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Ok, so you’re in the HYI/Autosurf arena to play/invest. You’ve decided on a program to join. Do you just join using the referral link that got you there? Or do you wait and try to find the right upline? I’d be willing to bet that most of you join using whatever referral link got you there, regardless of whether it was from a friend or just a link you found. I know that there are some of you that take your time and shop for a good upline and some sell their referral commission to the upline that bids the highest. I’ve seen your posts asking for an upline.
Upline shopping can be just as important as hunting for the elusive “best” program. There are many reasons why someone chooses (or ignores who they choose) and I listed the two most common ones in the first paragraph. I know that I can’t possibly list all of the reasons, but here are some of them:
- I didn’t choose an upline, I just clicked on a link I found somewhere.
- I didn’t know you could chose and upline! I thought I had to use the first one I saw. Or… Referral link? I’m using a referral link? What’s that?
- A friend told me about it and I used their referral link.
- Someone posted in a forum or wrote an article and it looked interesting, so I clicked on their link. I figured that since they took the time to write about it, then they deserved the referral commission from me.
- I can’t find a referral link and the program requires one, so I posted asking for one and used the first one I saw.
- I know uplines that I trust and only join under them. (This includes ones that take care of their downline and ones that don’t.)
- I search for the upline that gives me something in return, like a referral commission rebate, or one that knows how to take care of their downline.
- I post that I want to join the program and ask for the best referral commission offer from an upline. Then I go with the best offer.
You should be able to see yourself somewhere on the above list at least most of the time. (Leave a comment, if you have another reason for choosing an upline.) IMO, using a friend’s referral link, an upline you trust and/or searching for a good upline are the best ways of insuring you’ve got a good upline.
So, what is a good upline and why should I care? A good upline could be the difference between making money or losing it all in a program. They can also save you money. Good uplines take care of their downline in one way or another. The bad ones do nothing, except get you to sign up and spend. I’ve seen a lot of comments here, at other blogs and at forums where people are bashing referral hounds. IMO, a referral hound is one that works at getting a big downline, while at the same time doing nothing for therm. Then there are upline that post their referral link here and there to get a few signups, but they also do nothing for their downline.
A good upline should feel a personal obligation for their downline joining. At the same time, they are not responsible for your losses and/or gains. You are the only one responsible for joining and spending at a program. Uplines take care of their downlines in a variety of ways and here are a few of them:
- An upline may offer referral commission rebates. That’s when the upline refunds all or part of the referral commission to their downline, when they are paid (not when it is posted to their program account). The percentage of refund is typically 50-100%. (Note: It is OK to give someone your egold number for a rebate. It is not OK to give them your egold password.)
- An upline may offer referral commission rebates with a specific time limit or count limit.
- An upline may offer to monitor the program and provide you with the updates via email. This frees you up from watching it like a hawk, however you should still do your own checking before doing any new spends and at every compound/withdraw opportunity.
- An upline may offer to monitor the program and send you their opinion of the viability status (smooth sailing, a minor yellow flag, red flag alert!, get out now!!) (Note: Make sure you trust your upline’s intuition for this one!)
- An upline may even offer you a refund of your initial investment, if the program folds and they didn’t warn you in time.
- An upline may offer to benefactor you into a program. This means that they’ll pay your initial deposit, in exchange for you compounding and/or upgrading enough for them to earn it back in referral commissions.
As you can see there are a variety of things that uplines can do for you, their downline. (Leave a comment, if you do something for your downline that isn’t listed.) If you’re interested in any of the above, you must check with your potential upline before you join. Asking them to do something after the fact won’t work. It would be like getting married and trying to write a pre-nuptial agreement afterwards. So, cross your t’s and dot your i’s ahead of time.
Now you may be thinking, I don’t know any good uplines. How do I find one?
- Look in the program’s threads in the big forums. Many uplines post what they offer and/or they have a site with their offers.
- Google the program name plus any one of the following, “rebate”, “refund”, “ref”, “referral”, “commission”, or just google the words. There are sites that are dedicated to offers for downlines.
- Ask someone, who has written something about the program, if they offer something. Very often bloggers and other commentators offer something, but they don’t broadcast it.
- Look in the program’s forum. Some uplines post offers in the program’s forums, because they know that there are non-members browsing for information.
- If you can’t find an offer, choose an upline that has had something useful to say, rather than one that just copies and pastes information or just provides an advertisment/banner.
Remember that once you hit that join/sign-up button, you can not change your upline for any reason. (A program may offer to change it for you, but that’s rare.) Your upline is making money from your deposits, so why shouldn’t you get a service from them? It’s a good idea to keep a list of uplines that you like (and another with ones you don’t like.) Remember, you are under no obligation to use the first referral link that you find!
JMO - Sharon
Popularity: 5% [?]
