Referral ID - simple explanation needed, who does this benefit?

[theflow]

I've not yet delved into this because my site is not yet live. Can someone please explain what is a referral ID, and who benefits from using it, and how does one benefit? I see these referral IDs appear in all the email notifications from susbribed threads.

Is this for when you have ad banners, and need to credit people for accounting purposes? etc?

As Denzel Washington says to Tom Hanks in some movie: "explain it to me like I'm a six-year old".

Thanks!
Richard

[Steve Machol]

You don't really have to use them for anything. The only benefits come from giving something back to your Mmbers for referring people to your site.

For instance, I am currently running a Referrals Contest on my forums. The person with the most credited referrals within ght contest time period wins a Custom Avatar, Custom Title, and their own @optiboard.com email address.

[theflow]

Originally posted by smachol
You don't really have to use them for anything. The only benefits come from giving something back to your Mmbers for referring people to your site.

Thanks Steve. That's a good idea. Okay so here's a page I emailed to myself as a test, and this is what shows up in the email notification I received:

I thought you might be interested in reading this web page:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=24048&referrerid=6357

So I click on the link and it takes me to that thread. I just haven't connected the dots yet about how that referrerID info is tracked and where.

1. I emailed it to myself: I just checked my vB profile and see that my UserID= 6357. Okay so when I click on the link above, it sends that User ID referral info to the browser.

2. Where does it get collected? As a database item? And where would I, as the admin of my own site, see this info tracked? I'm sure in the Admin CP, just not sure where.

3. So the user who sent the "email this page" accrues points for each referral; and somewhere the Admin sets thresholds for "if user refers x people, y reward happens". In your contest example, does this reward get triggered automatically? Or you as an Admin have to look at stats and manually do something?

4. Does the User who did the referring have any way of seeing "I have accrued xx referral points"? If so, where?

Thank you.

[Steve Machol]

1. Yes. And if the user registers during anytime over the next year, you are credited with the referral. [Edited to correct the error pointed out by tubedogg.]

2. Referrals are stored in the user table in the database. You can view all referrlas by going to:

Admin CP -> Users -> Referrals

3. The only thing automatic is the storing of referrals. I have to look up the referrals to see who is in the lead.

4. The user can see how many referrals they have by clicking on their own profile. It's one of the listed fields. However they have no way of knowing which Members used their referral during registration. You would have to look this up in the Admin CP and tell them.

By the way, you can also get a referral if someone enters your username in the 'Referrer' field during registration.

[theflow]

excellent, thank you!

not a question left! thanks Steve

[tubedogg]

Actually Steve wasn't entirely correct. The referral only gets stored if the user subsequently registers within one year of following the link (a cookie with the referrerid gets set for one year).

[theflow]

Originally posted by tubedogg
Actually Steve wasn't entirely correct. The referral only gets stored if the user subsequently registers within one year of following the link (a cookie with the referrerid gets set for one year).

Okay I guess I'm still not clear.

1. I looked at my Admin CP -> Users -> Referrals
I see "No Referrals for that time period" . It's just not clicking for me yet. Though my site's not open yet, it's in test mode and I've sent numerous "Email this page"s to various people on the test team, thus generating referral codes with my userID each time I send a page. In addition, other members of test team have sent me various "email this page" notifications, each containing their username referral codes. And we've all followed each other's email links.

2. Is this the "duhh" stuff that I'm missing the boat on?
(a) If a recipient is already Registered, the referral code is not tracked, and in essence is irrelevant data because it only matters if someone has not yet registered? When a registered user follows the link, there is no data tracked, correct?

(b) If the recipient is unregistered, and follows the email link, a cookie is set on recipient's computer which stays active for a year. If within that timeframe, recipient registers, then person that sent the "email this page" gets a referral point. Is this correct?

(c) And thereafter, once this new person has registered, I could send him 100 "email this page" notifications to him, containing my referrerID, and he follows all those links -- and nothing new is tracked, correct? This is all irrelevant data that gets tossed, not stored. Correct?

(d) There is no advantage (or reward tracking) to the referrer if he has generated higher traffic or usage of the board by sending "email this page" links and having various people follow those links -- if they are already Registered users, correct?

3. So I'm curious if there are other ways people have used this referral system? Are you basically doing contests like Steve, and giving a reward for generating new registered members? (like attaining some display status - avatar, user title, stars, etc). Or are there other things that could be done to exploit the capability of following a referrerID email link?

4. Oh yeah. I don't see a field for Referrals on my profile page, but I am guessing one of the people helping me set up vB either deleted that section from Reg form or profile page or commented out code -- ??

