Blog PostSharingMarch 12, 2026Updated Apr 29, 20268 min read
The Do's and Don'ts of Referral Etiquette
Unwritten rules that separate helpful referral sharing from spammy behaviour.
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Unwritten rules that separate helpful referral sharing from spammy behaviour.
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Referral programmes are built on trust. Someone clicks your link because they believe you are sharing something genuinely useful, not because you managed to put it in front of them enough times. The line between helpful sharing and spammy behaviour is not always obvious, but getting it wrong can burn relationships, damage your reputation, and get you banned from platforms.
Here are the unwritten rules that separate the people who earn consistently from the ones everyone has muted.
If a link is a referral link, say so. This is not optional — it is both an ethical baseline and, in many jurisdictions, a legal requirement. People are not stupid. They know referral programmes exist, and most are perfectly happy to use your link if they understand the deal.
"Here is my referral link for Monzo — we both get £5 if you sign up and make a payment" is honest and effective. Disguising a referral link as a regular recommendation and hoping nobody notices is the fastest way to lose trust.
A referral works best when it is framed around what the other person gets, not what you get. Lead with their reward, their benefit, their saving. Your incentive is secondary — and most people will assume it exists anyway.
"You will get £50 credit on your first energy bill" is compelling. "I get £50 if you switch" is not. Same programme, completely different framing.
A referral link with zero context is just a URL. A referral link accompanied by a genuine explanation of why you use the product and what you like about it is a recommendation. The difference in conversion is enormous.
You do not need to write an essay. A few sentences about your experience — what you use the product for, how long you have had it, what stands out — transforms a cold link into a warm endorsement.
If someone says they are not interested, that is the end of the conversation. Do not follow up. Do not try a different angle. Do not bring it up again next week. Pushing past a "no" is the single most damaging thing you can do to a relationship over a referral bonus.
This applies online too. If a group or forum has rules about referral sharing, follow them. If a post asking for recommendations already has responses, do not hijack it to push your link. Read the room.
Sharing a referral with outdated terms — wrong reward amount, expired conditions, discontinued programme — wastes people's time and damages your credibility. Check your active referrals periodically and update or remove anything that has changed.
On EasyEarns, keeping your submissions current is especially important because the voting system means outdated information can actively harm your reputation. A submission that promises £100 when the reward has dropped to £25 will earn downvotes and erode trust.
If you earn £50 and the person clicking earns £5, do not describe it as "we both benefit." State the actual amounts. People can decide for themselves whether the split is fair, and most will still use your link if the product is genuinely worth signing up for.
Hiding an asymmetric reward structure is a form of dishonesty that people remember. It is not worth the risk.
This is the cardinal sin of referral sharing, and it is depressingly common. Posting your referral links in Facebook groups, Reddit threads, Twitter replies, Discord servers, and blog comment sections without context or invitation is spam. Full stop.
It does not matter that you think the offer is genuinely good. Uninvited, untargeted link-dropping irritates people, gets you removed from communities, and gives referral sharing a bad name for everyone else.
The scenario: Someone asks in a group chat whether anyone has experience with a particular bank. You respond with your referral link, a brief explanation of the reward, and a note about your experience with the bank. That is helpful. Posting your link in the same group unprompted every few days is not.
"Come on, just sign up, it takes two minutes." "You are leaving free money on the table." "I only need one more referral to hit my bonus." These are all forms of pressure, and they make people uncomfortable.
Referral sharing should be offer-and-forget. Present the opportunity, make the benefit clear, and leave the decision entirely with the other person. If they want to use it, they will. If they do not, respect that.
Exaggerating rewards, omitting conditions, or implying a programme is something it is not are all forms of deception that will catch up with you.
Real-world example: Describing a programme as "free money, no strings attached" when it requires a £500 minimum deposit and three active direct debits is misleading. The person who signs up expecting effortless cash and then discovers the requirements will feel duped — and rightly so.
Always present the full picture. People can handle conditions and caveats. What they cannot handle is feeling tricked.
Before sharing a referral, verify that the link works and the offer is still active. Sending someone to a dead page or an expired promotion is a waste of their time and reflects poorly on you.
This is particularly important on platforms like EasyEarns where your submissions remain visible for months. A referral you posted six months ago might still be attracting clicks — make sure it still leads somewhere useful.
Some people think they are clever by creating multiple accounts to refer themselves, inflate their stats, or game voting systems. Platforms detect this. It results in bans, and it undermines the trust that makes referral marketplaces work for everyone.
On EasyEarns, the community benefits from honest participation. Gaming the system does not just risk your account — it degrades the experience for every other user.
This is less about platform rules and more about social awareness. If every conversation, every social media post, and every group interaction is an attempt to share a referral link, people will start avoiding you. Referral sharing should be a small part of how you interact with others, not the entirety of it.
EasyEarns is designed to reward the behaviours described in the "do's" and penalise the ones in the "don'ts." Here is how that works in practice.
Voting reflects quality. Submissions that are honest, well-written, and accurate earn upvotes. Those that are misleading, low-effort, or outdated earn downvotes. Over time, your voting score becomes a proxy for your trustworthiness on the platform.
Visibility follows reputation. Higher-rated submissions appear more prominently. This means that consistently good behaviour — accurate descriptions, current offers, transparent conditions — directly translates into more visibility and more referral earnings.
Community trust compounds. When someone uses your referral, has a positive experience, and sees that your description matched reality, they are more likely to use your referrals again in the future. A reputation for honesty is the most valuable asset you can build on a referral platform.
Bad behaviour has consequences. Reported submissions, pattern-detected spam, and community downvotes all reduce your visibility. In serious cases, accounts can be restricted or banned. The system is designed to surface the best contributions and suppress the worst.
If you would not send it to a close friend in exactly the way you have written it, do not post it publicly. Referral sharing at its best is indistinguishable from a genuine recommendation between people who trust each other. At its worst, it is indistinguishable from spam.
Choose which side you want to be on, and act accordingly. Your reputation — and your referral earnings — will reflect that choice over time.
For practical advice on making your referral submissions stand out for the right reasons, read our guide on writing submissions that get clicks. And if you are just getting started with referral earning, our beginner's guide to passive income through referrals covers the fundamentals.
