Affiliate Program
Earn more with Take My Boat Test, and keep your customers safer on the water.
$6 for every certificate your audience earns, on NASBLA-accredited courses they already need. Paid monthly via Stripe — no minimums, no gimmicks, no chargebacks.
Quick math
10 referrals/month
× $6 commission = $60/mo
50 referrals/month
× $6 = $300/mo — $3,600/year
See the live calculator below ↓
How it works
Three steps. That's it.
Grab your link
Apply, get approved (usually within 1 business day), and we'll spin up a unique link like takemyboattest.com/operator/123. Use it anywhere — IG bio, blog posts, in-person flyers, QR codes on the dock.
Share it
Anyone who clicks your link gets cookied for 30 days. They don't have to buy on the first visit — if they come back through any path within a month, you still get credit.
Get paid
Once they buy + pass the course, the referral approves. We pay out monthly directly to your bank via Stripe, or on-demand if you want to withdraw early. No invoicing.
The terms
No fine print.
We pay flat, named rates. No tiers that change without notice, no scaling penalties, no opaque deductions. What you see is what hits your account.
- $6 per standard certificate
- Flat commission on the standard tier. High-volume partners can apply for a partner-tier rate ($4) with added bonuses on certain campaigns.
- 30-day cookie window
- Once someone clicks your link, you get credit for any purchase they make in the next 30 days — even if they navigate back via Google or direct.
- Weekly, monthly, or instant payouts
- Paid straight to your bank through Stripe. Turn on automatic weekly or monthly payouts above a threshold you set, withdraw on demand whenever you like, or take it instantly to a debit card for 1% (50¢ minimum). Standard payouts are always free.
- Refunds reverse cleanly
- You earn the moment the customer pays — nothing is held back in a waiting period. If a customer does refund, that one referral reverses automatically; we never claw back commissions for any other reason.
Estimate your earnings
Start with the number you already know.
How many rentals do you do in a year? Everything else is an assumption you can argue with — move the sliders to your reality.
Boats, pontoons and jet skis — every booking that puts someone at the helm.
Florida requires boater education for anyone born on or after 1 January 1988. The younger your customers, the higher this goes.
Operators who send the link automatically at booking see this several times higher than those who mention it at the dock.
Estimated commission
$1,188 / year
1,200 rentals × 55% × 30% = 198 certificates × $6
An estimate, not a quote. Actual earnings depend on your customer mix and how consistently the link goes out. Commissions are paid on completed purchases and reverse if a customer is refunded.
Getting paid
Your money, on your schedule.
Connect your bank once through Stripe — it takes two or three minutes and Stripe handles the ID check. After that you decide how the money reaches you.
Automatic
Weekly or monthly
Set it once and stop thinking about it. Pick weekly or monthly, set a minimum balance to trigger a run, and payouts land in your account on their own.
Free
On demand
Withdraw any time
Not on a schedule? Hit withdraw whenever the balance is worth moving. Standard bank transfers arrive in a couple of business days.
Free
Instant
Minutes, not days
Push it to a debit card and have it in minutes, including weekends. Useful when payroll is Friday and the balance is sitting there on Thursday.
1% (50¢ minimum) · $2 minimum
The instant fee is Stripe's, passed through at cost — we don't mark it up. If a payout is too small for instant to make sense we quietly send it on the free rail instead of charging you for the privilege.
For rental operators
Stop telling people where to go. Let it happen automatically.
The commission is the smaller half of this. The bigger half is customers arriving already certified — so your dock isn't backed up with people filling in a test on their phone while everyone waits.
It goes out the moment they book
Nobody reads the confirmation email, and nobody finds the link buried on your site. We hook into your booking platform so the customer gets a text minutes after booking telling them what they need and handing them your link.
You find out when they pass
An email or text the moment your guest is certified, so you know who is ready before they arrive rather than discovering it at the helm.
Reviews, asked for automatically
After the booking ends we can follow up by text asking how it went — routed to Google, Facebook or wherever you want them. You hear the bad ones privately and the good ones publicly.
Not sure how to wire it up? We'll do it.
Tell us what you take bookings on and we'll set the automation up for you at no charge. It is worth more to us that the link actually goes out than that you figure it out alone — operators who automate it see several times the attach rate of operators who mention it at the dock.
Integrations
We plug into what you already run.
Nobody wants another dashboard to check. The certificate should show up inside the system you already use to take bookings and check people in — so your staff never has to ask a customer whether they got certified, and never has to take their word for it.
Zapier, for your booking platform
If your booking system talks to Zapier, it talks to us — no developer, no build. A booking fires the text with your link; a pass updates the guest's record. Tell us what you run and we will wire the Zap up for you.
Real-time webhooks
Eight events pushed to your endpoint the moment they happen — certificate issued, order completed, order refunded, referral converted, and more. Full payload with the customer's name, email, phone and expiry date, so you can match it to the right booking.
A live verification API
Ask us “is this person certified right now?” by email or phone and get an answer with every certificate they hold and when each expires. Built as a backstop so a safety check never depends on a single webhook arriving.
Already running in production
Dockline uses both rails today: the certificate.issued webhook to create the boater credential the instant a guest passes, and the verification endpoint as a fallback at check-in for anyone whose credential is missing — someone who took the course under a slightly different email, or a webhook that never landed. A gate that stops a rental going out cannot rest on one fire-and-forget push, so it doesn't.
Running something custom?
