Yeah, I expect that a financial incentive would get more signups, and I even think that no incentive might be better than giving out stickers and other little trinkets.
But what I would actually want are better non-financial incentives. Instead of starting with a sticker and needing 10 referrals to get a t-shirt, 10x the quality of the prizes and have them start at a t-shirt. The prizes are so trivial now that if you think referrals are very valuable, this adds a negligible cost to the program.
Yeah, I expect that a financial incentive would get more signups, and I even think that no incentive might be better than giving out stickers and other little trinkets.
But what I would actually want are better non-financial incentives. Instead of starting with a sticker and needing 10 referrals to get a t-shirt, 10x the quality of the prizes and have them start at a t-shirt. The prizes are so trivial now that if you think referrals are very valuable, this adds a negligible cost to the program.