Part of our mission of helping creators connect directly to their audiences is seeing where and how we can improve those connections. It’s not always as simple as A to B. Sometimes C helps A get to B, and sometimes A helps D find C. There’s a natural cross-pollination of ideas and a sharing of knowledge, work, and resources that builds a community and makes it better overall.
And it’s only natural to want to reward that sharing; to foster symbiotic relationships beyond just back-patting and retweeting.
We’ve been thinking about whether or not to build an affiliates feature for a while. On one hand, Gumroad is about helping creators sell directly to their audiences, and an affiliate making a commission on a sale lives outside of that model. On the other hand, we’ve found that in many-to-most cases, affiliates are creators themselves, and the products they promote are part of a bigger picture of what they’re offering.
With that in mind, we set out to create the best and simplest affiliates feature ever.
To get started, go to https://gumroad.com/affiliates.
You’ll be greeted by the form. Simply add your affiliate’s email address, select the product or products, and set the commission rate. Commission is the percentage of the total sale amount (including sales tax and shipping) your affiliate will earn in exchange for referring and converting customers. Commission can be anywhere between 1% and 90%.
Add as many affiliates as you like. Note: your affiliates must have Gumroad accounts to be eligible.
You also have the option of specifying a Destination URL. If you leave this field blank, the unique link your affiliate receives to share with their audience will redirect to your Gumroad product page. Alternatively, if you’d like the affiliate link to redirect to a dedicated landing page you’ve set up, set the corresponding URL as the Destination URL.
Finally, click the envelope button to add your affiliate. We’ll send them a unique link to share with their audience.
How does it work? Once your affiliate begins sharing their unique link, we’ll cookie would-be customers as they visit the link. As long as a customer purchases your product within 30 days of visiting the affiliate’s link, the affiliate will get credit for the sale.
Tax implications
Using Gumroad’s affiliate feature may make you subject to the tax laws of the affiliate’s state or country and, therefore, may impact sales of both digital and physical products across multiple platforms you use— not just sales made through Gumroad. We strongly recommend that you consult your local tax professional about the implications of using this feature. It’s ultimately up to you to collect and remit the proper sales tax amounts on all sales made through your affiliates.
For a more in-depth look at our affiliates feature, see the article in our Help Center.