Ask HN: What does everyone use for a referral system?

[expertcs]

I have a product which asks user to register. I want to integrate an automated referral system into the emails I send out to my existing customers so that if they refer my app to any of their friends and the friends purchase it, both the friend and them get some discount. I checked zferral and hasoffers but both of them are for affiliates. I am looking for a easily integrable referral system like vonage to keep track.

Thanks.

[jacquesm]

The people that I know that run serious businesses using referral systems rolled their own for tight integration and because of privacy issues.

Trusting third parties with the email addresses of all your customers and prospects is not always wise.

[ericabiz → jacquesm]

It's not necessary to roll your own affiliate software just for privacy reasons. There are plenty of products out there where you buy an owned license, install it on your server, and integrate with it using an API instead of using a third party system. Post Affiliate Pro and iDevAffiliate are the two most well-known ones.

[jacquesm → ericabiz]

There are quite a few differences between referral systems and affiliate systems, most affiliate systems are using cookies and are geared towards online marketing, a referral system can use different methods as well, such as email, print and other media.

Referral marketing uses your existing customerbase as marketing vehicle, affiliate systems tend to focus on other businesses that send you customers in return for a split, and as a rule you would find far fewer affiliates than you would have potential referrers in a referral marketing situation. Referral marketing usually centers around discounts, where as affiliate marketing centers around profit sharing, splits or one time fees for a sale.

The differences, even though there are many are subtle enough that it may be possible to use the one for the other.

[ericabiz → jacquesm]

Here's how I would do it...and I grant that this may be overcomplicated.

1) Set up a script that spools all existing customers into Post Affiliate Pro (PAP) and gives each of them a unique ID

2) Set a similar script to run when a new customer places an order (enter new customer into PAP database and generate referral ID)

3) Set up a page on my customer portal that allows each customer to see his/her referral ID and gives a bunch of choices to refer friends (email with a plugin that finds all friends in address book for services like Gmail/Yahoo; banner ads; text link). Pull the link by sending an auth token with the customer ID to the PAP API.

^ In #3 above I'd do this instead of referring them to the PAP customer portal, which seems overkill for this scenario, and would set up a multiple login nightmare.

4) Integrate PAP and my shopping cart/customer database so when a customer refers another customer and that referral is approved, it shows up as a credit in their account.

Of the above, #4 is the tricky part, and depends on their shopping cart/billing software. It may be easier to hire a VA to manage this, at least at the beginning, esp. if the customer database is homegrown.

Disclaimer: PAP or iDev may have easier ways to do this; this is based on my own experience with PAP, which was admittedly a different integration. But as a programmer, this is the working thesis I'd start from.

[Mc_Big_G → jacquesm]

I agree completely. Rolling your own is just a day or two of work and you can customize it however you want. If you're using rails, I'd be happy to summarize the nuts and bolts for you. Email is in my profile.

I've thought about writing a plugin, but haven't found the time yet. I'm travelling with infrequent connections, so I might not get back to you for a day or two if you send an email.

[toni]

http://zferral.com/ has an easy build-it-yourself referral system.

[expertcs → toni]

zferral seems to be a good option for affiliates who will continuously market your product. I am looking for a system which can help me release campaigns to my existing users. For example, if they post about my product with my link provided on twitter/facebook or simply email it to their friends and their friends purchase the product, I should be notified so that I can provide the offer to my existing user.

[jeffepp → expertcs]

Hey Jeff Epstein, founder of zferral here..

zferral was actually built to enable companies to easily create their own affiliate or referral programs.

Nearly all of our clients use their custom program to create incentives for their own customers.

Remember, your current happy (paying) customers are your best advocates. We provide the tools for you to reward them to promote your product.

Anyone can feel free to email me with questions (or call). I'm happy to chat.

[andreshb]

Very very soon http://flow.cloudomatic.com

[acangiano → andreshb]

I'd be interested in paying $1 for each sign up an affiliate sends my way to http://anynewbooks.com. Would this system work for me?

[acangiano → acangiano]

Another question: I see that somebody mentioned http://zferral.com/. How does your service differs from this?

[jeffepp → acangiano]

Yes, you could easily create this.

[ericabiz]

Interesting that there are so few responses.

Over at http://blogsetup.com , I set up Post Affiliate Pro with some custom PHP code to integrate it so the commission triggers upon fill out of a form, then goes into a "Pending" state until we manually verify it. Post Affiliate Pro is pretty flexible and has a good API for this kind of stuff.

I also looked at iDevAffiliate, but ultimately picked Post Affiliate Pro because it has better SEO on the links and, in general, it had better reviews. The general class of software you are looking for is "affiliate software".

[nextbee]

Seems like you are looking for our service - nextbee.com :) For under the hood details about the system do check (http://support.nextbee.com/faqs)

[jeffepp]

A few other points about zferral:

1) We have flexible campaigns (change % without changing links) also enable recurring commissions, rev share and large up front with lower recurring.

2) You can create custom currencies (points, t-shirt, gold stars, discounts) you name it.

3) We have an open API for seamless integrate into your HTML/CSS.

4) it's free to start

[smokinn]

Pretty much the entire adult industry (even the very biggest sites) uses NATS as their affiliate management system.

https://www.toomuchmedia.com/pp_nats.htm?tmmatt=1

The company I work for (not in the adult industry) built its own.

[EGreg]

Yeah. I'm building analytics that let you track who invited whom, and you'll be able to actually use this to offer discounts.

It's actually part of my site, which I can't really talk about yet :)

But the analytics will be a spin-off, so if you can wait 2 weeks you will get it. gregory at gregory dotnet

[klochner]

My company (rentmineonline.com, seedcamp '08, fbfund '09) has been running this kind of service for rental communities.

We recently launched a partner site that isn't industry specific, (RefYo) I'd love to get your input about desired features, etc.

feel free to drop me a line - klochner@gmail.com

[organicgrant]

Commission Junction or ShareASale are the two standbys. http://cj.com

A self-managed type is IDEV affiliate: http://www.idevdirect.com/

[jeffepp → organicgrant]

CJ, pepperjam, etc are great networks. You can reach a TON of people. You should also expect several thousand in upfront fees.