

Introducing Customer Acqusition as a Service: Referly API & Shopping - dmor
http://refer.ly/blog/customer-acquisition-as-a-service/

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dmn001
Other competitors: <http://crowdfactory.com> <http://www.curebit.com>
<http://socialtwist.com>

How does this service differentiate from those already established in this
space?

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dmor
One way we are different is that we also offer a fully featured consumer
experience, the API is awesome for businesses but we also bring an audience to
brands since we are a marketplace with both sides.

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latchkey
I like the idea, but I don't understand why I'd use referly for this. If I'm
going to spend the time to implement their api on my site, I might as well
just implement the whole thing. It isn't like this is that hard of a problem
to solve.

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dmor
Its true that the technology of creating referral programs isn't hard, but
sadly it usually gets relegated to the back burner for development teams who
don't want to maintain it. Marketers who want to run experiments with referral
marketing find they can't get buy in, so they don't try it.

By offering an API that marketers can bring to developers, in a format
developers can respect, we are hoping to change that.

~~~
latchkey
The problem I see is when the marketing department wants 'one more quick
feature'... you know it will happen. I'm all for not re-inventing the wheel,
I'm just not sure that this api is that much of a value add.

I also tend to shy away from businesses which haven't figured out their
pricing yet. '100% of funds are passed through'... but no mention of what
happens when the beta is over. 5%? 10%? 3.5%? Give some sort of guesstimate.

To me, that also says you're still trying to figure out your own business
model, which is fine, but not something that I'd want to build my own business
around. I want to know you're going to be around in a year and that I'm not
going to regret not implementing this myself.

Don't let me sound discouraging. Keep plugging away though. I'll check back
again when I'm ready to implement this on my own site and make a decision
then. =)

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dmor
Sounds like we better hurry and decide. Thanks for the candid feedback, its
the best kind and I hope you'll keep it coming

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DanielRibeiro
A very lively and interesting discussion on this launch is going at this
moment on this other thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4281724>

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osuburger
Really intrigued by the social referral program. I'm excited to play around
with the API and implement it on our company site

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ig1
In the case of fraud where does the liability lie ?

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dmor
The merchant is required to report chargebacks to use within 60 days

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wamatt
Getting a 404 on the homepage.

<http://www.refer.ly/>

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dmor
Site was briefly overloaded, everything is good now

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klbarry
Will this ever be integrated into an existing cart like shopify, so that total
non developers can use it?

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dmor
Yes! I am working on a Shopify plugin right now actually - can you email me at
danielle@refer.ly so I can hear what you'd like me to make sure to include?

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klbarry
I have no current use for it so I can't help you, but I know if I was to make
an e-commerce site, I would use Shopify. Your offering looks very useful, so I
asked for future reference :)

