Affiliate Program Terms.

Last updated: August 1, 2026

These terms govern participation in the Lighthouse Digital Studio affiliate program. By applying to the program, you agree to them. "We," "us," and "Lighthouse" mean Michael Messina d/b/a Lighthouse Digital Studio. "You" and "affiliate" mean the person or business accepted into the program.

1. Joining the program

Anyone can apply. Approval is at our discretion, and we may decline an application without giving a reason. Applications are typically reviewed within two business days.

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a contract. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information in your application, including your payout details.

Participation is free. There is no cost to join and no minimum performance requirement to stay in the program.

2. What you earn

20% of every payment made by a customer you refer, for as long as that customer keeps paying. There is no cap on the number of referrals, no cap on total earnings, and no expiration on an active referral relationship.

• Commission is calculated on the net amount actually collected — the subscription payment after any discount, and excluding taxes and payment processing fees.
• Commission applies to recurring subscription payments and to one-time products purchased through your link.
• If a referred customer upgrades, downgrades, or adds paid add-ons, your commission follows the new amount automatically.
• If a referred customer cancels and later resubscribes, they remain attributed to you and commission resumes.

3. How referrals are tracked

Tracking runs through Rewardful, which places a cookie in the visitor's browser when they click your link.

• The cookie window is 60 days. If someone clicks your link and subscribes at any point within 60 days, the referral is credited to you.
• Once a referred visitor becomes a paying customer, the attribution becomes permanent and is no longer dependent on the cookie.
• If a customer clicks more than one affiliate link before subscribing, the last link clicked within the window receives credit.
• Tracking depends on the customer's browser accepting cookies and completing checkout through the link. We cannot credit referrals that our tracking did not record, though we will look into specific cases in good faith if you raise them promptly.

4. Getting paid

Payouts are made monthly, in arrears, by PayPal. You'll add your PayPal address in your affiliate dashboard after approval; we cannot pay you until it's there.

• Commissions are typically paid within the first week of the month following the month in which they became payable.
• A commission becomes payable once the underlying customer payment has cleared and passed our refund window.
• There is a small minimum balance before a payout is issued. Balances below the minimum roll forward to the next month rather than being forfeited.
• You are responsible for any PayPal fees on your side and for any currency conversion if your account is not in USD.

5. Refunds, chargebacks, and clawbacks

Commission is earned on money we actually keep. If a payment that generated a commission is later refunded, disputed, or charged back, the corresponding commission is reversed.

• If the commission has not yet been paid out, it is simply removed from your balance.
• If it has already been paid out, the amount is deducted from your next payout or from future balances.
• We do not invoice affiliates for negative balances. A negative balance is carried until future commissions offset it.

6. How you may promote us

We keep this deliberately open. You may promote Lighthouse through your website, blog, newsletter, podcast, social accounts, YouTube channel, direct outreach to people you actually know, and paid advertising — with the limits in the next section.

Approved affiliates get a small kit of materials — copy, example videos, and images — that you're welcome to use. You may also write your own, as long as it's accurate.

Be honest about the relationship. Where the law or the platform requires it, disclose that you earn a commission. In the United States, FTC guidelines require a clear and conspicuous disclosure when you have a financial relationship with a product you're recommending. A plain line like "I earn a commission if you sign up through this link" is enough. This is your responsibility, not ours.

7. What is not allowed

These are the things that will get an account suspended:

• Referring yourself. You may not use your own link to subscribe, and you may not arrange for someone to sign up on your behalf to generate commission. Commissions from self-referrals are void.
• Bidding on our brand. You may not buy paid search ads on "Lighthouse Digital Studio" or close variants and misspellings of it, and you may not use our name in ad display URLs. Paid advertising is otherwise welcome — this single restriction exists because brand searches are traffic we already have.
• Spam. No unsolicited bulk email, no mass DMs to strangers, no comment spam, no posting your link in forums or groups where promotion isn't allowed. Direct outreach to people you have a real relationship with is fine.
• Pretending to be us. Don't register domains, social accounts, or email addresses that could be mistaken for official Lighthouse properties, and don't present yourself as an employee, agent, or official representative. You're an independent referrer.
• Claims we wouldn't make. No guaranteed results, no invented statistics, no promises about specific revenue or lead volume a contractor will get. We don't guarantee marketing outcomes and neither should you.
• Cookie stuffing or forced clicks. No loading our tracking link in iframes, pop-unders, redirects, or any method that sets a referral cookie without a genuine, intentional click.
• Coupon and deal-site squatting. Don't publish discount codes we haven't issued, and don't create pages implying discounts exist when they don't.
• Trademark and content misuse. You may use our name and logo to refer to us. You may not modify the logo, claim ownership of our brand, or republish our videos or client work as your own.
• Illegal or hateful placement. No promotion on sites containing illegal content, harassment, hate speech, adult content, or anything that would embarrass a contractor to be associated with.

8. Suspension and termination

Either side can end the relationship at any time, for any reason, with written notice — an email counts.

If you leave the program voluntarily or we end it without cause, you are paid all commissions properly earned up to that point, on the normal schedule.

If we terminate you for violating section 7, unpaid commissions may be forfeited and any referrals generated by the violating activity are void. We'll tell you what happened and give you a chance to respond before making that call, unless the violation is flagrant.

9. Your tax situation

You participate as an independent contractor, not an employee, partner, or agent of Lighthouse. Nothing in this program creates an employment relationship, joint venture, or partnership.

You are responsible for reporting and paying tax on your commission income. If you are a U.S. person and we pay you $600 or more in a calendar year, we will ask you for a completed Form W-9 and will issue a Form 1099-NEC. We may hold payouts until a requested W-9 is returned.

10. No guarantee of earnings

The commission examples on our affiliate page illustrate how the math works on a single referral. They are not projections, promises, or typical results. Most affiliate programs produce a wide range of outcomes, and many participants earn nothing. Your results depend entirely on whether the contractors you refer choose to subscribe and stay.

11. Changes to these terms and to the program

We may update these terms. If a change materially affects how you earn or get paid — the commission rate, the cookie window, or the payout terms — we will email active affiliates before it takes effect and it will not apply retroactively to commissions already earned.

We may also change our pricing, plans, or products at any time. Because commission is a percentage, your earnings follow whatever a referred customer actually pays.

12. Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you under this program is limited to the commissions payable to you. We are not liable for lost profits, lost opportunity, or indirect or consequential damages arising from your participation, including any interruption of tracking or of the program itself.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Nassau County, New York.

14. Questions

Email team@lighthousedigitalstudio.com. We read everything and usually respond within two business days.

Ready to join? Apply to the affiliate program.