Version 2.1 · Effective August 6, 2026
You join free. You introduce business owners you actually know, using your membership number. When someone you referred becomes a paying Cobbled Works client, you earn a close bonus first, then 5% of their build fee against each instalment as they pay it down, and 10% of their monthly payments for as long as they stay a client. Nothing is owed until that client's first payment clears, so an intro or a meeting that goes nowhere costs you nothing and costs us nothing. The $100 and the build-fee share pay within 30 days of the referral qualifying; the service share pays quarterly, moving to monthly once you have four qualified referrals. We report it to the IRS like any income, and we ask two things in return: tell people you're paid for the introduction, and only refer people you'd vouch for. The long version below is the one that governs.
Refer someone. Nothing to sign. $100 when your referral's first payment clears on a website build, or $50 on a standalone tracking deal, plus 5% of their build fee and 10% of their monthly payments for as long as they stay.
Become a Partner. You sign the Referral Partner Agreement. Exactly the same rates, to the cent. What signing changes is that they are locked for your term and cannot be changed on you.
The difference is the paperwork and what comes with it, not your standing with us. Partners sign an agreement, and a W-9 follows before the first payout because past $600 a year the IRS requires one. Signing also means taking on deal registration and a 30-day window, non-circumvention, confidentiality, and our brand rules. That is the real difference, and it is why the rate is higher. Referring someone with nothing to sign is a completely good answer, and plenty of people will never want anything else.
Signing does not raise a rate, and we will not pretend it does. The published program can be changed at our discretion on 30 days' notice; a Partner's rates, attribution and closed-referral payouts are locked for their term. Once you have sent three, we will ask whether you would like to come on as a Partner and have yours locked. The plain-language terms for the unsigned path are at the end of this page.
These terms are an agreement between you and Cobbled Works ("we," "us"). By checking the box on the application at cobbledworks.com/refer/, you accept them. We keep a record of when you accepted and which version you accepted.
You must be 18 or older, a US resident with a valid taxpayer identification number, and not currently working for Cobbled Works. One membership per person. Your membership and your number are yours alone. They can't be sold, shared as a public coupon, or transferred.
A referral earns money when all of these are true:
Every qualified referral pays three things, at identical rates on both paths: a close bonus of $100 on a website build or $50 on a standalone tracking deal, 5% of that client's build fee charged against each installment as they pay it off, and a 10% service share on that client's monthly payments for as long as they stay a client. Every one of those numbers is the same whether or not you have signed anything. The only figure that moves is the percentage of the build fee.
| Path | What you take on | Close bonus | Share of build fee | Service share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refer someone | Nothing to sign | $100 website, $50 tracking | 5% | 10%, for as long as they stay |
| Signed Partner | Signed agreement, any volume | $100 website, $50 tracking | 5% | 10%, and these rates locked for your term |
The percentage applies to the build fee and to nothing else. A plan sold without a build fee, such as the site-only plan at $149 a month, pays no percentage. It still pays the full close bonus and the full 10% service share.
Why the paperwork is the difference. Partners sign the Referral Partner Agreement, and a W-9 follows before the first payout because past $600 a year the IRS requires one from us. Signing also takes on real duties: registering a deal and working it inside a 30-day window, not going around us to the client, keeping what you learn confidential, following our brand rules. That is the whole difference, and it is why the rate is higher. The extra points buy the duties. They do not buy a better class of person, and nobody on the unsigned side is a lesser member.
The signature and the tax paperwork are two separate moments, deliberately. Signing takes about a minute on the agreement page and nothing else is asked of you that day: you are a registered Partner and earning from that moment. The W-9 and your bank details come later, at the point your first commission is actually payable, and they go to our payment processor rather than to us. That is the same on the unsigned path (Section 5). We never ask for a Social Security number or an EIN and we never store one.
Signing locks your rates. It does not raise them. The rates above are what everyone is paid. What a signed agreement adds is that we cannot change them on you for its term, that the attribution rules stay put, and that anything already closed keeps paying even if we end the program. Once you have sent three, we will ask whether you would like that. Saying no is a real answer and costs you nothing: you keep earning exactly the same, on a program we could change.
Your count carries over. Referrals that closed before you signed still count toward your recognition level. Levels are recognition for volume and carry no rate, so a first referral and a fiftieth earn the same. Nothing you did before the signature is thrown away.
If a Partner goes quiet, only the recognition level resets. Eighteen months with no closed referral puts your level back to Level 1. Because levels carry no rate, this changes nothing about what you are paid, then or later. You are still a Partner, your agreement still stands, and every service share already running keeps paying for as long as that client stays.
Your recognition level carries no rate, so it does not change what any referral pays. "Revenue" means money we actually receive from that client, minus sales tax we collect, refunds, chargebacks, and bad debt. The service share runs every month the client keeps paying us. There is no window on it and no step-down; it stops when they stop paying, and at no other time.
