The Rule We Won't Break
Before the list: one hard rule that we set before we evaluated a single program. We will not pay to be an affiliate. Not an application fee, not a monthly membership, not a "verification deposit." If a company wants to charge us for the privilege of promoting their product, they've already told us everything we need to know about how they treat partners.
This rule eliminated a surprising number of programs in the credit repair space specifically. Several well-known credit services run their affiliate arrangements through private networks that charge publishers to participate. We said no to every one of them, regardless of commission rate.
The one-sentence policy: If joining your affiliate program costs us money, we're not joining. Full stop.
Comborb — Trading Site Programs
Free application, immediate approval, clean tracking. TradingView is the dominant charting platform for retail futures traders — our audience uses it every day. Natural fit, no friction. Active at aff_id=164779.
Trade journal and analytics tool with a legitimate affiliate program. Prop firm traders who need to track performance across multiple accounts are a natural audience match. Active at ref=TS9DCF6292.
The affiliate link generated through Edgeful's Rewardful setup was broken from the start — tracking wasn't firing correctly. We followed up. The issue wasn't resolved in a reasonable timeframe. A broken affiliate link on your site means you're promoting a product for free. We removed it. Life is too short to troubleshoot someone else's broken affiliate infrastructure.
Prop firm with a solid reputation in the NQ futures community. Application submitted. High relevance — prop firm content is one of the highest-value categories on comborb.com. Pending.
TradingView indicator suite with a strong following. Application submitted. Would complement the existing TradingView affiliate naturally.
Trade journaling platform. Competes with TradeSyncer — if approved, we'd evaluate both honestly and let the content reflect that. Application submitted.
NinjaTrader is the most-used platform for NQ futures day trading. An affiliate arrangement here would be extremely relevant. Application sent to vendorsupport@ninjatrader.com. Waiting on response.
Credit Score Reset — Credit Site Programs
Multiple credit repair affiliate networks we evaluated required publishers to pay a fee to join — either an application fee, a monthly participation fee, or both. We won't name them because this post isn't about calling specific companies out. But the pattern is common enough in the credit space that it's worth flagging: if an affiliate program charges you to participate, you are the product, not the partner. Hard pass on all of them.
Important distinction: Impact.com charges brands to run their affiliate programs on the platform, but joining as a publisher (the person promoting products) is free. Many major financial brands — secured card issuers, credit builder services — run their programs through Impact. We're evaluating which specific brand programs are worth applying to through the network.
What We're Looking For
In case it's useful for anyone building their own affiliate strategy, here's the criteria we run every program through before applying:
- Free to join. No exceptions. If there's a fee, we move on immediately without further evaluation.
- Relevant to the audience. We won't promote a product our readers have no reason to use just because the commission is high. The fit has to be natural.
- Working tracking. We test every affiliate link before it goes live. If tracking is broken and the company isn't responsive about fixing it, we remove the link.
- Transparent commission structure. We need to know what we earn and when. Programs with vague or opaque commission terms are a red flag.
- Legitimate product. This one should be obvious but it needs to be on the list. We only promote products we'd actually recommend to a friend in the same situation as our reader.
We'll update this post as new programs are approved, rejected, or removed. Everything in public.