Customizing Your Referral Code

Your starting code

When you're approved into the affiliate program, you're handed an auto-generated code that looks like:

Glow-XYZ1236

The Glow- prefix is constant across every affiliate (it makes the code instantly recognizable to your audience as a Hands Free Sites/SiteGlowUp link) and the suffix is a random 7-character string that's guaranteed to be unique. There's nothing wrong with using this code forever — it works for tracking, it's typo-resistant, and it's slightly memorable.

But most creators want their name, channel handle, or brand in the link. That's what custom codes are for.

How to unlock a custom code

You unlock customization after 5 cleared conversions.

(Definition of "cleared" lives in How Affiliate Payouts Work — short version: customer signed up, paid, site went live for 30 days, first hosting invoice paid, 60 days from conversion elapsed.)

Why a threshold? Two reasons:

1. Custom codes are scarce. Glow-JOHN can only belong to one person. We want it to belong to someone who's actually doing the work, not someone who registered to lock their name and never returned.
2. It catches half-hearted applications. If you're going to be a real affiliate, hitting 5 cleared referrals usually happens in your first 1-2 months. If you never get there, your code never gets locked up by you.

If you hit the threshold and don't want to customize, no action needed — your auto-generated code keeps working. The "Customize Code" button just appears in your dashboard once you cross 5 cleared.

The rules

When you do customize, the suffix has to follow a small set of rules:

| Rule | Allowed | Not allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 4–20 characters (after the Glow- prefix) | Anything shorter or longer |
| Characters | Letters (a–z, A–Z), digits (0–9), dashes (-), underscores (_) | Spaces, periods, symbols, emoji, non-Latin scripts |
| Reserved words | Anything not on our reserved list | Words like admin, support, free, official, help, sale, promo, affiliate, team, plus the names of our products and any company we'd reasonably need to defend a trademark on |
| Profanity | Any normal English/non-English word | Common slurs and profanities (we use a standard wordlist; if your name is unfortunately on it, email us) |
| Punctuation position | Letters/numbers at the start and end | Codes that start or end with - or _ |
| Casing | Whatever you want — we normalize on attribution | Case-sensitivity doesn't change the code (Glow-JOHN and Glow-john resolve to the same affiliate) |

Examples:

• Glow-JOHNDOE — valid
• Glow-tech-with-megan — valid
• Glow-MK_2026 — valid
• Glow-mk — too short (needs 4+ after the prefix)
• Glow--megan — starts with a dash
• Glow-free-website — contains a reserved word
• Glow-megan@tech — invalid character (@)

When you submit a custom suffix in the dashboard, we run it through these checks immediately and tell you which rule (if any) blocked it. Try again with a tweak.

The 30-day cooldown

After you successfully change your code, you have to wait 30 days before you can change it again.

This prevents "code squatting" (registering a hot phrase, then constantly swapping) and forces a bit of deliberateness about the change. If you typo your own code on submit, email affiliates@siteglowup.ai within 24 hours and we'll reverse it before the cooldown locks in.

The 90-day grace period (your old code keeps working)

This is the part most people worry about — "if I change my code, do my old YouTube videos break?"

No. When you change Glow-XYZ1236 to Glow-JOHNDOE, the old code keeps redirecting to your new one for 90 days. So:

• Anyone clicking the old ?ref=Glow-XYZ1236 link in your existing video descriptions still gets attributed to you
• Your conversion ledger doesn't reset
• You don't have to scramble to edit every old YouTube description, blog post, or pinned tweet

The 90-day window is intentional — it covers your most-recent content (the bulk of clicks) but not infinite-tail older content. Best practice: update your top 5-10 most-trafficked pieces of content within those 90 days, and let the long tail naturally retire. After day 90, the old code returns to the pool and may eventually be reissued to a new affiliate.

If you have huge content (e.g., a video with 2 million views still driving traffic) and 90 days isn't enough, email affiliates@siteglowup.ai before the window closes and we'll extend the grace period on a case-by-case basis.

How to change it

1. Open your affiliate dashboard → /affiliate/code
2. Type the suffix you want in the New code field (without the Glow- prefix — we add it)
3. We run the rules check live — if anything's invalid you see the error right under the field
4. Click Confirm change
5. We show you a summary: "Old code Glow-XYZ1236 will keep redirecting until [date]. New code Glow-JOHNDOE is live now."
6. Done — share your new links immediately

Common questions

"Can I have multiple custom codes?"
No — one affiliate, one code at a time. The 90-day grace period covers the transition, but at any given moment only one code is your active code.

"Can I claim a custom code that belonged to a former affiliate?"
Sometimes. If their account is closed and their 90-day grace period has expired, the code returns to the pool and can be claimed. The dashboard will tell you if it's available.

"What if I want my code to be all lowercase / all uppercase / mixed?"
Display it however you want in your content — we normalize on attribution. Glow-megan, Glow-MEGAN, and glow-Megan all resolve to the same affiliate row.

"Does the code work for both Hands Free Sites and SiteGlowUp?"
Yes — same code, both brands, one balance. See How Affiliate Payouts Work.