You can keep your affiliate program active while hiding the public partner-program signup link, or turn the affiliate facility off for new signups.
Hide the public signup link
Go to Revenue > Affiliates.
In Affiliate Settings, select Update.
Turn off Signup Link Publicly Visible?.
Save the settings.
This removes the public partner-program link without turning off the whole affiliate program. You can still share the Affiliate Signup Form directly when you want to invite selected partners.
Turn off the affiliate facility
Open the same Affiliate Settings panel.
Turn off Affiliate Scheme Active?.
Save the settings.
The Affiliates page shows the scheme as inactive and notes that existing affiliates are unaffected. If you also use Auto Set Speakers as Affiliates?, remember that changing this default affects speakers added after the change rather than removing existing speaker-affiliate records.
When the footer link appears
The public partner-program footer link appears only when the affiliate scheme is active, public signup is enabled, the event has access to affiliate management, and the event is not free. If Revenue > Affiliates shows an upgrade screen, affiliate management is not enabled on the event's current plan.
For the full setup, see Setting Up an Affiliate Program.