You bring the merchant.
Earn on what they pay.
For creators, publishers, educators and advertisers whose audience runs Shopify. The relationship is “I referred this merchant”: 20% of what a store you referred actually pays, for 12 months from its first payment. Referral links are in private beta, and affiliates are enrolled by Rank Sniper.
Who it is for.
What it is today.
The programme in five definitions, including the parts that are not built yet.
- Who is the affiliate programme for?
- Creators and influencers, YouTubers, newsletter publishers, bloggers, educators and course creators, media buyers, and advertisers in Shopify communities. Anyone Shopify merchants already listen to.
- What is a Rank Sniper affiliate?
- Someone enrolled by Rank Sniper who refers Shopify merchants and earns a share of what those merchants pay. The relationship is “I referred this merchant”, and it carries no access to the merchant’s store.
- Can I join today?
- Referral links are Private Beta. Rank Sniper enrols affiliates directly and there is no self-serve sign-up. Apply through the contact form and say where your audience is.
- Can I earn today?
- Not in practice yet. Commission accrues only on revenue Rank Sniper has collected, and no subscription can be bought until Shopify billing is live Planned. Payouts are Planned: the payout rail is not built.
- Is there an affiliate dashboard?
- Not yet. Affiliate Command, with your own links, ledger and assets, is Planned. Until it ships, this page is the affiliate’s home.
Terms read from code.
Nothing rounded up.
Every figure here is read from the same source file the commission accrual uses, so the rate on this page and the rate applied are one number.
- Commission
- 20% of revenue Rank Sniper has actually collected from the store you referred, for 12 months from that store’s first payment. Never on an order, an invoice or a subscription’s face value.
- Attribution
- A 60 days cookie, last click wins: the most recent referral link a merchant followed gets the credit.
- Hold
- Each commission stays unpayable for 60 days after it accrues, so refunds and chargebacks resolve before anything is payable.
- Payout
- Monthly, net-60, with a $50 minimum; smaller balances roll forward. Planned: these are the ruled terms, but the rail that will move the money does not exist yet.
- Clawback
- A refund or chargeback reverses the commission on that payment. Rank Sniper reviews and applies each clawback by hand; nothing is automated. A clawback can apply after a payout, because a chargeback can land after money has moved.
- No backdating
- Crediting runs from 2026-08-05. Referrals recorded before that date are real, but they earn nothing.
- The referred store’s perk
- 2 months, appended rather than taken off the price, because a discount would cut the revenue your commission is paid on. It applies once Shopify billing is live.
Your audience runs Shopify.
Show them the gap.
The strongest referral is a demonstration. The free scan runs on any Shopify storefront with no install and no signup, so you can show the problem on a real store before anyone is asked to buy.
Creators and YouTubers
Scan a viewer-submitted store on camera and walk through the four pillar scores. The result is the story.
Newsletters and blogs
Write the teardown: which AI crawlers a store blocks, which products no answer engine can quote, and why. Readers scan their own stores from your link.
Educators
Teach SEO, AEO, GEO and AIO with Rank Sniper’s published definitions and rubric as the reference material.
Media buyers
Put a no-install scan in front of Shopify merchants in the communities where they already gather. The first step asks nothing of them.
How a referral
is built to work.
Six stages from introduction to payout. The first three run today, in private beta or better. The rest are planned, and each carries its state.
- REF-01Private Beta
Enrolment
Rank Sniper approves the affiliate and issues a referral code. There is no self-serve sign-up.
- REF-02Private Beta
The link
A visit to your link is recorded against your code, and a 60 days last-click cookie is set.
- REF-03Available
The scan
The merchant runs a free scan on their own store, with no install and no signup.
- REF-04Planned
The install
Attribution carried from your link through to the merchant installing the Shopify app. The app itself is not on the Shopify App Store yet.
- REF-05Planned
The payment
The merchant pays through Shopify billing, and commission accrues on what is collected.
- REF-06Planned
The payout
Commission that has cleared its hold becomes payable and is paid under the terms above.
What an affiliate
does not get.
The limits are part of the terms, stated before you apply.
- No access to merchant stores. Referring a merchant grants no operational access to their store, their data or their dashboard.
- No agency functionality. Managing client stores is the agency lane, a separate product. An affiliate enrolment does not include it.
- No portal yet. Affiliate Command is planned. Until it ships there is no affiliate sign-in area to open.
- No payouts yet. The commission terms are ruled, but payment is not built.
- No automated clawback. Rank Sniper reviews and applies every reversal.
- No guarantee to promise. Rank Sniper offers no refund guarantee, so there is none to advertise.
Referring is not managing.
Two programmes.
Affiliate and agency are separate products with separate enrolments. An affiliate enrolment grants no access to any merchant's store; operating client stores is the agency lane. Agency client access and affiliate attribution are governed independently, and neither grants the other.
| Aspect | Agency / partner | Affiliate |
|---|---|---|
| The relationship | “I manage this merchant.” | “I referred this merchant.” |
| Who it is for | Shopify agencies, freelancers and in-house teams operating stores they do not own. | Creators, publishers, educators, media buyers and advertisers whose audience runs Shopify. |
| Access to the store | Only through an explicit relationship and a store access grant the merchant authorises. The agency never owns the store. | None. Referring a merchant grants no operational access to their store. |
| Commission | None from agency status. An agency may separately apply to the affiliate programme; any commission then comes from that affiliate identity and its attribution, never from client access. | 20% of collected revenue for 12 months, under the published terms. |
| State today | Portfolio view In development | Referral links Private Beta |
| How to start | Agency enquiry | Affiliate application |
Why merchants listen.
Four pillars, in order.
What you would be introducing: one score across four pillars, always in this order: SEO, AEO, GEO, AIO. The definitions are Rank Sniper’s own, published verbatim.
SEO
Whether conventional search engines can crawl, parse, and rank the catalogue.
Why it lands: classic search still sends the traffic merchants already measure.
Engage →AEO
Whether the catalogue can be lifted as a direct answer to a shopper's question.
Why it lands: an answer that quotes a store credits it; a paraphrase does not.
Engage →GEO
Whether generative engines will cite this store when composing a recommendation.
Why it lands: a blocked AI crawler removes a store from generative answers outright.
Engage →AIO
Whether an AI system can correctly parse and act on the record without guessing. Includes transactability as a named sub-score.
Why it lands: an agent that cannot read price and availability cannot buy.
Engage →Apply to refer.
Say where your audience is.
Applications go through the contact form, tagged Affiliate. Tell us your channel, roughly how many Shopify merchants it reaches, and how you would introduce Rank Sniper.
