Affiliate marketing is earning money by recommending products: an online publisher earns commissions from sales of products recommended from an advertiser’s store, while the advertiser sells more thanks to the publisher’s recommendations and shares a commission with them.

Affiliate marketing for publishers — who can earn by recommending products online?

Partner entities in affiliate marketing for the e-commerce industry are:

• Advertisers — online stores that want to increase sales through promotion on various websites in exchange for a commission on sales.

• Publishers — website owners, bloggers, social media users, and other specialists who want to earn money by recommending advertisers’ products.

• Affiliate network — an online system that enables instant cooperation between advertisers and publishers in performance-based settlement models.

If you’re unsure whether you’re a publisher or an advertiser, check the post: Publisher or advertiser?

Affiliate marketing for e-commerce — frequently asked questions and answers

Affiliate marketing — who can become a publisher?

An affiliate publisher can be anyone who runs any kind of online activity, even on a very small scale.

Affiliate marketing — how does a publisher earn money?

A publisher recommends products made available by advertisers (online stores) as part of their partner programs. Everything happens virtually and online.

What requirements do I need to meet to become an affiliate publisher?

There are no requirements regarding reach, number of website users, number of fans, or followers. Registering with an affiliate network does not obligate you to take immediate action. You can calmly test and analyze the possibilities offered by the tools available in the affiliate network:

• afiliate links
• product widgets
• discount codes
• file XML

After registering a publisher account — without the need to sign additional contracts — you can join any number of partner programs.

The only requirement to become a publisher is to register with an affiliate network.

What does recommending products look like in practice?

A publisher selects products from an advertiser’s online store offer that they want to recommend on their websites or other online placements, e.g., on social media. They generate affiliate links for these products and add them to the published content in which they recommend a given product or service.

Affiliate links can be added to content on a blog, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest; on niche websites, coupon/deal sites, cashback sites; as well as in mailings or shared via messengers like Messenger or WhatsApp. Anywhere you can share a link — you can earn with affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing — what is it and how does an affiliate link work?

An affiliate link is the simplest affiliate tool. It’s a unique URL to any page on an advertiser’s website which, once processed in the affiliate system, becomes an affiliate link with the publisher’s unique ID embedded (encoded) inside.

Thanks to affiliate links, the publisher account tracks:

• every click on the link and visit to the advertiser’s site,

• actions/sales that happen after clicking that link,

• commissions from those actions/sales.

Affiliate marketing — how much can I earn as a publisher?

It’s hard to estimate your potential profit precisely. Everything depends on your creativity and the trust you’ve built with the people you’ll be recommending products to through affiliate marketing.

What is certain is that success in affiliate marketing depends on how well you match the products you recommend to the audience you’re recommending them to.

That’s why, within our affiliate network, we work with hundreds of online stores offering products from almost every category available on the market. You can choose from a product base of over 3 million items!

How much do the top publishers earn?

The best publishers have monthly affiliate income at the level of tens of thousands of PLN — typically from the low tens up to several tens of thousands. Of course, that level doesn’t come immediately — it requires strong commitment and experience in affiliate activities.

Beginner publishers who may not have a huge audience but do have an active one can expect earnings from a few hundred PLN up to PLN 5,000–6,000 per month. The most important thing — as mentioned — is matching products and affiliate tools to the content you publish.

Affiliate marketing — what can I earn commission for?

In affiliate cooperation, the main compensation models are CPS, CPL, and CPC.

A key feature of affiliate marketing is that cooperation between publishers and advertisers is settled in so-called performance-based models. In e-commerce affiliate marketing — where advertisers are online stores — the primary settlement model is commission on sales, i.e., Cost Per Sale (CPS).

In other cases, promotional campaigns run by publishers for advertisers are also paid out based on specific outcomes.

From the advertiser’s perspective, the “outcome” besides selling a product or service can be: filling out a form, registering on a website, signing up for a newsletter, and any other action that can be measured using sales-tracking systems.

Affiliate marketing — how to start earning as a publisher?

Registration in our affiliate network is completely free. If you’re an adult, when you register with webePartners you confirm the Cooperation Terms and you don’t sign anything! You simply create an account and start promoting selected partner programs!

