Poll on Bitshares referral program

[xeroc]

In all honesty, the referral program looks like a good idea on paper but in
reality - atleast over the six past months we haven't been able to prove its
viability or use.

^^^THIS, but why? Not enough documentation and promotion, that's one reason. We
need more quality PR pieces like the BitShares 1.0 tri-fold brochure, However,
when things always seem to be in a state of flux it's a major disincentive to
build anything, a business or a brochure.

First of all, BitShares 2 has been launched in October that's not even THREE
months ago.

Furthermore, the idea of the referral program was to give others incentive to do
the marketing work since WE SUCK at it. Prove me wrong!

I hope CNX starts to see the how much planning and release cycles would address
such issues. We need more stability in the way features are evolve, from
conception, implementation, testing, documentation, delivery and marketing. It
seems like the CNX core is stuck in a loop of the first 2 items in that list.

We are in the testing phase right now and EVERY SINGLE shareholder should know
about that! As you also know, I am working hard on the documentation side
WITHOUT COMPENSATION by BitShares and we now have a procedure to discuss and
optimize new features before implementation (bsips)
Not sure what else you expect?

[38PTSWarrior]

Boom:



Good morning Europe! Thanks to the new user who likes my marketing.

[Xypher]

In all honesty, the referral program looks like a good idea on paper but in reality - atleast over the six past months we haven't been able to prove its viability or use.

^^^THIS, but why? Not enough documentation and promotion, that's one reason. We need more quality PR pieces like the BitShares 1.0 tri-fold brochure, However, when things always seem to be in a state of flux it's a major disincentive to build anything, a business or a brochure.

I hope CNX starts to see the how much planning and release cycles would address such issues. We need more stability in the way features are evolve, from conception, implementation, testing, documentation, delivery and marketing. It seems like the CNX core is stuck in a loop of the first 2 items in that list.

The problem is people who consider to use blockchain do not know that there is Bitshares. But once they know, they are amazed by the technology.
I also hope that Bitshares has more stability with regular update cycle.

Can you actually prove this?
I have a number of references where people left Bitshares because.. sorry to be crass "shit got confusing as fuck with the changes every couple months".
I can attest to the fact that stuff did get confusing and even now I have to keep bugging fuzzy or dig through old documentation at times.

[clayop]

In all honesty, the referral program looks like a good idea on paper but in reality - atleast over the six past months we haven't been able to prove its viability or use.

^^^THIS, but why? Not enough documentation and promotion, that's one reason. We need more quality PR pieces like the BitShares 1.0 tri-fold brochure, However, when things always seem to be in a state of flux it's a major disincentive to build anything, a business or a brochure.

I hope CNX starts to see the how much planning and release cycles would address such issues. We need more stability in the way features are evolve, from conception, implementation, testing, documentation, delivery and marketing. It seems like the CNX core is stuck in a loop of the first 2 items in that list.

The problem is people who consider to use blockchain do not know that there is Bitshares. But once they know, they are amazed by the technology.
I also hope that Bitshares has more stability with regular update cycle.

[Thom]

In all honesty, the referral program looks like a good idea on paper but in reality - atleast over the six past months we haven't been able to prove its viability or use.

^^^THIS, but why? Not enough documentation and promotion, that's one reason. We need more quality PR pieces like the BitShares 1.0 tri-fold brochure, However, when things always seem to be in a state of flux it's a major disincentive to build anything, a business or a brochure.

I hope CNX starts to see the how much planning and release cycles would address such issues. We need more stability in the way features are evolve, from conception, implementation, testing, documentation, delivery and marketing. It seems like the CNX core is stuck in a loop of the first 2 items in that list.

[theredpill]

Referral program by itself is a good thing. However, the increased fee for the referral program is blocking various types of businesses.
I personally don't think that high fees are necessary to sustain referral program. If there are more users and greater ecosystem, referral system can be managed without high fees.

agree 100%

[jakub]

Maybe related

http://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=20709.0

The above thread is not exactly about lowering transfer fees.
It's more about changing their structure so that you pay less for smaller transfers and more for bigger ones.

For those who would like to know more, please refer to this newer thread.

[TravelsAsia]

I wonder why the same two people rinse and repeat the fee debate every two weeks.

  over and over again.

[clayop]

Maybe related

http://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=20709.0

[fav]

I wonder why the same two people rinse and repeat the fee debate every two weeks.

[abit]

Is there a "how-to" for the program?  How to use it, what to expect,, how to verify, etc.  As far as I knew there was still a bug that needed fixing.  I was, and still am, under the impression that a functioning referral program could snowball.  I haven't seen very much discussion about it, people's successes / failures, strategies, etc. etc.

