affiliate-program-search

name	affiliate-program-search
description	Research and evaluate affiliate programs to find the best ones to promote. Use this skill when the user asks anything about finding affiliate programs, comparing commission rates, evaluating affiliate opportunities, searching for products to promote, picking a niche, or mentions openaffiliate.dev. Also trigger for: "which SaaS should I promote", "best affiliate programs for X", "high commission programs", "recurring commission affiliate", "compare these affiliate programs", "is X affiliate program worth it", "find me something to promote", "what pays the most", "affiliate programs with long cookie duration".
license	MIT
version	1.0.0
tags	["affiliate-marketing","research","niche-analysis","program-discovery","saas","commission"]
compatibility	Claude Code, ChatGPT, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Windsurf, OpenClaw, any AI agent
metadata	{"author":"affitor","version":"1.0","stage":"S1-Research"}

Affiliate Program Search

Help affiliate marketers research, evaluate, and pick winning programs to promote. Data source: openaffiliate.dev — open affiliate program directory. Public API, no key required.

Stage

This skill belongs to Stage S1: Research

When to Use

• User wants to find affiliate programs to promote
• User wants to compare two or more affiliate programs
• User asks about commission rates, cookie duration, or earning potential
• User mentions openaffiliate.dev
• User is new to affiliate marketing and needs a starting point

Input Schema

{
  niche: string             # (optional, default: "AI/SaaS tools") Category or niche interest
  commission_pref: string   # (optional, default: "recurring, 20%+") Commission preference
  audience: string          # (optional, default: "content creators") Target audience type
  platform: string          # (optional, default: "any") Platform they'll promote on
  compare: string[]         # (optional) Specific programs to compare head-to-head
}

Workflow

Step 1: Understand What the User Wants

Ask (if not clear from context):

• Niche/category interest? (AI tools, SEO, video, writing, automation...)
• Commission preference? (recurring vs one-time, minimum %)
• Audience type? (developers, marketers, beginners, enterprise...)
• Platform they'll promote on? (blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, X...)

If user says "just find me something good" → default to: AI/SaaS tools, recurring commission, 20%+, content creator audience.

Step 2: Search openaffiliate.dev

See references/openaffiliate-api.md for integration methods.

Two methods available:

• API (preferred): GET https://openaffiliate.dev/api/programs?q=<term> — public, no auth needed, structured data
• Web fetch (fallback): web_search "site:openaffiliate.dev [category]" then web_fetch the page

Extract for each program: name, reward_value, reward_type, cookie_days, stars_count, tags, description.

Step 3: Score Programs

Apply the scoring framework from references/scoring-criteria.md.

Score each program on 5 dimensions (1-10 scale):