Getting started
ShareCrew's Overview screen carries a getting-started checklist. This page walks through the same steps, in the same order, with the reason for each.
1. Install and activate
Install ShareCrew from WordPress.org, with WooCommerce 8.5 or newer already active, then open WP Shelf → ShareCrew in wp-admin.
The ShareCrew screens are for anyone who can manage WooCommerce, so a shop manager sees them. Settings is the exception: it needs an administrator. If WooCommerce is missing or too old, ShareCrew shows a notice on the Plugins screen and stays inactive.
2. Choose a tracking mode
Settings → Attribution → Tracking mode decides whether ShareCrew may set a marketing cookie when someone follows a creator's link. It is a legal choice as much as a technical one, and the checklist counts it as done only once you save the card.
- Only with consent (the default) — the cookie is set once the visitor accepts marketing cookies in a consent banner that supports the WP Consent API. Without such a plugin, a link click never sets the cookie.
- Always — the cookie is set on every visit through a link.
- Codes only — no cookie at all.
What each mode credits is on Links, codes and tracking.
3. Tell it your costs
Open Settings → Costs. The line at the top — Cost known for N of M products — is the most important figure in ShareCrew. The checklist wants at least 90%.
A commission on a product with no known cost is held, not computed as if the cost were zero. Either add costs (WooCommerce's cost of goods field, a cost field from another plugin, or a margin per category), or set a Default margin and choose Assume the default margin under When a cost is unknown. If you have no cost data at all, set Settings → Profit share → Share of to Revenue instead. See Costs and profit.
While you are there, fill in your shipping costs, packaging costs and payment fees. Leave them empty and those costs are not counted, which makes every order look more profitable than it was.
4. Set the rate and tiers
Settings → Profit share → Program rate is the share a creator earns. It starts at 20%, a placeholder to change, and a fresh install has one tier, Partner, at that rate. Saving the Profit share card ticks this step. Add tiers under Settings → Tiers if you want creators to move up as they generate more profit.
5. Exclude /go/ from your cache
The cookie that credits a creator is set only on the
/go/ redirect. A cached copy of it serves one visitor's
cookie to everyone after them. Settings → Attribution
prints the exact rule for Cloudflare, LiteSpeed and nginx, and a
daily check confirms it — see
Caching and /go/.
6. Publish the program page
Create a page with the Creator application form
block or the [sharecrew_apply] shortcode. Add the
Creator program summary block or
[sharecrew_program_summary] to state your rate,
schedule and discount from your live settings, so the page never
drifts from them. Then put the page's address in
Settings → Program → Program page URL.
7. Approve your first creator
Applications arrive under WP Shelf → ShareCrew → Applications. Approving one creates the creator's link — and their code, unless you run links only — and sends the welcome email, with a link to set a password if their account has none. See Creators and codes.
8. Fill in your payout details
Settings → Payouts → Statements: your legal name and address, printed on every statement as the payer. Choose the payout methods you offer, your payout day and your minimum on the same card.
9. Mark your first payout paid
Create the run, send the money from PayPal or your bank, then mark it paid. The checklist disappears after that. See Payouts and statements.
Trying it with a test order
A fresh install has no creators, the default tracking mode sets no cookie without a consent plugin, and a product with no cost holds its commission. So to see a commission end to end on a test site:
- Set Tracking mode to Always.
- Set a Default margin and choose Assume the default margin (or switch the share to Revenue).
- Apply from a logged-out browser with a new email address.
- Approve the application.
-
Visit
/go/<handle>and place an order with the creator's code. Once the order is paid (processing or completed), the commission appears under Commissions with its breakdown.
Put the real settings back before you launch.