Multiple Questions Regarding DIY Referral program

Some questions about how to do a referral program with payouts

[jovato]

I am starting a web forum and I would like to charge a one time fee of $15.00 to join. From that I would like to pay out $5.00 to the person that referred the new user. I have a credit card processor and a payment gateway but I have some questions:

Is there any type of web service that will handle the referrals and payouts for me? What would you call this type of service? Would it be affiliate management?

Is anyone doing this on their own? That is, handling all of the referral payout management and cutting checks all by themselves. I have been mapping this out, and there is a lot that goes into it. If you are doing it by yourself how are you paying out? Are you using quick books?

My ideal solution would be to use a third party that would handle the payouts for me, using an API during sign up, keeping things branded for my site and allowing me to use my payment gateway, but I am not sure this exists.

Is anyone doing payouts for new users? How are you doing it?

I appreciate your help.

[markwelch]

You're selling subscriptions to a web site; you want to pay a commission. That's very "ordinary" affiliate marketing, and could be handled through either a direct affiliate program or (probably more successfully) through an affiliate network. If you use a third-party network, you'd need to set up a conversion-tracking code on your "thank-you" page (to pass back the sale data to the affiliate network). It's extremely easy, but with most networks there is a setup fee (for example, $250 setup plus $100 minimum deposit against commissions at SAS).