By publisher type · Podcasters
Affiliate Programs
for Podcasters
Tracking a Link Nobody Can Click
Every other publisher hands somebody something clickable. You hand them a sound, and the listener has to do the rest — type a URL, open the notes, or remember a code at checkout. Three routes, three different attribution stories, and an episode that keeps selling long after you published it.
- Free to join, nothing exclusive
- Five sub ID slots per link
- Terms readable before you record
- The problem
- Nobody can click a sound
- Three routes
- A spoken URL, the show notes, or a code
- Per episode
- Five sub ID slots, labelled however you like
- The catalogue
- Old episodes keep selling — and keep quoting you
The whole problem
Nobody can click a sound
Audio is the one channel where the ad and the link are in different places. A listener has to carry your recommendation somewhere else before it can be tracked, and there are exactly three ways they do it. Know which one a campaign supports before you record.
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Route one
They type the URL you said
A short address on a domain you control, redirecting straight to your tracking link. The click ID is minted when they land, so from that moment the sale is threaded back to you like any other click. Keep it sayable and spellable — the URL has to survive being heard once, in a car.
Use a plain redirect. Cloaked ones are refused network-wide.
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Route two
They open the show notes
The ordinary case: a normal tracking link in the episode description, the episode page on your site, or the newsletter that goes out with it. This is the route that carries sub IDs, so it is the one that tells you which episode did the work.
One link per placement, labelled — not one link reused everywhere.
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Route three
They remember a code
Where an advertiser offers it, a code issued against your publisher account credits you even when the buyer typed it straight into checkout and never touched a link. For audio that is not a nice extra — it is the only route that survives a listener who buys three weeks later on a different device.
Agreed per campaign, and deal placements need the brand's sign-off.
Link anatomy, the five sub ID slots and the test conversion are on tracking links, and the full code playbook — sign-off, expiry, deal placements — is on cashback and coupon sites. This page only borrows the one line from it that makes codes the audio publisher's attribution route.
What only happens in audio
Your back catalogue is still selling
An episode from March is being heard tonight. That is the best thing about this channel and the source of every operational problem on this page — five of them, and all five are manageable if you plan for them before you record.
- 01
An old episode is still a live placement
Nothing you have published stops being heard. A recommendation from eight months ago is still recommending, which is the best thing about this channel and the reason the rest of this list exists.
- 02
The URL has to keep resolving
You said an address out loud and it is now unchangeable. Point it at something you control, so when a campaign ends or a link changes you can re-point the redirect instead of re-recording the episode.
- 03
The terms under it can move
Rates, country lists and creative rules are set per campaign and change. What you said in the audio is fixed, so keep the claim general enough to stay true and let the show notes carry the detail you can edit.
- 04
A code can expire mid-catalogue
Codes are agreed per campaign and dated. When one lapses, the episode keeps sending people to a checkout where it no longer works — so a dead code is worth checking for on the same schedule you check your links.
- 05
Attribution is per campaign, not per episode
How long a click stays credited is a line on the brief, not something the length of your back catalogue changes. Read it on the campaigns you expect to keep selling for months.
What to promote
Ten shapes that work in a voice
A recommendation you say out loud has to survive being heard once, without a screenshot or a comparison table. That rules some things in and some things out — and two of these belong to other pages' rulebooks entirely.
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Tools your show already runs on
Hosting, editing, transcription, scheduling. You use them on air, the recommendation is true, and the name is easy to say out loud.
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Subscription software with a memorable name
A spoken URL only works if it can be typed from memory. Short brand names beat clever ones every time in this channel.
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Courses and learning platforms
A long consideration that suits a long-form recommendation. The event that pays is often an enquiry rather than an enrolment — read which.
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Books, audiobooks and digital products
Low friction, bought on the strength of a single mention, and easy to place in a mid-roll that is already about the topic.
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Consumer retail with a code
The classic audio format, because the code does the attribution work. Whether you may publish one at all is a line on the brief.
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Travel and booking services
High tickets and long decisions. Commission confirms after the trip, so the money arrives well after the episode that sold it.
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B2B software for a professional audience
A niche show with the right listeners is worth more here than a large general one. The qualifying event is usually a demo somebody accepts.
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Membership and community products
The nearest thing to what a podcast already sells: belonging. Recurring lines are worth reading on their own page before you commit.
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Finance and money tools
Regulated, with creatives cleared before they run — which does not sit easily with an unscripted host-read. Read the finance rulebook first.
