First Login to Affiliate Dashboard: What to Look At (15-Minute Tour)

Esma, 20, just joined the thMenu affiliate program from Antalya. After completing OTP verification, she logged into affiliate.thmenu.com for the first time and found a dashboard with four main sections. She had no idea which tabs to check during the first 15 minutes. This guide solves the day-one confusion for Esma and thousands of new affiliates like her.

Tracking Link Section (Minutes 1-3)

Your first stop is the "My Links" tab. Here you see your unique tracking URL: thmenu.com/?ref=esma2026. Every visitor who clicks this link is attributed to you for 90 days. Right next to it sits your Stripe coupon code: ESMA20. This code gives restaurants a 5% discount and earns you 20% commission on every monthly payment.

Esma's first mistake was pasting the link into her Instagram bio without adding UTM parameters. The dashboard has a "Customize" button: ?ref=esma2026&utm_source=instagram&utm_campaign=bio. This way you can see which channel brought how many clicks in the analytics tab. Coupon codes convert higher than raw links because the discount removes psychological friction.

Marketing Assets and Materials (Minutes 4-7)

The "Assets" tab is the most overlooked section. It contains 47 ready-made marketing materials: Instagram story templates (1080x1920), Facebook post images, LinkedIn banners, blog post drafts, email templates and PDF brochures. All served from R2 storage via the /assets/affiliate/ public route.

Esma started designing her own graphics in Canva but quickly realized downloading 12 ready-to-use assets was faster. The assets are grouped in three categories:

• Social media: 18 stories, 14 feed posts, 6 Reels intros
• Blog/Web: 5 ready article drafts, 8 banners
• Offline: 3 PDF brochures, 2 business card designs

Payout Settings and Postback URL (Minutes 8-15)

The "Payout Settings" section is the most critical part. Here you enter your IBAN/ACH details, tax identification number (Tax ID/SSN), minimum payout threshold and payment method. All sensitive data is encrypted with pgcrypto AES-256, stored at rest with the AFFILIATE_KYC_KEY env var. Minimum payout threshold is 50 USD, paid via Wise Business API or manual SWIFT transfer.

By minute 15 Esma also checked the "Settings → Postback URL" section. This is for S2S (server-to-server) integration: you can push commission events to your own CRM. Every event is signed with X-thMenu-Signature: sha256=... header and verified with an HMAC-SHA256 secret. Esma ran a Shopify dropshipping business and wanted to track commissions on her own dashboard. Enabling generated a 32-byte hex signing secret and copied it to clipboard.

FAQ

Is 2FA required on first login? No, 2FA is optional on the affiliate dashboard (mandatory only for super-admin). Enable TOTP RFC 6238 via Settings → Security anytime.

What is the tracking link TTL? 90 days. If a visitor signs up within 90 days of clicking your link, they are attributed to you. Hybrid cookie + IP fingerprinting is used.

Can I change the postback URL later? Yes, change it anytime and regenerate a new secret. The old secret stays valid for 24 hours in grace period, then becomes invalid.

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