Hello
A blog is still a good tool to share content with your audience and build reputation for your brand. But as you mention in your question a blog cannot be an isolated strategy and have to be part of a more holistic approach in your content strategy. (social media marketing, SEO)
I can help you to build your inbound strategy for your idea if you want.
Regards
Zulimar

Hello Vince
As you commented is totally normal and fair that you stablish a compensation structure and furtherore that you can track his/her performance in order to pay.
As a rule of thumb the compensation structure is variable and is frequent that you pay for an action, in this case i.e. you can pay for referrals. Of course, its going to be very important that you can also establish the quality of this referral and also a quantity of money for each,
I will be more than happy to dupport you if you have more questions about or if you want my help.
Regards
Zuli