professional and Ultimate.

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 a subscription started with that code is credited to them. 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 webhook endpoint in Stripe and save the signing secret, then add the tracking script and pass the referral to your checkout. LinkJolt then records each Stripe sale and attributes it to the referring affiliate.

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 2 staff seats, Ultimate and Scale include 20, and Starter has none. You invite people by email from Settings, on the Staff tab. Billing and staff management stay owner only, and payout or API key access can be granted per person.

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 we take no cut of a sale. Paying affiliates through Stripe carries a pass-through processing fee.

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?

Starter, Professional and Ultimate cap tracked sales per billing period; Scale has no cap. Past the cap, most new sales are still recorded but held with no payable commission, while some are not recorded at all. Upgrading before the period ends releases the sales held in it.

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 on that page, and gives you a branded yourcompany.linkjolt.io address. Ultimate and Scale can also remove the Powered by LinkJolt line.

Can affiliates start promoting before I approve them?

No, not with a tracking link. LinkJolt does not show an affiliate their link until you approve them on the campaign. A sale that does reach you from a pending affiliate is still tracked, and nothing is paid until you approve the commission.

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?

Five ways: email an invitation to one person or a pasted list, share your campaign's signup link, get listed on the Discovery marketplace (Professional and up), import your existing roster from another platform or a CSV, or create affiliates with the Developer API (Ultimate and Scale).

How do affiliates get their tracking links?

An affiliate's tracking link appears in the affiliate portal once they are approved for your campaign, ready to copy. Affiliates you import or create through the API have no portal, so you send them their link yourself.

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. When a tracked sale's customer email matches the affiliate's own, the commission is rejected automatically rather than flagged for your review, and it lands on your Commissions page under Rejected, where you can approve it anyway.

How does LinkJolt's tracking handle data and privacy?

LinkJolt stores a referral reference in first-party cookies and local storage for 30 days, plus a click record with the visitor's IP address, user agent, referrer and device type, and the buyer's email and name where your provider sends them. You stay the data controller for your own customers.

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 against the affiliate, that you filled in the ID field your processor actually sends, and that the affiliate is not rejected or suspended. Stripe promotion codes need their promo_ ID.

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 staff invitation from the link in the email. 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 broken connection to your payment processor, the tracking script not installed, no tracking reference reaching checkout, or an affiliate who is rejected or suspended. 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, each sale keeps the currency it was recorded in, and your account currency is the default for new campaigns. Only the account owner can change it, and changing it affects new campaigns only.