I spent six months testing the referral program from Rostelecom. Full overview of the platform + how much you can earn

Briefly: I was looking for new affordable ways to monetize website traffic and several Telegram channels for a business audience. I found a referral program from Rostelecom's business marketplace. I'm sharing my experience and results 6 months after connecting.

Preface

Even before Google and foreign affiliate programs for webmasters left, I started developing my information site and two Telegram channels with useful tips for starting a business. I reached a good (by B2B audience standards) monthly traffic, slowly started monetizing, and at the beginning of 2022, everything collapsed. Anyone who monetizes a B2B audience knows that there are not many domestic analogues of affiliate programs from powerful brands for business (like Shopify, Semrush, Hubspot or Notion, for example) (maybe with the exception of ROIstat and Tinkoff Business).

But there was nothing to do, I began to slowly research offers and connect to partner offers from various Russian B2B companies. And then six months ago I came across the Rostelecom website and was surprised to discover that they have not just own marketplace of products for small and medium businesses (moreover, products and services are presented both from our own production (from Rostelecom) and from third-party companies), and this marketplace is also attached referral program. The affiliate landing page looked a bit raw, but I decided to connect and test it. Actually, I'll tell you about the results of my test in this article.

How the Rostelecom marketplace referral program works

Registration

To register in the referral program, you need to choose in what capacity the partner will act (an individual, an individual entrepreneur, etc.). I am an individual entrepreneur, so in the column “tax system used” I selected “Individual entrepreneur on the simplified tax system”, filled in all the data and went to study the agreement and tariffs (in general, it is convenient that they can be studied immediately at the registration stage, so as not to go further if the conditions are not satisfactory). Then, during the registration process, it was necessary to attach data and supporting documents on the individual entrepreneur from the tax office, the EDI operator, scans of passport pages and account details.

Contract and tariffs

The agreement is concluded with Rostelecom's subsidiary, Center Telecom Project, for an indefinite period. It specifically states that the partner is obliged to provide reliable information upon registration, and it comes into force from the moment the partner is assigned an ID on the platform. The rates for commissions for the products were declared very different, they vary by the types of target actions (for example, for some products it is written that the partner receives a one-time deduction for the installation of equipment + a commission for its use for 12 months).

For most products, the affiliate commission is calculated according to the tariff chosen and paid by the person who clicked on the referral link – the more expensive the tariff, the higher the affiliate's reward will be accordingly.

The term of commission payments under the agreement varies from 6 to 12 months. Well, since the agreement states that “Center Telecom Project” reserves the right to change the terms and payments, it is clear that the referral program should only be tested in practice, and the figures in the document with tariffs are approximate. Concluded agreements and current tariffs are stored in a separate folder in the agent's personal account.

Affiliate products that I have chosen to promote

Rostelecom offers over 100 products on its marketplace. They are divided into categories (by niche) + there is a bestsellers section. Not every product can be linked to yet. After six months of testing, five products brought me a good number of clicks and eventually real income. I will list them below and comment on why I initially chose them for the affiliate program.

Targeted callsRostelecom has a huge number database, and I decided that it would be very useful for businesses to use it.
Shop in Telegram. Telegram is on the maximum hype today, and the possibility to connect a full-fledged store there without any third-party services and programmers, and even with 24/7 support included, seemed promising to me.
Video surveillance for business. I became interested in how the offline product would work in the referral program. Plus, this product promised generous commissions.
CRM for beauty salons. I chose this position because my site generated enough traffic for related queries, and according to audience surveys in my telegram, solutions for beauty salons turned out to be quite in demand.
Speech analytics. This is one of the AI products with a very high commission on the platform. I liked that it not only helps to decipher sales conversations, but also automatically fills in the CRM + generates reports.

For each product, I received a referral link and a QR code in my personal account. And I went to test my hypotheses.

Testing and results

In the partner's personal account, you can monitor the number of clicks on links, the number of sales, and the status of registered applications.

First, I asked support how long the data about the click-through is stored in cookies. It turned out that it is stored for 30 days. This is certainly not Semrush, which promises to store the click-through on a referral link for as long as 370 days, but it is also not Shopify with its “two-week memory”.

The most popular product in terms of the number of clicks over the past six months was shop in Telegram — cheap, functional and very much needed by the market now. I wrote several content pages for this request, put links inside the content, made several banners with a QR code + created a section on this topic in my Telegram channels.

Video surveillance for business also showed the result of interest from the audience. This is a more expensive product, but the demand for it is quite high, especially among small businesses that need to constantly monitor security at offline points.

The most expensive product that brought in sales recently was speech analytics for business. I think that if my platforms had a larger audience, the sales of this product would be several times higher, because content about the integration of artificial intelligence into business processes today arouses the greatest interest and involvement among the audience.

What advantages and disadvantages did I find in the referral program from Rostelecom

I'll start with the pros:

It is convenient that you can withdraw money starting from 2000 rubles.
By default, the platform's support staff consists of real people, not bots, which saves a lot of time and nerves.
The marketplace has a decent selection of products for starting a business (and since I joined the program, there have been about 30 percent more of them).
Detailed statistics on transitions and conversions are available in the partner's personal account. This allows you to track the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and make informed decisions.

However, there are also disadvantages:

The platform's interface is not very intuitive yet.
For some products, there is very little detailed information, so you have to ask a lot of questions and clarify things with support (fortunately, they respond very quickly).
Branding of individual marketplace products is weak or absent altogether.
Not all products have the ability to connect a referral link yet. For example, I really liked Wi-Fi radar — a useful thing that collects data about gadgets within a radius of 75 meters and uploads it to the business's advertising platform. But affiliate commissions are not paid for it yet.
How much did I earn and who do I recommend joining the Rostelecom referral program?
In total, in the six months after joining the Rostelecom affiliate program (from February to July 2024), I managed to earn 108,500 rubles (before taxes).
I will definitely continue to cooperate with the platform, I am waiting for new products available for referrals.
Who can I advise to become a partner of Rostelecom?
First of all, webmasters of sites with large and high-quality traffic from the business audience, owners of Telegram channels about opening and running a business. And in general, I recommend it to everyone who has an established B2B contact base. In theory, even a foreman of a repair team that works, for example, as a contractor for a small business in a shopping center, will benefit from joining this affiliate program and recommending products to clients, leading them through their referral link “by the hand.”
I have never seen such a hybrid marketplace program with offline and online products for business anywhere else, the idea itself seems quite promising to me. I hope Rostelecom will not abandon the development of the platform, and it will become more convenient, and many more products will appear.
P.S. It seems that my review of this affiliate program is the first on the Internet. Write in the comments, who is also connected to the Rostelecom program? What are your results and impressions?