I have an idea that looks bad unless you read the whole post, please do.

We give people trophies when they refer a friend to chess.com, but do nothing for them if that friend starts to pay. Why not give the referrer a little bonus to get their buddies to get a paying membership on this site.

Here's how erik, could make a bit more money. Every time one of the people you have referred signs up for a membership, you give the referrer a bonus membership, maybe 4 weeks of the same membership as the referree got. This would serve two purposes:

1. The referrer, if a nonmember, would see how great membership is, and then sign up for a year.

2. The referrer loves the membership, but says, well, if i sign up one person every month, then I will get a free membership as long as I can keep it up. This will work great on kids who dont have a way to pay as well. WOW, you just got yourself a free real life advertiser for your site. They get 12 people a year to sign up, and you take 100% of the profit. Ok, you write off the 50 cents that you lost by giving a free membership, but pocket the other 11.95 months of profit.

Worst comes to worst, Some people will jsut use the month, then go back to free and forget about it. But i think you might find some dedicated referal agents.

we already do this :)

Spread the Word

erik, some of the banners/widgets in that link still have the BETA-text in the logo!

ah, i see that they do...

ill edit the images for you. If you want. Let me know. It will save you some of your precious time.

very kind :) do send along and i'll replace.

ok, ill do it tonight.

I think that there could be a flaw when buying a referal as present. I referred my father and for his birthday I'll get him a subscription, perhaps the yearly one. So I'll pay for the sub, and get a free month? If i buy him the life membership what do I get? Hmmm.

He would have to pay in order for you to get the free time. As for the lifetime membership, those are no longer offered, sorry. :-(