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Referly (YC S12) Launches API: Now Any Site Can Have A Referral Program

69 points by casemorton 14y ago

kposehn 14y ago
Interesting. That API could be very useful, but they're going to have to watch out for BlackHatters - I bet they are already looking for ways to exploit their system.
- dmor 14y ago
  You are definitely right, and while we've thought through several threat models blackhat marketers are endlessly creative. Might make for a good blog post depending on what we learn
  - kposehn 14y ago
    The major one I can think of right now is using lifted financial information and Mechanical Turk to make new accounts and use it to juice SEO or FB fan pages. There are some that have made amazing use of Mechanical Turk without actually getting caught - that is one vector I think the affiliate industry has greatly overlooked.
    - 4clicknet 14y ago
      Can you give us some examples of who has done this and how they avoided getting caught on Mechanical Turk? I've had legitimate HITs removed for apparently violating policy recently, so in my experience AWS is fairly vigilant in looking out for HITs that attempt to juice SEO or promote. I guess it could work if you abstracted it enough so that it's not apparent to the worker, but it wouldn't be trivial to execute. Using VAs on Odesk might work better.
majorapps 14y ago
I don't understand what the difference is between Referly and linkshare.com, which already has thousands of premium affiliates and a solid api. Could someone enlighten me?
minouye 14y ago
What percentage does Referly take per payout?
- dmor 14y ago
  Referly does not currently take a percentage of any payouts
strooltz 14y ago
when is referly planning on allowing referrers to claim rewards? re: http://cl.ly/image/1E1H381q0p1N http://cl.ly/image/1E1H381q0p1N
- dmor 14y ago
  Very soon, stay tuned!
lionheart 14y ago
This is awesome. I was just about to write a basic referral system for my site but this looks like it fits the bill. I'm going to give it a try.
- antidaily 14y ago
  There's also Zferral. FYI.
mise 14y ago
I don't understand the full concept. How does this compare with platforms that allow you to set up affiliates?
mrschwabe 14y ago
Instead of the button, is there a way I can just give each customer a unique referral link? I'd much prefer to simply give them a link they can pass along instead of requiring them to click on a button off my website.
- dmor 14y ago
  Absolutely, using the API you can generate a link and give it to them however you wish http://refer.ly/api/docs/links http://refer.ly/api/docs/links
whymsicalburito 14y ago
Is there a way to send users rewards that are not straight cash? We would like to reward users with coupon codes, or links to pages where they can select a free t-shirt and such. Is this ability on the roadmap?
- dmor 14y ago
  Yes, we currently do not offer this in the API but have a few customers trying this with other forms of rewards. Email support@refer.ly and we can help you
shootthemoon 14y ago
I'd be overly cautious with this company. I've had over the minimum required to cash out for a month, and they will not let me cash out my account. The claim is that there are still in beta, so they won't pay you yet. Will they ever exit beta? Will I ever be able to cash out?
- dmor 14y ago
  We are happy to pay you directly via Paypal, please email your information to support@refer.ly and we can process this for you immediately. We don't have a self-service process yet.
jhuckestein 14y ago
How far along is the ruby API? I'd throw this up on my business for a little just to test it out, see what happens
- dmor 14y ago
  We are looking for open source contributors who would be interested in building the Ruby lib - I'll post a $500 bounty here. Please email me danielle@refer.ly We posted a bounty for the Python library this morning and it is already done, so I'm hopeful this can go quickly as well.
  - jhuckestein 14y ago
    Would love to do it, but things are heating up at my business and it's hard to keep up as it is :( I'll definitely check back when the ruby lib is out
jkuria 14y ago
I am also not sure how "customer acquisition as a service" is different from the dozens of affiliate networks out there. NeverBlue, Azoogle, Ads4Dough, Epic etc. "Businesses get to define how much they are willing to pay for a sign up"? This is old hat to experienced affiliate marketers.
- alanfang 14y ago
  And there are already platforms for companies to create programs on their own, like hasoffers.