Nothing is owed until a customer has paid. This program is self-funded: no close bonus, percentage, or service share comes due before we have received that client's first payment. Meetings, intros, and proposals that do not convert pay nothing, to you or to anyone. We would rather say that plainly here than have you discover it later.
Our sales team keeps their full commission on every deal, whatever the source. A referred lead never earns a closer less than a lead we found ourselves, which is exactly why your introduction gets real effort rather than a shrug.
If a client you referred refunds, charges back, or cancels within 60 days of their deal closing, the close bonus and build-fee share tied to them are deducted from your future payouts. We offset. We won't bill you. After day 60 that money is yours and no cancellation reaches back for it. The service share self-corrects, since it's only ever paid on money we actually kept.
The FTC requires it and so do we: whenever you recommend Cobbled Works, a post, a group chat, a conversation, make the paid relationship clear. Something like "I'm in Cobbled Works' referral club and get paid if you sign up" is perfect. Don't make claims about our services beyond what our own materials say. Skipping the disclosure is grounds for losing unpaid amounts and your membership.
Breaking these forfeits unpaid amounts and ends your membership.
Membership makes you a referrer, not an employee, agent, contractor, partner, or franchisee of Cobbled Works. You have no duties, no quotas, and no authority to bind us, quote prices, or promise anything on our behalf.
What we pay you is income and you're responsible for the taxes on it. Before your first payout you'll complete a W-9 through our payment processor's onboarding, and you consent to our filing 1099 forms where required. Past $600 a year the IRS requires it, which is the whole reason the form exists. Without a valid TIN on file with the processor, federal law requires 24% to be withheld. We never hold your taxpayer identification number ourselves.
Anything you learn about our clients or prospects through the program is confidential. Don't use it for anything besides the program.
We can update these terms or end the program at our discretion, on 30 days' written notice to the email on your membership. A change takes effect only for referrals that close after the effective date on that notice. It never reaches backward.
What you have already earned is untouchable. Any referral whose deal closed before a change keeps the rate it was stamped with on the day it closed, and keeps its service share for as long as that client keeps paying us, on the terms in force at that close. No later change, and no ending of the program, cuts that share short or lowers that rate. You can leave anytime; if you leave, or we end the program, without cause on your part, your service share on already-closed clients keeps paying for as long as those clients stay.
If you have signed the Referral Partner Agreement, that document governs you instead of this section, and it locks your rate schedule for the whole term of the agreement (section 13 there). Nothing here overrides it.
Joining costs nothing, and nobody earns anything for recruiting members. Every dollar paid traces to a real client buying real services. This is a referral program, not a multi-level opportunity, not a franchise, not an investment.
Talk to us first, club@cobbledworks.com, and we'll work it out in the open, with the records on the table. If we truly can't, disputes are resolved by individual binding arbitration under the American Arbitration Association's consumer rules, in the state where Cobbled Works is organized, whose law governs. Small-claims court stays available to both of us. No class actions. Claims must be brought within one year of when they arise.
Our total liability to you under this program is capped at the amounts paid or payable to you in the twelve months before the claim. Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential damages.
We handle your information as described in the ConnectClub Privacy Notice.
This is the unsigned path in plain language. It is a summary of the sections above written so you do not have to read them, not a separate contract. Where the two differ, the sections above govern.
What it pays. $100 for every referral that closes on a website build, or $50 on a standalone tracking deal. 5% of that client's build fee, paid as they pay it off. 10% of their monthly payments for as long as they stay a client. Every referral pays all three. There is no cap and no limit on how many people you can refer.
When it pays. Nothing is owed until your referral has actually paid us. The referral counts once they have signed, paid their first invoice, and thirty days have gone by with no refund or cancellation. The close bonus pays within 30 days of that, the 5% rides each build-fee installment as it is collected, and the 10% arrives quarterly, and monthly once you have four referrals that closed.
If they back out. If your referral cancels or refunds within 60 days of closing, the $100 and the 5% on that one come off your next payout. We take it off the top; we never send you a bill. After day 60 the money is yours and nothing reaches back for it.
What we ask. Refer people you actually know, and tell them you get paid if they sign up. That is it. There is no quota, no minimum, no fee, and nothing to sign.
Before your first payout you complete a W-9, because the IRS requires one past $600 a year. It goes to our payment processor along with your bank details, at the point there is money to send and not before. We never ask for or store a Social Security number or an EIN.
You are not obligated to become a Partner, ever. After your third referral we will ask if you want to, because having your rates locked is worth something and it seems unfair not to mention it. If you would rather keep it simple, keep it simple. You are paid the same either way, your referrals still count, and we will not ask again unless you bring it up.