#011 — Referral Program: A Costly Flop ?
The referral program launched by @Nader 5 days ago with a surprising $ 100 bonus has not yet caused the shadow of a tremor on the curve of new members.
What went wrong? Every Desoers gave their own explanations and harshly criticized what seems to be heading for a costly flop.
TOO HIGH COST
It was @Ribal, the creator of @CloutFeed who first highlighted the exorbitant cost of this campaign. The cost to bring in a new member is $ 200 ($ 100 for the referrer and $ 100 for the referee). This means that spending $ 1 million only brings in 5,000 new members. « It’s not the best way to spend the money, » he concludes.
PEOPLE RISK TO LEAVE WITH THEIR $ 100
On the other hand, one can imagine, says music producer @Semindj that many of these new members will be tempted to leave as soon as they receive their bonus. So what will be the percentage of really active members recruited by this campaign?
In poor countries, $ 100 is half a month’s salary. This bonus may therefore attract people whose sole purpose is to withdraw this money.
This is what @Sandirose says: « In my opinion, $ 100 for new creators is too much of an amount that probably makes people sign up, collect the money and go. For $ 100, it is worth it for new users to create a Blockchain.com account to redeem their bonus, so that the funds will not stay on the platform. »
LOWER THE BONUS TO ENROLL MORE PEOPLE
17-year-old entrepreneur @AgustinOlmedo, owner of 7 companies, also thinks that $ 100 is too much and that paying less could reach more people.
« Some apps do just $15 or even $10 referrals bonus, he says, « and still get a lot of people on. »
« With spending $20 in total for every referral », he says, « we could get 50,000 accounts, which probably only 10% will really be active.
Yes, I love receiving $100 per referral, but I think it’s better to get $10 just to make DeSo grow more.
At the end, in terms of money, we will get more if we get more people in.
So that $90 difference could be easily earned with FR or NFTs »
THE REFERRAL TOOL IS NOT EFFICIENT
There has also been criticism of the referral program tool which does not track who we have referred. « It’s a shame », developper @tijn (Tijn.club node admin) said speaking to @merlin (Bitclout core team), « referral payments are not a single transaction with outputs for the referrer and referee. »
TAKING INSPIRATION FROM BLOCKCHAIN NEAR
@luffy54 thinks DeSo should take inspiration from the decentralized NEAR platform which financially rewards members who participate in the development of the network.
NEAR is a scalable blockchain that like DeSo prompts and helps developers create new nodes on the decentralized network. But it also helps non-developer members.
NEAR has its own token named $ NEAR. It is the unit of value on the platform that allows token holders to use apps on NEAR, participate in network governance and earn token rewards by participating in the network.
One of the ways to earn $ NEAR is to organize a community/guild that helps people build on NEAR.
ADDRESS PROBLEMS BEFORE STARTING THE REFERRAL PROGRAM
Some members expressed reluctance to participate in the referral program.
This is the case with @Sandirose who says, « I haven’t tried to onboard anyone yet, in part because I don’t love the look of the Diamond node and some of the identified issues. I’ve been hearing so many people having problems onboarding new users and the issues with tutorial, including the fact that it forces you to buy an actual coins to continue to completion. In short, the platform isn’t really ready for an influx of new users. There is concern the Diamondapp is tracking data so I suspect some users don’t want to onboard others because that has not been addressed. »
Sandi brings up another important point: Referrers should not make unrealistic promises to the people they are trying to convince to join.
« To the extent that they are promised quick fame and fortune, new members will be disillusioned, bored and quickly leave the platform. We must explain to them the time commitment required to build a community of followers. »
DIAMOND APP: UNKNOWN ON GOOGLE
There is another reason why the program is not very successful: before signing up, people do a search for diamond.app (the referral link). And of course, they can’t find anything because the site is too new.
“You have to explain to them,” says marketing consultant @kerstineymers, « to Google ‘Nader al Naji + Bitclout‘ and DeSo ».
THE BANNING OF CERTAIN COUNTRIES
Many members complained that their country was banned by the identification process. This is the case with Lithuania, Ukraine, the Philippines and many more.
« I spent hours », says @RealYogi, « explaining to my friends and family about DeSo and when they finally tried to sign up they couldn’t because they’re in Lithuania. »
« I can’t invite my compatriots », says @transhumanist, « just because they’re Ukrainians. This great country — 40 million people have been labeled as scammers. It is a shame for the project which calls itself Social Decentralized. »
RELUCTANCE TO GIVE ID
Since the start of the campaign, we have also seen members offering their sponsorship link by private message on the Deso network. This means that they are offering it to existing members who will be tempted to open a new account to receive the bonus.
Can an existing member receive the bonus by creating a new account? No. To receive the bonus, members must first be verified. This verification is done through the Jumio platform which scans members’ identity documents.
Can Jumio be trusted?
Jumio has verified over 300 million identities issued by over 200 countries and territories from real-time web and mobile transactions. Jumio’s solutions are used by leading companies in the financial services, sharing economy, digital currency, retail, travel and online gaming sectors.
WHO WE SHOULD ONBOARD
Nader asked us to « use this power » -our referral link — « wisely ».
« This implies », says @kerstineymers, « that we should THINK who we invite to this platform. »
« Nader and the team trust us to integrate a specific type of person: those who can understand the vision, are open to new technologies, are builders (not developers per se, but they should add value in some way), can learn fast and thrive in a dynamic environment. The optimists, not the skeptics. The givers, not the takers. »
« Those are the people we need. Take a minute and think about who are the people in your life who have these characteristics? And then go, and send them your link. »
@kerstineymers also suggests that admins « extend the countdown [which is currently only 3 days] because now people are trying to onboard fast.” While the priority should be to onboard the right people. »
THE HECTIC LIFE OF MISTER DESO
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT ISSUE
Editor and drawings: @PhilippeMeunier
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