Joining the Affiliate Program

What this is

We pay creators $50 for every paying customer they send to Hands Free Sites or SiteGlowUp. One affiliate code works across both — promote Hands Free Sites' greenfield builder, SiteGlowUp's URL-redesign tool, or both.

This article covers the application itself: who tends to get in, what we ask for, and how the decision works. For payout mechanics see How Affiliate Payouts Work.

Who we're looking for

In one sentence: creators with a real audience in the small-business, SaaS, "make a website," or entrepreneurship space.

Concretely, the affiliates who do well here usually fall into one of these buckets:

• YouTube reviewers covering website builders, no-code tools, AI tools, small-business software, freelancing, agencies
• Newsletter authors writing for solopreneurs, marketers, indie hackers, designers, web developers
• Blog/SEO content sites ranking for "best website builder for X" or "alternatives to Squarespace/Wix/Webflow" type queries
• Course creators / educators teaching freelancing, web design, or how to launch an online business
• Twitter/X, TikTok, LinkedIn creators with a topic-relevant following — not just follower count
• Communities (Discord, Slack, Skool, Patreon) where members are likely to need a website

You don't need a massive audience. We've approved creators with 2,000 newsletter subscribers and rejected ones with 80,000 generic followers — the question is whether the right people see your content.

Who's a poor fit

We're upfront: a few categories don't get approved.

• Coupon/deal/giveaway sites — these convert poorly and the customers churn
• Cashback aggregators
• Spam-style "incentivized signup" funnels where you reward your audience for signing up regardless of fit
• Adult, gambling, crypto-pump, MLM, weight-loss, or politically inflammatory content — brand-safety, not a judgment of you personally
• Audiences with no overlap with our buyers (e.g., a beauty channel — lovely, but our product is a website builder for businesses)

If your content sits in a gray area, apply anyway. We read every application and a quick note in your "niche pitch" explaining the angle goes a long way.

What the application asks for

The form is short — about 3 minutes to fill out honestly. We collect:

| Field | What we use it for |
|---|---|
| Name | The name on your payout (must match your Stripe account when you set that up later) |
| Email | How we contact you about the application and send invoice/payout summaries |
| Country | Tax form routing — US affiliates get a 1099-NEC at year-end, non-US affiliates get a W-8 flow |
| Social handles | YouTube, Twitter/X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, newsletter URL — whichever apply |
| 3 content links | Your best/most representative recent posts, videos, or articles |
| Niche pitch | 1-2 sentences on who your audience is + how you'd talk about us |
| Terms acceptance | Standard affiliate terms (no incentivized clicks, no spam, no fake reviews) |

Tip for the content links: pick three pieces that best represent the kind of content you'd make about us. We're not looking for your most viral post — we're looking for evidence that you talk to the kind of person we sell to, in a tone we're comfortable being associated with.

Tip for the niche pitch: don't oversell. "I have a YouTube channel about freelance web design with 15K subs. My audience is mostly designers learning to handle client websites. I'd review the greenfield builder side-by-side with Framer and Webflow." is a great pitch. "Massive engaged audience ready to convert immediately" is not.

How vetting works

When you submit, the application runs through an automated check first:

• YouTube/TikTok/social subscriber & engagement data is pulled from the public APIs
• Topic relevance is checked against your 3 content links (we use AI to skim the content and check whether it overlaps with small business, web, SaaS, or entrepreneurship topics)
• Spam signals — obvious link farms, generic AI-spun content, or known affiliate-coupon networks are filtered out

Most applications come back with an automated decision in under an hour. A minority go to manual review — usually because the content is bilingual, the niche is unusual, or the audience size is small but engagement is unusually high. Manual review takes longer (up to 3 business days).

Timeline

You'll hear back within 3 business days. That's our hard cap — if we haven't emailed by then, we missed something on our end and you can poke us at affiliates@siteglowup.ai.

If you're approved, the email includes your referral code (e.g., Glow-XYZ1236) and a link to set up your Stripe payout account. You can start sharing the code immediately.

What rejection feels like

We try to be kind and specific. If we say no, the email tells you why in one paragraph — usually one of:

• "Your content doesn't currently overlap with our audience"
• "Your audience size hasn't reached the threshold we can vet automatically"
• "Your content fits one of the categories we don't approve at this time"

Rejection is not personal and not permanent. You can reapply in 6 months if your audience, content focus, or niche has shifted. We re-vet from scratch — there's no permanent "no" list except for fraud/abuse cases.

What you can't do (don't get banned)

A few things will get an active affiliate kicked out of the program:

• Incentivized signups — paying or rewarding your audience for clicking your link, or fake-reviewing the product
• Buying your own conversions through your own link
• Scraping our docs/blog and reposting it as your own SEO content with your affiliate link
• Hidden disclosure — every link must be clearly disclosed (FTC requirement in the US, similar rules elsewhere)
• Trademark or brand bidding — don't run paid search ads on "siteglowup" or "hands free sites" without written permission

These rules aren't unique to us — they're standard across legitimate affiliate programs (Stripe, Webflow, ConvertKit have similar lists).

Ready to apply?

Apply to the affiliate program →

You'll need 3 minutes and three links to your best recent content.