We’ve got a very exciting announcement today. We’re launching a new 37signals Affiliate Program. This one pays cash. Plus there’s a twist we think you’ll really like.
Now and Forever
Many affiliate programs pay cash on new business referrals. Our new program does that too. However, we wanted to take this a big step further.
We’ve found the recurring revenue model to be a great fit for our business. Customers pay us every month to use our products. We felt it was fitting that anyone who referred a customer our way should also earn a piece of that recurring revenue. So that’s what we’ve done.
Earn 50% on sign-up and 5% of future recurring revenue
When a customer signs up through your referrer link, you’ll earn 50% of their first month’s payment (after they make that first payment), then 5% of their future monthly payments for the life of their account. As you refer more and more customers, your automatic recurring revenue can really begin to add up.
How much can I make?
Review the commissions chart to see the initial and recurring payout per product. At this time Basecamp, Highrise, and Backpack are part of the program. We may add additional products down the road.
For example, if someone signs up for a Basecamp Max plan, you can earn $75 (50% of the first $149/month fee) from that signup. Then, if they pay for 8 months of Max, you’ll earn an additional $59.60 ($7.45/month x 8 months) for a total of $134.60 earned from that one customer.
Check your earnings in real time
Once you’ve signed up, you can check the “My Earnings” section to see your earnings in real time. You’ll see a chart that looks like this:
Easy promotional tools
We’ve started you out with a link you can share via email, IM, Twitter, etc., plus banners you can post on your site or blog.
Get paid often
Once you’ve earned over $100, you’ll begin to be paid roughly every 45 days. We’ll keep the payments coming every 45 days as long as you have over $100 in accrued earnings.
Potential earnings from free signups too
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.
Didn’t you already have an Affiliate Program?
Yes. We will be phasing that out over time. People who are already part of the old program (credit, not cash, and no recurring revenue) can remain in the old program. But new people who want to join our affiliate program will be joining the new program.
Sign up today and get started promoting and earning!
Signing up for the 37signals Affiliate Program takes just a few seconds. Then you’re off and running, promoting, and earning.
We fully expect some motivated people will ultimately be able to make nice livings off referring 37signals products through the Affiliate Program. The income you can make off the recurring revenue model will really begin to add up.
We have a lot of fun stuff planned for the new 37signals Affiliate Program. We’re excited to see where this goes. We wish you the best success and hope to hear your success stories!
Special thanks
Special thanks to Jeff Hardy for pulling the code strings to get the new 37signals Affiliate Program working. He did a great job.
john
on 04 Jun 08Sweet, that is awesome! Thanks guys
Christopher J
on 04 Jun 08If 37signals signs up for the referral program, they are going to make a killing. Just saying.
Chris Jones
on 04 Jun 08Been wondering when this kind of program was gonna be implemented, surprised it’s taken this long!
Chris Jones
on 04 Jun 08Only available to those living in the United States.
:(
jan korbel
on 04 Jun 08Great program guys, but why for US residents only?
JF
on 04 Jun 08Chris/Jan: Only US for now. Tax reasons. Once we figure out the tax implications on affiliate payments for other countries we’ll begin to allow others to sign up.
From The Affiliates help section.
jan korbel
on 04 Jun 08Fair enough. Thanks for clearing it up.
condor
on 04 Jun 08somewhat related, I was curious if you guys tracked conversions from the svn blog and from the ads you’ve run in the deck?
Susan
on 04 Jun 08Sorry, 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
JF
on 04 Jun 08Susan, those logos shouldn’t be squished. That was my bad. I didn’t realize I did that. I’ll make proper versions of them shortly. Thanks for pointing this out.
Safari and Firefox properly and smoothly scale images down. IE chucks them into pixels.
GeeIWonder
on 04 Jun 08Safari 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).
steve
on 04 Jun 08Jason, 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.
Chris Jones
on 04 Jun 08@JF – that’s totally understandable, I really hope it get’s resolved though!
Josh
on 04 Jun 08@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…
Matt Radel
on 04 Jun 08Dude, this is pretty friggin’ sweet. Great way to encourage the spread of your products. Methinks this will help your sales ‘asplode.
Greg
on 04 Jun 08Hey 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! :)
Neil Kelty
on 04 Jun 08Excellent 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.
