9 Free-to-You Rewards to use in Your Substack Referral Program

Getting ready to build your first Substack referral program

Getting ready to build your first Substack referral program?

Here’s 9 free-to-you rewards to offer:

1. Ebook or Digital Products
   An e-book or online guide can be a great incentive for your subscribers to refer their friends to your newsletter. Make sure the info you provide in the digital product is valuable to your target audience, and not available for free on other channels.
   Example: "Get access to my 2022 stock watchlist - 5 Referrals".

2. Access to a Group or Club
   Online communities like Facebook groups, Discord channels, or Telegram groups are great for building a community around your niche, and connecting with your readers. Requiring your community members to refer their friends to your newsletter will bring in higher quality members to your community, and grow your subscriber list at the same time.
   Example: "Get access to my real estate investing community Discord - 10 Referrals"

3. 30 Minute Phone Call or Consultation
   If you are known as an expert in your niche, this reward can be very valuable to your readers. Offer a 15 or 30 min call to discuss whatever your reader would like to ask you about.
   Example: "Get a free 30-min consultation with me to review any real estate deal - 15 Referrals"

4. Access to Your Paid Newsletter
   If you run a free newsletter along with a paid version, this reward is a no-brainer. Offer your subscribers 1-month access to your paid newsletter for referring their friends. If the subscriber finds your paid content valuable, they may just convert to a paid subscriber after the free 1-month.
   Example: "Get 1 month access to my paid newsletter - 5 Referrals"

5. Custom Video Shoutout
   Would your subscribers be excited to get a personalized video shoutout from you? If so, this could be a great reward to offer. Check out cameo.com for inspiration.
   Example: "Get a personalized video shoutout from our writers - 20 Referrals"

6. Write a Post on Their Topic of Choice
   Offer to write a newsletter on any topic of their choice. This will work great if your subscribers are interested in your opinions or insights of a specific topic, and can also give you a new idea to write about.
   Example: "I'll write a post on any topic of your choice - 25 Referrals."

7. A Guest Post on Your Newsletter
   Allow one of your subscribers to write a guest post on your newsletter. This would be extremely valuable to a subscriber that would like to share their writing with your audience.
   Example: "Write a guest post on my Substack - 30 Referrals."

8. Free Advertisement in Your Newsletter
   Offering a free advertisement in your newsletter is a great reward for subscribers that would like to advertise to your target audience. If you're already getting paid to run ads in your newsletter, you know how much an ad is worth.
   Example: "Get a free ad in the newsletter - 20 Referrals."

9. Tokens in Your Newsletter
   This may be the most complicated reward, but arguably one of the coolest. You can tokenize your newsletter, and offer tokens (or shares) to subscribers that refer new subscribers. Refind.com is currently doing this by offering 20 tokens to anyone that refers a new subscriber and they plan to buy back the tokens once they become profitable.
   Example: "Earn 10 tokens in our newsletter - 10 Referrals"