How to get Referrals Part 4 - Incentives

Tip: To get best results and understanding of the how to get referrals series I suggest you read them as I have written them, starting with part 1 and working your way up to part 5 because you will not benefit from certain steps until you have completed the previous ones.
If you already read parts 1, 2, and 3 click the "read more" button to continue your learning with Part 4 of the How to get Referrals series.


How to get Referrals Step 7 - Incentives
"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."
Albert Einstein

This quote really sums up this entire series on how to get referrals. By creating a blog that gives the reader value for visiting, it you will succeed. Sharing your knowledge builds trust, when you have the trust you will have the willingness of other to sign up under you, offering extra value just increases the odds in your favor for long term success.

A sure fire way to get referrals quickly and keeping them active is to offer them some incentives on your blog. By giving up a portion of what you earn because of having them in your down line or giving up a small dollar amount up front you can greatly increase the chances they will sign up under you. But if you have not built the trust, then it's unlikely they will take advantage of the offer.

Important things to consider when deciding if to offer a incentive deal:

• Is the site stable? If you give them money to be in a scam site you both lose.
• Will it benefit you enough to do it for just 1 person, and 100 people. Look at both ends of the spectrum.
• Is the offer worth sharing with their friends? Consider this: Would you sign up under you then tell a friend about the deal, or would you sign up, then offer a better deal to your friend?
  
• Is their better offers by more reputable people for the same site(s)? Do your research on possible competition.
  
• Will it get people to just sign up and stay active minimum amount of time, or is it a nice long term deal.
  
• The larger and longer the site has been in existence, the more you should offer. Stability is a powerful factor.
• Why should they trust you? Have you given info about the site and helped them?

Types of incentives to offer:

• 25-75% of what they earn you. So if you earn 10% of what they do, give them 3-8%.
• 10-30% upfront of what you expect them to earn you in their first month.
• A few cents or dollars each month they are active.
• A contest for all your referrals, giving money and/or advertising to the most successful of your referrals in a given time period, or first to reach a given goal.
  
• If the site has multiple down line levels, give them something for each new referral they find.
  

Types of incentives to avoid:

• Giving more then 80% of what you will get from them being under you. Giving more then 80% does not make it worth your time to keep track of everything and will attract people that will try to scam you by singing up multiple times.
• By offering a set amount to each person that signs up under you that you will not earn back in the first thirty days you will really short change yourself because not everyone will stay active the given time needed to recuperate your losses.
• Any deal where a lot of extra is required from both of you, if a site doesn't show how much work each of your referrals does, then you will need screen shots/proof from them. Making the entire process much more involved then needed.
• Avoid offering deals on sites that will require a lot of work from your referrals w/out any referrals themselves to be able to cash out or see reasonable gains. It does no good to have 50 referrals sign up under you because of the great offer you have, if none of them will have any success and soon quit using the site.
  

How to get Referrals Step 8 - Swapping

Swapping referrals can be a great way to gain active referrals, if you find the right people or site to do it with. There is two main forms of swapping, and one lesser done way that is only effective once you've become very solid in your own forms of gathering referrals.

The first and most common way is simple one-for-one swaps. You sign up under a site for someone, and they sign up under you. As long as you both stay active then you both benefit. The only downside of doing this, is if you don't do your research on both the sites involved and the person you are doing it with then you are likely to get scammed. If one site requires 20mins of work a day, and the other takes an hour, one of you is likely to quit because they feel it's not fair. So make sure you know what site you are joining, and that the site you want the other person to join are roughly the same in amount of daily work involved and potential earnings. Also make sure to investigate the person you are doing the swap with, do they have a good reputation on the site you found them, do they have a blog, can they show payment proofs and a good explanation of what all is involved in the site they want you to join. A good person will be willing to answer your questions and be available for any additional questions you may have.

The second most common way to do referral swaps is with referral exchange sites. These types of sites usually have 100's of sites available to work with and work on a credit system. When you join a site through the referral site you gain a certain amount of credits which can then use to spend on getting referrals on sites you want to promote. The biggest drawback of these types of sites is that often the referrals you get will not stay active for a long time in your site. But you can say in order to get the credits from you for signing up under you they have to do a certain number of things on the site, like stay active for 7 days or complete X# of things. Just remember to keep it "fair" if you require 1yr of membership, no one will ever sign up. But what's great about these sites is the fact you can find some really great sites to join through them, as the referral exchange sites often check on the sites allowed to be promoted for their paying status. So when you sign up, it's not in vain and that you will be able to cash out from the site.

Finally the least used way is really only available if you have a successful blog or another form of gaining guaranteed referrals. This way also should only be used on sites that have multiple down line levels. What you offer is that when someone signs up under you, you will then help get them a referral or few of their own. Usually by replacing your referral link on your blog with their link or by using credits on a referral exchange site to have someone join under them. When you do this you are increasing the chances your first referral will stay active cause they are earning more and you both will still gain if the site has multiple down line levels.

Recommend places to do referral incentives:

• Your blog, create a blog entry with specific's of what type of swaps your willing to do. If a site has a referral contest, make a blog entry about it and put a time limit on when people can sign up.
  
• Forums, Most forums have a open advertising section and some even have a a section specific for referral exchanges. Post your offer and remember to not ask for to much, and be specific in the sites your willing to join.(make sure to read forum rules to not violate them and get banned)
  
• Social Networks, Put the offer on your profile and make sure people have a way to contact you.
• GetRef , My personal favorite Referral exchange site. Been around for years with over 1,000 sites you can spend your credits on to get credits. Blog entry with more details.

Important things to remember about doing incentive based referral getting:

• Not all sites allow you to get referrals through the process of offering incentives. Some also only allow some forms of incentives. Traffic exchanges are notorious for banning people for doing this. So always make sure to check the site's Terms and Conditions and the FAQ section. If you can't find any answer contact them asking about which ways are allowed.
• Make sure to know the countries that are allowed for the sites involved, it does no good to get referrals if they won't get you credit.
• Always make sure the sites you want involved are worth it, if you will only gain a penny or two from them over weeks, it's probably not worth your time or theirs.
• Always give the other person a way to contact you, remember that helping is important.
• Don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed by making things to complicated. Simplicity is best when it comes to incentives for both you and them.
• Most importantly don't give up to much, stay below 80% if it's a continuing process of giving to them, and below 30 days worth of work to make your money back if a one time payment to them.
  

As always if you have any suggestions or questions go ahead and contact me or leave a comment.

Part 5 on how to get referrals is titled Advertising and discusses some pros and cons of different methods to advertise.