affiliate

Collage of a phone showing a sponsored supplement ad, a copyright stamp, a gavel and scissors cutting a strip of vertical UGC videos

Why a Creator's Copyright Filings Turned 12 Meta Ads Into a $600K Risk

Content creator Amber Jordan Holston sued R5 Brands LLC, which sells supplements as True Nutra, on October 9, 2026, alleging the company ran at least 12 paid Meta ads built from four of her videos. She registered all four videos within three months of publishing them. That timing lets her

Alix Earle Wants 6 Brand Partners a Year, and Equity in Them

Top creators are cutting the number of brand deals they take and asking for equity, creative control, or executive titles instead, Digiday reported on October 9, 2026. Alix Earle (14 million combined followers) says she would rather work with five or six brands a year than 100. For most marketing

Mixed media collage of a YouTube video player with a shopping tag, a 15% commission price tag, an auction paddle, a shipping box, and a creator holding a skillet

YouTube Shopping Affiliates Treat Your Default Rate as a Public Bid

The YouTube Shopping affiliate program lets eligible creators tag a brand's products in videos, Shorts, and live streams, and the brand pays a commission only when a viewer buys. More than 1.3 million channels are now enrolled, and creators see each product's commission rate before

Mixed media collage of a smartphone on a ring light, a blacked-out invoice and cash split into uneven piles, illustrating hidden agency fees in creator deals

Creator Agencies Keep 30% of Influencer Budgets, and Most Brands Can't See It

Agencies keep an average of 30% of brand influencer spend, according to the Association of National Advertisers, and only about half of marketers say they can fully see what creators actually get paid. When agency fees are bundled into a single line item, consultancy TrinityP3 estimates as little as 35%

Influencer Promo Codes Miss Most Sales and Credit Some They Never Earned

Influencer ROI measurement means estimating every sale a creator caused, not only the sales that used their code. Promo codes, still the most common tracking method, fail in two directions at once: they miss buyers who saw the post and searched your brand later, and they credit buyers who grabbed

Illustrated collage of a laptop with an affiliate commission slider, scissors beside a 20% off coupon, outreach envelopes, and a product sample in a shipping box

How to Start an Affiliate Program Without an Agency (the Tool Is the Easy Part)

Starting an affiliate program in-house takes three things: tracking software (from about $49 a month, or free through Shopify Collabs), a commission set from your gross margin, and a recruited first cohort of partners. The software is the easy part. Most new programs stall because nobody recruits, and the ones

Mixed-media collage of a three-way balance scale weighing cash, a percent sign, and a base fee plus commission, with a creator contract and 30-day sales chart

Flat Fee vs Revenue Share vs Hybrid: The Base Fee Is the Whole Negotiation

Creator compensation comes in three shapes: a flat fee for deliverables, a revenue share on tracked sales, or a hybrid with a smaller base plus commission. Marketers who found creators open to affiliate-only terms fell from 63% in 2024 to 26% in 2025, per a Modash survey of 50-plus marketers.