Earn twice from Framer client migrations

A Framer freelancer can earn from a client migration in two ways: the fee you charge for the work, and a referral commission when the client buys the code download through your Deframer affiliate link. The first is your real income. The second is a small bonus (40% of a credit pack, 50% of the lifetime deal), and it only applies when the client, not you, makes the purchase. Permission comes first either way: Deframer is only for your own site or a site whose owner has allowed it, and the client shows that by publishing a verification tag.

This post explains how the two incomes fit together, what to say to the client so none of it is awkward, and where the commission does not apply. Deframer is independent and is not affiliated with Framer. Join the program on the affiliates page.

Two ways to get paid

Treat the fee as the business and the commission as a side effect of recommending a tool you would use anyway. If you build your pricing assuming commissions, you will be disappointed. If you set your fee for the work and the commission arrives, good.

What the commission is worth

Here is arithmetic, with no promise of volume. A client who buys:

• a Single pack ($10) earns you $4.
• a Starter pack ($25, 5 credits) earns you $10.
• a Studio pack ($100, 30 credits) earns you $40.
• the lifetime deal ($397) earns you $198.50.

A client moving one site needs one credit for a verified download. That is $4 to you, which is not worth building a business on, and should not influence your advice. The numbers get interesting when a client has several sites, or when you work with an agency or studio that will buy a Studio pack or a lifetime deal. Treat those as occasional upside.

Who buys: you or the client?

This decides whether you earn a commission at all.

If the client buys credits on their own account, and they came to Deframer through your link within 30 days, you earn the commission. The client owns the account, publishes their own verification tag, and downloads the code. They are a separate person making their own purchase.

If you buy credits on your own account, it is your purchase, and a purchase you make yourself earns nothing. The program does not allow self-referrals or referrals between accounts you control. That is normal for agency work, where you hold the account and download many client sites, and it is covered in the agency workflow. The saving there is a credit budget you plan around, not a commission.

Both setups are legitimate. Pick the one that suits the engagement, and don't create accounts for clients just to route a purchase through your own link. That is the kind of arrangement the self-referral rule exists to stop, and it would cost you the trust of the client anyway.

Permission is the client's to give

Deframer is for your own site, or one whose owner has given permission. In a client migration the owner is your client. The cleanest way to show permission is the verification tag:

1. The account that will download the code has one personal verification tag, a one-line meta tag.
2. The client (or you, with their publishing access) adds it in Framer's custom code and publishes.
3. Deframer finds it on the live page and unlocks the download for 1 credit.

Publishing the tag is the client's permission, and removing it withdraws it for future verified downloads. The step-by-step is in verifying Framer site ownership. Don't take a shortcut with the 10-credit direct download for a site you have no permission for. It asks you to confirm permission, and you must have it.

How to recommend it without being awkward

Say two things plainly, in your proposal and in the first call.

1. What you are charging for. Your fee covers the migration work: converting, reviewing the output page by page, wiring forms, setting up the CMS data, redirects, deployment and handover. See the migration checklist for the shape of that work.
2. What Deframer costs and that you may earn from it. For example: "The tool is free to convert. The code download costs credits, starting at $10 for one. I'm an affiliate, so if you buy through my link I earn a commission at no extra cost to you."

Disclosing is the right thing, and it also helps the relationship. A client who finds out later that you earned from a link they bought is more annoyed than one who was told up front.

Check that the statement is true for your case. The price the client pays at the pricing page is the same whether or not they use your link, which is the way Whop affiliate links normally work. Confirm that on the affiliate portal before saying it.

A worked engagement (hypothetical)

Take a made-up studio site: 12 pages, a blog collection and a contact form. These are assumptions, not market rates.

1. Discovery call. You confirm the client owns the site and wants to leave Framer, and why (hosting cost, performance, a developer who prefers code). If the reasons do not hold up, say so; see Framer vs Next.js for growing sites.
2. Proposal. Fixed fee for conversion, review, forms, redirects, deploy and handover. Hosting is billed to the client directly. The proposal states that the client buys the download credits.
3. Client creates a Deframer account via your link, publishes the verification tag, and buys one Single pack ($10). You earn $4.
4. You convert, review and fix. This is where your fee is earned.
5. Handover with a repository, deploy and a short document on how to edit.

The fee is the figure that matters. In this example the commission is $4. If the client then asks you to migrate three more sites, a Starter pack ($25, $10 to you) covers them all.

Where the commission does not apply

Be straight with yourself about these:

• Purchases outside 30 days of the client's first visit through your link.
• Clients who clicked someone else's link later. The latest link wins.
• Refunded or charged-back sales, which reverse the commission.
• Anything you buy for yourself.

Also, rates can change for future sales, and Whop's own terms govern the payout. Do not forecast income from this to a client or to yourself.

Services you can add around the migration

The migration is a product of its own. Things clients ask for next, which you can price separately:

• Moving the CMS into a headless CMS: adding a headless CMS.
• Forms that still work: forms after leaving Framer.
• Redirects and SEO continuity: SEO when moving off Framer.
• Ongoing maintenance with Git: maintaining a converted site.

A short checklist

• Get the client's permission in writing, and have them publish the tag.
• Decide who buys credits: you (no commission) or the client (commission if through your link).
• Put your fee in the proposal, separate from tool costs.
• Disclose the affiliate link to the client.
• Review every page of the output before you hand it over.
• Don't promise anything about conversion beyond what you have tested.

When you are ready, join the affiliate program. It takes one click and a free Whop account, and the link you get works for every client conversation.