This is just to share what I discovered. I asked the Istock support this question:
A friend of mine - designer - wanted to buy some photos from Istock. I personally created an account for him less than 14 days ago, using my referral code. I did it from the pc that never opened istock page. I created the account (karolskolar) according all the guided steps. Today he wrote me that he bought first photo. But I cannot see anything in my referral earnings.
The answer was:
The referrals that come from site badges and/or moo cards require that the user sign up from the page the link sends them too. This will usually be your profile page, if they navigate elsewhere prior to signing up you will not receive the referral.
I replied that in their info on the account page is written: "
However, you can also create custom referral URLs that link to any iStockphoto page. Simply add refnum=Yourmemberprofilenamehere to any URL and replace the 'href' parameter in the HTML code provided below.". Then I asked if that means that if I use
http://istockphoto.com/index.php?refnum=Yourmemberprofilenamehere whether am I safe with the obstacles.
The answer was:
That is correct, and yes the referral program is very convoluted. Generally I get people to make their link go directly to the sing up page, gives you the best turn over. If you want to be sure the get your referrals use the refer a fired and not the site badges.
This is really something that makes me angry, because it means that due to their idiot system I publish ads for them, send them clients without even one cent as a reward ...
Maros
