Hi.

Could you expound upon your goal here?

The "very easy api" statement means that I could do something to add points when the user buys a membership. That probably wouldn't be too difficult. But then, at the end of the day, it appears that all that will be gained is that, after some additional points the user then gets put into another group. My addon, of course, puts users into groups when they purchase a membership.

So... I'm not really sure how this would work, or what the benefit would be.

James

Hi James,

The goal is a simplified affiliate type functionality, to come up with some kind of "reward" for spreading the word e.g. emailing/telling your friends or anyone they think might like a site like this, so they come visit the site and hopefully join.
I'm really not sure how to extend and or integrate these to reach that goal though. We can probably come up with the special groups and what that might mean (the actual reward) and the points it takes to get in. Since the ultimate goal is that they actually join (rather than just visit), what you suggest (that some points are added when they join) would be necessary. I think the key is how to tie the two together (Existing member A makes the referrals, when referred new users join, who referred them/ who gets the reward). Probably like most affiliate programs, you could use a unique referrer code. The easiest way I think is they tell the person they are referring to "Use this unique code when signing up...". (and getting even fancier perhaps there could be some incentive for redeeming the code)

What do you think?

Hi.

That's definitely an interesting idea, and I can see the value.

And you're right.. you'd use the API to credit points based upon a purchase but the points would have to be credited to the original user.

However, in the short term, it'd require a lot of additional pieces (creating the referral links, providing the referral links to the user, tracking a referral as it comes in and seeing if it the product is purchases, providing the admin the ability to configure how things get credited). Additionally, it doesn't make a lot of sense to simply let the affiliate program add the user to the group, as my addon manages the groups much more closely, so there'd ideally be another integration to let my addon do the awards.

And given all that, you're the first person that's suggested anything like this. So while it's a good idea, I don't think it'll be happening anytime soon.

James

Thanks for the feedback.

I know it's usually more complicated than it seems at first.
That's why I was trying to keep it as simplified initially as possible for a phase 1 solution. What do you think about this.

So regarding your points

"creating the referral links" and "providing the referral links to the user" Doesn't rewards already do this? Or maybe we can bypass even using links? I was thinking to create a "referral code or ID", which could automatically be created for every user when their account is created (based on their UID). We could then easily give them that in a profile area along with instructions to simply tell whomever they refer to input that code when signing up. Sure it's weaker, but it's just a friendly "hey, tell them I sent you with my ID so I get some points...". On the other hand, since rewards already creates links, and therefor obviously a code, so I don't know what the API would allow you to do.

"tracking a referral as it comes in and seeing if it the product is purchases" Since we only care if they sign up, why not do everything together at sign up/account creation. So Lerteco Membership-commerce would check to see if they input a referral code, credit points if they did (that would be handled by rewards) and it would also create their own new unique referral code all at the same time (perhaps also by rewards and used by Lerteco via the API).

"providing the admin the ability to configure how things get credited" Well yes, there is a point (if you are talking about how many points per referral). But beyond that,to keep it as simple as possible, once that is decided, why not leave it up to the admin to decide what to do from there manually. Of course they would need some type of reporting on the total points. Keep it basic. Totals, maybe totals by month, etc.

What do you think?

Hi. Yes. I see the benefit, and it's a good idea. And what you describe is
certainly easier than what I was thinking (though, conversely, probably
less applicable to the "general" use case and otherwise less attractive a
feature). But I just don't have any bandwidth for the forseeable future to
devote to this feature. I'm trying to focus on the renewals and attribute
requests that come up more frequently.

James

Thanks James, I get that. Well at least the idea "is out there" now. Having said that, I think a full fledged affiliate app would be huge for Concrete5. I'm actually a bit surprised nobody has developed one. There are some PHP affiliate scripts out there, just nothing in C5.