The how-to is haphazardly found in the forum, ideally it would be front and center in OpenLedger somewhere, letting new users see how they can easily refer their friends - moreover, the link they would use would be pre-done using their account name so they could just copy and paste it to send to their friends. As of now, there is very little to no mention of the referral program in the wallet... save the Membership page which is buried (it would be nicer to have its own referral page with info and lists of referred users and their account status). Furthermore, the Membership page does explain for Basic Members that upgrading their account makes them "qualify to earn referral income from users they register with or referrer to the network", however, once you upgrade to a Lifetime Member, it says NOTHING about referring users and the benefits of doing so!!!

I can find only this post https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,19726.0.html which introduced how to use the referral program.
I'd like to see a new "Referral Program" board in the forum so the referrers can discuss there. (people's successes / failures, strategies, etc. etc)

//Edit: We could also ping @wmbutler @svk for improvements in the wallet, or submit suggestions here https://github.com/cryptonomex/graphene-ui/issues

//Edit 3: more discussions here https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/board,48.0.html

I have mentioned a couple times, that I don't see the affiliate name being passed into the wallet's URL when people refer a user to the bitshares.org page, so it is best to have them go straight to the wallet with your links. This should be fixed. Not to mention, on bitshares.org, reading from left to right, it emphasizes Download Now before Online Wallet, which is totally backwards especially since if a user does select Download Now to download the wallet, it isn't possible at the moment for the ID of the referrer to get attached to the download link, so you would lose out anyway.

Who is in charge of the bitshares.org website?
Maybe we can submit issues here: https://github.com/bitshares/bitshares.github.io
Or ping @cass @jakub @xeroc @valzav @bytemaster?

//Edit 2: See this post https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,19689.0.html

Out of the 11 referred users I have so far, 1 is a test that I did. So out of the 10, 1 user has upgraded to an annual member, 1 has 40 bts in transaction fees, 1 has a total of 2 transactions, and the rest registered and did nothing. I am no affiliate wizard by any stretch of the imagination, but I run a regularly updated bitshares info blog, a bitshares info website, and have put banner ads front and center on a few of my other non-crypto sites. Admittedly, my sites are not by any stretch of the imagination high traffic sites. All told, less than $10 worth, most of which is from the one user who upgraded to an annual member.

It is kind of telling that the so called expert marketers, rgcrypto and bitmarket, are no where to be seen. Both received delegate pay at one point, and the latter was the one who helped design the affiliate system in the first place.

With that said, I still like it and have big expectations for the referral system personally and for bitshares as a whole. One suggestion I would make to those who are willing to do the unheralded dirty work, would be to inform affiliate marketers that this opportunity exists, i.e. a simple post in a forum like https://www.warriorforum.com/ might be all it would take to get some real marketers with their tens of thousands of newsletter followers in on the action.

[bitcrab]

In all honesty, the referral program looks like a good idea on paper but in reality - atleast over the six past months we haven't been able to prove its viability or use.
In addition, basic economics would tell you , if an individual is required to spend money to access a system and then expect others within the network to use the syste to make money, it looks more or less like a ponzy scheme. Am not saying it is, am just stating what it looks like to the average consumer. In addition, it looks a lot similar to the time paypal decided to offer referrals, but paypal had a million USD to do this in its kitty, we barely have anything in terms of marketing spends and in addition expect any new players coming to the ecosystem to bear the expenses. Even when I asked who's doing this, we only had names of individuals who are already in our ecosystem. Which is a fair deal, but in terms of mass market acquisition, I still don't see it working when I look at the fees involved.

agree.
in Paypal referral program, the reward to the referrer is not from the referral, referral need not to pay more than the common transaction fee.
in Bitshares referral program, a new common user need not only to pay to the network, but also to the referrer.
so called viral growth is only in theory.

when I plan to run business on Bitshares, I do not need referral program,  I only hope the fee can be kept low enough. now although referrer can get some cashback from what the referral paid, but it is more difficult to persuade the new users to join.

[merivercap]

In all honesty, the referral program looks like a good idea on paper but in reality - atleast over the six past months we haven't been able to prove its viability or use.
In addition, basic economics would tell you , if an individual is required to spend money to access a system and then expect others within the network to use the syste to make money, it looks more or less like a ponzy scheme. Am not saying it is, am just stating what it looks like to the average consumer. In addition, it looks a lot similar to the time paypal decided to offer referrals, but paypal had a million USD to do this in its kitty, we barely have anything in terms of marketing spends and in addition expect any new players coming to the ecosystem to bear the expenses. Even when I asked who's doing this, we only had names of individuals who are already in our ecosystem. Which is a fair deal, but in terms of mass market acquisition, I still don't see it working when I look at the fees involved.

