How to Configure Newsletter Poll Rules

Poll rules let you treat individual polls differently from the rest. You can pay more for a poll that asks something valuable, keep an evergreen poll earning forever, or switch off a poll you'd rather not reward.

Most importantly, poll rules are how you change the default expiry — which is the single most common reason a subscriber answers a poll and doesn't get paid.

Why the Default Window Exists

The 24-hour window keeps your costs tied to your send schedule. Without it, an old poll sitting in an archived email could keep paying out months later, from readers who found it through a link rather than your newsletter.

It's a sensible default for a daily publication. It's usually too tight for a weekly or monthly one.

Step 1: Navigate to Poll Rules

From your merchant dashboard, go to Loyalty Program, select the Newsletter tab, and scroll to the Poll Rules panel below the main rewards card.

Step 2: Add a Rule

1. Click Add Poll Rule
2. Pick a poll from the list — Oshi pulls your recent polls straight from Beehiiv, newest first
3. Use the search box to find a poll by its question or name
4. Click the poll to move to the configuration screen

Polls that already have a rule are hidden from the list, so you'll only ever see what's still available.

Step 3: Set the Time Window

Choose how long after a poll is created that responses still earn rewards:

No expiry is the right choice for any poll inside an automation rather than a broadcast. A poll in a welcome email gets answered by new subscribers months after it was created, and with any time window it would silently stop paying.

Step 4: Set the Reward Amount

Leave Use default amount checked to pay whatever your main newsletter reward is set to, whether that's your fixed amount or the subscriber's current tier.

Uncheck it to enter a custom sats amount for this poll only. A per-poll amount overrides everything else, including tiers — every subscriber answering that poll earns exactly this amount.

Use a custom amount when the poll asks for something genuinely valuable: a product preference, a churn reason, an unmet need.

Step 5: Save

Click Create Rule. The poll appears in the Poll Rules table with its window, amount, and an active switch.

Managing Existing Rules

The Poll Rules table gives you four things per row:

• Time Window — shown in short form (24h, 7d, 4w, or No expiry)
• Sats — the custom amount, or Default
• Active — a switch to pause the rule without deleting it
• Actions — edit the rule, or delete it

Switching a rule off stops that poll from paying out entirely. This is different from having no rule at all — an inactive rule blocks rewards, while no rule falls back to the 24-hour default. It's how you exclude a specific poll from your program.

Deleting a rule reverts that poll to the 24-hour default window and your standard reward amount.

How Rules Interact With Tiers

When both are in play, the order is:

1. If the poll has a rule with a custom sats amount, that amount wins.
2. Otherwise, if you're in Tiered mode, the subscriber's tier decides the amount.
3. Otherwise, your fixed default amount applies.

The time window is checked first, regardless of amount. A poll outside its window pays nothing, no matter what tier the subscriber is in.

Troubleshooting

A subscriber answered but earned nothing. Check the poll's age against its window. With no rule, anything over 24 hours old pays nothing. This accounts for most missed rewards.

A poll doesn't appear in the selection list. Oshi shows your 50 most recent polls from Beehiiv. If it isn't there, either it already has a rule, or your publication has run more than 50 polls since it was created.

An older poll stopped paying out even with No expiry set. When a response arrives, Oshi matches it against your 10 most recent polls in Beehiiv. If your publication runs polls very frequently, an older evergreen poll can fall outside that window and stop matching, even though its rule says No expiry. If you rely on evergreen polls inside automations, check occasionally that they're still paying out, and contact Oshi support if they've gone quiet.

Rewards stopped across every poll at once. That's usually the program toggle or your rewards balance rather than a rule. Check that Newsletter Rewards Program Status is Active and that your balance is funded.

What's Next

• Set up newsletter rewards — Configure your default amount and engagement tiers.
• Understand newsletter reward unlocks — Learn what happens to sats after a subscriber earns them.
• Why aren't my customers receiving rewards? — Work through the wider list of reasons a reward might not arrive.
• Connect Beehiiv — Check that your publication and automation are wired up correctly.