BasedOnBusiness Affiliate Program: Earn 25% Recurring Commission
If you teach cold outreach, build automations, run a lead-gen agency or write for founders, you are already telling people how you find prospects. Somewhere in that explanation is a tool. Our partner program pays you 25% of what that recommendation is worth, every month, for a year.
This post is the long version of the partner program page: the exact terms, the arithmetic on real plan prices, who it works for, who we turn down, and what the money actually looks like over twelve months. No projections, no invented averages.
The Offer in One Table
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Commission rate | 25% of every payment we collect, excluding tax, after discounts |
| Commission window | 12 months, counted from the customer's first payment |
| Cookie | 90 days, last touch, locked to you at signup |
| Payouts | Monthly in USD, first ten business days, $50 minimum |
| Rails | Wise or PayPal, to a destination you verify by email |
| Partner plan | The Basic plan at no cost while your partner account is active |
| Cost to join | None, and there is no exclusivity or lock-in |
Two details in that table matter more than the headline rate, and most programs get them wrong.
The window starts at the first payment, not at signup. Somebody who takes the free credits in March and subscribes in August still opens a full twelve months of commission for you in August. Nothing decays while they make up their mind.
The cookie is last touch and locks at signup. Once a referral is attributed to you it does not move, and we do not reassign it later or quietly hand it to a house account.
What the Numbers Actually Look Like
These are our live plan prices multiplied by the published rate. You can recompute every row by hand and get the same answers.
| Plan | Monthly price | Your commission per month | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $9.75 | $117 |
| Professional | $89 | $22.25 | $267 |
| Agency | $189 | $47.25 | $567 |
| Company | $489 | $122.25 | $1,467 |
Annual subscriptions arrive as one invoice, so the commission arrives at once:
| Plan | Yearly price | Commission on that invoice |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $396 | $99 |
| Professional | $900 | $225 |
| Agency | $1,920 | $480 |
| Company | $4,980 | $1,245 |
Put that in context. Ten Professional customers who stay a year are $2,670. Three Agency customers are $1,701. One newsletter issue that converts four agencies onto annual plans is $1,920 landing in a single month.
The honest caveat, which is on the landing page too: this assumes people stay subscribed. Retention is real and we cannot promise it, which is why the calculator on the program page says the same thing.
The Life of One Referral
- Someone clicks your link. Day zero. A 90-day cookie is set.
- They create an account. Any time inside those 90 days. This is the moment the referral locks to you permanently.
- They make their first payment. Day 3 or month 8, it does not matter. Your 12-month window opens here.
- You earn on every payment after that. Each commission clears 30 days later, or 60 days after an annual invoice, so refunds resolve before money moves.
- Month 12 closes the window. Unless you are a Founding Partner, where it does not close at all.
Who This Works For
The program is built for people who already talk to our customers. BasedOnBusiness turns Google Maps into exportable B2B lead lists, and it is bought by agencies prospecting locally, SDR teams building territory lists, founders validating a market and automation builders feeding a CRM.
So it fits if you:
- Teach cold outreach, prospecting or B2B sales
- Build no-code automations with n8n, Make or Zapier
- Run or advise a lead-gen or marketing agency
- Publish tool reviews and comparisons on YouTube
- Write a newsletter for founders, marketers or agencies
- Consult on local SEO or multi-location marketing
There is no minimum audience. We read what you plan to do rather than counting your followers, and a 900-person newsletter of agency owners beats 90,000 general followers every time.
Who we turn down
Saying this up front saves a review cycle. We decline coupon, deal and cashback sites, anyone buying incentivised or paid-to-click traffic, anyone bidding on our brand name in paid search, and anyone promoting to purchased email lists. Self-referrals do not earn commission either, including an account you open on behalf of your own client.
What You Get Besides the Commission
A real-time dashboard. Clicks, signups, paying customers and commission, read from the same tables our billing runs on. You see the numbers we see.
A free Basic plan. An active partner account includes the Basic plan at no cost, 20,000 export credits a month, so you can demonstrate the product instead of describing it. It ends when the partner account does.
