Referrals settings
Streams Manager offers the ability for your users to refer other users to your service via word of mouth advertising. Referrals features offer the ability to keep your registrations closed to the public but still give ability for users to register via registration codes obtained from other users. Also, Streams Manager gives you the ability to offer your users referral bonuses that are automatically applied to the user making a referral once a new user who registered using a referral code/link, subscribes and pays.
Users can see their referral code on the My Account page.
Referral settings are as follows:
Allow registrations using referral codes - when turned ON, even if public registrations are disabled, a person can register on the site if they are given a referral code/link from another user who is already sharing one of your servers. Every user can see their referral code on the My Account panel. This will also allow you to track who referred someone.
Referral bonus enabled - indicates whether referral bonuses will be applied as new users subscribe using referral codes.
Bonus percentage - specifies the percentage of the payment to apply to the person making a referral. For example, if your bonus percentage is 20, a new user registers and subscribes using a referral code and pays $10 for a plan, then the person making the referral will get $2.
Bonus minimum amount - specifies the minimum amount a person making a referral will get. The system will apply the amount based on percentage or the bonus minimum amount whichever is greater.
Bonus maximum amount - specifies the maximum amount a person making a referral will get. The system will apply the amount based on percentage or the bonus maximum amount whichever is smaller.
How referral bonuses work
Referral bonuses are applied when a new user registers using a referral code/link from another user and then subscribes. The bonus amount is calculated based on the first payment made by the new user who is subscribing and only applied on the very first payment made by the new user (i.e. when a new subscription is being established). Bonus amount is calculated using a bonus percentage setting taking into account minimum and maximum allowed amounts. Final bonus amount is then credited towards the plan as it appears on the latest payment for the user making the referral. For the bonus to be applied, new user must be subscribing to a paid plan for the amount greater than zero and user making the referral must have an active payment with a plan.
For example, let's assume that you have set the bonus percentage to 50, minimum amount to $3 and maximum amount to $8. Let's also assume we have user A who is already a subscriber on a $10/mo plan which expires on Nov 15. User A shares their referral link with user B who is not a subscriber. User B registers using a referral link, logs in and select a $20 plan and pays for the subscription. As part of the subscription creation process, Streams Manager will calculate the bonus amount for user A as follows: $20 * 50% = $10. Since $10 is already more than the minimum amount of $3, nothing is changed. However, since $10 is greater than the maximum amount of $8, bonus amount is capped at $8. User A will get a referral payment created for $8 that will extend their subscription by 24 days to Dec 8. Next time user B makes a payment to extend their subscription, referral bonus will not be applied since it is only applicable on the very first payment a new user makes.
If a user making the referral is already on a recurring subscription through PayPal or Stripe, they will also get extra time added like in the example above. Once their next recurring payment gets synchronized, that payment will take effect after the referral bonus extension in essence giving them extra buffer should something happen to the recurring subscription and payment fails to process. Once that user cancel their recurring payment, the time extension will get utilized then.
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