Sorry to disappoint you. For teh sake of getting this out the door and in the hands of users we haven't built our a directory page yet but its in the works - we move fast. You can also request a specific product/reward here (not yet publicly linked on the site) http://refer.ly/business.php

But if you still want to delete your account just email support@refer.ly and we'll take care of that right away

I think the issue is more that without a directory your product is useless. How can I see when I'm going to get a reward if you don't tell me? I've signed up like the person you replied to and I've shortened 2 links, but there's no indication if I'm going to get a reward and if that's the case what incentive is there for me to use the link?

At the very least can there be a tick or cross next to the links to confirm whether or not your system supports it? The cynic inside of me wants to say that you don't actually have all these companies signed up, but I doubt you would lie so brazenly... although how you had the time to sign up thousands of retailers and no time to build the product into a usable state confuses me.

Hi, Referly's designer here. Yeah, those big huge brands really do have affiliate programs set up that we integrate with and it's an interesting design challenge you brought up, some way to indicate that a site's a recognized vendor in our program before you decide whether to share the link.

This is where I think it helps to throw an app out into the wild and see what sticks, because our idea was more that you could use it as a link shortener in general and that some portion of them would earn money. That wouldn't be the primary reason to share (it'd be to track your influence and show clickthrough rates) but it'd be a nice-to-have bonus if it did, right?

> although how you had the time to sign up thousands of retailers and no time to build the product into a usable state confuses me

They don't need to "sign up retailers", just join their existing affiliate programs. Affiliate networks like Commission Junction get them 1500 merchants and 62% of the top 500 retailers just by clicking some buttons. I'm sure you could establish relationships with the top affiliate programs fairly quickly while personally contacting very few of them. Now skim off some of the commission while paying the rest to your users as rewards, and you have a business.

Providing a check mark or some kind of validation as to whether or not a link is covered for rewards is a great idea, I've added that to the list of potential features.

I understand the cynicism - the entire affiliate world is pretty shady, which is why I'm so determined to disrupt it. We are using 3rd party services to help us get reach across top merchants online. Sounds like this part of the service needs more attention earlier than we thought - thank you.

Saying the entire affiliate world is shady is intellectually lazy. There are many areas of the industry that are very stable and mature.

Which areas are stable and mature? Countering a generalization with another generalization does not an argument make.

You're right, I should say it is widely perceived as shady by people who don't know much about it.