Questions, answered.

Is this an MLM?

No, and here's the test: in an MLM, you can earn by recruiting alone. On Warmlink, recruiting pays exactly $0. Income exists only when a real customer completes a verified purchase of a real product from an established vendor. No buy-in, no inventory, no fees, no recruitment bonuses.

HotRev is a royalty on real sales made by people you brought in — if nobody buys, nobody earns.

What is HotRev, exactly?

Your own referrals earn you the direct commission — that part works like any (good) affiliate program. HotRev is what happens on top: three tiers of income on the verified sales of the network you build. Tier 1: the people you invite directly. Tier 2: the people they invite. Tier 3: one level further.

It's funded by vendor-negotiated overrides or Warmlink's own margin — never by fees from members, and never by recruitment. Some offers carry no HotRev, depending on the offer's economics; the catalog shows you which.

Will I actually get credited for my referrals?

This is the right question — most people have been burned by an affiliate program that paid nothing. Warmlink attacks attribution from several directions: extended cookie windows, coupon codes, and lead registration on top offers (badged “Enhanced” in the catalog), deep links straight to signup pages, and a member playbook for making credit stick — including the strongest method of all: setting up the tool with your client on a screen-share, through your link, in their browser.

Every commission is tracked to a verified purchase in one dashboard.

Am I allowed to earn commissions on tools I recommend to clients?

Usually yes — with disclosure, which every Warmlink shop carries automatically. Most client contracts prohibit undisclosed third-party compensation; on-page disclosure cures that in most cases.

There are real exceptions. Some MSAs bar outside compensation absolutely, some vendor partner agreements restrict commission stacking, and government or healthcare clients have special rules. Where a contract bars it outright, keep those recommendations off-platform — and talk to us, because we'd rather lose a shop than put your license to operate at risk.

This isn't legal advice; check your specific contracts. We give members a one-page checklist for exactly that.

Will my clients think I'm shilling?

You're recommending exactly what you'd recommend anyway — the shop just makes it a clean, professional page instead of a scattered email. Disclose it the way good consultants disclose anything: “I earn a commission if you buy through my stack page — my recommendations don't change either way.”

Most clients respect the transparency; many prefer it to wondering.

I already have affiliate accounts with a couple of vendors.

Keep them if you like. Warmlink is for the other 95% of your stack — the tools where signing up for one more vendor portal was never worth it — plus one dashboard, one payout, and HotRev on top, which no single-vendor program offers.

What does it cost?

Free to join. Free to use. Forever. (Upgrades always available.) Warmlink takes a small platform fee out of commission flow — we earn when you earn. We're not your vendor; we're your partner.

How and when do I get paid?

One consolidated payout across all networks and all HotRev tiers — instead of chasing seven networks' separate payout minimums. Your dashboard shows every verified purchase, its status, and when it clears.

Affiliate commissions clear after the vendor's refund/validation window, which varies by program — we show you the timeline per offer.

Which SaaS tools are in the catalog?

A curated catalog of high-commission SaaS and business offers — the tools consultants recommend every day, plus coaching and course programs with strong economics — sourced from major networks including PartnerStack, Impact, Rakuten, AWIN, and CJ, and additional curated sources.

Every offer is scored on earnings-per-click, fit, trust, longevity, and margin before it reaches the catalog — quality gates, not a firehose. If something you recommend is missing, tell us; member requests drive what we go negotiate next.

What's the difference between a shop and a plain affiliate link?

A link is a URL. A shop is a curated, client-facing stack page — your recommendations, your reasoning, your name on it — that happens to pay you. It replaces the “here's a bulleted list of tools” email with something that makes you look more professional, not less. And one shop covers your whole stack instead of one vendor.

Can my whole team join? How do tiers work for an agency?

Yes. You join first, then invite your team — and everyone you invite generates Tier 1 HotRev income for you on their verified referral sales. When they invite others, those sales pay you Tier 2, and one level further pays Tier 3.

Each member gets their own handle, their own shops, and their own direct commissions in full. An agency owner with five consultants isn't running a downline — she's finally getting paid on the network she already built.

Who's behind Warmlink?

Warmlink was founded by Ted Cohn — engineer at Apple/NeXT, co-inventor of search advertising at WebCrawler/Excite, principal engineer on the original Nook, 10 patents.