Minors cannot sign contracts or issue invoices on their own. Registration is possible without a parent/guardian’s consent, but… payouts are made based on an invoice/bill. In that case, a parent or legal guardian issues the invoice/bill under their own details and provides the bank account number to which the earned funds should be transferred.

Do I sign any agreements with advertisers?

No. When you register an account in the affiliate network, you accept the Cooperation Terms, which keeps all formalities to a minimum and lets you work with hundreds of brands without any additional agreements.

As a publisher in an affiliate network, you get access to hundreds of partner programs across different industries, offering products from almost every possible category.

Affiliate marketing — do I have to be active right away?

No! It’s entirely up to you how involved you want to be in promoting selected programs — when and how you will recommend specific products or groups of products.

Registration itself and joining partner programs within the affiliate network does not impose any obligations or deadlines for starting promotion.

According to the definition of affiliate marketing, it is a voluntary and independent form of cooperation. So you act when you decide you’re ready.

Affiliate marketing — how publisher earnings are tracked

When you generate an affiliate link, a product widget, or download a banner in the affiliate system, the publisher is automatically assigned a unique ID. This allows the affiliate system to track traffic and transactions that come from a given link, widget, or banner.

When someone uses your recommendation by clicking a specific creative, our sales-tracking system records it and calculates the appropriate commission.

Do I have a required way of operating within programs?

No! You decide when you act and how you act, which advertising placements you use, and which communication methods you include in your affiliate activities. An advertiser cannot dictate how you promote their products. You can operate according to your own rules, aesthetics, and style of communication.

It’s always up to the publisher how engaged they are in promoting selected programs, when they promote, and how they recommend specific products or groups of products.

Registration in the affiliate network is completely free. You receive free access to all partner programs and all affiliate tools.

Who covers the costs of working with an advertiser?

The costs of running partner programs and the tools that enable cooperation are covered by the advertiser. The affiliate network adds its margin to the commissions paid by the advertiser.

This means the affiliate network also wants the publisher to earn as much as possible. That’s why the network continuously develops affiliate tools, expands their scope, and constantly brings new, attractive brands into cooperation.

How many programs can I join?

You can join any number of partner programs — even all of them — and in webePartners we have over 500 🙂

You’ll be added to some programs automatically; for others you’ll need to wait for the advertiser to approve you manually. This can take up to 3 business days.

Sometimes an advertiser may reject your request to join a program. In that case, you can always ask for an explanation. Most often it’s enough to complete missing information in your publisher account or adjust your promotion methods for the advertiser to change their decision and approve you.

Is participation in partner programs always free for a publisher?

Yes! For a publisher, participation in partner programs is always free. That’s why you can register a publisher account and, without time pressure, gradually implement affiliate activities.

As mentioned, all costs of running a partner program are always covered by the advertiser, because they want to build as large a publisher network as possible and settle commissions based on sales.

Can I shop through my own affiliate links?

Will I get an affiliate commission if someone clicks the link but doesn’t complete the transaction?

We realize many customers don’t decide to buy immediately — often it takes a few days or even weeks. That’s why the browser settings (cookies) store information that the customer was referred by your unique link.

These settings, thanks to the affiliate network’s sales-tracking system, are stored in cookies for a minimum of 30 days. This means that if a customer who clicked your affiliate link returns to the store within that period and makes any purchase, you will receive a commission on that sale.

Will the affiliate transaction be counted if someone started shopping on a smartphone and finished on a computer?

How to track the results of your affiliate activities

After logging into the publisher panel, you get access to:

• detailed data updated in real time,

• information on how many people clicked your ad creatives within a selected time range,

• insights into which creatives get the most clicks,

• conversion analysis — i.e., how many people who clicked an ad completed a specific action.

From the data you will also learn:

• which products are purchased most often by your audience,

• what time of day or night your audience makes purchases,

• which ad placements generate the highest engagement and, as a result, the greatest commission benefits.

If you have any doubts about the presented data, you can always contact the affiliate manager within the affiliate network to clarify any uncertainties.