An English starter kit. Official logo files, two banner templates, and conservative product, social, email and blog copy. One document is required reading: a short list of claims we do not permit, including any official Google relationship, verified-email promises and invented customer numbers. It exists to keep you out of trouble.
Privacy-conscious reporting. You see counts, plans, countries and earnings, and never a customer's name, email or company. Those customers did not agree to have their identity passed to a marketing partner, so we do not pass it.
A direct line to the founder. Not a ticket queue.
Two things we do not offer yet, and would rather say so than let you find out: dedicated campaign links and partner coupon codes. Your partner link carries standard UTM parameters you add yourself, which covers channel and placement tracking, and the starter assets are English only.
How the Money Moves
| Step | Detail |
|---|---|
| Clearing | 30 days after the payment, or 60 days after an annual invoice |
| Schedule | Monthly, within the first ten business days |
| Minimum | $50, and anything below it carries over rather than expiring |
| Method | Wise or PayPal, chosen at onboarding |
| Security | The payout destination is verified by email, and a sensitive change adds a 48-hour hold |
Refunds reverse commission proportionally. If we already paid you, we deduct it from future commission instead of chasing you for it. That is written into the program terms rather than left to goodwill.
If we ever change the program terms, you get 30 days' notice, and customers you already referred keep the terms they were referred under.
Founding Partner: Ten Seats
The first ten partners who build with us get lifetime recurring commission: 25% for as long as the customer keeps their subscription, with no 12-month cut-off. That single change turns a $267 referral into an open-ended one.
Founding Partners also get priority support, early access to new features and data coverage, and their logo on the program page. It is a separate agreement, and everything else described here applies to them too. The program page shows how many seats are left.
The Rules, in Plain Language
- Do not refer yourself, your own company, or an account you open for a customer.
- Do not run ads on our brand name or anything close to it.
- Do not send unsolicited email or promote to lists you bought.
- Do not promise anything the product does not do.
- Do disclose that your recommendation is paid, in whatever form your audience's law requires.
That last one is not us being cautious on your behalf. The FTC in the United States and equivalent rules elsewhere require disclosure of a material connection, and it is your obligation, not ours.
How to Apply
The application is three short steps and takes about two minutes. The only question that needs thought is how you would introduce the product, because that is the question we actually read.
A person reviews every application and we answer within 48 hours, including the noes. You will need a BasedOnBusiness account first, which is free and needs no card.
If you want to understand the product before you apply, the fastest route is to use it: signup includes 50 export credits, and our guide to building a lead list walks through a first run in a few minutes. For the angle most of our partners lead with, see the tool comparison and the AI connector setup.
FAQ
How much does the affiliate program pay? 25% of every payment we actually collect, excluding tax and after discounts, for 12 months from the customer's first payment. On the $89 Professional plan that is $22.25 per month, or $267 over the window.
How long does the referral cookie last? 90 days, last touch. The referral locks to you at signup and is never reassigned.
When and how do partners get paid? Monthly in USD, within the first ten business days, by Wise or PayPal to a destination you verify by email. Commission clears 30 days after the payment, or 60 days after an annual invoice. The minimum is $50 and anything below carries over.
Do I need to be a paying customer to join? No. Approved partners get the Basic plan at no cost while the partner account is active, so you can demonstrate what you are recommending.
How long does approval take? Within 48 hours, from a person, with no minimum audience size.
What happens if a customer refunds or cancels? A refund reverses commission proportionally and is deducted from future commission if it was already paid out. A cancellation costs you nothing already earned, but ends future payments.
Who gets rejected? Coupon and cashback sites, incentivised or paid-to-click traffic, brand bidding, and purchased email lists. Self-referrals earn nothing.
Apply
If your audience is already asking how you build lead lists, you are one honest recommendation away from recurring income. Read the full terms on the partner program page, check the program FAQ for anything this post left open, then apply. It takes about two minutes and you will hear back within 48 hours.