As a full time affiliate marketer, the title of your article caught my attention right away. I've been saying to myself since discovering steemit one day ago, I wish this had an affiliate (referral) program! Because I know of 100 Million people who might be interested.
The obvious question has come up - where would the money come from? One way would be to have the option to opt in to the affiliate program for say, $20 per month. These people would earn cash from each person they refer who also chooses to upgrade. They would also earn from from people their referrals bring in - as many levels down as decided. I think I will write an article detailing how this would work. One program I am in operates this way with a 3x10 matrix maxes out at earnings of $88,000 per month.
So one could earn two ways. With their articles. And by marketing the site.
I like that idea, but in my opinion, if there was a referral/affiliate system, it shouldn't be for people to make a major source of Steem Dollars off of, that should come from posting and curating. It was just supposed to be a small incentive. But that's just my opinion, something like you mentioned might work a lot better. :)