Since the start of the Prosper Referral Program, in the beginning on June, I have been trying to generate referrals. You are paid 50 basis points for a borrower and $25 for a lender (the lender also recieves $25).
I have tested a number of strategies and have a number of other ideas… I am interested in my readers opinions and their thoughts.
Ideas that have worked (although most of my readers are already members):
Ideas that have worked but have an unknown cost effectiveness and I have a limited knowledge of the tricks of the trade:
- Goggle Adwords
Ideas that have worked but have a limited scope:
- Emails to friends/family
Ideas that worked a little and might yet work:
Ideas I havn’t tried yet:
- Craigslist
- Yelp
- Yahoo Answers
- Yahoo Paid Search
- Ask.com Paid Search
- MSN Paid Search
- Any Random Internet Forum
Anybody have any other ideas? Any success stories?
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3 comments ↓
My brother and I created a Prosper blog. While the primary purpose is not referrals and most people are already Prosper members we did include some referral links and had one person sign up so far as a referral. I also got one referral who is a family member in addition to my wife who signed up and loaned out $50. I think in general it is difficult to obtain referrals because it is a difficult process. First, they must sign up, get their identity verified, get their bank account verified, transfer money (which could take up to a week), bid on a loan, win the bid for the loan, have the loan complete the verification process so that it is fully funded. All of this has to be completed within 90 days, and I think there is a lot of attrition at each step in the process. Not trying to discourage anyone, but just trying to be realistic about the process.
I thought about using Google Adwords. I have some experience and have managed thousands of dollars worth of Google Adword campaigns. Ultimately I decided that it not likely to be worth the money spent. Let’s assume that you spend the very minimum for each click - 5 cents. To break even, 1 out of every five hundred that click on your ad have to sign up and complete the process as Matt described above. I think that you are unlikely to get conversion rates that high. In addition, it’s going to be difficult to keep costs to 5 cents an ad in the competative loan ad market. I know that nonattender is running some googleads though and after the first week he was a referral leader - #2 I think. It would be interesting to see what his results have been and how much he has spent in the process.
Have you considered buying lists. There are a numerous companies out there who produce lists for every type of business, consumer lists etc. You have to work out what type of individual or business do I need to target then contact one of these companies to see if they do a list for the area you are looking for. That way yes you have to pay but you are getting targeted people to contact. Hope this helps. Google adwords can be expensive if you don’t convert click through’s to sales.
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