Though I may not always have done this, I now choose an upline based on liking the sound of the person posting about the investment in several forums. I have on most occassions not chosen to accept rebates on commissions even when the offer was made, as I do feel “what comes around, goes around”. The people I sign up under normally have more experience than I do, and are those whose advice I rely on regarding how to handle some hyips. Thats not to say I won’t sometimes gamble with a little bit of money on something thats completely off the wall and not care whose link I click.
I don’t recommend or use a link for more than 3 funds I have faith in myself, and though the referral is nice, I don’t count on it for income. I will never list anything I have a doubt in and if a doubt comes about, it will immediately be removed from my signature.
Excellent article! It deserves a star!
Whenever someone signs up with my referral link, I do feel obliged and always update my downlines or even through any means to let them know what’s going on.
When my downlines get paid, I’m really happy for them, more happier when they made a profit for their investments.
If a program which I introduced lacklustre or bites the dust, I’ll feel responsible for it and the feeling is worse than losing my own investments in the failed scam.
That’s why even until now I keep a close look on FX-Experts and keep in contact with Marcos. I’m prepared to lose my personal investment to have Marcos at least refund all the investors that he has.
TYVM, Jude!
LOL I forgot to mention what I do for my downlines!
First of all, I rarely promote programs with my referral link. I have a newsletter where I’ll promote my programs plus programs that the subscriber’s are in (with their referral link). The programs are described along with what I see are the pros and cons. If anyone is interested, send an email to sharonsopinion@nobshyip.net
Secondly, I create a mailing list for the big programs and send out updates, along with my opinions (of course!) This is true, even when there are no referral commissions.
Lastly, I have been known to do referral commission rebates, limited count full referral commission rebates and benefactoring. Each is dependent on the circumstance and what the downline intends to do with the program.
I’m with you, Jude, I care very deeply when someone joins something with my referral link. When I first started, I was more of a referral hound, because I didn’t know better. Over time my philosophy has changed.
JMO,
Sharon
Nice article Sharon
I rarely contact my downline because in my personal experience, most have not wanted the contact. They prefer to initiate contact if necessary, but otherwise, they prefer to be left alone.
When I do have referral rebate offers, I post them on my blog and my email and messenger contact info is also posted on there. So I welcome people to contact me. I know that places the burden on them, but at least then I know I’m not feeling I may be potentially intruding on them.
Guess it varies with folks
Again, terrific write up there …
Dolphin
TYVM, Dolphin!
That’s a new twist on upline services, voluntary participation. good edition to the list of what uplines do in the article.
Thanks,
Sharon
Yeah Dolphin I worry about that too so usually make it known that I am available to help with questions etc. Some uplines spam you to distraction for months after. Choosing one I tend to recipricate in some cases if someone signed up under me in another program especially if its a newbie that is just starting out. With ref com offers back which I used to do occasionally I find if site goes down people get on your case more so with stuff like
“Hey You had the offer so I thought the site was great and it was safe to spend heaps Its your fault etc”
This upsets me as I always point out the risk probably more than I should point it out and tell them to RTFM Nothing beats reading.
From my experience, it is very important to have a good upline. I am having one right now and for quite sometime already.
Qualifications to look for in my up-line :
————————————————
1) Gives referral commission cashback.
2) Honest, trusthworthy and punctual with payments
3) Up to date with most upcoming and new HYIPs & AS.
4) Regular communication through email, though it is kept to a minmum.
5) Not too much program promotions from him.
5) Able to offer advice and comments whenever requested.
So far I am happy with my upline.
Hi Dolphin,
I was most impressed when you sent out e-mails to your downlines to advice us to get out of the program, if I remember right called Everlasting9 last year. I did get out on time with profit that day when the program really closed. To me you are a good upline, who goes out an extra mile to care for the downlines.
How about I take this opportunity to thank you for that?
Thank you Theray
What a sweet comment …
TD, I think offering referral rebates helps to lessen some of the risk, in addition to being a sort of “thank you for joining with me” gift.
I did this for 9planetnosurf because of how high the ref. commissions were, because of how high risk it was (well for me it was among the highest riskiest I’ve joined lol) and because I like the “pay it forward” concept.
Fortunately, many who joined me at 9pns made their profits, plus the 9% and did one or two cycles and got out …
Anyhoo .. I do like to do that now and then … and I hope my referrals feel comfortable contacting me if they want to.
John, exellent outline there .. thx for that …
Dolphin
Hi Sharon
Must congratulate you on an excellent blog.
Your articles/postings must be from the best you get. Thanks.
As a surfer [putting my money where my mouth is] with no real interests in making referral money I think the referral rat race is killing auto surfing.