[Joe]

1) Your only credited for the refferal if the user registers.
2) Duhh
- a) correct
- b) correct
- c) correct
- d) correct
3) Same idea i am using, but with a twist, for each refferal, your username gets one entry into a drawing, the more refferals you send me, the more entrys you recive for the drawing. I will be giving away a sweet $120 messenger bag to a random user who has sent me atleast one new registered user. I think this is a fair setup, i have a few members that can send me 100 users a month, i also have hundreds of members that may send me 2 - 3 users a month... My setup gives the little guy a chance, and a reason to atleast try. I havent yet announced the contest, but plan on launching the contest Oct 1st, Im not sure if i should have a set deadline, or a limited number of refferels (contest would close once 1000 new refferal based members join).
4) URL?

[theflow]

Joe, thanks for point-by-point. Helps my tired brain move out of duhh cloud.

4. URL? I see now by comparing my vB profile... I'm guessing the friend that is helping me set up my vB pulled the Referral field off my Register page or Profile page, probably due to my saying "get rid of all that junk"

vB profile

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=6357

profile at my site:

http://www.theflow.com/forums/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=1

2(d):

There is no advantage (or reward tracking) to the referrer if he has generated higher traffic or usage of the board by sending "email this page" links and having various people follow those links -- if they are already Registered users

I'm not a coder, but just seems to me that there's further exploitation avail from that referral code/click-through logic & tracking capability. Seems to me that it's not only impt to have lots of registered users, but also to have traffic to keep people using the site. For those of you who alreday have hundreds and thousands of Reg. users, this may be less an issue for you. But for me, I'm starting from scratch and needing to build a base to draw traffic, then keep it stimulated to draw more. And it just seems to me that another kind of recognition system is possible with this referrerID/click-through logic. If User A is good at stimulating discussion or at enticing people to visit the site to check out a certain thread, and as a result of his "email a page" efforts, he gets stagnant Reg. User B, C, D, E to come to the site and participate, then that's worthy of recognition during a community buildup stage. Anyway, just seems like that code logic could be put to use to track for traffic-generation too. Or am I, again, missing the boat?

for each referral, your username gets one entry into a drawing...giving away to a random user who has sent me atleast one new registered user. ... gives the little guy a chance, and a reason to atleast try.

I think it's a great idea, I like that.

lastly, your sig file suggestions are great. Notepad -- what's the status on that? esp tubedogg's further sugg "quote to notepad" link, like Reply with Quote, except you're copying a post to your notepad instead of replying to it. I do a lot of compilations of stuff gleened from various threads, and this would be quite handy... Community Update email... love that too. So that's a released hack, right? How's it working out for you?

[Steve Machol]

theflow,

Do you have the Referrer system set to 'Yes' in your Admin CP?

Admin CP -> User and registration options -> Referrer -> Yes

tubedogg, thanks for the correction. I didn't realize that this referrerid was stored in a cookie for one year. Nice feature!

[Joe]

Originally posted by theflow
lastly, your sig file suggestions are great. Notepad -- what's the status on that? esp tubedogg's further sugg "quote to notepad" link, like Reply with Quote, except you're copying a post to your notepad instead of replying to it. I do a lot of compilations of stuff gleened from various threads, and this would be quite handy... Community Update email... love that too. So that's a released hack, right? How's it working out for you?

I forgot all about my sig... i turned off signatures after i got lost in a few here I'll have to check on the notepad, it was a features i saw at yahoo's web based email, and thought it would work great with vB. I know i would use it The community update works awesome, my server is having email problems, so i havent sent my update for a month or so... Im a member on a dozen or so forums that use this hack, its kinda cool to see my idea implemented by sites that have thousands of members.

Your right about the current refferal system, right now it is very basic, and only counts new registrations. It wouldnt suprize me to see some hacks in the future that use this feature... Only time will tell.

[theflow]

Originally posted by smachol
Admin CP -> User and registration options -> Referrer -> Yes

a-hah! It was set to no. Thanks. Now I get it. I think I will add this topic to the FAQ I am building ... even though I don't think it is frequently asked

[Destee]

Great thread TheFlow ... Everyone.

Destee

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by theflow
a-hah! It was set to no. Thanks. Now I get it. I think I will add this topic to the FAQ I am building ... even though I don't think it is frequently asked

I saw a post earlier where someone requested a way to have the Referral total for each member show up on the postbit page - under 'Registered', 'Location' and 'Posts'. That's actually a great idea and one I'll implement if I can find out how!