Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs: $200+ Commissions Per Sale
tl;dr WP Engine ($200+ per signup) & A2 Hosting ($85-140 per signup).
Check out my full WP Engine affiliate program review.
2017 Update: I’ve removed Arvixe as they shut down their program in October 2016 and updated the list of hosts I’m actively running campaigns for!
The web hosting industry has some of the most lucrative affiliate programs online, but not all are created equally. As a long time hosting affiliate, I’ve worked with quite a few of them in my time. These are some of the best hosting affiliate programs I have worked with and trust the most – and it just so happens that a lot of them lead the industry in payouts.
A row of server racks in Google’s N. Carolina data center
Having dealt with a lot of hosts, I know the difference between good and bad companies. Wonky payout schedules, crazy amounts of shaved leads and horrible customer support/end-user experience.. been there, done that. I recommend that if you’re going to promote a company you get a real feel for how they work. Go through the sign-up process, bug their support department with some simple questions to see how quickly/accurately they respond – you want to get a feel for the true end user experience so you can represent them well.
So lets cut to the chase, here are my top hosting affiliate program recommendations. I go into details with each host further down, but I know you’re busy.
Our Top 4 Web Hosting Affiliate Programs
| Host | Commission per Sale | Join Program |
|---|---|---|
| WP Engine | $200+ | WP Engine Affiliate Program |
| A2 Hosting | $85-$140 | A2 Hosting Affiliate Program |
| iPage | $105 | iPage Affiliate Program |
| SiteGround | $50-$125 | SiteGround Affiliate Program |
The full list is down below!
Standard Hosting Affiliate Programs
These are the companies I typically promote with offers related to blogging or setting up a simple site. They usually have a lower barrier to entry (price) and are focused more towards individuals, hobbyists, and small business owners. 95% of the time, one of these hosts is the one you should be promoting.
A2 Hosting Affiliate Program
Payout $85-$140 per sale. Hosting starts at $3.92/mo.
A2 Hosting’s affiliate program has been popping up on my radar recently as I’ve been seeing a lot of my friends promoting them. I didn’t think much of it at first but decided to take a closer look. A2 Hosting is another one of the few non-EIG hosts offering huge payouts, with a range starting at $85 up to $140 per sale (based on monthly volume) – seems like a pretty good starting point for most affiliates.
Their plans come in just under $4/month, however, they lack the free domain offer of someone like SiteGround, Bluehost, etc. Their affiliate program is also 2 tier, meaning if you refer other affiliates you get a cut of their success – which is a $5 commission for every $85-$140 commission your sub-referral gets.
I’m pretty new to the program and just starting to test them out, but it seems like another Arvixe-type winner in terms of conversion and payouts even at low volumes. I’ll be sure to post updates and would love for you to share info with me about your experience in the comments below.
If you’re interested in joining, you can sign-up for the A2 Hosting affiliate program here.
SiteGround Affiliate Program
Payout $50-$125 per sale. Hosting starts at $3.95/mo with Free Domain.
SiteGround is a long time player in the hosting space and remain one of the few independent hosts still out there. Their affiliate program is (thankfully) much better than other independent hosts, offering a commission range of $50-125 per sale.
Like HostGator and others, they offered tiered commissions meaning the more customers you refer the more you get paid for ALL commissions. For 1-5 sales per month they offer $50/sale, but if you manage to get 6 commissions in a month you’ll get $75 for all 6. This is becoming pretty standard in the industry as it rewards volume. Sign up for the SiteGround affiliate program here.
iPage Affiliate Program
Payout $105 per sale. Hosting starts at $3.25/mo with Free Domain.
iPage’s affiliate program is one of the newer ones I’m trying out as their flat rate commission is quite good, offering $105 per referral. Their plans are also priced competitively with the cheapest coming in at just $3.25/month with a free domain name.
I haven’t had much time to test their offers but I have a feeling iPage may do quite well for me considering the low price point, free domain and higher (than normal) flat rate commission. You can sign up for the iPage affiliate program here.
Bluehost Affiliate Program
Payout $65 per sale. Hosting starts at $3.95/mo with Free Domain.
Bluehost is a very popular option for hosting and has very good name recognition. Name recognition can be both good and bad, good because people have likely heard the name and therefore it’s easier to convert. Bad because, like all affiliate programs they only reward new signups. So if you’re promoting the program to people who may already have web hosting, there’s a chance they’ve used Bluehost before.
