I have a question about referrals, not fusioncash-related

[danmo783]

Like most of you, I use different GPT and survey websites. My question is about websites where you are referred by someone else who "gets 10%" of your earnings rather than just a bonus. So not FC and their program.

Say someone referred me to "whatever website" and they get 10% of my earnings. If my cashout is say, $30, then does that mean I have to make $33 and then get $3 subtracted or what? I understand the concept, but if you are referred and earning, then when you make money is it just displayed as less when you are completing a survey?

Let me be less confusing. Okay, so someone referred me to blahblahblah.com and they get 10% of my earnings. If I take 30 surveys worth 90 cents a piece, then does that mean the survey was actually worth 10% more ($1) than that and it just "shows up" as 90 cents on my screen? If the surveys were worth $1 a piece on my screen, does that mean they would have been $1.10 originally?

I have joined sites after being referred and I've never received a stupid message that says, "You've reached $30, now we're going to lower it by $3 to cover the 10% we owe to the person who referred you."

So in the simplest example I can make; if I watch a 1 cent video... I get 1 cent. I've never watched a video and then been told you earned .90 cents after watching the video (with .10 of the cent) being taken away.

Sorry this was long, but I wanted to be really detailed so I didn't get a vague answer. Thanks!

[gaylasue]

On sites that I have gotten referrals, what they make has never come out of my earnings.  Their earnings have always been in addition to what I earn.  My earnings has not come out of their account (to the best of my knowledge).  I don't think I have ever joined under someone else's referrals, though.

[danmo783]

See, that makes more sense to me. I don't want to refer people and start jacking 10% of their money just because I gave them the link. Sign-up bonuses make fair sense.

I do wonder why websites do not say, "We match 10% of their earnings to you!" instead of saying "you earn 10% of what they earn." It seems completely unethical to lure in a referral, when they could get all 100% of their earnings, by just removing the end of the link with your referral ID.

A 10% commission match sounds completely ethical, however.

I know for a fact that MLM websites DO TAKE 10% of your money and hand it to the person above you, which is why they are shady, barely legal scams.

[lvstephanie]

The GPT sites would still have to make money on their offers, so if they offer a bonus based on a person's referrals, they would have to somehow cover the cost of those bonuses. For the most part, this is all baked into the program. So using your survey example, if the GPT site gets $1 from the survey site, they may claim that the survey is worth 90-cents to take the survey, "secretly" taking 10-cents to pay for any bonuses. However when they bake in those costs, they do so to everyone for the same amount. So whether a person is a referral for someone else or joined the site without being referred, they will make the same money. If the site take 10-cents out of every $1 survey they offer, they do so regardless of whether that 10-cents will help pay the person that referred the survey taker or if the money will be used for some other person's referrer.

[UGetPaid]

Yes, I think that the last poster hits it right on the head.  As for specifics, I use another popular PTC/GTP site and have several referrals, one of them being my mom, so I am able to directly check with her and her earnings.  Different ad clicks earn me .1¢ .5¢ 1¢ or 2¢ based on how long the ad is displayed.  My mother can click those same ad categories and she also earns the full .1¢ .5¢ 1¢ or 2¢ amounts.  I then get a fixed % of everything she earns -- neither her nor my earnings are decreased in any way to account for that extra bonus that goes into my account.

I can't speak for ALL of the PTC/GPT sites out there, but I think this is fairly standard procedure for the legitimate ones.

[countrygirl12]

Like most of you, I use different GPT and survey websites. My question is about websites where you are referred by someone else who "gets 10%" of your earnings rather than just a bonus. So not FC and their program.

Say someone referred me to "whatever website" and they get 10% of my earnings. If my cashout is say, $30, then does that mean I have to make $33 and then get $3 subtracted or what? I understand the concept, but if you are referred and earning, then when you make money is it just displayed as less when you are completing a survey?

Let me be less confusing. Okay, so someone referred me to blahblahblah.com and they get 10% of my earnings. If I take 30 surveys worth 90 cents a piece, then does that mean the survey was actually worth 10% more ($1) than that and it just "shows up" as 90 cents on my screen? If the surveys were worth $1 a piece on my screen, does that mean they would have been $1.10 originally?

I have joined sites after being referred and I've never received a stupid message that says, "You've reached $30, now we're going to lower it by $3 to cover the 10% we owe to the person who referred you."

So in the simplest example I can make; if I watch a 1 cent video... I get 1 cent. I've never watched a video and then been told you earned .90 cents after watching the video (with .10 of the cent) being taken away.

Sorry this was long, but I wanted to be really detailed so I didn't get a vague answer. Thanks!

They do not get 10% of YOUR earnings.  You keep all your money.  If say you earn $100 then they get a $10 bonus and that money does NOT come out of your money.

[countrygirl12]

See, that makes more sense to me. I don't want to refer people and start jacking 10% of their money just because I gave them the link. Sign-up bonuses make fair sense.

I do wonder why websites do not say, "We match 10% of their earnings to you!" instead of saying "you earn 10% of what they earn." It seems completely unethical to lure in a referral, when they could get all 100% of their earnings, by just removing the end of the link with your referral ID.

A 10% commission match sounds completely ethical, however.

I know for a fact that MLM websites DO TAKE 10% of your money and hand it to the person above you, which is why they are shady, barely legal scams.

Not being smart but because most people understand what they are meaning.  There are pyramid sites that work like what you are saying but you usually know that is how it works.

[danmo783]

Thanks you everyone, I now understand it all! Okay I see how it works. Before I started GPT and survey sites, I was 100% skeptical and all. Since January I've been studying the ropes and I see how it works now. You have all enlightened me to how the referrals work.

Legit sites do as you say and those MLM sites... well they are pyramid schemes and that's most likely why they collect 10,000 referrals for themselves and disappear one day with all the money and a page that suddenly does not exist.

I gave you all karma! Thanks again for explaining how the system works. I was very confused and didn't want to start collecting earnings from my friends without telling them. I believe in business ETHICS!

Thanks you all so much!!