Big Fish Games Goes MLM

Big Fish Gamesone of the leading online casual game distributors, is tired of advertising on the Internet. They figure with the popularity of MySpace and other social networking sites, perhaps the way to go is just utilize its more than 3 million average users and pay them to help promote the service.

If you can get over the idea of making a little money off your friends a la Amway, you might actually be in for some extra income. Gamers can get credit for their referrals, a check in the mail or they can donate the money to one of five charities identified by Big Fish Games.

The move, a sort of multi-level marketing idea without the risks associated with those ventures, seems to play to people's already ingrained habit of talking up their favorite games. Big Fish says it surveyed its users and found 87 percent of them have recommended games to friends already. So why not reward them with a little extra cash as an incentive to keep doing the same, said Big Fish Games CEO Paul Thelen


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Company Press Release

Here is a summary of the pay plan:

RewardsWhen any person on your Friends List (a "Referral") makes a purchase at Big Fish Games using a credit card as their method of payment, you will get 25% of the total purchase (before shipping and handling and taxes) added to your Reward Balance. When one of your Referrals joins the program, the people on their Friends List are considered to be part of your "Friends Network") and you will earn a share of any Reward Balance that your Referral earns. The amount you earn depends on the degree of separation between you and the purchaser:


You earn 25% of each purchase made by your Referrals.
A 2nd degree Referral (your Referral's Referrals) earns you 6.25% [or 25% of 25%] of the purchase.
A 3rd degree referral earns you 1.56% [or 25% of 25% of 25%] of the purchases ... and so on.