In the last couple years, Bluehost has changed their affiliate program and now only offer a flat $65 per sale. Previously you could use Commission Junction to get a better rate, but that’s no longer the case. If you’re looking to promote Bluehost I recommend you sign up with them directly.
Dreamhost Affiliate Program
Payout $30-$120 per sale. Hosting starts at $7.95/mo.
DreamHost is another independent host who has been around for ages and they’ve recently updated their affiliate program. Their commission varies based on the product referred and the billing term (monthly/yearly) – ranging from $30 up to $120 per referral.
If someone purchases the normal shared hosting on a monthly billing term, it’s $30 commission. If someone purchases yearly it’s $100 commission. They offer $50 for monthly DreamPress (their WordPress-optimized hosting) referrals and $120 for anyone who purchases yearly.
DreamHost generally has good brand recognition, so if you’re testing offers it’s one I would throw into the mix and give it a shot. One downside would be the pricing as DreamHost plans are generally higher priced compared to others. You can sign up for their affiliate program here.
Hostgator Affiliate Program
Payout $50-125 per sale. Hosting starts at $5.56/mo.
If you’ve been looking at hosting affiliate programs, you’ve probably come across Hostgator. They have one of the most well-known affiliate programs and offer some really good payouts if you can drive volume. Tons of brand recognition which can make sales easier in certain markets. Hostgator utilizes ImpactRadius to manage their affiliate program as well as Commission Junction – however their rates have been decreased for CJ affiliates. Previously you’d get $100 flat per sale with CJ, that has been reduced to just $75.
If you’re not going to be driving a high volume of sales (less than 10 per month), I’d still recommend signing up through Commission Junction as you’ll earn a bit more money from the start. Later on, you can switch to their in-house program if you start driving 11 or more sales per month, so you can take advantage of the bonuses there.
Business Hosting Affiliate Programs
These hosts and plans are more focused towards the small/mid-size business market. Great to promote if you’re dealing with local business owners or people looking for somewhere to host their online business.
InMotion Hosting Affiliate Program
Payout $50-75 per sale. Hosting starts at $5.99/mo with Free Domain.
InMotion provides more business-oriented hosting options (that’s how they market themselves) and come in at a decent starting price of just $6 per month. I promoted InMotion a bit and didn’t have much success, although my target audience wasn’t business owners. I’m working on a new site which is business-oriented and hopefully, I’ll see some more success.
Unfortunately, InMotion also decreased their affiliate rates from $50-125 down to just $50-75 per sale, so it’s hard for me to really get behind them when there are other better-priced offerings with higher payouts. Their standard rate is $50 and you can do some extras to get an additional $25 per sale, such as following their social media accounts and putting their banner above the fold on your homepage. From some fellow affiliates I know, there are ways to get better rates – such as if you have a well-ranked site and can drive traffic, they will offer up to $150 per sale. but with a lot of other hosts coming in cheaper, I wouldn’t focus too much on InMotion unless they convert really well for your audience.
This industry is all about testing, so try a few different offers out and see which ones work best for you. Check out the InMotion affiliate program here.
Update – January 2017: InMotion has canceled the 2-tier aspect of their affiliate program, it’s now a single tier affiliate program.
Liquid Web Affiliate Program
Payout $163-$1000+ per sale. Hosting starts at $89/mo.
Liquid Web is what I would call ‘Premium’. If you’re focused in the B2B space and someone wants high-end managed hosting, this would be my recommendation. Their affiliate program has changed a bit over the years, but new accounts are just paid a flat fee on signup that ranges from $160-ish to over $1000 per sale. $160-250 for the Cloud Sites/Managed VPS/Managed WordPress hosting plans, up to $1000 or more for the dedicated servers they offer.
If you’re looking for general hosting affiliate programs this one probably won’t do too well, but if you’re focused on high end then it’s definitely worth a go. They manage their affiliate program via Commission Junction.
High-Performance Hosting Affiliate Programs
These hosts and plans are focused towards people who have existing high traffic sites or have a serious need for speed. They’re expecting big bursts of traffic, or heavy amounts of steady traffic, and want to make sure their sites are fast and stay online.
WP Engine Affiliate Program
Payout: $200+ per sale. Hosting starts at $29/mo.
