comma.ai Affiliate Program

2 minute read

omg it’s sales and marketing

(Note: This program has been sunsetted as planned. Thanks to all that participated!)

Rewarding the right people

Since the start of the comma.ai community, we’ve seen incredible value added by our users. The affiliate program is a way for users to earn money from that value creation.

VirtuallyChris has made videos showcasing openpilot!
Joshua has made medium posts helping users get started!
And openpilot itself has gotten tons of community contributions

The problem with marketing

The e-mails come. They promise you seven times industry metrics over average responses in your sector. They claim eyeballs in coveted demographics, valuable age ranges, and targeting beating AdWords, the Disney Channel, and Microsoft Azure. Combined for hyperlocal growth hacking. Business messaging on par with your brand identity, big data internet of things based tracking using IOTA, and high signal actionable analytics.

This passive language really grinds my gearsAnd they understand you are a busy person, but they just want to get on your calendar for a quick intro call. I’d rather go to the dentist.

This is garbage

These people haven’t spent 10 minutes to understand our brand. I don’t think they could if they tried. They have sent the same spam to everybody. They track metrics that can’t begin to measure quality. And they expect me to pay them upfront and trust that they can sell our products.

There has to be a better way.

How the program works

As far as affiliate programs go, we want to be generous. We want to encourage the comma.ai ecosystem.

  • Have people click your custom affiliate link and make orders.
  • 15% of order subtotal is paid out to you. If someone clicks your link and buys an EON, panda, and Giraffe, you get $143.70. That’s over $100!
  • Cookie based tracking, so if the user purchases within 3 days of clicking your link (assuming they didn’t click someone else’s!), you get credit for the sale.
  • Payout by Bank Transfer, PayPal, or Bitcoin. Minimum $500 before payout. This is an experiment. We’ll keep it running through September and October, and reevaluate its success at that point.

It’s the community that gives comma a lot of its value. This is one way we can promote growth in an incentives aligned way. Friends bring in friends!

How to get started

E-mail affiliate at our website with your slack username and a request to join. If accepted, we’ll send you a link. Currently we are only accepting requests from people who have been inside our community for a bit. No link spammers! And no mobbing the new slack users!

And always (for everyone)

  1. Join our slack
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. And of course, buy things through my affiliate link!

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