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Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

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Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#11

Post by gojomo »

onecaseman wrote: post #4
wilfra wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an interesting pivot. Not sure about the domain now, though. I had signed up for and was excited about them potentially disrupting the affiliate marketing industry.

Same. A Twilio-like aggregator for affiliate marketing could have been a special idea. Content/review sites could just sign up and have any product they reference from their content linked to the appropriate affiliate program. They went in a more consumer-focused direction though. I wish them luck.

...linked to the appropriate affiliate program.

I think that's the idea behind VigLink:

http://www.viglink.com/

Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#12

Post by wilfra »

DanBlake wrote: post #7
onecaseman wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. A Twilio-like aggregator for affiliate marketing could have been a special idea. Content/review sites could just sign up and have any product they reference from their content linked to the appropriate affiliate program. They went in a more consumer-focused direction though. I wish them luck.

Wont work. Affiliate networks generally do not want that behavior. Mostly its because the advertisers of each offer are specific about who can and cannot promote it. With a reseller, you lose that control. Affiliate networks would rather keep their advertisers happy (and not lose them, since they are the lifeblood of all networks) vs doubling income and potentially alienating/losing their advertisers. Also, This is t…

I definitely wouldn't go with a blanket 'wont work' it just wont work for every affiliate program. I've been a reseller for online poker affiliate programs for close to 10 years now and the number of sites that don't allow it is dwarfed by the number of sites that do. And the ones who don't allow it still give you a commission for referring new affiliates.

Basically what happens is that you have to enforce their terms and conditions for them. The incentive is certainly there for you to do this, because it's your affiliate account that is on the line and you are taking responsibility for the actions of anybody using your links.

Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#13

Post by dmor »

robryan wrote: post #9

This pivot puts them in a very crowded market with no shortage of competition from offshore willing to write articles for low pay. Going that route would make them a mahalo or demand media type play. Even if they are going the high quality content route there is lots of competition there and the current branding is wrong for it. The original model seemed to be trying to solve a highly scalable technical problem in pr…

We are not going the low quality route, we are headed for direct competition with Medium and blogging networks/platforms like it (we are keeping pace with them on traffic to our articles and plan to continue doing so). There is an undeniable groundswell around this kind of company right now, and even established companies like Quora are starting to offer much better tools for long-form content. It is going to be very hard, and potentially very rewarding. This new direction isn't just about pivoting away from something that didn't work, it is also about doing something we are much more passionate about.

I absolutely agree that our branding is wrong now, and it is likely to change but we haven't decided on a new brand yet. It would have been smoother and more clean PR to annoucne the new brand at the same time as discontinuing rewards, but I didn't want to wait any longer to let users know about the changes that were coming.

As to scalability I don't know, maybe it is harder, but it is a fight I am personally much happier to take on. Filling my day with talking to writers, readers, and producing/editing/reviewing/reading content to keep the quality bar high sounds like heaven. I'm so happy not to be carrying this secret around anymore, and to be working on something I love (again, I really did love Referly and it was a thesis I held for 4 years so letting go of it isn't as easy as my email makes it sound).

Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#14

Post by wilfra »

dmor wrote: post #13
robryan wrote: post #9

This pivot puts them in a very crowded market with no shortage of competition from offshore willing to write articles for low pay. Going that route would make them a mahalo or demand media type play. Even if they are going the high quality content route there is lots of competition there and the current branding is wrong for it. The original model seemed to be trying to solve a highly scalable technical problem in pr…

We are not going the low quality route, we are headed for direct competition with Medium and blogging networks/platforms like it (we are keeping pace with them on traffic to our articles and plan to continue doing so). There is an undeniable groundswell around this kind of company right now, and even established companies like Quora are starting to offer much better tools for long-form content. It is going to be very…

Go with a name that will work even if you end up pivoting 10 more times, because you will if your company is still around in 100 years.

Blog post I did on buying premium domains you might find helpful in your search - feel free to email me if you need help: http://franceschine.com/post/19837401405/how-to-buy-domains-...

Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#15

Post by dangrossman »

gojomo wrote: post #11
onecaseman wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. A Twilio-like aggregator for affiliate marketing could have been a special idea. Content/review sites could just sign up and have any product they reference from their content linked to the appropriate affiliate program. They went in a more consumer-focused direction though. I wish them luck.

