This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago. Visit the Product Blog for more information on our products.

Sweet, that is awesome! Thanks guys

If 37signals signs up for the referral program, they are going to make a killing. Just saying.

Been wondering when this kind of program was gonna be implemented, surprised it’s taken this long!

Only available to those living in the United States.

:(

Great program guys, but why for US residents only?

Fair enough. Thanks for clearing it up.

somewhat related, I was curious if you guys tracked conversions from the svn blog and from the ads you’ve run in the deck?

Sorry, off-topic, but I’m curious (and anal). Why are you guys squishing images with HTML lately? I’ve seen it here in a few SVN posts, and now with the product logos on these pages: https://affiliate.37signals.com/affiliate/ http://www.37signals.com/affiliate/commissions

Safari and Firefox properly and smoothly scale images down.

Really? I’m running FF 2 .0 and they look pixelated to me too. There may be a plugin you could use, but I like my surfing relatively light.

To smooth down properly, you’d need to resample or at least use averages. I wouldn’t be surprised if Safari does this, as they are indeed visually oriented, but then you have the other concerns (e.g. security).

Jason, this post is about the “what” and “how” of the Affiliate Program, but I’m interested to know more about the “why.” Just curious about your decision process in thinking about relaunching the program, what financial analysis you performed, etc. Thanks.

@JF – that’s totally understandable, I really hope it get’s resolved though!

@GeelWonder Are you using Windows or OS X ? I use Windows (unfortunately), and yeah, FF does seem to pixelate resized images. Safari seemed to a tiny bit too, and Opera’s perfect. Probably an OS X thing…

Dude, this is pretty friggin’ sweet. Great way to encourage the spread of your products. Methinks this will help your sales ‘asplode.

Hey guys … looking good. I plan on offering a similar program for my program as well … and it’s an international business as well. So if you figure out the tax implications … I’d say that would be a great blog post! :)

Excellent idea! You’re on the right track to getting Backpack/Basecamp/Highrise more into the mainstream. If I were running a consulting firm, I’d now have more incentive to offer this solution to customers.

The link on the textarea on the second image doesn’t look right. It is www.basecampHQ.com?referrer=JASONFRIED. Aren’t you missing a slash there?

(I’ve tested and it actually works on FF, but I’m not sure if it works on all browsers or if it is compliant with HTTP spects)

Fantastic – as a true believer, have referred hundreds of clients and friends on to 37 signals. Now I can actually be paid for all this good Karma

There is currently something illogical with the ‘old’ referral program in which, when you share a Backpack page with someone who doesn’t have a BP account, you’re actually referring him but it isn’t recorded so. Is there any chance this has been implemented?

Have you guys figured out a way to automate the pay out process, so that affiliates can pay themselves via Paypal when their balance is over $100? Sort of a self serve pay out. Or is there human interaction on the 37Signals side with every affiliate payment?

US-only pretty much sucks for me.

Affiliate networks could have handled tax and payment issues for you. What was the reason you decided to write you own?

+1 to the eager anticipation for non-US support that others have expressed! Can’t wait to get this up and running in Canada!

Keep this on the DL, but you can sign up from any country, be paid through Paypal and no one would know the difference.

I’m not sure why 37s is being so conservative on the tax issues.

pwb because 1099s are required for independent contractors who earn more than $600.

If someone signs up for a free account, and then upgrades to a pay account later on, you’ll earn the 5% recurring revenue from the upgrade.

I might be wrong (and for the affiliates’ sake, I hope I am) but don’t the majority of users sign up for the free account, give it a test, then upgrade, despite the one month trial?

I’m not sure why 37s is being so conservative on the tax issues.

Because it’s the law and you can get into a whole world of hate if the money starts becoming serious and the tax man gets involved. I believe the US taxes non-resident but “economically active in the US” foreigners too, so it’s necessary to have the forms in place to deal with this if you pay over $600 or so a year to someone overseas.

