You teach the licence. Earn from the studying.
Your audience saves 15% on the question bank that cites its sources. You earn 20% of every sale you send, for a full year after their first purchase.
How it works
Apply with the code you want
Pick something your audience will recognise — your channel name, your boat, your school. We review by hand, usually within a couple of days, and turn it into a live discount code.
Share your link
Add ?ref=YOURCODE to any page on the site — the homepage, a specific COLREGs lesson, the free practice drill. The referral is remembered for 365 days, because nobody buys exam prep the same afternoon they hear about it.
Watch the funnel, not just the sales
Your dashboard shows clicks, signups and purchases day by day. If the clicks are there and the signups aren't, that's a landing-page problem you can see and we can fix.
Get paid monthly
Commissions clear a 30-day hold (our refund window is 14 days) and are paid out monthly by PayPal or bank transfer.
Who this is for
People who already answer the question “how do I actually pass the exam?” — and are tired of having nothing good to point at.
- Captains and mates making YouTube or TikTok content about getting licensed
- Sea-time schools and OUPV course providers whose students still have to sit the REC exam
- Delivery crews, charter fleets and towing outfits training their own people
- Maritime newsletters, forums and Facebook groups where the same exam questions come up weekly
What you’d be putting your name on
Every answer explanation carries an inline citation to 33 CFR, the COLREGs or Bowditch, and the citation opens the actual rule text. That is the whole product thesis: a mariner who is told why the answer is right passes the exam and stays safe afterwards; one who memorises a lettered answer does neither.
There is a real free tier — daily drills, explanations, citations and unlimited flashcards — so your audience can check we are worth it before spending anything. Paid plans have a 14-day refund policy, no auto-renew traps on the one-time plans, and a cancel-anytime monthly.
We would rather you send fewer people who convert and stay than a wave of refunds. If CaptainsGround is not right for your audience, say so — it costs us less than the chargebacks.
Questions partners actually ask
- What exactly does my audience get?
- 15% off any paid plan — the 90-day Exam Prep Pass, the monthly plan, or the 12-month "Until You Pass". The discount applies automatically through your link, and it also works if they type the code at checkout after hearing it in a video.
- What do I earn, and on what amount?
- 20% of what the customer actually paid, excluding tax — so it is calculated after their discount, never on a list price nobody was charged. On a referred Exam Prep Pass that is a little over $13.
- Do I earn on renewals?
- Yes, for 365 days from that customer's first purchase. Most people buy a one-time Pass, so in practice this matters for monthly subscribers.
- How long does the referral last?
- 365 days from the first visit, and it is never overwritten by a later source. Someone who finds us through you in March and buys in October still counts as yours.
- What happens if a customer refunds?
- The commission is reversed. That is the entire reason for the 30-day hold — we would rather delay a payout than claw one back.
- Can I pick my own code?
- Yes — you propose it in the application and we use it exactly as you wrote it. Codes are first-come across the whole store and can never be reused once issued, so on the rare occasion yours is already taken we'll agree an alternative with you before anything goes live.
- Can I use my own code?
- Yes for the discount — buy your own access at 15% off if you want it. No for the commission: a purchase made by the partner's own account earns nothing, automatically. It is not a trap you can fall into by accident.
- What about taxes?
- Payouts are gross. You are responsible for reporting your own income; we will send whatever paperwork your jurisdiction requires if you ask.
- Is there a minimum audience?
- No. A 400-person Facebook group of working mates in one port is worth more to us than 40,000 general boating subscribers — we would rather have the port.
Ready to send your first link?
Applications are read by a person, not a form robot. Tell us who your audience is and how you’d mention us.