The person promoting for you: doing a favour, in it for money, or in it for the long haul

What this is

One of our published methods, written in plain language: what it can do, when to use it, what goes in and what comes out.

Why it matters

Most methods are published as papers or code. This one is written so you can decide whether it fits your problem before you invest time in it.

How to use it

Read the page top to bottom. If it matches your question, use the online tool - or subscribe and run it on your own data.

What you get

A clear answer on what the method does and does not do, plus a live curve from our own demand series. Free to read.

Free to readOnline tools from $5 per runSee it →

Demand curve read by this method — A live reading from our own demand series - the shape of the signal this method works on. 570 industries are tracked daily; this is one of them.

Data base: InfoGap own records - 391 Chinese cities x 8 dimensions, 213,208 city-industry rows, 40,499 POIs (central / lifechain, 2026-10-08).

Algorithm Handbook · one algorithm per page · no jargon anywhere · formal name: motivation level

1In one sentence: what it does

Count how many people someone has brought you, and you know which tier they sit on now, what they earn, and how far the next tier is.

2When you use it

Three situations where it helps:

Someone shared your link and you cannot tell whether it was a favour on the way past or something they mean to do long term.

What most people do: say thank you, and nothing comes of it.

Use it: look at how many people they brought in. 3 people is one tier, 0 people is another — the two kinds of people have to be handled in two different ways.

You want to motivate a group of people who promote for you, but you do not know what to motivate them with.

What most people do: give everyone exactly the same reward.

Use it: first see which tier each person is on. Give the lower tiers "a small goal they can reach", and give the higher tiers "a long-term share".

You promote other people's things too, and you want to know where you stand.

What most people do: work out how much money they have taken.

Use it: see how far you are from the next tier — being 0.33 short and 0.9 short are completely different mindsets and playbooks.

3What you put in · what comes out

Input (this is the exact set used for the real run)

· How many people they brought you: 3
· Their name (for the record): an overseas Chinese user taking part in the trial

What comes out

These are the numbers it produced on the spot, not a single character changed:

Their tier now: T1 — altruistic sharing (the "help out on the way past and share while you are at it" tier)
What they earn: seventy per cent (lifetime share)
What they have now: an ordinary promoter badge, 5 reward points each
The next tier: T3 — incentive-driven
How far from the next tier: 0.33 (a third of the way)

—— change "brought 3 people" to 0 ——
Tier drops to T0 — bystander
What they earn: no share
Next tier: T1 altruistic sharing, progress 0

How to read it: look at two things — the tier they are on now, and how far they are from the next tier. Being 0.33 short means a few more people brought in and they jump up a tier; that is the moment to tell them how far short they are, not to add money. It also separates "helping out on the way past" and "doing it for the money" into two different tiers, and those two kinds of people expect completely different things: do not talk money with the first kind, and with the second kind you have to be crystal clear about the money.

📈One chart: which tier they stand on right now

Which tier the people promoting for you are on, and how far the next tier is.

4How to use it

There is no public calculator for this yet — the method above is the whole procedure; on this site the inputs have to be keyed in by hand.

The input is the single item "how many people they brought in". There is no page or form for it here: the rule above is the whole method, and the count has to be looked up by hand.

Count how many people this person has brought you in total
Put that count into the rule above
Read the tier, what they can earn, and how far the next tier is
Change the number and work it out again to see how the tier moves

5Who it is for

People with a distribution or referral system; anyone who has to manage a group of promoters; anyone promoting for others who wants to know where they stand.

6Common questions

Q: How many tiers are there in total?

A: Four: T0 bystander (has a look and leaves), T1 shares on the way past, T3 promotes for money, T7 treats it as a career. The more people brought in, the higher the tier and the higher the percentage they take.

Q: Why is 3 people T1?

A: That is simply how the threshold is set: the number of people brought in puts you in the matching tier. So this algorithm does not judge character, it only counts people.

Q: Who sets the share percentages?

A: The rule written into the algorithm is "the promoter takes seventy per cent, the platform takes thirty per cent". Whether you can actually split it that way depends on how you design it yourself — do not copy it as it stands.

7Related algorithms

k-factor · one number that shows whether it spreads on its own business-seven-layers · seven-layer full picture score demand-verify · is anyone really asking for it ← All algorithms Handbook index

✓Why this scenario exists (where the content comes from)

This scenario comes from the records of the "algorithm meets demand" round: the AI outfit-swap selling point was run against several algorithms, and this one was judged useful, on the grounds that "brings 3 people → T1 altruistic sharing, seventy per cent lifetime share, next-tier progress 0.33. Can be hung straight onto a promoter back office".

The input and output above are what you get by re-running the set of numbers in that record: brings 3 people → T1, seventy per cent, progress 0.33; the control case with 0 people → T0, no share.

Source: the D9 entry in the pairing ledger (the demand came from selling-point copy produced by the avatar engine).