Somebody [can’t remember who] suggested a few weeks ago that surfers should not join under a blogger/monitor etc.,but directly under the site owner to keep the tens of thousands paid out to referral “hounds’ /or not “hounds” in the program for the members. [seems to make sense]
If you take 9planets for example only a very few surfers and all the referral hounds made a packet. [ in less than three weeks only Dolphins part was $1800 from her downline which made use of her payback offer] Taking into account that she was not even one of the top ten referral hounds you can work out the amount of money involve. [nothing personal Dolphin, I have only your statistics as posted by you]
The referral hounds must have made hundreds of thousands with Adsurfdaily while the surfers are still surfing to get their principle back.[on hold at this moment]
Greed is humanity worse sin and I think that even referral hounds with the best intentions may become blinded and bias in promoting a program for the referral option.
Lately most of the bloggers seems to be non officially bonded [mafia] regulating the surfing world for their personal hidden agendas.
One thing is for sure that daily surfers is leaving the surfing world daily due to heavy losses [new members will join daily] , but the bloggers/monitors go from strength to strength. Indeed a very lucrative money making racket for them.
Personally I think there should be a referral insensitive, but not more than 1 or 2% from ONLY the original deposit. [bloggers/monitors indeed plays a very important informative role] The scammers will still scam , but it will surely prolong the life of honest Admins programs.
Have great day Sharon.
Jannie
PS: It is still difficult for me to understand how some of the moral neurotic bloggers/monitors fanatically promoted a 100% ponxi [ 9planetsurfhyip] ,
while doing anything possible to kill TriStar. [admin at least trying to implement different income streams]. The same is happening with mrsvee coming soon Matrix. [ the only real winners will be the owner and the early spots] This must be what is meant with hypocrisy . Sad, very sad.
Hi Jannie,
Thank you for your kind words, but I disagree with you on some points that you made.
1. Bloggers and monitors are very different entities and shouldn’t be lumped together, no matter what King Bobby says. The majority of monitors (not all, but most) are paid to promote by sites. They are not monitoring the industry, instead they are shams. This is where bloggers stepped up to the plate. The majority of bloggers (not all, but most) are HYI/Autosurf players, just like you, that also report what they find. They are not paid for promoting, like the monitors are. Nor do they cater to the vast amount of paid to vote cheerleaders. If we think something can make you money, then we’ll tell you about it. If we see signs of stress, then we will tell you about it. What you do with the information is up to you. Personally, I do not believe monitors at all, while I believe a substantial amount of information from bloggers. You have to separate hype from reporting. The bottom line is that it is up to each individual to decide what to believe and what not to believe.
2. Bloggers will usually tell you when a program is definitely a game/ponzi or when they think one is. Monitors just report hype and votes. If you know a program is a game/ponzi, you have the choice whether to play or not play.
3. While there are referral hounds in all aspects of this industry, the majority of bloggers are not. We provide a service beyond just hyping new programs.
4. As I’ve said to you in other comments, there is a big difference between risking your money by playing in a HYIP and risking your money in a payment processor. The difference is that in a HYIP/Autosurf you know that you’re taking a risk that they might close before you make a profit. In a payment processor, you expect your money to be safe. It is double-punch when someone runs both and they both fold.
5. King Bobby runs ponzis, yet tells other programs that TriStar is too good for them…AFTER taking their member’s money. As long as I have been reviewing sites, which was long before I started blogging, I have never seen such a cult following for such a blatant liar and scammer. (Although, I heard that PIPs/PicPay was similar. I didn’t follow them, because I dismissed going with them and wasn’t blogging at that time.) You say he’s trying different income streams, like taking fees for money transmitting? Guess what ALL of his income streams are still from YOU and other sheep that all follow the king like good subjects. Bobby is absolutely tyrannical and still people put on blinders and say “Yes, Bobby, we believe you. We believe when you tell us how bad bloggers are. Yes, we will go kill the messengers of bad news for you.” Reminds me of Charlie Manson!
For once, please take off your blinders and look at where your money is objectively. Do you want to risk it in an unlicensed money transmitter that isn’t even addressing the issue? Do you want to risk it in Bobby’s ponzi’s that have had delayed payments and multiple excuses? Only you can answer those questions.
I’d also like to express my viewpoint on referral commissions. Please read “Should Programs Have Referral Commissions? Should Programs Go Private?“, an article that I wrote in April 2006.
JMO,
Sharon
Very interesting your viewpoint on TriStar Sharon. Personally I think you are a little bit sensitive and harsh on Bob . However this is only my perspective .
Coming back to the main issue of this discussion I would like to comment on the April 2006 posting. Very interesting and in general it is in line with my viewpoint:
QUOTE April 2006: The downside to referral commissions is that it allows for too many referral hounds and cheerleaders to blindly lead their downline to a program that is failing.[agree 100%/greed] BUT to promote a program[advertising] a 1-2% once off referral commission should be paid.
Once again thanks very very interesting postings.
Hi Jannie,
Your first post is one of the best I have seen so far. You have made a very good analysis on what is happening in AS world right now. Your writing reveals a lot about you. My hats off to you!
PS. Your comment regarding Tri-Star also tells me that you have actual personal wonderful Tri-star experience. I am with you!!