Can affiliate links or the affiliate program work only between two dates?

No. Simple Affiliate has no setting that turns referral links, discount codes, groups or the affiliate program on or off on set dates. An affiliate's links and discount codes create referrals while the affiliate is active. To run a campaign between two dates, such as a sale, make the change yourself on the first day and on the last day.

Pay a campaign commission between two dates

1. Open Groups on the first day.
2. Open the group of the campaign affiliates.
3. Select the Commission tab.
4. Enter the campaign rate in Set default commission percentage, or the campaign amount in a Fixed amount group.
5. Save the group.
6. Enter the earlier rate or amount again on the last day.
7. Save the group.

A referral gets the commission that its group has when the order comes in, and keeps it after a later change. The change applies to each affiliate in the group. Product, collection and first-time customer commissions replace the group's commission for the orders that they cover, and a Maximum commission amount limits the commission of each referral. If the group has them, change them too on both days.

Let affiliates refer only between two dates

Pending and suspended affiliates create no referrals from their links or discount codes. With Manual approval in Settings > Signup, new affiliates wait in the Pending tab of Affiliates until you approve them. An active affiliate can't go back to pending, so suspend an active affiliate before the first day instead.

1. Open Affiliates on the first day.
2. Select the campaign affiliates in the Pending tab.
3. Click Approve.

   

4. Click Confirm in the dialog.
5. Do steps 2 to 4 again in the Suspended tab for the active affiliates that you suspended before the first day.
6. Select the same affiliates in the Active tab on the last day.
7. Click Suspend.
8. Click Confirm in the dialog.

Suspended affiliates can't open their affiliate dashboard. Suspending also removes their connected customers and product attributions, and approving them again doesn't bring these back.

The conversion window is a different setting

The conversion window is the number of days after a referral link click during which an order counts as a referral: 30 days by default, from 1 to 90, on each group's Commission tab. It also sets how long a single-use discount code that a customer claims stays valid. It doesn't turn links on or off on set dates.