Read: WP Engine Affiliate Program Review
I’ve been using the WP Engine affiliate program now for a couple years, and it’s consistently one of my top earners. The conversion rates are solid for the price point (a bit higher than most at $29/month) but the service quality is high, and the commissions match at $200+ per sale. You get paid $200 minimum per referral or 100% of the first month, whichever is higher, so if you refer someone to their enterprise plans you could see $249 to thousands of dollars as a commission.
As the name suggests, they only do WordPress hosting – and are generally targeted towards people who have big sites or need high-performance hosting. I generally refer serious bloggers and clients of mine who need quality hosting to WP Engine, just because I know they’ll be taken care of. They automatically implement a CDN and high-performance server caching so you only need to focus on your design and content.
WP Engine has gone from one of my ‘well, let’s give them a try’ hosts to one of my favorites to refer. You can join the WP Engine affiliate program here.
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Whoever you choose to promote, and I can’t stress this enough, make sure you stand behind them 100%. Don’t make your pick on who to promote based solely on the affiliate commission, you want to refer people to someone that you already host with (and trust) or a host that is trusted by your friends & family.
The programs listed above are some of the bigger offers per sale, but there are many others out there. If your host already has an affiliate program you may want to consider using them first, even if it means less commission.
It’s good to see, hosting affiliates pay this much
Very Nice List, I may continue promoting Blue host and will try out Arvixe. Do you know of any web hosting provider that pays recurring income?
Regards,
RJ.
Hey RJ,
I don’t know of any decent providers that pay recurring commissions. The problem is anyone who does recurring commission usually makes it a very small amount (10-20%) and when you’re talking about $4-10/mo hosting plans, it can take a long time and a lot of people to build up any decent revenue stream.
I personally prefer the larger lump-sum payment up front. Much nicer to see $70 for a sale rather than $0.70/month (in my opinion).
LiquidWeb pays recurring commissions.
I’ve added their program, but I think they stopped doing recurring. They do however pay huge commissions ($163 to $1000+). I’ve updated to include them, will be trying them out for some of my business-focused clients as their products are quite expensive $89+/month.
I’m also working on a post about recurring vs one-time commission. I generally don’t like recurring commission programs because the payouts are so low with hosts, especially hosts that charge like $4-10/mo, you might get $0.40 or $1/mo recurring.. or you can promote someone like iPage and get $105 up front and just focus on getting more signups.
And how is the payout from arvixe, are they trust worthy? Will they pay us in time no matter how big the commission is ? I’m working with hostgator affiliate eagerly wanting to try arivex.. Are you getting payments in time ?
I’ve been happy with Arvixe. Payments are coming in on time, haven’t seen any shaved commissions and everyone that has come through so far has been approved. It’s also converting way better than Hostgator. Test some traffic on it and see how you do. I think the free domain offer + $4/mo price point is helping a lot with conversion.
Thank you for Your suggestion, Shall surely give arvixe a try.
Michael,
Not asking how much commissions you make from Arvixe, but is it uncommon for affiliates to make 10-20k/month from hosting companies like Arvixe or others? Do you find that if an affiliate starts making that much money in commissions, that Arvixe or other companies would cut them off or start shaving their commissions?
Just something I always wondered…
Thanks!
Adam
Hey Adam,
I’m not quite at that level, though I have a few friends who push that or more each month through similar programs. You won’t have problems unless you’re doing something shady to get those signups.
When you start pushing that volume with an affiliate program, you have a good relationship with your affiliate manager. Their job is to keep you happy and continue bringing sales in. At that point, they rarely shave leads (the good programs anyway). If a program is unsustainable they may run into problems and need to cut you off, but typically the opposite happens. They start upping your rates per sale/lead because of the volume you’re pushing.
-Mike
Pat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com makes $30,000 to $40,000 per month since 2011 on BlueHost affiliate only.
Very informative and to the subject post, Thanks keep it going 🙂
I’m running hostgator with CJ and it takes over 30 days depending on the billing cycle to get paid — Which hosting company pays weekly or bi-weekly if any?
Tks — Good post btw
Hey Michael,
I don’t know any that pay that frequently. Hostgator directly takes 60-90 days, and most hosting companies do the same to reduce fraud. Unfortunately don’t know any that are willing to pay out quick, too many scammers out there.
Michael:
While they still take 30 days from the date of the sale to pay a commission, Site Ground pays commissions on a weekly basis.
