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Associate Programs Newsletter #563

An unusual, new rewards affiliate network called Yub has been launched with $12 million in funding.

Based in Mountain View, California, it’s being promoted as the “world’s first offline affiliate network”.

But Yub isn’t offline – it’s the stores that are offline. It aims to drive website visitors to bricks and mortar stores to spend money and earn rewards.

Here’s how it works…

A store has a special offer it wants to promote, for example, “Get $2 in your account when you spend $5 at Pete’s Coffee”. (Other examples include loyalty points, gift cards, extra airline miles, or donations to a charity.)

No coupon is required.

Affiliates choose from the offers available and place them on their website.

The main idea is for the store to make the offer so enticing that the website visitor is willing to hand over their credit card number.

The customer goes to Pete’s Coffee store and uses their credit card to buy a coffee. The sale is tracked and a $2 reward – or whatever – is placed in the customer’s account.

Naturally, the affiliate earns a commission.

Yub, which is starting with 20 employees, promises affiliates exclusive deals and world class brands. We’ll see. They nearly all say that.

When I read that Yub is collecting credit card numbers, I wondered about security risks.

However, Yub CEO and co-founder Alex Rampell says Yub won’t track the expiration date, CVV code or billing zip code associated with each credit card. (“Since Yub is not directly using them to make any transactions, they’re not necessary,” the Wall Street Journal explains.)

Yub is testing things with a small number of merchants and expects to grow.

It’s only for U.S. credit and debit cards.

For affiliates, Yub looks easy to join.

“Currently we work with loyalty and points websites, coupon sites, cash back sites, game developers, and monetization providers. Yub offers are also perfect for your blog, YouTube channel, Facebook page, shopping site or any website at all!” the website says.

Yub even goes as far as saying, “Anyone can be an affiliate.”

However, the affiliate agreement says Yub won’t pay you until you’ve earned more than $100, so that should scare off plenty of affiliate newcomers.

Setting the mark at $100 seems a bit high to me. I guess they want experienced affiliates only.