There’s no approval process. Your link works the minute you have a free VendBuddy account, and it keeps paying for a year after somebody uses it.
Two rewards come off the same link. Credits you can spend in the product, and cash we send you by PayPal. This isn’t a business opportunity and we won’t promise what you’ll make. The calculator below shows exactly what each paying referral is worth and how it adds up, using the real terms.
Get your link
Free account, no card. The link is waiting on the Referrals tab.
Get my referral link →Work out what referrals could pay you
Move the sliders. The rate, the payout window and the plan prices come straight from the live referral terms.
Terms: 30% to start, 35% after 5 paying referrals, 40% after 10 paying referrals, of what each referred customer pays for their first 12 monthly payments, on Starter ($49/mo) or Pro ($79/mo). Paid monthly by PayPal once you pass $25. The math assumes every referral stays on a paid plan the whole time and leaves out the 10% override, so these are estimates, not a guarantee.
What you get
Commission tiers
| Tier | Paying referrals | You earn |
|---|---|---|
| Starting | 0–4 | 30% of each payment for their first 12 months |
| Growth | 5–9 | 35% of each payment for their first 12 months |
| Established | 10 or more | 40% of each payment for their first 12 months |
| Override | Customers of affiliates you brought in | 10% of each payment for their first 12 months, one level only |
30% of every payment for 12 months, 35% after 5 paying referrals, 40% after 10. Earn 10% on the paying customers of people you bring in as affiliates. Your tier is recalculated every month from your paying referrals, and the monthly statement pays at the tier you are on. What we pay on any one customer, direct and override together, never goes above 50% of what they pay.
30% of $49 or $79 a month is $14.70 or $23.70 per paying operator per month; at 40% it is $19.60 or $31.60. It’s a small number per person on purpose: this pays the people who are already talking to a lot of operators, not the people who post a link once.
What each purchase pays
The same link pays on everything a person you sent buys, not only the subscription. Launch rates, reviewed quarterly.
| They buy | You earn |
|---|---|
| A monthly plan | Your tier rate (30%, 35%, 40%) of each payment for their first 12 months |
| A credit pack | 15% of the pack price |
| A digital product (kits, sheets, lead lists) | Your tier rate of the price, at least 30% |
| A plan, bought by a customer of an affiliate you brought in | 10% of each payment for that customer’s first 12 months |
Pack and product commission counts for anyone you sent during their first 12 months as a customer, including people who check out before they make an account. Each sale clears after a 30-day refund window.
How the tracking works
- Someone opens your link. We store the code in their browser, so they can wander off and come back later and it still counts.
- They make an account. The code is written onto their record at that moment. That record is what everything else reads.
- They verify their email and spend a credit. Forty-eight hours after signup, your 25 credits land.
- They put a card on a paid plan. From that month, your tier rate (30% to start) of what they pay accrues to you, every month, for 12 months. If they buy a credit pack or a digital product, 15% or your tier rate of that sale is booked to you as well.
- We pay out by PayPal once a month. Anything under $25 rolls into next month rather than vanishing.
How it pays
Monthly, by PayPal, to the address you enter on the Referrals tab in the app. The minimum payout is $25 and a balance under it carries forward. Commission runs for the referred customer’s first 12 months and then stops, whether or not they stay.
What does not pay: referring yourself or a second account of your own, signups from the same device, traffic from coupon and deal sites, and anyone who refunds or charges back. If you post your link publicly you have to say it is a referral link. That’s an FTC rule about your post, not a VendBuddy preference, and the word “referral” sitting in plain sight is all it takes.
Program terms
- Rates. 30% of every payment for 12 months, 35% after 5 paying referrals, 40% after 10. Earn 10% on the paying customers of people you bring in as affiliates.
- Collected money only. Commission is earned on payments we actually collect. A refund or a chargeback reverses the commission on that payment, including after it was paid out (it comes off your next balance).
- 30-day hold. Each payment clears after 30 days, then joins your balance.
- $25 minimum, paid monthly by PayPal. A balance under $25 carries into the next month.
- 12-month clock per customer. It starts at that customer’s first paid subscription and does not restart on a plan change, a cancel or a re-subscribe.
- Tiers. Counted in distinct paying customers who verified their email and were not refunded or flagged, recalculated every month.
- One override level. 10% on the paying customers of affiliates you brought in, and nothing below them. It stops if that affiliate’s account is cancelled or unpaid.
- Total cap. Direct and override together never pay more than 50% of any one customer’s payments; the override shrinks first.
- Signup credits. 25 credits once a referral verifies their email and spends their own first credit, for up to 10 referrals a calendar month.
- Excluded. Self-referrals, duplicate or second accounts, fake customers, spam, misleading claims, coupon-site traffic and bidding on our brand name. Excluded referrals earn nothing, and we can void commission that came from them.