Warmlink is his answer to a simple observation: referrals are the most trusted, highest-converting force in commerce, and they're wildly underutilized. The referral graph is the asset; Warmlink is how the people who build it finally capture its value.

What is Warmlink, from a vendor's point of view?

Warmlink is a meta-network referral platform. We make it easy for professional referrers — implementation consultants, agencies, fractional operators — to refer you business you may never have gotten, and we help them build referral networks that keep bringing you more.

You pay only on verified purchases, through affiliate infrastructure you likely already run.

We already have an affiliate program. Why do we need Warmlink?

Start with the number that matters: the median SaaS company now spends $2.00 in sales and marketing for every $1.00 of new ARR. Through Warmlink, a new customer typically costs $0.25–$0.50 per $1.00 of first-year ARR — paid only on verified sales, with zero spend on customers who never convert. We deliver customers at a fraction of your blended CAC, structurally, because commission is marginal cost.

Second: reach you can't buy. Your program's biggest leak isn't fraud — it's non-participation. The professionals who drive the highest-quality SaaS referrals mostly don't join single-vendor programs: one more portal, one more payout minimum, one more login isn't worth it for occasional referrals. Warmlink aggregates them into one place, so your existing program reaches referrers who would never have signed up directly. You typically don't need to build anything new — we plug into what you have.

What can we do to attract more referrers and customers on Warmlink?

Five things, in rough order of impact — each one earns your offer better placement and more referrer attention.

1. Lead/deal registration. Let referrers register a prospect before purchase, so attribution holds across devices, browsers, and buying committees. This is the single strongest thing you can offer.

2. Coupon codes tied to our links. Codes survive everything cookies don't — and give the buyer a reason to use the referrer's link.

3. Extended free trials for customers who come through Warmlink shops. Costs you nothing on non-converters; gives referrers a real perk to offer clients.

4. A 120-day (or longer) attribution window. B2B sales cycles now average 134 days; a 30-day cookie forfeits attributable sales you'd happily have paid for.

5. Fund a HotRev override. A modest override on top of base commission activates multi-tier referrer motivation — the difference between one person recommending you and a network recommending you.

Offers with these enhancements carry an “Enhanced” badge and get preferential catalog visibility, because they convert better for everyone.

What does it cost us?

Whatever your existing program already pays — Warmlink operates within your current commission structure. Enhanced placement may involve a negotiated override that funds multi-tier referrer income, but the model is performance-based throughout: no listing fees, no placement fees, no pay-to-play.

Who exactly is recommending our product?

Verified professionals, not anonymous coupon sites. Warmlink members are consultants and agencies whose reputation rides on every recommendation — the platform's shop model is built around curation and accountability (every shop carries the member's name and reasoning). This is the opposite of the low-quality affiliate traffic most programs try to filter out.

How does the multi-tier (HotRev) structure work, and is it compliant?

HotRev pays referrers across three tiers — but every dollar traces to a verified purchase by a real end customer. No one earns anything for recruiting; there are no member fees funding payouts. That's the FTC line between an affiliate structure and an MLM, and Warmlink is built deliberately on the right side of it.

From your side it's simple: you pay a commission (and optionally an override) on real sales, exactly as you do today.

What is “Enhanced” placement?

Offers in our catalog carry a badge when they include any of: extended trial for buyers, coupon/vanity codes, extended attribution windows, or lead registration. Enhanced offers get preferential visibility because they convert better and attribute more reliably — good for the referrer, good for the buyer, good for you. If you want your offer Enhanced, that's a short conversation.

How do you handle attribution and fraud?

All transactions run through established network tracking (Rakuten, Impact, PartnerStack, et al.) with their validation and refund windows intact — Warmlink doesn't self-report sales. Referrer income is gated on verified purchases, so refunded or invalid transactions never pay out.

Do we control how our brand appears?

Your logo, descriptions, and offer terms come from your program listing; members add their own editorial “why we recommend it” context on their shops. If you ever see a representation problem, flag it — member accountability is core to the model.

How do we get listed or upgraded?

If you run a program on any network we aggregate, you may already be in the catalog. To confirm, enhance your offer, or discuss an override partnership, email partners@warmlink.io.