69 points by casemorton 14y ago

Interesting. That API could be very useful, but they're going to have to watch out for BlackHatters - I bet they are already looking for ways to exploit their system.

dmor 14y ago
You are definitely right, and while we've thought through several threat models blackhat marketers are endlessly creative. Might make for a good blog post depending on what we learn
- kposehn 14y ago
  The major one I can think of right now is using lifted financial information and Mechanical Turk to make new accounts and use it to juice SEO or FB fan pages. There are some that have made amazing use of Mechanical Turk without actually getting caught - that is one vector I think the affiliate industry has greatly overlooked.
  - 4clicknet 14y ago
    Can you give us some examples of who has done this and how they avoided getting caught on Mechanical Turk? I've had legitimate HITs removed for apparently violating policy recently, so in my experience AWS is fairly vigilant in looking out for HITs that attempt to juice SEO or promote. I guess it could work if you abstracted it enough so that it's not apparent to the worker, but it wouldn't be trivial to execute. Using VAs on Odesk might work better.

majorapps 14y ago

I don't understand what the difference is between Referly and linkshare.com, which already has thousands of premium affiliates and a solid api. Could someone enlighten me?

minouye 14y ago

What percentage does Referly take per payout?

dmor 14y ago
Referly does not currently take a percentage of any payouts

strooltz 14y ago

when is referly planning on allowing referrers to claim rewards? re: http://cl.ly/image/1E1H381q0p1N http://cl.ly/image/1E1H381q0p1N

dmor 14y ago
Very soon, stay tuned!

lionheart 14y ago

This is awesome. I was just about to write a basic referral system for my site but this looks like it fits the bill. I'm going to give it a try.

antidaily 14y ago
There's also Zferral. FYI.

mise 14y ago

I don't understand the full concept. How does this compare with platforms that allow you to set up affiliates?

mrschwabe 14y ago

Instead of the button, is there a way I can just give each customer a unique referral link? I'd much prefer to simply give them a link they can pass along instead of requiring them to click on a button off my website.

dmor 14y ago
Absolutely, using the API you can generate a link and give it to them however you wish http://refer.ly/api/docs/links http://refer.ly/api/docs/links

whymsicalburito 14y ago

Is there a way to send users rewards that are not straight cash? We would like to reward users with coupon codes, or links to pages where they can select a free t-shirt and such. Is this ability on the roadmap?

dmor 14y ago
Yes, we currently do not offer this in the API but have a few customers trying this with other forms of rewards. Email support@refer.ly and we can help you

shootthemoon 14y ago

I'd be overly cautious with this company. I've had over the minimum required to cash out for a month, and they will not let me cash out my account. The claim is that there are still in beta, so they won't pay you yet. Will they ever exit beta? Will I ever be able to cash out?

dmor 14y ago
We are happy to pay you directly via Paypal, please email your information to support@refer.ly and we can process this for you immediately. We don't have a self-service process yet.

jhuckestein 14y ago

How far along is the ruby API? I'd throw this up on my business for a little just to test it out, see what happens

dmor 14y ago
We are looking for open source contributors who would be interested in building the Ruby lib - I'll post a $500 bounty here. Please email me danielle@refer.ly We posted a bounty for the Python library this morning and it is already done, so I'm hopeful this can go quickly as well.
- jhuckestein 14y ago
  Would love to do it, but things are heating up at my business and it's hard to keep up as it is :( I'll definitely check back when the ruby lib is out

jkuria 14y ago

I am also not sure how "customer acquisition as a service" is different from the dozens of affiliate networks out there. NeverBlue, Azoogle, Ads4Dough, Epic etc. "Businesses get to define how much they are willing to pay for a sign up"? This is old hat to experienced affiliate marketers.

alanfang 14y ago
And there are already platforms for companies to create programs on their own, like hasoffers.