It will take time.  The referral system is to support viral growth, but isn't supposed to generate growth all by itself.  People have to see the value of Bitshares first if it's for the Smartcoin, decentralized exchange, UIA.. tipping ...the ideology...or whatever...    Businesses have to be valuable to consumers and have to communicate that value before anyone would even care to share.  Each of the businesses are still at the stage of creating a great product & experience to the right demographic that's worth sharing.  Right now I wouldn't expect the referral system to be that relevant.  You need to create the right experience, go after the right target market, and achieve product-market fit.  Only then should you start trying to grow/scale and use the referral system.   

You don't have to pay to enter the system.  It's 20 cents per transaction for anyone.  You just have to be a member to get a discount down to 4 cents.

[38PTSWarrior]

I like the program. My goal is to make 1 new user a day.

[Xypher]

The refer program has been instrumental in attracting big projects to bitshares and making it far more attractive as a value proposition. Actually without it I know of at least one project that would have not been interested in bitshares.

They are attracted by referral program first, then are surprised by high fees and hence are discouraged to build business on Bitshares.

No, that has not been my experience thus far.

Can you

1. Name the company
2. Back your statement with numbers ?

1. BunkerChain Labs

by the way, BCL, you should look at your Google results for your business, I see this...
BunkerChainLabs.com
www.bunkerchainlabs.com/
A description for this result is not available because of this site's robots.txt – learn more.

Is there a "how-to" for the program?  How to use it, what to expect,, how to verify, etc.  As far as I knew there was still a bug that needed fixing.  I was, and still am, under the impression that a functioning referral program could snowball.  I haven't seen very much discussion about it, people's successes / failures, strategies, etc. etc.

The how-to is haphazardly found in the forum, ideally it would be front and center in OpenLedger somewhere, letting new users see how they can easily refer their friends - moreover, the link they would use would be pre-done using their account name so they could just copy and paste it to send to their friends. As of now, there is very little to no mention of the referral program in the wallet... save the Membership page which is buried (it would be nicer to have its own referral page with info and lists of referred users and their account status). Furthermore, the Membership page does explain for Basic Members that upgrading their account makes them "qualify to earn referral income from users they register with or referrer to the network", however, once you upgrade to a Lifetime Member, it says NOTHING about referring users and the benefits of doing so!!!

I have mentioned a couple times, that I don't see the affiliate name being passed into the wallet's URL when people refer a user to the bitshares.org page, so it is best to have them go straight to the wallet with your links. This should be fixed. Not to mention, on bitshares.org, reading from left to right, it emphasizes Download Now before Online Wallet, which is totally backwards especially since if a user does select Download Now to download the wallet, it isn't possible at the moment for the ID of the referrer to get attached to the download link, so you would lose out anyway.

Out of the 11 referred users I have so far, 1 is a test that I did. So out of the 10, 1 user has upgraded to an annual member, 1 has 40 bts in transaction fees, 1 has a total of 2 transactions, and the rest registered and did nothing. I am no affiliate wizard by any stretch of the imagination, but I run a regularly updated bitshares info blog, a bitshares info website, and have put banner ads front and center on a few of my other non-crypto sites. Admittedly, my sites are not by any stretch of the imagination high traffic sites. All told, less than $10 worth, most of which is from the one user who upgraded to an annual member.

It is kind of telling that the so called expert marketers, rgcrypto and bitmarket, are no where to be seen. Both received delegate pay at one point, and the latter was the one who helped design the affiliate system in the first place.

With that said, I still like it and have big expectations for the referral system personally and for bitshares as a whole. One suggestion I would make to those who are willing to do the unheralded dirty work, would be to inform affiliate marketers that this opportunity exists, i.e. a simple post in a forum like https://www.warriorforum.com/ might be all it would take to get some real marketers with their tens of thousands of newsletter followers in on the action.

In all honesty, the referral program looks like a good idea on paper but in reality - atleast over the six past months we haven't been able to prove its viability or use.
In addition, basic economics would tell you , if an individual is required to spend money to access a system and then expect others within the network to use the syste to make money, it looks more or less like a ponzy scheme. Am not saying it is, am just stating what it looks like to the average consumer. In addition, it looks a lot similar to the time paypal decided to offer referrals, but paypal had a million USD to do this in its kitty, we barely have anything in terms of marketing spends and in addition expect any new players coming to the ecosystem to bear the expenses. Even when I asked who's doing this, we only had names of individuals who are already in our ecosystem. Which is a fair deal, but in terms of mass market acquisition, I still don't see it working when I look at the fees involved.