In-house system, an old reservation tool, a spreadsheet someone built in 2009 — tell us what you have and we will build the integration ourselves, at no charge. It is worth more to us that the link reliably reaches your customer than that you spend a weekend on it.
Tell us what you runInsurance partner
Certified customers cost you less to insure.
Granite Insurance partners with Take My Boat Test to support watersport operators who make safety a priority. Putting certified training into your operation raises the professionalism of every rental you send out and lowers the risk you carry — and it unlocks exclusive insurance discounts plus a customized plan built to stabilise your costs rather than watch them climb each renewal.
It is the part of this that pays you whether or not anyone ever clicks your link: an operator whose customers are certified is a better risk, and the people who price that risk agree.
See the watersports programGranite Insurance is an independent agency. Coverage, pricing and eligibility are theirs to determine, not ours.
Why it converts
A course your audience needs.
Boater education isn't a nice-to-have. In nearly every state, anyone born after a certain year is legally required to carry a boater ed card to operate a powered vessel. That demand is built-in.
NASBLA-accredited
Recognized in all 50 states + Canada. Same certificate the state-run courses issue — at a lower price point, online, on the student's schedule.
Fast & online
Most students finish in a few hours. Mobile-friendly, no proctors. The pitch sells itself once they see the alternative is a Saturday classroom.
Low refund rate
Customers know what they're buying — a required certification. Our refund rate sits under 2%, which means your commissions stick.
Wide audience fit
Anyone who rents, charters, or sells a boat eventually needs one. New boat owners are the obvious slice; tourists renting at marinas are the bigger one.
Real money per sale
$6 flat is meaningful at scale — more than most info-product affiliate programs pay per conversion. No 5%-of-a-$30-ebook nonsense.
Real company behind it
Take My Boat Test has been issuing certificates for over a decade. We're not a launch-and-pivot startup — we'll be paying out on the same terms next year.
Who joins
Built for people already in the water.
The best affiliates aren't generalists — they're people whose audience is already buying or renting boats. If any of these sound like you, you'll convert well.
Boat rental operators
Required-by-law cert that renters need anyway. QR code on the dock + email auto-responder = passive income.
Marinas & yacht clubs
Front desk hands the link to every new slip-holder. New boat owner = first-year cert customer.
Fishing charters & dive shops
Walk-in customers asking about local boating laws. Send them the link instead of a verbal answer.
Boating YouTubers & creators
Pin the link in your bio + first-comment. Sponsorship dollars without the sponsorship deal.
Marine retailers
Bundle a cert with every outboard, kayak, or PFD sale. Adds revenue without inventory.
Boat dealers
Every new-boat buyer is in the market for the certification. One referral = one happy customer + commission.
Boating blogs & forums
Sidebar banner, in-post link, weekly newsletter mention. Evergreen affiliate offer that doesn't expire.
Driver's-ed style schools
Add an online boater safety track to your existing program. We do the curriculum; you take the cut.
How to promote
Lots of ways to put it in front of people.
You don't need a content strategy or a marketing budget. The link works the same whether it's in your IG bio or stamped on a paper receipt.
- Pin the link in your Instagram / TikTok bio.
- Add a footer link on every email you send.
- Print a QR code, tape it to the dock or rental kiosk.
- Hand a one-pager to every new customer at sign-in.
- Mention it once in the auto-responder when someone books.
- Drop it in a forum thread when someone asks about cert requirements.
- Sidebar banner on your blog / niche site.
- Linktree, Beacons, or any link-in-bio service.
FAQ
Questions we get a lot.
How long until I'm approved?
Usually within 1 business day. We do a quick eyeball check to make sure the application is real — that's it. You'll get an email with your dashboard login and your unique link.
When do I get paid?
Whenever you want. Once you've connected your bank through Stripe you can turn on automatic payouts weekly or monthly, withdraw on demand, or push the balance to a debit card instantly. Standard transfers are free and land in a couple of business days.
What does an instant payout cost?
1% (50¢ minimum)— Stripe's fee, passed through at cost rather than marked up. It needs a debit card on file and a balance of at least $2; below that the fee stops making sense, so we send it on the free standard rail instead of charging you. Weekly, monthly and on-demand bank transfers are always free.
Can you set up the booking automation for us?
Yes, at no charge. Tell us what you take bookings on and we'll wire it up so your customers get the certification text automatically after they book, and you get a notification when they pass. Operators who automate it see a far higher share of customers buying through their link than operators who mention it at the dock.
What if a customer refunds?
The referral reverses automatically when a refund is issued. You won't see it in your unpaid balance and we don't claw back paid commissions outside of that.
What's the cookie window?
30 days. Anyone who clicks your link and buys within 30 days counts as your referral, even if they come back through Google or direct on day 28.
Can I run paid ads?
Yes — but you can't bid on our brand terms (e.g. "take my boat test") on Google or Bing. We'll send full ad guidelines after approval.
What if I was on AffiliateWP before?
Your account, link slug, and historical earnings were all preserved during our cutover. Sign in with the same email and everything's right where you left it.
Is there a minimum payout?
You can set your own minimum threshold for auto-payouts (default is $25). On-demand withdrawals have no minimum — any balance is withdrawable.
Do you provide creatives?
Yes — banner images, social-ready graphics, and copy snippets are all in your dashboard after approval. Use them as-is or remix them.
Apply
Two minutes. One business day.
We just need a few details so we know who you are, where to pay you, and how you plan to promote. We'll be in touch within 1 business day.