Felipe Koch
on 04 Jun 08The 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)
spin_girl
on 04 Jun 08Fantastic – 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
ep
on 04 Jun 08There 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?
Andy
on 04 Jun 08Have 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?
Daniel Haran
on 04 Jun 08US-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?
JF
on 04 Jun 08The misprint below the commissions chart has been corrected.
Daniel Gibbons
on 04 Jun 08+1 to the eager anticipation for non-US support that others have expressed! Can’t wait to get this up and running in Canada!
pwb
on 04 Jun 08Keep 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.
Anonymous Coward
on 04 Jun 08pwb because 1099s are required for independent contractors who earn more than $600.
Peter Cooper
on 05 Jun 08If 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.
Grant Hutchinson
on 05 Jun 08I’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.
kris Kyle
on 05 Jun 08Can we please look at an Australian based affiliate program asap1
Travis Vocino
on 05 Jun 08Is 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?
B. Ackles
on 05 Jun 08Great idea!
You should make this a “gem”...
B. Ackles
on 05 Jun 08Once you test it out of coarse…
siong1987
on 05 Jun 08The recurring commission is 5% or 10%?
J Nyika
on 05 Jun 08Jason, 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 ?
Matthew Hockenberry
on 05 Jun 08How 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’.
Ricky van der Walt
on 05 Jun 08I 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?
Mick Maguire
on 05 Jun 08Can you shunt Ireland up the list of your tax clarifications list. Wouldn’t mind selling a few subscriptions myself!
Mike Rouse
on 05 Jun 08Roll 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.
Marc
on 05 Jun 08Any news on a localized solution for Basecamp etc.?
Steven Baker
on 05 Jun 08UK programme please!
Adam Owen
on 05 Jun 08Great 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!
Sergei Gudkov
on 05 Jun 08Hi there! I’m also a bit upset… What if I don’t live in the US… Any plans to roll out to Russia?
Shannon Low
on 05 Jun 08Love 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… \(_)/
Michael
on 05 Jun 08I’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.
Brian
on 05 Jun 08Heck yes. This is like getting paid to talk about how great my iPod touch is.
DHH
on 05 Jun 08If the program proves a success in the US, you can all rest assured that we’ll do our best to roll it out in more countries as soon as possible. We just didn’t want to invest a lot of lawyer time and investigations into all the tax particulars of the world until we know whether this program is a hit or not.
Garth
on 05 Jun 08Is there anyone left that isn’t using Basecamp?
Leigh Slayden
on 05 Jun 08Awesome, 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.
713PETITIONS - Virtual Bankruptcy Paralegal / Assistant
on 05 Jun 08THANK 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!
Larry
on 05 Jun 08Just 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?
Marsh
on 05 Jun 08I, 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? ;)
Richard Henry
on 05 Jun 08Hurry 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.
Ryan
on 06 Jun 08Wow, 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??
Brad
on 06 Jun 08Australia next please!
I was so excited until I read US only.
Josh
on 06 Jun 08Do you offer sub-id tracking? It doesn’t look like it’s available?
Josh
on 06 Jun 08I’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
Michael
on 06 Jun 08@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.
Alexander Korte
on 06 Jun 08why 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 !
Anonymous Coward
on 06 Jun 08Michael: “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.
psiwaste
on 06 Jun 08You say 5% but your math is 10% on your advertisement.
psiwaste
on 06 Jun 08Also, I can’t believe anyone would complain about someone handing out cash!
Patrick Nelson
on 06 Jun 08When 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.
Ryan
on 07 Jun 08What 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!
Jon Moss
on 07 Jun 08Great stuff guys! Looks very fair indeed, and another BIG vote for a UK programme (please old chap!).
ernest Bujok
on 07 Jun 08hi, 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
Dave Robinson
on 08 Jun 08We’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
Anonymous Coward
on 08 Jun 08Ernest/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.
Stefano Bernardi
on 08 Jun 08I 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.
Bart (Netherlands)
on 09 Jun 08Basecamp 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.
Ken (UK)
on 09 Jun 08I 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.
John Showell (Product Approvals Ltd, UK)
on 09 Jun 08Good 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
John
on 10 Jun 08For 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.
This discussion is closed.