Most affiliate programs are intentionally opaque. The terms are buried. The payouts are tiered in confusing ways. The cap appears on page nine of a PDF.
We are doing the opposite. Here is exactly how STAMP's affiliate program works, why we built it the way we built it, and what we will pay you in plain numbers.
The deal in one sentence
For every paid customer who signs up using your referral link, you get 2 free months of STAMP credited to your account. No cap. No expiry. No tier. Stack as many as you want.
That is the whole deal. There is no asterisk on the marketing page that we hide here.
The math at small numbers
| Friends signed up | Months free | Dollars saved | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | 2 | $16 | | 3 | 6 | $48 | | 6 | 12 | $96 | | 12 | 24 | $192 | | 50 | 100 | $800 |
If you have a small newsletter, a meaningful following, or a podcast where you mention tools, the numbers compound fast.
Some users have gone two years without paying us. We are happy about it. The economics work.
Why we picked “2 free months” instead of cash
Three reasons.
One: users who get free months stay users. Cash payouts attract referrers who do not care about the product. We want referrers who use STAMP daily.
Two: we are early. We have less cash than we have product. Trading product months for new users is a cleaner exchange while we are growing.
Three: the math is symmetric. 1 friend brings 2 months for them. We get a customer who will likely stay. It feels even. We like even.
Why “no cap”
Most affiliate programs cap at 12 months free or some equivalent. We did not.
The reasoning: if a user is so good at referring that they bring us 50 customers, we want them to keep going. Capping the program would tell them “you are good at this; please stop.” That is bad math for us.
The cap is “until you stop telling friends.” That is the only ceiling that makes sense.
Why “no tier”
Some programs ramp the payout: 10% commission below 10 referrals, 15% above. We considered this. We rejected it.
Tiers feel arbitrary and create perverse incentives (people gaming the boundary). A flat rate is honest. Two months per referral, every time, forever.
The simplest deal is usually the most honest.
What counts as a successful referral
Three rules.
- The friend signs up using your link.
- The friend completes their first paid month.
- The friend does not refund or cancel within 30 days of signup.
Once those three are true, your credit applies automatically.
If a friend cancels in month 3, you keep the credit. If a friend cancels in month 1 (during the 30-day window), the credit reverses. We are okay with this rule going either way and we may revisit if it stops working.
What does not count
We will be honest about what does not earn credit:
- Self-referrals. Signing up your second account using your own link does not earn credit. Nice try.
- Friends who sign up via the homepage without your link. Sad but unavoidable. Make sure people use the link.
- Bulk signups from a single IP. We monitor this. We will reach out before clawing back.
- Affiliate-network arbitrage. We do not work with networks. The program is direct, between you and us.
How to share the link
Most successful referrers do one of three things.
One: write about us. A newsletter mention, a Twitter thread, a Substack, a Reddit comment. Honest mentions in places where you are already trusted.
Two: tell a friend who is suffering. Person mentions inbox stress at lunch. You text them your link. We see this happen often.
Three: link in your email signature. “PS: I use STAMP for email. Try it: [link]” in your sig. Quietly effective for people who write a lot of email.
We do not pay extra for any of these. We just observe what works.
What we will not do in this program
To be clear about the boundaries:
- We will not sell affiliates' data to third parties.
- We will not change the program retroactively to lower the payout. Future referrals get whatever the new terms are; past credits keep their value.
- We will not require minimums to get paid out (because we pay in months, not money, the question is moot).
- We will not run “promotional periods” that double the payout. Every month is the same deal.
Programs that do these things are the reason affiliate marketing has a bad reputation. We are not interested in joining.
Why we are publishing this
Two reasons.
One: the people most likely to refer STAMP are also the people most likely to read this blog. Telling you the math is a fair trade.
Two: we think transparency about how money flows in our business is part of the trust we are building. If we are happy to publish “here is exactly how affiliate works,” we are also happy to publish “here is exactly how privacy works” and “here is exactly how pricing works.”
You do not have to take our word for any of them. Read, audit, hold us to it.
Where to go from here
For the pricing argument, why we charge $8/month forever. For the privacy posture, email privacy in 2026.
To get your referral link, sign up for early access and we will email it to you within seven days.
Tell a friend, ride free. hello@stamp.email