Referrals
Design commission tiers, cookie windows, recruitment, enablement, tooling, and fraud controls for a referral or affiliate program without guessing industry norms.
Overview
Referrals is an agent skill most often used in Launch (also Grow lifecycle) that guides solo builders through affiliate program design—commissions, cookies, recruitment, enablement, tooling, and fraud prevention.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/infrasity-labs/dev-gtm-claude-skills --skill referralsWhat is this skill?
- Commission models: percentage of sale, flat per action, recurring subscription share, and tiered performance ladders
- Cookie-duration table from 24 hours through lifetime attribution for different consideration cycles
- Affiliate recruitment playbooks (customers, bloggers, YouTube, newsletters, complementary tools)
- Affiliate enablement and tooling split across referral vs full affiliate platforms plus fraud prevention measures
- Seven structured topic areas including structures, cookies, recruitment, enablement, tools, and fraud
- Seven structured topic areas: commissions, cookies, recruitment, enablement, tools, and fraud prevention
- Cookie-duration table spans five standard windows from 24 hours through lifetime attribution
- Commission examples cite typical ranges such as 10–30% of sale and 10–25% recurring
Adoption & trust: 1 installs on skills.sh; 24 GitHub stars; trending (+100% hot-view momentum).
What problem does it solve?
You want partner-led growth but lack a clear commission model, attribution window, recruitment plan, or fraud guardrails for your product.
Who is it for?
Indie SaaS or e-commerce founders standing up or refactoring a referral or affiliate channel with standard industry ranges as anchors.
Skip if: Teams that only need a single embeddable referral widget with no program strategy, or builders in highly regulated niches who need legal review instead of generic commission templates.
When should I use this skill?
You are designing, launching, or optimizing a referral or affiliate program and need commission, attribution, recruitment, tooling, and fraud guidance.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You leave with concrete program structure choices and operational checklists your agent can turn into policy, landing copy, and affiliate onboarding docs.
- Commission and cookie policy recommendations
- Recruitment and enablement checklist
- Tooling shortlist criteria for referral vs affiliate stacks
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Affiliate and referral programs are a core distribution lever when you are ready to scale beyond owned channels—canonical shelf is Launch distribution even though you revisit terms in Grow. Distribution subphase covers partner-led acquisition; this skill maps directly to recruiting affiliates, structuring payouts, and choosing referral-stack tools.
Where it fits
Test whether a 20% first-year recurring commission fits margin before committing to a public affiliate page.
Draft recruitment targets and enablement assets before outreach to niche newsletter writers.
Add tiered commissions and fraud checks when top affiliates start driving a meaningful share of signups.
Align affiliate landing pages and disclosure copy with how partners will cite your product in reviews.
How it compares
Use for full affiliate-program design playbooks, not for low-level payment-API integration skills.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is referrals for?
Solo and indie builders who sell SaaS, e-commerce, or lead-gen offers and need to design or improve an affiliate or referral partner program with credible defaults.
When should I use referrals?
During Launch when you add distribution partners; during Validate when pricing tests include partner incentives; during Grow when you tune lifecycle referrals, tiers, and fraud controls before increasing affiliate spend.
Is referrals safe to install?
It is procedural marketing guidance without shell or network hooks in the skill body; review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page before installing any skill from the repo.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Referrals
# Affiliate Program Design Detailed guidance for building and managing affiliate programs. ## Contents - Commission Structures - Cookie Duration - Affiliate Recruitment - Affiliate Enablement - Tools & Platforms (Referral Program Tools, Affiliate Program Tools, Choosing a Tool) - Fraud Prevention (Common Referral Fraud, Prevention Measures) ## Commission Structures **Percentage of sale:** - Standard: 10-30% of first sale or first year - Works for: E-commerce, SaaS with clear pricing - Example: "Earn 25% of every sale you refer" **Flat fee per action:** - Standard: $5-500 depending on value - Works for: Lead gen, trials, freemium - Example: "$50 for every qualified demo" **Recurring commission:** - Standard: 10-25% of recurring revenue - Works for: Subscription products - Example: "20% of subscription for 12 months" **Tiered commission:** - Works for: Motivating high performers - Example: "20% for 1-10 sales, 25% for 11-25, 30% for 26+" --- ## Cookie Duration How long after click does affiliate get credit? | Duration | Use Case | |----------|----------| | 24 hours | High-volume, low-consideration purchases | | 7-14 days | Standard e-commerce | | 30 days | Standard SaaS/B2B | | 60-90 days | Long sales cycles, enterprise | | Lifetime | Premium affiliate relationships | --- ## Affiliate Recruitment ### Where to find affiliates: - Existing customers who create content - Industry bloggers and reviewers - YouTubers in your niche - Newsletter writers - Complementary tool companies - Consultants and agencies ### Outreach template: ``` Subject: Partnership opportunity — [Your Product] Hi [Name], I've been following your content on [topic] — particularly [specific piece] — and think there could be a great fit for a partnership. [Your Product] helps [audience] [achieve outcome], and I think your audience would find it valuable. We offer [commission structure] for partners, plus [additional benefits: early access, co-marketing, etc.]. Would you be open to learning more? [Your name] ``` --- ## Affiliate Enablement Provide affiliates with: - [ ] Unique tracking links/codes - [ ] Product overview and key benefits - [ ] Target audience description - [ ] Comparison to competitors - [ ] Creative assets (logos, banners, images) - [ ] Sample copy and talking points - [ ] Case studies and testimonials - [ ] Demo access or free account - [ ] FAQ and objection handling - [ ] Payment terms and schedule --- ## Tools & Platforms ### Referral Program Tools **Full-featured platforms:** - ReferralCandy — E-commerce focused - Ambassador — Enterprise referral programs - Friendbuy — E-commerce and subscription - GrowSurf — SaaS and tech companies - Mention Me — AI-powered referral marketing - Viral Loops — Template-based campaigns **Built-in options:** - Stripe (basic referral tracking) - HubSpot (CRM-integrated) - Segment (tracking and analytics) ### Affiliate Program Tools **Affiliate networks:** - ShareASale — Large merchant network - Impact — Enterprise partnerships - PartnerStack — SaaS focused - Tapfiliate — Simple SaaS affiliate tracking - FirstPromoter — SaaS affiliate management **Partner Relationship Management (PRM):** - Introw — Full PRM with deal registration, commissions, tiers, QBRs, and partner engagement tracking ([integration guide](../../../tools/integrations/introw.md)) **Self-hosted:** - Rewardful — Stripe-integrated affiliates - Refersion — E-commerce affiliates ### Choosing a Tool Consider: - Integration with your payment system - Fraud detection capabilities - Payout management - Reporting and analytics - Customization options - Price vs. program scale --- ## Fraud Prevention ### Common Referral Fraud - Self-referrals (creating fake accounts) - Referral rings (groups referring each other) - Coupon sites posting referral codes - Fake email addresses - VPN/device spoofing ### Prevention Measures **Technical:** - Email verification required - Device fingerprinting - IP address monitoring - Delayed r