Royalties and Collaborations on WordPress with Alex Standiford

Alex Standiford joined me to discuss something many WordPress site owners struggle with: managing affiliate programs, royalties, and collaboration payouts.

Beyond Basic Affiliate Plugins

Most affiliate plugins handle simple referral tracking — someone clicks a link, makes a purchase, the referrer gets a commission. But what about more complex scenarios?

Alex's plugin, Siren Affiliates, handles multi-program setups where different products have different commission structures, different affiliates have different rates, and payouts need to account for refunds, tiers, and recurring revenue.

Real-World Use Cases

Think about an online course platform where instructors get royalties on their courses, affiliates get commissions on referrals, and some affiliates also teach courses. The payout logic gets complex fast.

Or an e-commerce store with brand ambassadors, wholesale partners, and referral affiliates — all with different rates and rules. Managing this manually in spreadsheets is a nightmare.

Why WordPress?

Alex's argument is compelling: if you're already on WordPress with WooCommerce or an LMS, why add a third-party service that takes a percentage of every transaction? Keep it in-house, keep the data, and customize the rules to fit your business.

Watch the episode for the full technical walkthrough.