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Health and wellbeing offers
The strictest rulebook on the network, and the hardest to honour in a spoken recommendation. Its own page sets out what you may say.
The last two rows are read under other pages' rules: finance and fintech campaigns clears creatives before they run, and chronic and specialized health is the tightest rulebook on the network — both are hard to honour in an unscripted read. What a renewing line is actually worth is on recurring commission programs, and what is open to applications today is in the campaign index.
What pays
Three models, read from the booth
The brief names which one is live and the exact event it fires on. This is what each means when the click happens minutes or weeks after the mention.
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Share of the sale
A percentage of what they spend
Rides the code.
The common shape behind a host-read with a discount attached. The listener saves something, you earn a share of what is left, and the code carries the attribution when the link never gets clicked.
Suits retail, digital products and anything with a real discount.
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CPA
A flat fee per action
Easiest to plan a season around.
One amount per completed signup, plan or purchase. You know what an episode is worth before you record it, which is the difference between planning a sponsor slot and hoping.
Suits software, apps and fixed-price products.
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RevShare
A share that keeps coming
Pays the back catalogue.
Where the product renews, an episode from last spring can still be adding to this month's balance. Slower to start and the best fit for a show whose audience stays.
Suits subscriptions, memberships and tools people keep.
The three are compared side by side on payout models. For a show, the practical read is simple: a flat fee lets you price a slot in advance, a share rewards a discount you can say out loud, and a renewing line is what makes an old episode keep paying.
Before you record
What to read on a brief when your ad is a voice
Ten lines. Five of them matter more to an audio publisher than to anyone else on this site — the code, its sign-off, what a host-read may claim, where the link may live, and the date the campaign ends.
| Line on the brief | What it decides for a show | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Vanity code | Whether a code can be issued against your account — the only route that credits you with no click at all. | Agreed per campaign |
| Code sign-off | Whether you may publish a discount in the first place. Deal placements need the brand's written approval. | Brief, per campaign |
| Creative rules | What a host-read may claim. Your words have to match the advertiser's own page, which is the constraint an unscripted read tests hardest. | Creative section |
| Allowed sources | Where the link may actually live — your site, the newsletter, the social post. Declare each one; a show is not a source by itself. | Traffic checklist |
| Attribution window | How long a click stays credited while somebody finishes the episode, gets home and then buys. | Brief, per campaign |
| Qualifying event | What pays: a purchase, a trial the advertiser verifies, an enquiry somebody accepts. | First line of the brief |
| Markets | Which countries count. A show is heard everywhere; a campaign is not sold everywhere. | Country list |
| Validation rules | What comes back out later — refunds, cancellations, enquiries the advertiser rejects. | Brief and advertiser terms |
| Hold period | How long an approved conversion waits before it can be paid. | Brief, before you apply |
| Campaign end date | When a link or code stops working — the one line that matters more to a back catalogue than to anybody else. | Brief, per campaign |
If you read only three, read the code line, the creative rules and the end date: between them they decide whether the mention can be tracked, whether it can be said, and how long it stays true. The checklist that applies to every publisher type is on affiliate programs, compared.
Where it goes
Six placements, in and around the episode
Only one of these can be edited after you publish. That asymmetry is worth designing around: say the durable thing in the audio, and keep everything that can change in the notes.
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Pre-roll
Heard by everybody who presses play, including people who will not stay. Short, and the URL has to be said slowly enough to be typed.
Check: the spoken address redirects to your tracking link.
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Mid-roll
The strongest slot in audio, because the listener has already committed. It is also where a genuine recommendation sounds least like an ad.
Check: the claim you make matches the advertiser's own page.
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Post-roll and outro
Fewer listeners, but the ones still there are the ones who trust you. Works well for the tools your own show runs on.
Check: repeat the code — nobody scrolls back through audio.
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Show notes and episode page
Where the clickable link actually lives, and the only placement you can edit after publishing. Treat it as the permanent half of the ad.
Check: one labelled link per episode, not one link for the season.
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Newsletter and community
The same recommendation, in a format that can be clicked immediately. Often out-earns the audio mention it repeats.
Check: opt-in lists only, and the campaign accepts email traffic.
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Video version and clips
A description link and an on-screen mention reach people who never open a podcast app. Declare it as a source like any other.
Check: the link is updated on every re-upload and repost.
The written half of this work — reviews, comparisons and the pages that rank — is on content and SEO publishers, and the account itself, from application to payment, is on the publisher hub.