...linked to the appropriate affiliate program. I think that's the idea behind VigLink: http://www.viglink.com/

And skimlinks, 123linkit, etc. The basic idea (aggregate affiliate program memberships, have an algorithm to turn site/product mentions into referral links, take a cut of the commission) wasn't new. Referly was more consumer-oriented than publisher-oriented though, IIRC.

http://skimlinks.com/ http://www.123linkit.com/

Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#16

Post by onecaseman »

dmor wrote: post #8
onecaseman wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. A Twilio-like aggregator for affiliate marketing could have been a special idea. Content/review sites could just sign up and have any product they reference from their content linked to the appropriate affiliate program. They went in a more consumer-focused direction though. I wish them luck.

Dan is right, and most affiliate programs we worked with were quite wary of Referly. I am writing a pretty in-depth piece on the affiliate world, this model, the potential for someone else to execute well in this space, etc. I think our consumer-focused approach was pretty unique, and I think it could still work but is probably better executed as an extension of a business like Skimlinks (who we use). To those who fe…

I look forward to that write-up.

Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#17

Post by itsprofitbaron »

I actually like that Referly are 'pivoting' (I really don't like the word ‘pivoting’ mainly because, in terms of startups it’s also been associated to failure but many of them aren’t failures) into a content model ala. Medium etc meaning that they’re basically becoming a content network in the sense that Wordpress and even Tumblr are. Some people may argue that Medium’s strength is actually its editor tools but they recently hired Evan Hansen (previously a long-time editor at Wired) [1] which suggests that they’re going to end up as a Content Network. Anyway, the reason I like it is because, it seemed (from an outsiders perspective anyway) that Referly wanted to be like this initially (user profiles showing the stuff users shared and some posts on there too) although they were lured by the idea of turning links into $ ala. Skimlinks[2], Viglink[3], YieldKit[4] which resulted in a hybrid – which didn’t really make sense, in the sense that Publishers (the ones Referly would really make the $$ off) already have their own websites etc that they want to monetize.

It’s an interesting play that they’re taking but if they roll out a nice new brand (which really needs to be .com as I don’t think Refer.ly is the best name for this going forward) then they can definitely win big in this space. Likewise, I don’t think this space they’re going into is going to be a ‘winner takes all’ market as we have already seen there are several winners even within the same verticals in the content space. So if Referly or whatever their new brand will be even end up Second, Third or even Fifth etc then they’ll end up with a decent sized company (there has been plenty nine figure exits for content companies) although, maybe Referly can become the first one to achieve that ten figure exit or maybe even IPO.

[1] https://twitter.com/evanatmedium/status/309802736831041537

[2] http://www.skimlinks.com

[3] http://www.viglink.com

[4] http://www.yieldkit.com

Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#19

Post by mbesto »

dmor wrote: post #13
robryan wrote: post #9

This pivot puts them in a very crowded market with no shortage of competition from offshore willing to write articles for low pay. Going that route would make them a mahalo or demand media type play. Even if they are going the high quality content route there is lots of competition there and the current branding is wrong for it. The original model seemed to be trying to solve a highly scalable technical problem in pr…

We are not going the low quality route, we are headed for direct competition with Medium and blogging networks/platforms like it (we are keeping pace with them on traffic to our articles and plan to continue doing so). There is an undeniable groundswell around this kind of company right now, and even established companies like Quora are starting to offer much better tools for long-form content. It is going to be very…

This new direction isn't just about pivoting away from something that didn't work

Curious to know what exactly didn't work? Sorry if I missed it but did you guys/girls blog about it specifically anywhere?

Re: Referly Discontinuing Rewards, Paying Existing Links Through March 31st, 2013

#20

Post by dmor »

mbesto wrote: post #19
dmor wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are not going the low quality route, we are headed for direct competition with Medium and blogging networks/platforms like it (we are keeping pace with them on traffic to our articles and plan to continue doing so). There is an undeniable groundswell around this kind of company right now, and even established companies like Quora are starting to offer much better tools for long-form content. It is going to be very…

This new direction isn't just about pivoting away from something that didn't work Curious to know what exactly didn't work? Sorry if I missed it but did you guys/girls blog about it specifically anywhere?

I am going to blog about it more in depth, but my email to users basically sums it up - the promise of Referly was "write about products here and you'll get paid", but a lot of people didn't make money (lack of traffic, no being able affiliate products they wanted, etc) so we didn't fulfill that promise. In the process we learned a lot of people wanted to write and drive significant traffic, but only if they could be paid per post and maintain church and state between advertising/referrals and content.

I don't have a real company if our brand isn't a promise we can keep. I want to build that, I won't settle for less.

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