Choose the Creator Network creators you want to recommend to subscribers
If you're part of the Creator Network, you can recommend creators whose newsletters your subscribers may be interested in subscribing to. (Some creators will even pay you for each successful referral!)
To set up these Recommendations, follow the steps here to join the Creator Network if you haven't already.
After that, follow the steps below to add (or edit) your Free and Paid Recommendations, share them, and customize the order in which you display your Recommendations to your subscribers:
Managing your Free Recommendations
Add a new Free Recommendation
Go to Recommendations under the Grow tab in the top navigation and click + Add recommendation.
It'll direct you to the Discover page where you can browse creators in the Creator Network.
Click a creator's profile to check it out in more detail. If you've decided to recommend a certain creator, click the Recommend button. We'll add them to your list of Recommendations.
Remove a Free Recommendation
To stop recommending a creator, go to the My Recommendations page and click the three vertical dots next to their name > Remove.
Click Stop recommending in the window that pops up to confirm the removal.
If you change your mind about removing a Free Recommendation, you can re-add it by clicking the three vertical dots next to the creator's name > Restore.
Then, click Recommend in the window that pops up to re-add the Free Recommendation.
Managing your Paid Recommendations
Add a new Paid Recommendation
To add a new Paid Recommendation, enable Paid Recommendations first if you haven't already.
Use the Paid toggle in your My Recommendations page to go to your Paid Recommendations. Or, use the top navigation and go to Earn > Paid Recommendations.
Click + Add paid recommendation to add a new Paid Recommendation. It'll direct you to the Discover page for Paid Recommendations.
Click any Paid Recommendation to view more details on its referral criteria.
If you've decided to recommend it and you're pre-approved to do so, click Recommend.
NOTE: If you aren't pre-approved to recommend the Paid Recommendation, you'll see an "Approval Required" box.
Fill out a short message on why your audience is a good fit, and then click Submit request. The creator behind the Paid Recommendation will review your application and decide whether to approve you.
In the meantime, the Paid Recommendation will have the "Pending" status on the My paid recommendations page.
Once you're approved to recommend the Paid Recommendation, it will appear on the My paid recommendations page with the "Active" status.
You have the option of clicking your active Paid Recommendations to add a customized description of why you're recommending these creators to your audience.
By adding your own customized description, it will replace the Paid Recommendation's default bio, like so:
⚠️IMPORTANT!⚠️ If you had connected an existing SparkLoop account when enabling Paid Recommendations in ConvertKit instead of creating a new one, you will additionally need to add your Paid Recommendations to Upscribe and activate Upscribe.
(You'll need to set up the Upscribe widget as part of the Upscribe activation process. But you don't have to embed the widget on your website.)
Finally, customize your recommendation slots to display your Paid Recommendations! Otherwise, your Paid Recommendations will not appear. Learn how to customize your recommendation slots below.
Pin a Paid Recommendation
Your Paid Recommendation slots will display a random Paid Recommendation by default. But you can pin a Paid Recommendation so that it always appears in your Paid Recommendation slot until its budget runs out.
To do this, go to the My paid recommendations page.
Click the three vertical dots on the right of the Paid Recommendation you want to pin, followed by Pin.
The Paid Recommendation's status will change to "Pinned."
NOTE: Only Paid Recommendations with the "Active" status can be pinned.
To unpin a Paid Recommendation, click the three vertical dots on the right of the Recommendation, followed by Unpin.
Remove a Paid Recommendation
To remove a Paid Recommendation, go to the My paid recommendations page.
Click the three vertical dots on the right of the Recommendation you want to remove, followed by Remove.
Click Stop recommending in the window that pops up to confirm the removal.
NOTE: If you change your mind about removing a Paid Recommendation, you’ll have to re-add the Paid Recommendation using the steps above.
To temporarily turn off a Paid Recommendation without removing it completely, select Pause instead.
Sharing your Recommendations
You can get a standalone page of your Recommendations for sharing with others. It looks like this:
To get the link to this page, go to the My Recommendations page. Click the three vertical dots at the top right of the page > Settings.
Click the My Recommendations tab on the left.
Under the Share section, click the copy icon to copy your standalone Recommendations page's URL.
NOTE: Want to redirect subscribers to this Recommendations page after they submit a non-ConvertKit form? Learn how in our guide to displaying Recommendations on third-party forms.
Customizing the look of your Recommendations
Click the three vertical dots at the top right of any Creator Network settings page (e.g., the My Recommendations page) > Customize to access a settings page for changing the look of your Recommendations.
From this Customize page, you can change your:
Heading and description
Theme
Number of Recommendations
Order of Recommendations
Click the Preview button on the top right to preview how your Recommendations will appear to subscribers who have just joined your email list.
Heading and description
Under the Settings tab on the right, use the Heading and Description fields to update the Recommendations text that subscribers will see right after they join your email list.
Use this text to encourage them to subscribe to your recommended creators.
Your changes will be saved automatically.
Theme
Under the Settings tab on the right, you can choose whether to use a light or dark theme for your Recommendations. The options are:
Light: White background with dark text
Dark: Black background with light-colored text (see the example below)
Auto: The subscriber will see either a light or dark theme depending on their browser settings
Your changes will be saved automatically.
Number of Recommendations
Under the Slots tab on the right, click + Add slot to add a new Recommendation slot. You can have up to five slots.
Click the ✖ next to any Recommendation slot to remove it.
Your changes will be saved automatically.
Order of Recommendations
Under the Slots tab on the right, click each Recommendation slot to choose the type of Recommendation that appears there.
The available options are:
Random Recommendation: The slot will display one of your Free Recommendations at random.
Paid Recommendation: The slot will display one of your Paid Recommendations. (This option will appear only if you have added Paid Recommendations to your Recommendations settings.)
If you've pinned a Paid Recommendation, it'll appear in your Paid Recommendation slot until its budget runs out.
If you haven't pinned any Paid Recommendations or your pinned Paid Recommendation's budget has run out, the slot will display one of your Paid Recommendations at random.
Specific creator: The slot will display a specific Free Recommendation of your choice.
Your changes will be saved automatically.
If you're done managing your Creator Network Recommendations and want to see who has recommended you to their subscribers, you can learn how in this article 👇