Affiliate Program Agreement

This agreement governs the Valarn affiliate program and is part of our Terms of Service. It applies from the moment you use your affiliate link or code. If you do not accept it, do not use them.

The affiliate program is separate from the referral program, which pays bonus reports rather than money. The same customer cannot count under both.

Joining is by invitation

We work with a small number of creators rather than an open network, and the number of active affiliates is capped. Being invited does not entitle you to remain in the program, and we may decline an application without giving a reason.

You must be at least 18 years old to take part.

What you earn

• 20% of what each customer you refer actually pays us, for 12 months.
• The 12 months run from that customer's first payment, not from the day they signed up. An account that stays on the free plan for months does not use up your term.
• Commission is calculated on the amount we actually receive, after any discount they redeemed, and excluding sales tax and VAT — tax is money held for a government and was never ours.
• Fractions of a cent are rounded down. Amounts are calculated and paid in US dollars only.

Your own discount reduces your own commission. If a customer subscribes using your promo code, they pay less and your 20% is 20% of that smaller amount. On a $99 plan with 20% off, you earn $15.84 rather than $19.80 for as long as the discount applies. We say this plainly because nobody expects it until they see it.

How a customer is credited

• Your link sets a first-party cookie that lasts 30 days. It requires the visitor's consent to cookies in the referral category; if they decline, or their browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we honour that and the visit cannot be credited. We show you how many clicks this affected rather than hiding the gap.
• Your promo code does not depend on cookies. If a customer redeems it at checkout, you are credited whatever they chose about tracking.
• First touch wins. If a customer arrived through another affiliate's link first, that affiliate keeps them. Where a link and a code disagree, the code wins, but only before the customer has paid anything; attribution is fixed from the first payment onwards.
• One affiliate is credited per customer account. Credit is never split.

When we pay

• Commission is held for 30 days after the payment it relates to. That covers the ordinary refund window, so we are not paying you money that is about to go back to the customer.
• After the hold, commission becomes payable and we pay monthly in arrears, by hand — we will contact you to arrange it.
• There is a minimum payout of $50. Below it, your balance carries forward rather than being lost.
• We must have your tax documentation before your first payment: a W-9 if you are a US person, or the applicable W-8 form (usually W-8BEN) otherwise. US persons paid $600 or more in a calendar year receive a 1099-NEC.
• You are an independent contractor. This agreement creates no employment, partnership, agency or joint venture, and you are responsible for your own taxes.

Refunds, chargebacks and clawbacks

If a payment is refunded, disputed and lost, or otherwise reversed, the commission on it is reversed too. Where the commission has not yet been paid, we simply do not pay it. Where it has, we offset the amount against your future commission. We will not invoice you for a negative balance — if you leave the program owing us a reversal, we write it off.

We may withhold or reverse commission on a referral we reasonably believe breaches this agreement. We will tell you why, and you may respond.

You must disclose

Any content promoting Valarn must include a clear and conspicuous disclosure that you may be paid if people sign up through your link or code. This is required by the FTC's Endorsement Guides in the United States and by equivalent rules elsewhere, and it is a condition of taking part here.

• Put it where the audience sees it before they click — not only in a description they have to expand, a comment, or a linked page.
• Say it in your own words and in plain language. “#ad” or “paid partnership” alone is often not enough on its own.
• Say it in the medium the audience is in: spoken aloud in video and audio, not only on screen.

What you must not say about Valarn

Valarn is an educational research tool. It does not give investment advice, and nothing it produces is a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Promoting it as advice, or alongside claims about returns, exposes both of us.

• Do not describe Valarn as financial, investment, legal or tax advice, or as a substitute for an advisor.
• Do not promise, guarantee or imply any investment return, profit, win rate or performance from using it.
• Do not invent results, testimonials or screenshots, or present a hypothetical as something that happened.
• Do not claim Valarn is endorsed by, affiliated with or licensed by any regulator, exchange, broker or data provider.

What is not allowed

• Referring yourself, or accounts you or people in your household or organisation control. Self-referrals are rejected automatically and repeated attempts end your participation.
• Paid search on our brand terms. Do not bid on “Valarn” or close variants, and do not use our name in a display URL or ad domain.
• Cookie stuffing, forced clicks, auto-redirects, pop-unders, iframes, browser extensions or anything else that sets your code without a deliberate click.
• Unsolicited email or messages, spam, and posting your link where it is against the platform's own rules.
• Coupon, deal, cashback and voucher sites, unless we agree to it in writing beforehand.
• Registering domains, social accounts or app listings containing “Valarn”, or presenting yourself as Valarn.
• Using our name or marks beyond identifying Valarn in your content. You get a limited, revocable, non-exclusive licence for exactly that and nothing more.

What you can and cannot see about customers

Your dashboard shows counts, dates and amounts. It never shows the identity of anyone who signed up through you — no names, no email addresses, no organisations — and you must not attempt to identify them. Each referral carries a short reference so you can raise a specific one with us without either of us naming the person.

Changing or ending this

• We may change the commission rate, the term or these rules with 30 days' notice by email. Changes apply to customers referred after the notice period; customers you have already referred keep the terms that applied when they were referred.
• We may end the program, or your participation in it, at any time. Commission validly earned before that point will be paid, subject to the hold period, the clawback rules and the payout minimum.
• If you materially breach this agreement — in particular the fraud and misrepresentation rules above — we may end your participation immediately and withhold commission connected to the breach.
• You may leave at any time by telling us.

Everything else

This agreement is governed by the law and venue stated in our Terms of Service, which also carries the limitation of liability, disclaimers and dispute rules that apply here. You may not transfer this agreement to anyone else. If a term is unenforceable, the rest stands.

Questions about the program, a payout or a specific referral: affiliates@valarn.com.