We Launched an Affiliate Program, and I Think It's Worth Talking About

When I moved to New York at 18, I was living alone for the first time and suddenly became very aware of something I had never thought about before. I had no idea how to feed myself. I had been living at home where food just existed, and I had never developed the skills to make it happen on my own. That realization is frustrating in a way that is hard to explain until you're standing in a kitchen at the end of a long day with no idea where to start. I was working retail at the time, so getting home at 9 or 10 at night was pretty normal. The last thing I had the energy for was spending an hour scrolling YouTube or TikTok trying to figure out how to cook something.

So you do what most people do. You reach for whatever is fast, cheap, and easy. Frozen meals, butter noodles (which I definitely still eat once a week), whatever gets you through the week. But over time you realize that feeding yourself well is not optional, and the gap between wanting to cook and knowing how is bigger than it looks.

And it's funny, because even back in high school I wanted to learn. I tried to get into the cooking elective class and it was so difficult because everybody wanted to be in it. There just was not enough room. I feel like that says something about how much people want these skills and how few accessible ways there are to get them.

I think about that version of myself a lot when I think about what we've built at Rouxbe. The idea that you can develop real culinary skills on your own schedule, without having to enroll in a formal cooking school or clear your life for a class, is something I could have used at 18.

If you're new here, a quick note on what Rouxbe is. It's an online culinary school that has been around since 2005, teaching the kind of skills that working chefs use. You learn on your own schedule, on whatever device you have, and you have real chef-instructors giving you feedback. Over a million students across 180 countries have come through the program, so it has been around long enough to know what it's doing.

So here's what the affiliate program is.

The Rouxbe affiliate program is a tiered commission structure for people who want to promote our courses and membership to their audiences.

Commissions start at 20% and scale up to 40% depending on your quarterly net revenue, with a 45-day cookie window that I feel like is one of the more generous ones out there. Payouts are monthly via ACH, Venmo, or PayPal, with a $50 minimum threshold. You can get set up at rouxbe.tapfiliate.com in four steps, and your dashboard tracks clicks, conversions, and commissions in real time.

The reason I think this is a strong opportunity for the right person comes back to the audience.

Our catalog ranges from accessible self-paced introductions to full six-month professional certifications, so there's an entry point for every type of learner. The Rouxbe Membership includes a 7-day free trial, which makes it an easy recommendation.

And from a marketing standpoint, I feel like it's important to call out that this program is built for a wide range of creators and audiences. I want people of all ages to get involved. Think about the aspiring content creator who is just starting to build an audience around food, or the college student who is learning to cook for the first time and wants something more structured than YouTube tutorials. And then there's the person who always wanted to go to culinary school, feels like they missed their chance, and is looking for something that takes the craft seriously. All three of those people exist in large numbers, and all three of them are exactly who we built this for. So if your audience includes any of them, I think this program is worth your attention.

The affiliate marketing space is noisy, and I feel like a lot of programs ask creators to promote things they don't believe in. What I wanted to build was something where the commission is competitive enough to be worth your time and the product is strong enough that recommending it doesn't compromise your credibility.

If that's the audience you're building for, sign up at rouxbe.tapfiliate.com. And if you have questions, reach us at affiliates@rouxbe.com.