Matt Marcin - Incentive Marketing

Which incentives to give?

Deciding which kind of incentive you want to offer to your users is a huge decision when starting an incentives site. There are pros and cons to each and I wanted to give you a run down of my experience.Cash IncentivesI started with creating Cash Incentive sites because it’s easy to attract users. People love the prospect of actual cash and are more likely to join because of it. Of course, there are many issues with offering cash incentives.The Cons with Cash Incentives

• Fraud: Once your site becomes known it will be targeted by people trying to defraud your offers for a quick buck. This comes in many shapes and forms from something as simple as signing up with fake information to using stolen credit cards and identities.
• Complaints: People are much more likely to complain about an offer not converting where there is an actual cash value tied to it. People participating in these sites are often penny pinchers and will send you many e-mail asking to see whats up with their pending earnings.
• Lack of Offers: Less and less advertisers are willing to accept traffic from Cash Incentive sites unless the owner can prove that traffic quality is high. As a new incentive marketer it was very difficult to gain this trust and can often take a year or more to make any ground.

The Pros to Cash Incentives

• User Attraction: Cash is king and most users prefer cash over a prize. This makes it easier to get new users.

Suggested Affiliate Networks for Cash Incentives

InstantDollarz
CPALead
CPAStorm

Yes, there really is only one Pro to Cash Incentives. Managing a site like this is tough and not for the faint of heart. Now we’ll look at Point Incentives. The idea is that users get “Points” for doing offers which can be redeemed for “Prizes”.Point IncentivesThe prizes that can be given out for Points is basically anything that isn’t cash. You can give away gift certificates, music downloads, an iPod, etc. As long as it isn’t actual cash in hand then it’s fine as far as your advertisers care.The Cons to Point Incentives

• Competition: There is a lot of competition in both cash and point incentives but it’s a lot harder to attract users when you only offer prizes.
• Keeping User Interest: Points are not something that people can find value in easily. You would need to find some way to remind people of the value of these wonderful points they are accumulating.

The Pros to Point Incentives

• Less Complaints: People are less attached to Points than Cash so you get less upset people.
• More Offers: Advertisers prefer Points over Cash incentives. You’ll get access to far more offers than you probably actually need.
• Much Less Fraud: Fraud sucks a lot because it hurts our bottom line. You will get much less fraud when giving away gift certificates and other prizes because potential fraudsters don’t think its worth the work for an Amazon gift certificate. Plus as a bonus they are scared by the fact that they could be tracked back.

Suggested Affiliate Networks for Point Incentives

InstantDollarz
MaxBounty
CPAStorm

Which is best?To be honest, it all depends on what you want to do. You need to look at what you want to personally work on. If you choose Cash Incentives be prepared to run a tight ship to combat fraud and deal with customer support. If you opt for Points, you need to work hard to gain users and provide a fun experience. If you are new to incentives I would try working on a Points based system because you will have a much easier time getting approved with affiliate networks.