I’ll just cast my vote for the speedy addition of support for Canadian-based affiliates. I trust you’ll give it your best effort to find a solution. Yes, the non-resident tax issues can be a bear, but I’d rather err on this side of ok.

Can we please look at an Australian based affiliate program asap1

Is there any way I can have my simple affiliate code of “vocino” that I had with the old system? I don’t want “travisvocino”—boo!

How about allowing us to switch over to the new system if we were already enrolled in the old?

Great idea!

You should make this a “gem”...

Once you test it out of coarse…

The recurring commission is 5% or 10%?

Jason, any chance you will post a few metrics about how the launch went ? No dollar figures just differentials if possible eg. 25% more account signups for basecamps, perhaps revenue increases in % terms too ?

How about making a “We recommend… / is our recommendation” graphic for orgs and small companies? Considering the nature of the apps, I’m sure there are a lot of people (us included) who like the rec graphic a lot more than the generic advertisement – but just can’t say ‘I’.

I have recommended this to many clients. But live in South Africa. I also use two of your products ( Highrise as well as Basecamp ) when will this be available to resellers in SA?

Can you shunt Ireland up the list of your tax clarifications list. Wouldn’t mind selling a few subscriptions myself!

Roll it out to the UK as soon as you can. I’ve got two companies to sign up in the past week and can probably get more.

Any news on a localized solution for Basecamp etc.?

UK programme please!

Great news, was upset to see it’s only for US residents right now but I understand why.

Here’s hoping you’ll roll it out to the UK soon!

Hi there! I’m also a bit upset… What if I don’t live in the US… Any plans to roll out to Russia?

Love it! Waiting for you guys to expand it outside of the US. (I’m based in Singapore.) Meanwhile, I guess I’ll continue promoting Basecamp for free! Er… \( _ )/

I’m surprised you would include such an unfair arbitration clause in your Terms:

Arbitration Any dispute relating in any way to this Agreement (including any actual or alleged breach hereof), any transactions or activities under this Agreement or your relationship with us or any of our affiliates shall be submitted to confidential arbitration in Chicago, Illinois USA , except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate our intellectual property rights, we may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in any state or federal court in the state of Washington (and you consent to non-exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts) or any other court of competent jurisdiction. Arbitration under this agreement shall be conducted under the rules then prevailing of the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator’s award shall be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through class arbitration proceedings or otherwise.

Heck yes. This is like getting paid to talk about how great my iPod touch is.

Is there anyone left that isn’t using Basecamp?

Awesome, thank you! We’ve been recommending Basecamp since we started using it last November and our clients have been signing up. We appreciate the reward for our evangelism.

THANK YOU !!! We have been recommending BaseCamp to all bankruptcy attorneys we work for. It’s a great place to exchange documents with their bankruptcy clients!

Just curious…it seems as if the referrer information isn’t carried from screen to screen. A user clicks on the link from my page, they get to the front page for the specific app. They navigate to go register. There’s a spot to fill in a referrer code. Shouldn’t my referrer code already be filled in there? Why have it on the link if not?

I, for one, think this is a fab idea!

I made a dedicated page to make it easier to direct people, stylizing one of the promo buttons a little along the way.

Can I say I work for 37s now? ;)

Hurry on that UK support, I want, I want! And do you have badges that say “we” instead of “I”? I have projects that aren’t a one man gig.

Love you all.

Wow, way to send a poor message about your product. 1. You need to bribe people to get the word out. 2. Your profit margins are so gratuitously padded that you can give up a shocking 5 percent and still make money.

Honestly, I’ve heard great things about your products but I would never listen to someone who stands to make that sort of money off me every month. And ethically, I would NEVER recommend a product and then take that sort of money.

This is just a sickening debasement of human dialog. “I RECOMMEND ” badge, then you get paid? PUKE . Have you no class??

Australia next please!

I was so excited until I read US only.

Do you offer sub-id tracking? It doesn’t look like it’s available?

I’m a super-affiliate and could drive serious traffic.

However, this really turns me off:

“If someone signs up for a free account, and then upgrades to a pay account later on, you’ll earn the 5% recurring revenue from the upgrade.”

