Cancelling a paid plan moves you to Free tier — but your profile and account stay intact. This article covers exactly what changes.
Your profile stays public
Cancelling doesn’t hide or delete your profile. It remains at the same URL (/leaders/your-slug/) and is still indexed by search engines. Visitors can still find you.
What changes visually
Tier-gated features turn off at the end of your billing cycle:
- From VIP: Gold badge → no badge (or blue if previously verified at Starter+), Featured ★ disappears, priority grid placement removed, custom domain stops resolving, intro video card hides, sponsored post slots end
- From Pro: One-Sheet PDF inaccessible, video embeds hidden, booking buttons removed, “Available for events” badge gone, long-form bio truncated to short bio
- From Starter: Books hidden (you’ll keep them in your dashboard but they don’t show publicly), 5 of your 6 social links hidden (1 stays — the system keeps your most-prominent), blue verified badge removed
What stays visible to you (but not public)
Hidden books, the long bio, video URLs, custom domain settings — they all still exist in your dashboard. You can manage them, edit them — they’re just not on your public page anymore. If you re-upgrade, they reappear instantly.
Your earnings
Affiliate earnings persist regardless of tier. Pending commissions still convert to Eligible after their hold. Eligible commissions still get paid out. Cancelling a paid plan doesn’t forfeit anything you’ve earned.
If you cancel and have a VIP custom domain mapped, visitors typing your custom URL will see a generic error page. Update your business cards / website / email signature to point to your thesmilechannel.com/leaders/... URL instead.
Verified badge after cancellation
The verified badge is tied to your tier:
- VIP automatically gets the gold badge
- Starter and Pro get the blue badge
- Free has no badge by default
So cancelling all the way to Free removes your verified status. Cancelling from VIP to Pro / Starter changes the badge from gold to blue but keeps it.
Coming back
Re-upgrading is instant — full feature access returns immediately, including custom domain (just re-add the DNS records, the system remembers your mapping settings).