Do you have a strategic partner program for people who are willing and able to be serious advocates of your product? Something that would take your products from being something they recommend here & there to being a product they proactive market & drive into their marketplace/sphere of influence.

What do I have in mind? A plan that might allow me (and your many other fans) to build a passive residual income. I’m a reseller for 2 other services that offer similar strategic partnerships and one offers up to 30% of residuals and the other offers 40% of residuals.

Even though I am starting to fall in love with your products (mainly BaseCamp for now), the existing one-time compensation doesn’t excite me. Residual passive income excites me :D. Make it worth their while and you might find a giant sales force in your own customer base… starting with me.

Melvin: Log into your account, click the Account tab, click the “Affiliate Program” link. That’s what we currently have in place.

I would be interested in an affiliate program where I got paid instead of just getting credits, especially if it has residual income.

I’ve seen that. And it’s good for affiliates. However, I’m looking for more of a strategic partner program which isn’t just a one time token appreciation. I’m looking for something I could build $10k/month passive residual income… if I drove $30k/month of business your way type of program. That’s what I’m working towards with a few of my other partnering companies.

You could start a Basecamp/Highrise/Campfire/Backpack consulting service where you help people set up their accounts, train them on how to use them, etc. They’re all pretty simple, but we’ve heard from a good bunch of people who would love to have someone come out for a day and show them how everything works. There are definitely some good training opportunities out there for enterprising entrepreneurs.

Noooooooo… Jason. Passive residual income. PASSIVE. RESIDUAL. :D

I know it’s not in place yet. I’m asking you (37 signals) to seriously think about this.

You’ll be getting peoples focus when it comes to marketing your stuff. Not just a “hey, check this out” but more of a “hey, i’m hold a webinar on how to use this amazing project management tool called BaseCamp. What are you doing Tuesday at 3pm?”

Proactive marketing of your products by people who are passionate users… and allows them to share in the on going revenue. That’s what I’m asking for. Make it happen, will ya. :D

I agree with Melvin. I’d like to see a way to make some commissions on referring you customers.

I also agree with Melvin,

I’m in the process of developing an app revolving around
small businesses that I’d love to steer in 37Signals direction
for all their project management needs. But if I only get
credit for my own account then there’s really not a whole
lot of upside for me to do that.

I think there’s something to the ideas expressed here, Jason.
Pondering our own TrailGuide product, which relies in an integral way upon Basecamp, yet can extend the Basecamp experience, features and functionality beyond the confines of the desktop browser experience into the world where mobile knowledge workers are experiencing their projects first hand, calls for a different model than ‘credit for our internal use of Basecamp’ methinks.

As successful as Basecamp has been with you gathering all visibility directly, would not having a broader channel bring greater leverage still to the ecosystem being created? And if the worry is undue complexity of relationships/management/etc. I have no doubt there are plenty of solutions in that arena, too.

I’d raise my vote to see this topic discussed in greater depth at the first “Basecamp partner summit.” :)

There are plenty of possible models to create an incentive for people to spread the word about Basecamp. We’ve explored many ideas and have many ideas, but we don’t comment on future plans.

Melvin, I have absolutely no idea how you have time to run your own company, post a million times a day to this forum, flirt with me (kidding), and then want to start a partner program with 37s. Are you a vampire? Do you sleep? Can you see your reflection?

But seriously, if you ever do pull anything like that together, it would be interesting to know what you do with it. I don’t have time for any new projects right now, I just took on a new client along with my other regular gigs (plus I need to leave time for drinking beer) but I’m extremely interested in technology tools for small businesses and a more than a little smitten with 37s so if you need a branch office marketing arm in Portland, let me know.

(You know I’m messing with you, I adore you, of course)

if you need a branch office marketing arm in Portland

UK office ready and waiting here!

Vietnam office ready and waiting here, too :-) !