Hey Will,
Thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely be checking out Siteground’s program. How have you found them as a host? I’ll probably have to pickup an account to test them out.
I have not actually used them yet, I was searching around for a better host with a better affiliate program and this is something that a competitor of mine advertises on their site. Reading reviews from around the web, they have a good score. I am moving away from HostGator myself due to some failures recently and bad sentiment from colleagues who had similar problems.
Yeah. I’m actually going to update this post and remove Hostgator. EIG (who owns HG & others) has had major problems with their new datacenter in Provo, UT. Check out this list and make sure to avoid anyone on there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group
Also note the “incidents” section.
Michael i’ve read you use arvixe? What’s your conversation rate, as main honestly is pretty low… Also Arvixe is on this wikipedia list as well.
At best, around 10%, normally in the 4-6% range. Totally depends on traffic source though. I’ve updated the post though since Arvixe got rid of their affiliate program 🙁
Hey there,
Great resources. Does the WPEngine Affiliate Program require a fee to sign up?
Thanks.
Nope, totally free to signup. All of the listed programs are free. Having the most success with Arvixe though.
Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to write this detailed list. I need to try a few of these web hosting affiliate programs see which one converts the best for me.
Thanks for recommending the best paying ones. However, one thing which I didn’t get is how are companies able to pay more commission than what they earn. Say Arvixe earns 48 bucks ($4×12) if a client pays for 1 year hosting but they will pay 70 bucks in commission. Just didn’t get it.
Hey Rajan,
Basically these companies know what their customers are worth, and also know how to upsell them. So it might only be $48 for the first year, but the customer might stick around for 4 years on average, so they’d make $48 the first year, and then probably full price for the next 3.
They also sell other stuff and know how often people buy them (new domains, SSL certs, etc), and promote things like WP themes and other services. Hosting is really competitive so they need to fork over more cash to lure affiliates.
Cheers,
Michael
Two other hosting affiliate programs that are worth looking at are LiquidWeb and 1&1. They both pay very well, up to £600 ($1,000+) per sale in some cases 🙂
Great article. Please are there any ways to promote these programs if you are really on a tight budget, and also with no website?
Hey Dayo,
Sorry for the late response. This comment got caught in the spam filter.
Absolutely there are ways to promote these programs on a budget. Many social networks, forums, etc allow you to modify your profile, signature, or sometimes even post affiliate links.
Don’t spam these networks, but if you can provide a helpful reply (ie. someone looking for a place to host their blog), then you can promote that way. Make sure you read each host’s affiliate terms and make sure the promotion you’re doing is allowed.
Great list and I love the Google datacenter pic… would love to have that setup at home 🙂
All of these hosting affiliate programs are great. For personal hosting, I tend to lean towards HostGator and Bluehost.
Very useful list. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for bringing us such nice and great information,
I want to know how to submit tax form to arvixe. I’m living outside USA so I think tax are not applied on me. What do you say? I need your help.
Hey Kashif,
You can contact your affiliate manager at Arvixe and they should help you out. Typically you fill out a W8BEN which is for foreigners who earn money from US companies. It’s really easy to fill out, if you submit a ticket they’ll help you. All it does is tell them to not hold any of your money for taxes, since you’ll pay taxes in your own country.
I didn’t fill & submit mine until after I had enough to cash out the first time. Then I had to email it in to them and payment was released right away.
Well, thanks for help. Gonna earn some commissions from them and will send email.
I also want to know, I want to advertise its affiliate links on Facebook page so for that I need to boost posts. Can you help me in this regard, like to how target audiences and which countries should I need to choose and age matter also. Please reply.
I can’t help you too much with Facebook ads, but I would say to stick with english speaking countries – probably just the United States. There are lots of different niches you can target, try to target the offer more to what they want/need. So if you’re targeting bloggers then go after the “1 click wordpress install” angle, use the wordpress landing page that arvixe has, etc. Go through all the marketing materials they have and their landing pages and pick the best one for your audience.
Then where else can I promote my links to get better results?
I can even spend money for promoting my links, so I need your suggestion.
You are earning good. I want to earn at least $1000+ a month, so can I?
I target more small business owners and bloggers. You can do a lot of paid placements with Google display network and target specific sites. Focus on matching up unique offers with a group, setup your own landing page for them to hit and then push them through to Arvixe.
