Referral Programs

Referral programs have a couple different sides. One side of a referral program is the side on which you make money. That’s for putting referral buttons on your Web site.
What if you flip that around and create your own referral program where you pay visitors to share your site with others? You can do that — and should — if you really want to build a sizable flow of traffic to your site.
Creating a referral program isn’t too difficult. The first thing you need to do is determine what you can afford to invest in the program. Typically, those who refer your site are paid anywhere from about a penny-a-click to as much as $5 per click or more. Some referral programs promise a flat fee for any referral that results in a purchase.
Your budget is the determining factor here, but remember this: The more you pay, the ore likely others will want to refer your site to their site visitors. They’re sending traffic away from their site to yours, so you must make it worth the referrers’ efforts.
Remember that for a referral program to be effective, it should also be simple. If you’re telling people you’ll only pay them a referral fee if they send someone to your site who then makes two purchases over a 60-day period, unless your site is truly amazing or the products that you offer are completely unique, not too many people will refer their visitors to you. It’s just too hard for them to earn a reward for that referral.
A referral program also has to make it easy for referrers to be connected to the people that they refer. A simple form that includes a Referred By box is okay, but it’s only as effective as the memory of the person filling out the form. A link that connects referrers to your referral program so that you can track who they refer is much more effective for the people who are spreading your name around.
Setting up an easy-to-use referral program might be more difficult on your end, but it’s worth the investment. The less work that someone has to do to refer people to you and collect a reward for that referral, the more likely he’ll use your referral program.
Amazon.com has a referral program that’s an excellent example of what really works. They provide all the tools that users need to refer others to Amazon products. All the user has to do is plug a piece of code into her blog or Web site. Amazon and the visitors clicking through the referrals do the rest of the work.