Can accrued affiliate commissions be reversed?

You log into your account and see that several orders have been placed and a commission has been credited to you.

However, if those orders are not paid for or not collected (e.g., cash on delivery), or if the customer returns the order, the commission may be marked as “rejected.”

The advertiser has the right to do this, in line with the settlement rules of the Cost Per Sale model, where commissions are paid for completed orders.

But if you are a valuable publisher for them, the advertiser may still approve the commission for payout even if the order ultimately wasn’t completed.

That’s why it’s worth focusing on valuable content and reliable work that benefits the advertiser.

How do I withdraw the commissions I’ve earned?

It’s very simple! At webePartners, the minimum payout threshold is PLN 100. Before your first payout, you need to contact us to activate the payout option. This is a one-time action — for each subsequent payout, you can submit the request yourself by clicking “Withdraw” in your panel.

Affiliate marketing — do I have to issue a VAT invoice?

No. Issuing an invoice is only one of two options and applies to publishers who run a business. If you don’t run a business, you can easily generate a bill/statement in our system, based on which we will transfer your earned funds.

Affiliate marketing — how do I settle affiliate income with the tax office?

At the stage of starting cooperation and withdrawing your first commissions, you do not need to report it to the tax office. However, you are required to file an annual tax return once a year and settle all of your income. Tax is paid if you exceed the tax-free allowance.

Who pays the tax? Any tax due is paid by you, not the affiliate network.

There are two ways to settle affiliate income if you do not run a business. You can choose general rules or lump-sum taxation.

1) General rules

If you choose general rules, you will pay income tax of 18% only after exceeding the tax-free allowance. If your affiliate income is below that amount, you don’t need to pay tax. However, once a year you still have to file a tax return and settle all your income.

Since 2022, the tax-free allowance has been PLN 30,000.

2) Lump-sum (flat-rate) taxation

The second option is lump-sum taxation of affiliate income. If you choose this form, you must report it to the tax office no later than the 20th day of the month following the month in which you earned your first affiliate income. Then you must pay tax monthly at 8.5% on income up to PLN 100,000 and 12.5% on the surplus above that amount.

Note: Settling with the tax office can be complicated, so it’s always worth consulting your local tax office or a tax specialist.

Affiliate marketing — what are the biggest benefits of working with an affiliate network?

To do affiliate marketing, you don’t have to join an affiliate network. Many advertisers offer partner programs directly on their own websites. The cooperation rules are exactly the same as when you work with the same advertiser through an affiliate network.

So why is it worth joining an affiliate network? Here are a few reasons:

• Wide choice of programs: you get access to hundreds of partner programs in one place — both well-known brands and niche online stores.

• Access to updates: you receive information about new partner programs in your industry.

• Tools for affiliates: you get access to intuitive affiliate tools: affiliate links, widgets, banners, and XML feeds.

• Promotions and discounts: you receive information about special campaigns, price reductions, and discount codes provided by advertisers.

• Detailed statistics: you have access to detailed stats, which lets you analyze and optimize your activities.

• Support from specialists: get help from an Affiliate Manager who’s always happy to assist with setting up campaigns or advise what, where, and when to promote.

• Everything in one place: an affiliate network gives you access to campaigns, free affiliate tools, statistics, and settlements/payouts in one system.

Affiliate marketing — is it worth doing?

Do you want passive income and lots of free time for anything you want? If so, the answer to “Is it worth doing affiliate marketing?” is also YES. Affiliate marketing is characterized by long-term activities whose effects aren’t visible immediately. These activities require patience — sometimes bitter, but with sweet results 🙂

Affiliate marketing — why is it worth trying?

Now that you know how it all works and you no longer need to type “what is affiliate marketing” into a search engine, you can start your online-earning journey!

Why choose affiliate marketing? First of all, by joining an affiliate network, you’re not risking anything at all! You have no obligations, and thanks to a rich selection of partner programs, you’ll surely find products you’ll want to recommend. Also, affiliate links have a very long lifespan and can keep earning commissions for you on their own. We hope we’ve cleared up a few things! Sign up today and start your affiliate marketing journey!