You can see that this particular examples section is listed under the title, "Referral Stats". Remember this can also appear with the word "Downline" instead of "Referral" because this section can be known by either title, they both mean the same thing.

Below the title you can see two fields. "Free Referral Priority:" will be displayed with a number alongside. This is a scale that is used to inform upgraded members their priority level, in getting un-referred members (those that joined direct from their homepage and not through anybodies ref link or banner, for example) added to their down-line. A 10 means that they are at the top, or very near the top of the queue to get un-referred members added to their down-line, a number 1 means they are at the bottom of the queue. This only applies to members that have purchased an upgrade package (also know simply as an "upgrade"). I will cover upgrades in detail later, for now you will always see a 0 in that field.

The next box is "Downline Count Total", remember that down-line could also be replaced by the word referral, they both mean the same thing. This is the total number of people that you have referred across all levels of your down-line.

This is broken down further by the drop down menu below that. Some sites will use a drop down menu, as with the example above, others will simply use a table that shows all of the levels. If the program has only one level of referrals then all the information is displayed in the first row of the table, or the top row of the drop down menu, as displayed in the example above. If you click the first option "Level 1" from either the drop down menu above or the table, it will then list the user-name of those people in your down-line. The same information is displayed again through all levels, if that particular program credits you for more than one level.

Under that you can see the Astrix (*) with the description "People You Referred", these are the user-names of the people you referred, remember that these members would have clicked through to join the site from one of your links or banners. User-names without an Astrix are those un-referred members that have been placed in your down-line by the admin or owner, as part of an upgrade package that you would of purchased. Again remember that will we cover that later, and, you are not required to purchase anything in order to earn, in any of the methods we will cover.
The dollar sign, as it states, are people that have created an advertising account with site in question, again through one of your links or banners. The commission that you will earn from advertising accounts varies from one site to another and will be stated in the FAQ/Terms Of Service section.
Under that you will be able to see (as stated) which one of the links, banners and sites they joined through. This will allow you to track your advertising and see where it is working and where it isn't. Again that will be covered later.

Lets take the example of a site that will offer 3 levels of referrals to explain how they will earn you your commission.

These members are know as your "Direct Referrals". If the programs credits your level one referrals at 10%, this means you will earn 10% of their earnings and it gets credited directly and automatically into your account balance. For explanation purposes, we will use me as your referral. In this section you will see my user-name, "longshanks1971". You will get 10% of all monies earned by me credited to your account. This increases your earnings by a total of 10% of my earnings, but this does not affect my earnings. I will still earn as much as I would of, if nobody had referred me to that site. The commission payment is completely separate from my account, not part of my earnings.

In level 2 you will see a different user-name. For an example this members user-name is fredbloggs. This person will have joined as my direct referral and will earn me 10% of their earnings. This user (as well as increasing my commission by 10%) will increase your earnings by 5%. So even though you did not recruit this referral, you will still get credited with 5% of their earnings, in addition to the 10% of my earnings.

In the level 3 field you will see a different user-name. For an example this members user-name is johnbrown. This member joined as fredbloggs direct referral and will earn him 10% of his earnings. He will also earn me 5% as he will be in my level 2 down-line and earn you 3% of his earnings as he is in your level 3 down-line.

Now I now this may sound complicated but it does show how, by recruiting new members to a program, gives additional means of increasing your earning potential. There is one additional thing you need to be aware of and that is inactivity and/or members leaving or being removed from the program. Notice how I stated that your referrals earn you a percentage of their earnings and not a percentage of your earnings. Different referrals will earn you different amounts as one member may be extremely active in earning with all aspects of the site, where as another member who may only do the paid mails will earn you a lesser amount. So the more active the member, the more they earn for their up-line, ie; you. Another thing to consider is members may join up and not participate in the program, or be fairly active at first, then for whatever reason, leave the site or just become inactive. Inactive means they do not do any of the paid mails or other methods of earning, therefore earning nothing for you in commission earnings. So if you see that your referrals are earning nothing for you, it means they are inactive.