Upwork
Upwork is a marketplace where businesses hire and pay independent professionals.
What it is
Upwork is a marketplace where businesses hire and pay independent professionals. Affiliates promote the client side of it, both the Talent Marketplace and the fixed-scope Project Catalog. Commission is earned when a business that has never hired on Upwork puts through its first contract.
The deal
You take a share of what the new client spends on their first contract, but the payment is capped at $150 per transaction. A small first hire therefore pays very little, and a large one is limited by the ceiling, so this rewards volume of new clients rather than the size of any single one. It is a single payment on that first contract only: nothing follows from the client’s later spend on the platform. Both the Talent Marketplace and Project Catalog count. Upwork publishes no cookie window, so how long a click stays credited to you cannot be checked before you apply.
Getting paid
Impact holds the balance and handles the withdrawal. You can either take payment on a fixed day each month or set your own trigger amount and be paid whenever the balance reaches it. Bank transfer, BACS and PayPal are supported and you pick the currency. Upwork states no minimum of its own.
The rules
Upwork does not take on partners who bid on its trademark in paid search; its FAQ says TM+ partners are not currently accepted. Beyond that the program is open, and Upwork states that applicants from any country and any audience type are welcome to apply.