name: affiliate-commission-structure description: Design the commission and payout structure of a commission-based affiliate program: rate model (revenue share, flat CPA, hybrid), rate level derived from unit economics, payout tiers, recurring duration and caps, attribution/cookie window, validation, clawback, and payment terms. Covers B2B SaaS and B2C ecommerce programs with professional affiliates. Use whenever the user mentions an affiliate commission rate, commission tiers, lifetime vs 12-month recurring commission, a cookie window, or a rate-card migration, even if they only ask how much to pay affiliates. Do NOT use for end-customer refer-a-friend rewards - use mbfinotti/partnerships-skills@referral-incentive-design instead. Terms drafting, payout auditing, and fraud rules are separate skills. license: MIT metadata: author: Maya-Beth Finotti version: "1.2.7"

Affiliate Commission Structure

Design the commission and payout structure of an affiliate program: rate model, rate level, tiers, recurring duration, attribution window, and validation/clawback/payment terms.

No named, proprietary framework exists for this discipline. Robert Glazer's Performance Partnerships (2017) and Geno Prussakov's Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day (2011) teach doctrine and process, not a branded algorithm. Prussakov's "5/80 rule" (5% of affiliates drive 80% of the work) is the one real, attributable coinage.

What exists instead is a convergent craft, taught in near-identical form across the industry: