Platform Launch Checklist

Before inviting your first real brand or influencer, work through every step below. Each step links to the detailed article for that topic. Missing any one of these can result in payments not working, emails not sending, or users getting stuck in broken flows.

Step 1 — Set Your Currency and Platform Name

Go to Influenzic → Settings → General.

• Set your Platform Name — this appears in all system emails, on invoices, and on the platform’s browser tab.
• Set your Currency. This cannot be changed once real transactions exist. Pick the currency your brands will pay in.
• Leave Maintenance Mode on for now — you will turn it off at the end of this checklist.

Step 2 — Set Your Commission and Fees

Go to Influenzic → Settings → Payment & Wallet.

• Set the Platform Commission — the percentage deducted from influencer payouts when a project completes. The platform retains this as revenue.
• Set the Processing Fee — the percentage added on top of the agreed rate when a brand checks out. This is charged to the brand as a service fee.

See How the Platform Makes Money for a plain-English explanation of how these two fees work and what to set them to.

Step 3 — Connect a Payment Gateway

You must connect at least one live payment gateway before brands can top up their wallet or pay for campaigns.

• Stripe — go to Settings → Stripe. Follow the full Setting Up Stripe guide including webhook setup.
• PayPal — go to Settings → PayPal. Follow the full Setting Up PayPal guide.
• Manual / Bank Transfer — go to Settings → Manual Gateway and enter your bank details if you also want to accept bank transfers.

Step 4 — Test a Real Payment End-to-End

This is the most important test. Do not skip it.

1. Register a test brand account on your platform (do this from a different browser or incognito window so you are logged in as the test brand, not your admin account).
2. In Stripe or PayPal, make sure you are still in test / sandbox mode.
3. As the test brand, go to Wallet → Add Funds and make a test top-up using Stripe’s test card number 4242 4242 4242 4242 (any future expiry, any CVV).
4. Confirm the brand’s wallet balance updated in your admin panel under Influenzic → Users.
5. If the balance did not update, the webhook is not working. Stop here and follow the Gateway & Webhook Troubleshooting guide.

Step 5 — Configure and Test Email Delivery

Platform emails will not reach users unless you configure an SMTP connection. WordPress’s default mail setup is unreliable on most hosts.

1. Install WP Mail SMTP (free) from the WordPress plugin directory.
2. Sign up for a free account on Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), Mailgun, or SendGrid — all offer generous free tiers for low-volume sending.
3. Connect WP Mail SMTP to your chosen provider and set your sender address to something on your own domain (e.g. noreply@yourplatform.com).
4. Use WP Mail SMTP’s “Email Test” feature to send a test message to your personal email and confirm it arrives in your inbox, not your spam folder.
5. Go to Influenzic → Settings → Emails and set the Sender Name and Sender Address to match.

For a full explanation and spam-prevention checklist, see Email Delivery Issues.

Step 6 — Configure Registration

Go to Influenzic → Settings → Registration.

• Decide whether email verification is required before new users can log in. Recommended for most markets. Can be disabled for regions with poor email deliverability.
• Decide whether brand registration and influencer registration are open or invite-only.
• If using CAPTCHA, go to Settings → Security → CAPTCHA and enter your Cloudflare Turnstile or hCaptcha keys. Free accounts at dash.cloudflare.com (Turnstile) or dashboard.hcaptcha.com cover unlimited sites.

Step 7 — Set Social Account Minimum Followers

Go to Influenzic → Settings → Social Accounts.

• Set minimum follower counts for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Any influencer below the threshold cannot get their account approved. Set to 0 to disable the check for that platform.
• Choose the Approval Mode: Manual (you approve every connection), Auto (approved automatically if the bio check passes), or Smart (auto for clean accounts, manual review for suspicious ones). Start with Manual if this is a new platform — it gives you full control until you trust the process.

Step 8 — Configure Campaign Review

Go to Influenzic → Settings → Campaigns.

• Decide whether campaign review is required (inzc_require_campaign_review). When on (the default), every campaign a brand submits goes to your moderation queue before going live. Recommended for launch. You can relax this later for trusted brands.

Step 9 — Customise Email Templates

Optional but recommended. Go to Influenzic → Email Templates.

• Update the Registration Welcome email to introduce your platform’s brand voice.
• Update the Invitation Received email — this is the first email many influencers will ever see from your platform.
• Add your company contact email to the footer note in Invoice Settings so brands know how to reach you for billing questions.

Step 10 — Go Live

1. Switch your payment gateway from test / sandbox mode to live mode in the gateway settings. For Stripe: set inzc_stripe_mode to live. For PayPal: select Live from the mode dropdown.
2. Go to Influenzic → Settings → General and turn Maintenance Mode off.
3. Test the registration page from a browser where you are not logged in to confirm it loads correctly.