Open a brokerage account. Don't fund it. Don't trade. Just open it. That empty account is worth $70 to somebody.
Here's what investing platforms pay for your signup — and what it reveals about how brokerages really make money.
The Numbers
| Program | Payout | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Zacks Trade | $70 | Per new brokerage account opened |
| Experian (Smart Money) | $50 | Per checking account opened |
| FarmTogether | $15 | Per account signup |
| Experian (CreditMatch) | $12 | Per free account signup |
The standout: $70 for opening a brokerage account. Not funding it. Not trading. Opening.
Read the fine print on Zacks: the $70 pays on account opened — while the lead action (just visiting) pays $0. The account is the line. Cross it, and someone earns $70.
Why $70 for an Empty Account?
Because empty accounts don't stay empty. Brokerage customer data shows a clear pattern:
- Account opened → the $70 trigger
- First deposit → we estimate 40–60% of opened accounts get funded within 90 days
- First trade → the dopamine hit; the app is designed for this moment
- Ongoing activity → where the real money is
The brokerage is buying an option on your future trading activity. At $70 with ~50% funding rates, they're paying ~$140 per funded account. What does a funded account earn them?
Where Brokerages Actually Make Money
"Commission-free trading" didn't eliminate brokerage revenue — it moved it:
Payment for order flow (PFOF): market makers pay brokerages fractions of a cent per share to execute your trades. On millions of trades, fractions become millions. This was Robinhood's primary revenue engine pre-IPO.
Margin interest: borrow to trade and pay 8–13% APR. A $10,000 margin balance at 10% = $1,000/year to the brokerage. Pure spread.
Cash sweep: your uninvested cash earns the brokerage 4–5% in money markets while paying you 0.01–1%. On billions in sweep cash, the spread is enormous.
Securities lending: your shares get lent to short-sellers; the brokerage keeps most of the fee.
Premium subscriptions and data: $5–$30/month for real-time data, research, and margin rates.
A moderately active account — some margin, some options, cash sitting in sweep — can generate $200–$500/year for the brokerage (we estimate). At $140 effective acquisition cost, payback is under a year. The $70 isn't generosity. It's customer acquisition math.
The Zacks $70 vs. FarmTogether $15
Why does Zacks pay $70 while FarmTogether pays $15? Revenue per user.
- Zacks Trade (brokerage): active traders generate ongoing order flow, margin, and subscription revenue. High LTV → high bounty.
- FarmTogether (farmland investing): investors buy and hold farmland shares for years. Revenue is management fees on a slow-moving asset. Lower velocity → lower bounty.
- Experian Smart Money ($50): a checking account's interchange and cross-sell revenue sits between the two.
The payout is the business model, expressed as a number. High-velocity revenue (trading) commands high bounties. Slow revenue (farmland) commands low ones.
The Accredited-Investor Gate
FarmTogether's $15 signup comes with an asterisk the payout table doesn't show: farmland investing platforms typically require accredited investor status — $200K+ annual income or $1M+ net worth (excluding primary residence).
This matters for two reasons:
- Most readers don't qualify. If you're writing or reading "best investing apps" content, the FarmTogether recommendation is irrelevant to ~90% of the audience (we estimate, based on Federal Reserve wealth distribution data).
- The affiliate doesn't care. The $15 pays on signup, not on qualification. Content that funnels unqualified readers to accredited-only platforms still earns.
Our filter: we note the gate clearly. FarmTogether is a legitimate platform for those who qualify — but if a finance site recommends it without mentioning accreditation, they're optimizing for the $15, not for you.
The "Lead Action Pays $0" Detail
Zacks' terms include a telling line: the lead action pays $0. Only the account opening pays.
This is deliberate funnel design. The brokerage doesn't want email addresses — it wants accounts. An email is a marketing cost; an account is a revenue option. By paying $0 for leads and $70 for accounts, they force affiliates to do the hard work: not just driving traffic, but driving committed traffic.
For publishers, this is the highest-skill affiliate game in finance. Sending 1,000 visitors who open 10 accounts earns $700. Sending 100 visitors who open 50 accounts earns $3,500. Conversion quality beats traffic volume — which is why the best investing content is detailed, trust-building, and specific, not clickbait.
What It Means for You
Opening accounts is free — but not costless. Every brokerage account is a relationship: tax documents, data sharing, marketing emails, and the temptation architecture of a trading app designed to make you trade.
Don't open accounts for bonuses alone. A $70 bounty to the referrer doesn't mean there's $70 of value for you. Evaluate the brokerage on fees, fund selection, and tools — not the signup pitch.
Beware the activity trap. The brokerage paid $70 because they expect you to trade. The most profitable customer for them is the frequent trader; the most profitable investor for you is usually the patient one. Their incentive and yours point in opposite directions.
Consolidate. Three half-empty brokerage accounts means three sets of tax forms, three data exposures, three apps nudging you to trade. One good brokerage beats three signups.
The Transparency Scorecard
Let's grade the honesty of the signup economy:
- Zacks ($70/account opened): transparent trigger, real product. The payout is high because the LTV is high. Fair.
- Experian Smart Money ($50/account): fine, but it's a checking account marketed through a credit bureau — know what you're signing up for.
- FarmTogether ($15/signup): legitimate, but the accredited gate should be disclosed upfront everywhere it's recommended. Often isn't.
Bottom Line
$70 for an empty brokerage account. $50 for a checking account. $15 for a farmland signup.
These numbers are the brokerages telling you exactly what they think you're worth — not as an investor, but as a revenue stream. The $70 account will generate hundreds in order flow, margin, and sweep spread over its lifetime.
Open accounts deliberately. Fund them intentionally. Trade rarely. And let the brokerage's $70 be the worst investment they ever made.
Payout figures from CJ Affiliate program terms, October 2026. Funding rates, revenue figures, and wealth distribution are our estimates. Financialist.com participates in these affiliate programs.