Pay Bounties Only for Verified Active Users

Pay Bounties Only for Verified Active Users is a partnerships & affiliates tactic for getting your first users: Recruited outside growth hackers and affiliates and paid them per result, but only once a referred user crossed a real in-product engagement bar, not on raw signup.

It's a strong fit for Consumer / mobile apps teams, and works especially well for games and consumer apps with a clear engagement event. As a partnerships & affiliates play, plan for high effort and expect results to arrive at a steady pace, all grounded in 1 linked primary source.

Partnerships & affiliatesHigh effortMedium

Why does partnerships & affiliates work for this?

Tying money to proven activity instead of signups kills incentive fraud and only pays for users who actually stick.

The exact steps (5)

The full step-by-step this founder ran, what they posted, where, and in what order, plus the watch-outs, is part of the library.

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Sources

Frequently asked

What kind of products does the "Pay Bounties Only for Verified Active Users" tactic work for?
It is a good fit for Consumer / mobile apps — pick it when your product looks like that, since the play is shaped around how those users find new tools.
How is the "Pay Bounties Only for Verified Active Users" tactic verified?
It is drawn from 1 primary source — a real founder write-up or interview, not generic advice. It is linked in the Sources section above so you can read the original account yourself.
How much effort is it and how fast are results?
It is high effort, and results tend to be medium.
Where can I see the exact step-by-step?
The full step-by-step a founder ran, documented via Source — IndieHackers, is in the paid library.

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