The read itself
What a host-read may say
One rule holds both lists together: the delivery is yours, the claims are the advertiser's. A read that stays inside their published wording is also the one that survives a review of your past creatives.
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What you may do
- Say what the product does, in the advertiser's own published terms
- Describe your own experience with it, labelled as yours
- Quote the current price, plan or discount and re-check it before each drop
- Read a claim from the campaign's creative pack, in your own delivery
- Say plainly that the link or code earns you a commission
- Point listeners to the show notes for anything you cannot say in ten words
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What is refused
- Income promises, outcome guarantees and invented results
- Claims the advertiser's own page does not make
- False urgency: a deadline or a scarcity that is not real
- Invented reviews, borrowed testimonials or implied endorsements
- A cloaked redirect that shows one thing to a reviewer and another to a listener
- Any placement on a source that is not on your application
Disclose the commercial relationship in the audio and in the notes — on this network thin disclosure is a compliance problem, not a style choice. The creatives you have already published are part of what a review reads, and the ladder afterwards runs in three rungs: the campaign is paused with a notice, the affected conversions are invalidated, and severe or repeated breaches end the account. All three are set out on how approval works.
Questions
Podcast publisher questions
What hosts ask before they put a sponsor read in an episode — including the one this page answers with a method instead of a list.
Can I join with a podcast and no website?
You need a source a reviewer can open, and for a show that usually means its public page, its feed or an episode page carrying the notes. If your only home is inside a podcast app, point the application at the newsletter, the social profile or the site where the links will actually live — those are the sources campaign access is matched against.
How do I track a URL I say out loud?
Put a short address on a domain you control and redirect it straight to your tracking link. The click ID is minted when the listener lands, so from there it is an ordinary click. Use a plain redirect: cloaked redirects, which show one destination to a reviewer and another to a visitor, are refused network-wide.
What if listeners never type anything?
That is what a code is for. Where an advertiser offers one, it is issued against your publisher account and credits you even when the buyer typed it straight into checkout without touching a link. It is agreed per campaign rather than granted everywhere, and the brief says whether it is available.
How do I tell which episode earned?
Label the link. Each tracking link carries five sub ID slots you fill yourself, so a link per episode — or per placement inside an episode — reports back separately instead of pooling into one number. Fire a test conversion and confirm the labels read back exactly as you typed them before you build a season around them.
Do old episodes keep earning?
They keep sending people, which is the strength of this channel. What they cannot do is update themselves: rates, country lists and creative rules move, and codes are dated. Point spoken URLs at redirects you control, keep the audio claim general, and check links and codes on a schedule rather than after a listener tells you one is dead.
Is there a download or audience minimum?
None is published. What the review actually reads is whether the sources you declared are real and match the campaign, and what your past creatives claim. A small show with the right listeners is a better fit for a specialist campaign than a large general one.
Can I read the ad in my own words?
Your delivery is yours; the claims are not. Anything you say about the product has to match what the advertiser publishes on their own page, and income promises, invented results and false urgency fail review whoever says them. The practical version: describe honestly, and send the detail to the show notes.
Do I have to say that the link pays me?
Disclose it plainly, in the audio and wherever the link appears. On this network a thin disclosure is a compliance problem rather than a style choice, and in a host-read the disclosure is also what keeps the recommendation credible.
What are the best podcast affiliate programs?
No ranking is published here, and a list elsewhere is usually the list-maker's own affiliate links. The durable answer is a method: start from what your show actually uses or talks about, then check four lines on the brief — the qualifying event, whether a code is available, the attribution window, and what validation reverses. The live index shows what is open to applications today.
When does the money actually arrive?
After the conversion is validated and the campaign's hold has run, at which point it joins the next payment run once your balance clears the minimum. Registration is free and there is no fee at any tier, so the only thing between an episode and a payout is the schedule on the brief and the payment schedule page.
Keep reading
- Publisher hub The parent page: how a publisher account works end to end
- Content & SEO publishers The written half: blogs, reviews and comparison pages
- Tracking links Click IDs, the five sub ID slots and the test conversion
- Cashback & coupon sites Where the code playbook is set out in full
- Affiliate programs, compared What every line of a campaign brief decides
- Campaign guidelines Creative rules, allowed traffic and the enforcement ladder
Set the link up before you press record
Create your publisher account, take the tracking link and the code, and test one conversion before the episode goes out.