Earn 30% recurring for 12 months on everyone you refer
If you already teach content — a course, a newsletter, a client roster, a YouTube channel about growing on social — you are recommending tools whether or not you get paid for it. This is the version where you get paid for it.
30% of every payment, for the first 12 months. 90-day cookie, last click. Paid monthly by Stripe or PayPal once you clear $50. No cap on how many people you refer. Open to customers on a paid plan — you need an active Starter or Pro subscription to join and to keep earning.
You have to use it to sell it
The program is only open to customers on an active paid plan. A free trial does not qualify, and neither does a lapsed subscription.
This is a deliberate filter, not a paywall on the opportunity. Runwave gets bought after someone understands what it does, so the referrals that actually convert come with a demonstration attached — a real breakdown on your screen, a teardown of a reel in your niche. Someone who has never opened the product cannot do that, and a link-drop from a stranger converts badly enough that paying 30% for it would cost us both money. It also removes most of the incentive to sign up as an affiliate purely to farm your own signups.
The practical consequences are worth stating plainly:
- To apply, you need an active Starter or Pro subscription. We check at approval.
- To keep earning, that subscription has to stay active.
- If it lapses, commissions you have already earned are not forfeited — they keep accruing, but payouts pause 30 days after the lapse and resume when you reactivate.
- Your own subscription never pays you commission. Being a customer is the entry requirement; it is not a referral.
What you actually earn
Runwave has two plans, so the maths is short enough to print. Commission is 30% of what the customer pays, every month, for their first twelve.
| Plan | Customer pays | You earn / month | You earn over 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 / mo | $5.70 | $68.40 |
| Pro | $39 / mo | $11.70 | $140.40 |
| Pro × 10 referrals | — | $117.00 | $1,404 |
| Pro × 50 referrals | — | $585.00 | $7,020 |
Those last two rows assume every referral stays the full year, which they will not — so read them as a ceiling, not a forecast. The honest version is that most affiliate income here comes from a handful of referrals who stick, not from volume.
The Partner tier
Once you have 10 active paid referrals at the same time, your rate moves to 35% on all of them, new and existing, for the rest of their twelve months. There is no application for this and no separate contract — it flips when the count does, and it flips back if the count drops below ten for two consecutive months.
The terms, in full
| Eligibility | Active paid Runwave plan (Starter or Pro) — checked at approval and ongoing |
| If your plan lapses | Commissions keep accruing; payouts pause after 30 days, resume on reactivation |
| Commission | 30% recurring — 35% at Partner tier |
| Duration | First 12 months of each referred account |
| Applies to | Starter and Pro, monthly and annual billing |
| Cookie window | 90 days, last click |
| Payout schedule | Monthly, on the 15th, for the prior month |
| Hold period | 30 days after the referred payment clears |
| Minimum payout | $50 — balances under that roll over |
| Payout method | Stripe or PayPal |
| Trials | Commission starts at the first paid invoice |
| Refunds | Commission is reversed on refund or chargeback |
Why 12 months and not lifetime
Some programs advertise lifetime commission. We would rather be straight about it: at 30%, a lifetime rate on a long-lived account eventually costs more than the account earns, and programs that promise it tend to quietly re-price a year later. Twelve months at 30% is a rate we can still be paying in three years without changing the deal on you.
Why the cookie is 90 days
The median across SaaS is 60 days, and a large share of programs have cut theirs to a week or less, which mostly means the affiliate does the convincing and the brand keeps the sale. Someone who hears about Runwave from you in March and signs up in May heard about it from you. 90 days is what that costs.
Who this works for
- Social media agencies who set clients up with tooling and would rather that recommendation paid than didn’t.
- Course creators and coaches teaching content strategy, where a research-and-scripting tool is already part of the curriculum.
- Newsletter and YouTube operators covering creator tools, AI tools, or social growth.
- Freelance strategists and consultants who hand clients a stack at the start of an engagement.
It works less well as a pure link-drop. Runwave is bought after someone understands what it does, so the referrals that convert come with a demonstration attached — a screen recording of a real breakdown, a teardown of a reel in your niche, a comparison against whatever they use now.
What you get
- A tracked link, plus a dashboard showing clicks, trials, conversions, and pending commission.
- A shared folder of assets: logos, product screenshots, short demo clips, and copy blocks you can paste into a newsletter without rewriting.
- An extended trial link for your audience — longer than the public 7 days — so a recommendation from you is worth more than a recommendation from an ad.
- A direct line for anything a prospect asks that you cannot answer.
Rules
Short list, and none of it is unusual.
- No bidding on “Runwave”, “Runwave AI”, or near-misspellings in paid search.
- No coupon, deal, or cashback sites.
- No self-referrals, and no referring accounts you control. Your own subscription is the entry requirement, not a referral.
- Keep your own subscription active. Payouts pause while it is lapsed.
- Do not present yourself as Runwave, or imply a partnership beyond “affiliate”.
- No unsolicited email or DM spam. This one gets you removed without warning.
- Disclose the affiliate relationship where your jurisdiction requires it. In the US that is the FTC endorsement guidelines, and it is your responsibility, not ours.
Questions
Do I need to be a Runwave customer?
Yes. An active paid plan is required to apply and to keep earning. A 7-day trial does not qualify.
What if I cancel my subscription after referring people?
You keep what you have earned. Commissions on your existing referrals carry on accruing for the rest of their twelve months, but payouts pause 30 days after your plan lapses and resume when you reactivate. You will not be issued a new referral link while lapsed.
What happens if my referral upgrades from Starter to Pro?
Your commission follows the new price from that invoice on. The 12-month clock still runs from their first paid invoice, not from the upgrade.
What if someone clicks my link but signs up months later?
Inside 90 days, it is yours. After that the attribution has expired.
What if two affiliates refer the same person?
Last click inside the window wins.
Is there a cap?
No cap on referrals or on total payout.
Apply to the affiliate program
Pick a time below. This is the affiliate call, not a sales call — we will confirm your plan is active, agree what you would promote and where, and get your referral link issued on the spot if it is a fit. Book from the account your subscription is on, and come ready to say where your audience is. Usually 20 minutes of the 30.
Calendar not loading? Book the affiliate call on Calendly →
These are draft terms and may change before the program opens publicly. Anyone accepted before launch keeps the rate they were accepted at.