Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#1

Post by dmor » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:17 PM UTC

Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue
techcrunch.com

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#2

Post by aresant » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:30 PM UTC

I've spent a lot of time working with affiliate marketers over the past decade and I wonder how Refer.ly is going to handle compliance with the new FTC rules around compensation disclosure.

Effectively if you're promoting a product in exchange for compensation, that relationship must be disclosed at the genesis of the click and according to the FTC no compensation is too small to be in violation w/out disclosure.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#3

Post by samstave » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:31 PM UTC

I read the name as "reefer".ly

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#4

Post by debacle » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:39 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #2

I've spent a lot of time working with affiliate marketers over the past decade and I wonder how Refer.ly is going to handle compliance with the new FTC rules around compensation disclosure. Effectively if you're promoting a product in exchange for compensation, that relationship must be disclosed at the genesis of the click and according to the FTC no compensation is too small to be in violation w/out disclosure. htt…

Forget refer.ly, how is Amazon going to cope with this in general?

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#5

Post by inuhj » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:42 PM UTC

Ok, I signed up in hopes I could get refer.ly started for my company. I don't see any option for business owners.

Just found this: "How Can I Check Whether You Have Rewards Available for a Specific Link?

Referly provides rewards for purchases made on thousands of websites. Stay tuned, we look forward to offering a directory in the future. For now, if you have a specific question just drop us an email."

Are you kidding me? How do you launch without this feature? I feel like you just wasted 5 minutes of my time and that leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

Edit: Where do I go to delete my account?

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#6

Post by dmor » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:48 PM UTC

inuhj wrote: post #5

Ok, I signed up in hopes I could get refer.ly started for my company. I don't see any option for business owners. Just found this: "How Can I Check Whether You Have Rewards Available for a Specific Link? Referly provides rewards for purchases made on thousands of websites. Stay tuned, we look forward to offering a directory in the future. For now, if you have a specific question just drop us an email." Are you kiddin…

Sorry to disappoint you. For teh sake of getting this out the door and in the hands of users we haven't built our a directory page yet but its in the works - we move fast. You can also request a specific product/reward here (not yet publicly linked on the site) http://refer.ly/business.php

But if you still want to delete your account just email support@refer.ly and we'll take care of that right away

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#7

Post by alabut » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:48 PM UTC

samstave wrote: post #3

I read the name as "reefer".ly

That's hilarious. I was jamming out this design all weekend and never once did it occur to me, then I get this and a few tweets about it. Let's call it an unintentional in-joke then :)

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#8

Post by iceron » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:49 PM UTC

Judging by its appearance, I'm guessing this won't have any business options? Would be nice to have a centralized product like this that saves me from having to find/sign up for each individual affiliate program. Plus having all the analytics data in one place, too.

Right now it seems to be super early stage. No database of affiliate programs that they have and you can't even withdraw rewards (earnings).

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#9

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:52 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Refer.ly (YC S12) Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue

#10

Post by citricsquid » Mon, May 14, 2012, 4:52 PM UTC

dmor wrote: post #6

inuhj wrote: post #5

Ok, I signed up in hopes I could get refer.ly started for my company. I don't see any option for business owners. Just found this: "How Can I Check Whether You Have Rewards Available for a Specific Link? Referly provides rewards for purchases made on thousands of websites. Stay tuned, we look forward to offering a directory in the future. For now, if you have a specific question just drop us an email." Are you kiddin…

Sorry to disappoint you. For teh sake of getting this out the door and in the hands of users we haven't built our a directory page yet but its in the works - we move fast. You can also request a specific product/reward here (not yet publicly linked on the site) http://refer.ly/business.php But if you still want to delete your account just email support@refer.ly and we'll take care of that right away

I think the issue is more that without a directory your product is useless. How can I see when I'm going to get a reward if you don't tell me? I've signed up like the person you replied to and I've shortened 2 links, but there's no indication if I'm going to get a reward and if that's the case what incentive is there for me to use the link?

At the very least can there be a tick or cross next to the links to confirm whether or not your system supports it? The cynic inside of me wants to say that you don't actually have all these companies signed up, but I doubt you would lie so brazenly... although how you had the time to sign up thousands of retailers and no time to build the product into a usable state confuses me.