Dive summary:

• Some websites are paying a referral fee of as much as 5% for posting a link on social media.
• The Federal Trade Commission has some concern about the practice blurring the line between a paid endorsement and a recommendation.
• Beso, Fancy and Pose are some of the leaders in the referral practice.

From the article:

Beso formally introduced a program on Tuesday … which pays users to send clicks to hundreds of major retailers, like Target and Gap.

“If they drop a link onto Twitter about a pair of shoes that they’re dying for, or a new handbag they’re coveting, and they refer users to Neiman’s or whoever sells that item,” said David Weinrot, the chief marketing officer for Shopzilla, the parent company of Beso, “they could actually be rewarded.”