<b>Q: Should I auto-approve affiliate applications or review each one?</b>

<b>Q: Should I auto-approve affiliate applications or review each one?</b>

Manual-review at launch, then graduate to rules-based auto-approval once you know what good looks like. Auto-approving from day one fills your program with bonus-hunters and brand-bidders you'll spend months cleaning out.

A workable application gate asks for:

— Their actual promotion method and primary traffic source
— A live URL or channel you can open and verify
— Whether they'll bid on your brand terms (this one question filters a lot)

Reject or hold anyone who won't name a traffic source, lists a parked domain, or whose 'site' is a thin coupon aggregator you didn't invite.

Once you've reviewed a few hundred, codify the patterns: auto-approve known-good sources, auto-hold the rest for human eyes.

Caveat: a slow approval queue kills momentum. If you make people wait a week, the motivated ones join a competitor instead. Aim for a 48-hour decision even while reviewing manually.

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