In my opinion, this is pretty low blow. You know that most people take the free trial. You probably lost me as an affiliate because of this poor policy.

Why not just give the affiliate the normal affiliate commission if the person signs up for a free trial and later upgrades? It’s the right thing to do.

-Josh

@Josh

I totally agree with you.

Many people first sign up for the FREE plan and later upgrade, so what’s the difference between those who go first free, and later upgrade then to those who directly buy the thing? They go free for first 30-days anyway!

I’d also jump on the 37s Affiliate bandwagon myself, but I’d rather promote other programs that give fair commissions.

It’s like the 50% is a marketing trick to make us promote the 37s apps but after first months we’ll really see that most of the revenue we’ll generate will be 5% commissions converting the free signups to paid plans.

Jason and David – I strongly encourage you to take a fair point of view here and don’t try to trick people with the low 5% commission on the FREE ->PAID upgrade.

You know very well that most of the people go first free and later go with the paid plan…

My 2 cents.

why don’t you choose a affiliate network like Zanox they will handle it for you. They will get 30% of the payouts put 70% is better than zero !

Michael: “I’d rather promote other programs that give fair commissions”.

Wow. Now people are complaining about 37signals giving them RECURRING COMMISSIONS ! Who else does this at all?

Amazing the things people will complain about. GETTING PAID is now a complaint.

You say 5% but your math is 10% on your advertisement.

Also, I can’t believe anyone would complain about someone handing out cash!

When you are able to make affiliate payments for countries other than the US, will you be posting it as a notice? Just want to know whether I should be checking periodically or will get to find out as a matter of course.

Sad and Penniless in the UK.

What about the affiliate links within our Basecamp accounts? I’d like to update that with the new referral link but don’t really see a way of doing so.

Thanks!

Great stuff guys! Looks very fair indeed, and another BIG vote for a UK programme (please old chap!).

hi, why is this only for people who live in the usa? I mean, wasn’t this one global world? so do i really need to find a US dummy to participate? ernest from Belgium

We’ve been telling anyone who will listen how good basecamp is. Alas, as we live outside the USA we can’t see some pay back for this. Not so good guys…..

d

Ernest/Dave: Do you guys read or just complain? They’ve explained why this is US only for now a few times already. It’s not because they don’t like you or they are xenophobic or they out to make you feel miserable, it’s because of tax reasons. Specifically the very complicated tax implications the EU puts on things. Once they see if the program work in the US they will begin to investigate how to roll it out to other countries.

I also hope it will come to other countries as we could really work it out well (here in Italy it is an almost fresh market and I could be making some money).

Anyways my request is another: Please please please please release the affiliate system as a gem, plugin, or whatever works best. It would be great for our apps to have an affiliate system finally wrote in Rails. I would pay for it.

Keep up the great work.

Basecamp has been a beacon of usability for my company and it’s customers. Being a graphic designer I cannot help but admire it’s thorough userfriendliness. In a way you guys hit the sweet spot – it’s no problem at all to recommend Basecamp again and again in my network. Word-of-mouth-marketing in it’s essence.

Shame the affiliate program is US based only for now. Shame also that there are no language versions as of yet. But 37signals feels like the kind of company that will solve these issues eventually.

Keep up the good work.

I would really like to promote this, but was disappointed to find it is USA only. As a user of Basecamp at work, I know it is widely used internationally. I hope the affiliate scheme can be extended some time soon.

Good news. I understand you need to trial in the US first. I will have to be patient waiting for roll out to other countries. Another vote for the UK. Please do asap!

All the best.

John

For non-USA, why can’t we sign up and start to get referrals, but just don’t get paid. You will soon see which countries to focus on, by the values, and we won’t lose out to USA competitors. Just a simple tick yes to “I don’t mind my commissions being held until tax matters sorted out.” If you are feeling nervous, you could add a clause that if payouts can’t be arranged within, say a year, the commission will be donated to a (USA) charity of the affiliate’s choice. I would agree to that.