It would be great if Hubitat offered some sort of referral incentive for bringing people over to Hubitat. Maybe a credit to be used towards subscriptions, offering some sort of referral link we could give people to buy a hub on the Hubitat site?
I ask because I have convinced many people now to try Hubitat from the Reddit Smarthome subs. I really just like Hubitat, and there are often posts in those subs about people looking for a new hub to move to, so I enlighten them to the existence of Hubitat. I'm surprised how many people have never even heard of it. Mostly it is HA that everyone has heard about on those subs, but many people don't want to deal with HA, and they want a pre-built hub with radios.
Looks like another person is on the way today
I just like letting people know about Hubitat, but I have even been accused by people on Reddit of working for Hubitat, and people have asked how much I get for referrals. Some don't even believe I just really like the Hub and that I'm just trying to help people out.
I will still recommend Hubitat without any incentives, but I thought I would throw this idea out there as it may be something Hubitat would be interested in to help sell some hubs.
Thanks for your feedback and continued support. We have a referral program in the works, but I am not sure when it will go live. So until then, we could say "Sooner, rather than later?"
Since you mentioned the idea of a referral program, what would an incentive structure that appeals to you look like?
I mentioned credits towards existing subscriptions, or if the credits can compile somewhere, maybe they could just be applied and used towards any purchase from Hubitat, including for a new hub.
If when a subscription charge comes up, maybe just apply any earned credits to that charge automatically. Maybe an option to do that or not, in case someone wants to compile credits towards a new hub, as they may not even have any subscriptions.
Edit: Clearly there would need to be an incentive for people to use the referral, so they would need to get some percentage off a new hub by using the referral or they wouldn't bother.
I see your point, people can misuse referral links and spam sites with them. Maybe it needs to not be a link that can be used by anyone, but an email we can offer to send to an individual if they would like it, and then they can use that email to link to buying a hub.
The devil is in the details for how to offer this.
I am an Admin on another forum. I am constantly removing new users and posts who have a single goal of spreading their referral links as wide as possible. Most use bots and Ai bots. The Ai bots are showing up more and more. These bots join and pick a thread to post in and use Ai to use bits from the thread to make a seemingly relevant post. Then it starts posting links. Sometimes it will wait a few days We already rewrite Amazon links to strip referrals. Other spam is harder to automate. I do not wish to soil this brand with the the kind of behavior I see with other brands.
I think it's great you want to help. I recognize you. Good job. The community appreciates it I am sure.
Yes, yet another AI issue causing problems. Referral links are probably not the way to go these days, it would have to be directed to someone who wants to receive the referral offer.
If we were given discount codes we could send to people, and that code is tied to our accounts, that could be another way. Each code could only be used once. That way the code could be sent to people as a DM instead of having to ask for a person's email, which probably would not go over well. The individual codes would not be able to be used by the people who gives them out, they could only be used by a new user making their first hub purchase.
We have enough spam to deal with, so we came up with a way of combating that But the incentive needs to be worth the effort, and the benefits should feel genuine and valuable. Whether that’s discounts, exclusive perks, or something fun and unique, the goal is to make it rewarding enough that people want to participate—without turning it into noise.
Not sure if people are aware, but the new Aeotec SmartThings Hub 2 (V4) drops Zwave. I have a feeling this is going to start pushing people to see what they can move to if they want a new hub that still supports their Zwave devices. I'd be happy to send them in the Hubitat direction, Hubitat already has a lot of previous SmartThings users here, and I expect more to come from this, if they just knew Hubitat existed.
Agree the benefit should be genuine and valuable.
Valuable only to genuine user; not valuable to bots. Bots can presumably sell discounts on devices. I would think selling credits on subscriptions would be more problematic...
That's why having a hub id and a registered email address will be required step.
Selling subscriptions without a hub is definitely problematic as it doesn’t deliver any real value to anyone
But for hub owners who already enjoy the power of local processing and would like to share that experience with others, a free subscription might be (more) valuable and potentially a good incentive for helping others discover that same advantage
Might want to add a guideline like friend needs to be outside of your household otherwise crafty people will refer their spouse or their dog. Not sure you want to go to the effort of logging hub id's under the program...
But the incentive needs to be worth the effort, and the benefits should feel genuine and valuable. Whether that’s discounts, exclusive perks, or something fun and unique, the goal is to make it rewarding enough that people want to participate—without turning it into noise.