Who this is for
- Vending creators on YouTube and TikTok. You already answer “how do you find locations” in the comments every week. Link the answer.
- Facebook group admins. A pinned post and a link in the group rules keeps earning long after you stop thinking about it.
- Operators with a crew. Your drivers and the operators you trade tips with are the exact people this was built for.
- Locator services. You already sell finding locations. This is the tool your clients will ask about afterwards.
- Machine sellers and distributors. Somebody who just bought a machine has one question, and it’s where to put it.
Copy and post
Five things you can put somewhere today. Your own link is already in each one if you’re signed in, and every one of them discloses that it is a referral link.
If you run vending, this is the tool I use to find placements: type a ZIP, get the buildings scored, get the name of the person who decides. Referral link, so I get paid if you stick around: vendbuddy.io/?ref=YOURCODE
This comes up here every week, so: the way I find locations now is to type the ZIP into VendBuddy, look at what it scores highest, and pull the best contact on file for the two or three worth a call. Searching costs nothing, a credit only goes when you reveal a contact. Referral link below, which means I earn something if you subscribe: vendbuddy.io/?ref=YOURCODE
Stop cold-walking strip malls. Type your ZIP, get the buildings ranked, get the name and email of whoever signs. Free to search. Referral link: vendbuddy.io/?ref=YOURCODE
Quick one. I have been using VendBuddy to work out which buildings near me are worth a machine, and it has saved me a lot of pointless driving. You type a ZIP, it scores the businesses in it on dwell time and foot traffic, and for one credit it hands you the best contact it can find, usually with an email or a phone number. Scripts and a placement agreement are in there too. A free account gets you 5 credits with no card. The link below is a referral link, so I get a cut if you subscribe: vendbuddy.io/?ref=YOURCODE
I use VendBuddy for location scouting (referral link, disclosing that up front): vendbuddy.io/?ref=YOURCODE
Questions people actually type
Do I have to apply?
No. There is no application, no approval queue and nobody reviewing your follower count. Make a free account, open the Referrals tab, and the link sitting there is already live. That’s the whole process.
When does a referral actually count?
Two different clocks. The credits land once the person you sent verifies their email, spends at least one credit in the product themselves, and has been signed up for 48 hours. That waiting period is there so a throwaway address can’t mint credits. Credits are paid for up to 10 referrals a calendar month; past that, a referral still counts toward your tier, it just lands no credits. The cash starts the month they put a card on a paid plan and runs for their first 12 monthly payments.
How much is it, in real money?
VendBuddy is $49 or $79 a month depending on the plan. 30% of that is $14.70 or $23.70 a month per paying person, every month for 12 months. At 40% it is $19.60 or $31.60. The calculator at the top of this page runs the numbers for you.
How do the tiers work?
30% of every payment for 12 months, 35% after 5 paying referrals, 40% after 10. Earn 10% on the paying customers of people you bring in as affiliates. A paying referral counts toward your tier once they have put a card on a paid plan, verified their email, and have not been refunded or flagged. We count every month, and your monthly statement pays every active customer at the tier you are on that month.
What is the 10% override?
If someone you referred starts sharing their own link, you earn 10% of what their paying customers pay, for each of those customers’ first 12 months. It is one level only: nothing is paid on the people they bring in after that. It stops if their account is cancelled or unpaid. Together, what we pay out on any one customer never goes above 50% of what that customer pays; if it would, the override is the part that shrinks.
How and when do I get paid?
By PayPal, once a month, to whatever address you put in the Referrals tab. Nothing goes out under $25; a balance below that rolls into the next month instead of disappearing. If we have no PayPal address for you, the balance sits there until you add one.
What gets a referral voided?
Referring yourself, a second account of your own, or someone on the same device. Coupon and deal-site traffic, because that’s not a person you introduced to us, it’s someone who was already coming. Signups that get refunded or charge back. Posting the link without saying it is a referral link also puts you on the wrong side of the FTC, so that one is on you to get right.
Does my link pay on credit packs and digital products too?
Yes. The same link pays 15% of any credit pack and your tier rate (at least 30%) of any digital product (kits, sheets, lead lists) bought by someone you sent, for their first 12 months as a customer. It counts whether they buy from their account or check out before making one, as long as they arrived through your link. Each sale clears after a 30-day refund window, then joins your balance. There is no override on packs or products.
Can I run ads on VendBuddy’s name?
No. Bidding on our brand terms means we pay you a commission on people who were typing our name into Google anyway. Write something, talk to your audience, put the link where it belongs. That’s the version of this that works for both of us.
Related
Make vending software or hardware? Partner with VendBuddy is the page for reviews and sponsorships. The gear page shows how we treat a paid link on our own site. Pricing has the plan numbers the commission is a percentage of.