Program statuses and lifecycle

What this is

Every program moves through a defined set of statuses: draft, submitted, approved, active, paused, rejected, suspended, and closed.

Why it matters

Affiliates can only apply to and use tracking for programs that are approved by Diversified Affiliates and in an active or paused status. Knowing the lifecycle helps you plan when to invite affiliates or start marketing your program.

How to do it

1. A new program starts as draft. Only you can see it, and it is not visible to affiliates.
2. When ready, submit it for review; it moves to submitted while Diversified Affiliates evaluates it against platform rules, including the mandatory terms described in Understanding Program Terms.
3. If accepted, the program becomes approved and then active once it starts accepting affiliates and tracking traffic.
4. You can move an active program to paused to temporarily stop new activity without closing it; affiliates already using it can generally keep working with the program while paused, since directory invitations and tracking checks reference both "active" and "paused" as usable states.
5. A program can be rejected during review, or suspended or closed later.

What happens next

Only programs that are "DA approved" and in an active or paused status appear as eligible for affiliate directory invitations and normal tracking activity.

Common mistakes

Do not assume paused means invisible to existing affiliates; treat it as a way to slow down, not necessarily hide, a program.

See Understanding Program Terms for what the review looks at.