Stacky Speaks - Sprinkles Are for Leaders
Use referrals to grow your community & earn rewards - the easiest $5 you'll ever make
Credit: Stacky, rubber stamp creation of , who has given the Stacky Speaks series his stamp of approval
Did you know that many authors reward readers who share their work, in the form of free ‘paid’ subscription months or other bling? Waitaminute! Did I just say you can get paid to read and share? Yes, yes I did. And the referral program does NOT require you to have a paywall turned on! What the?!
I recently began receiving comp’d subscription months from some of the authors I read because any time I enjoy something, anything, I tend to like it, restack it, and share it. Those who have been around a bit understand how this practice grows community.
Did you know that hitting the ❤️ icon above or below, and sharing this post makes it easier for people to find Stacky Speaks?
When someone reads what I share and subscribes to that author, I get credit for directing that someone to that author. An email is generated at the threshold for which each reward is unlocked. Here is an example.
This was sent to me when I earned my first reward. Notice the button to View Leaderboard. When you visit, you see the below image.
In the case of
I earned the tier 1 reward, one month of complimentary paid subscription, as soon as I referred 2 readers who subscribed.Interestingly you might appear as ‘anonymous reader’ on a leaderboard - see number “1.” in that image, with 36 referrals! On your first visit to said leaderboard, you will have the option to change this to public, which shows your name. Why wouldn’t you grab the free advertising for yourself by including your name, if you’re also a writer on substack?
Most share-like activity on substack counts towards referral bonuses. According to
Subscriber Referrals (linked at the bottom of this post), there are a multitude of ways you can interact with an author’s work and earn rewards.Referrals are credited to subscribers who share your Substack and successfully help you collect a new subscriber in the following ways:
“Share” buttons on posts, both the default buttons and ones you add
“Refer a friend” button on a post
The unique share link subscribers can find on your leaderboard page
Restacking a post
Buying a gift subscription for a friend
New subscribers from gift referrals
Note: Paid publications have the option to offer gift subscriptions to paid subscribers as a further incentive to share with friends. Unlike subscriber referrals, gift subscriptions for paid subscribers offer an immediate perk (paid access for a limited time) for being referred by a friend. This feature can be turned on in one click from the referral section in settings.
The best thing I learned while researching referrals is that I too can start a referral program to reward others EVEN THOUGH I don’t have a paid subscription option yet. All I need to do is come up with a reward system that is valuable to my readers.
Please share what creative rewards you would appreciate, or which you are using in your own referral programs. The sky’s the limit, maybe, possibly.
****Referrals are NOT the same as Recommendations. For a short lesson about the POWER OF RECOMMENDATION blurbs, check out my prior Stacky Speaks post here.
Stacky Speaks: Substack Secrets Revealed
Credit: ‘Stacky’ is a rubber stamp character developed by Kent Peterson, who generously gave my idea for this feature his ‘stamp’ of approval.
To dive a bit deeper into the magic of referrals see this post, quoted above.
I've been thinking about this a lot but still haven't figured out what rewards could I offer, apart from perhaps introducing a custom character as the grand prize.