We recently hired a new Marketing Manager (Jay) and as part of his review of our processes, he took a look at the Affiliate program and the "refer-a-friend" scheme. Both programs help you earn a commission by referring people to Jigsaw. He found that both were in need of an update, so here's the changes for both existing referrers and those looking to jump on board and start getting paid by Jigsaw.

Apart from the fact they haven't changed for ages, these are the things Jay felt we should address:

• Like most affiliate systems, ours is based on cookies. Since the enactment of the European GDPR, you'll have noticed that almost all websites have a pop up window that allows you to switch off cookies. Switching off cookies also switches off affiliate tracking. That means affiliates might not get compensated for every sale.
• There's a growing number of people that have audiences but no website. People on Discord, YouTube, Instagram and the like. So we have expanded the range of pages you can send them to.
• The refer a friend program is clunky and we want to funnel people to the Affiliate program.

Long term, we'd like all referrers using the affiliate system, it has reports you can use to track clicks and conversions. It's easier to use and once it's set up - there's nothing for you to do. The Refer-a-friend is based on you typing in an email address of the person you are signing up each time. That's clunky and the reporting simply isn't that good. It doesn't really matter which you use - from our perspective, it's just 2 different options on our member's system.

Just 2 different ways to earn a commission from your recommendation.

But, isn't that evil?

There is a common belief that a recommendation is tainted if you get paid to make it. That you can only be pure of heart if you recommend things for free. I feel it's a bit more nuanced than that.

• Honest recommendations are those where the product has value to the person you are recommending it to.
• On the other side, people take recommendations from people they trust, it makes purchasing decisions less risky. The recommendation itself is of value to them from a risk-perspective too.
• The company whose products you are recommending gets value, revenues they might not have otherwise earned.
• If you recommend products of no value, your reputation will suffer as will your relationship with the person you recommended to.

So - you take time, you take some risk. The company and the new customer get value - and it's fair that you should be rewarded for the value you provided. That's business in a nutshell - a fair exchange of value.

Our take is that you should be rewarded - it's basic risk:reward. Most business people start out with the "money for recommendations is bad" and it's one of many reasons they end up working 16 hours a day, treading water to go nowhere. 

So - it's not evil, and we would LOVE to be paying you lots of commissions - but please don't tell people the software will give them a foot rub in the morning!

Almost all affiliate systems are based on cookies and you won't get credit if they are off, which is more likely now that GDPR regulations forced all websites to offer the option to switch cookies off.  We have a solution for that; you'll use a coupon code which ensures you get the credit but you can still use cookie-based links as that drives the reports. You can choose which type of affiliate you want to be - cookie-based or coupon/cookie-based. 

Finally, we are expanding the list of pages you can send people to from the Affiliate System, this is simply because people coming from YouTube or Discord simply might need different information when they first hit our site.

There is no special requirement to become an affiliate, other than you need to own the product. We do not want people recommending Jigsaw if they don't use it. That seems a recipe for disaster all round. You don't need to be a company or have a website - but you will need people's trust.

For details on the affiliate system, how it works, how to sign up - click here.