See if you can create an offer that’s appealing and if you can offer them a bonus of sorts for going through you. So maybe you’ll give them a guide on how to setup their site, or how to do SEO, etc.
It means I can use google adwords service to expand my business?
Adwords is a good choice or not?
Adwords works great. Just don’t start bidding on terms like ‘hosting’. Go display network, use some serious audience/placement targeting and/or retargeting ads.
Mike,
Have you heard of iPage.com? It is under EIG, same as hostgator and bluehost.
Payout $105-$150 per sale. Hosting starts at less than $2/mo for 1st year, $11/mo for 2nd year onwards.
Just want to hear from you about this company. Others also please give comments.
I’ve added iPage to the list 🙂 Currently testing them out. Looks like a great option at $105 per sale for people who are new/aren’t referring a lot of people.
Hi
Ipage also provide good commission ..almost $105 per hosting sale
Regard
sumit
Yep! Added iPage 🙂
I don’t understand quite payments and w8ben. They send payouts through paypal right? When do you pay taxes then? After you receiver money in bank from paypal? And how do you pay them, since its internet money, I don’t think it can be calculated as regular earnings?
Hey Chris,
It really depends on the country you live in. Payments come via Paypal. In most cases, it’s up to you to declare the money as income when you do your taxes. Just because it’s ‘internet money’ doesn’t mean it’s not income. I’d recommend you speak with an accountant/tax professional in your country.
For me, the money gets paid to my business and is declared as revenue. I set aside some of that income (the required tax amount for me) and pay that back to the government.
Thank you for this post. I’m glad for having other choices besides the “big players” in the hosting department.
One thing I agree with is setting up a squeeze page before sending them over. Making it personalized with a bonus of some sort will certainly help solidify the offer.
-Roger
I still recommend Dreamhost
Whatever works for you 🙂 Like I say in the post, just because someone pays a lot doesn’t mean you should promote them. If you’re happy with a host and they have an affiliate program, just promote them, you know the service really well already.
I’ve just updated the post and added Dreamhost, looking forward to throwing more traffic at their program after I finish testing some others.
Great blogpost.
Just a follow-up to the question about taxation above, I have seen many of such affiliate sites require us to fill up tax forms and they mention $600/year as the threshold. So my question is what happens when we exceed the $600/year mark because quite honestly many people will exceed that amount. How much is the tax rate in the US? And how do we pay it considering not all of us have SSN or Tax IDs? Does it automatically get slashed from our earnings?
Hey Parker,
Sorry for the delay here. The $600/yr must be a country-specific thing. I just know that if you don’t submit the required tax forms, most affiliate programs won’t even accept you. I think they’re required to withhold something like 30% of earnings if you don’t have tax info – they just assume you’re someone in the country trying to avoid paying income taxes.
If you’re actually within the US, then I’m not sure on the process (I don’t live in the US). I’m guessing they withhold something like the 30% mentioned and then if you overpaid you get it back when you file your taxes. I can’t help you with this, you’d need to speak to the specific companies and someone who’s more familiar with tax stuff in your country/state/etc.
Thank you admin sharing this for this list of Affiliate Program.
i want to make a website using wordpress as cms. which hosting site should i choose hostgator or arvixe? does arvixe has a monthly paying plan as i dont want to pay for years at once?
I would use Arvixe, they’re both owned by the same parent company now but my experience with Arvixe has been so much better than my crappy experiences with HostGator.
They do have monthly options, when you check you can pick monthly/semi-annual/annual/etc – the pricing is just cheaper when you prepay for like a year or more. So maybe do monthly and then if you decide to stay for longer you can buy a year at a time to save some money.
That is a good list you have compiled. I follow a different strategy instead of run behind the highest paying affiliate, I try to choose a program which provide excellent service to their customers and also records each and every sale. I have tried hostgator affiliate program but they decline most of the referrals. The reason may be that hostgator is cheating or they are simply not able to retain their customer. After so many years of testing hosting affiliate programs, I settled for A small orange. I am using their hosting service as well. I have written a review about their affiliate program, guidelines and payout methods. I hope you do mind me sharing my review http://www.bleepingtech.com/small-orange-best-hosting-affiliate-program-period/
Do try them you, They are fantastic. Here is my earnings screenshot and the approval rate is too good. http://i.imgur.com/SdqZKn2.png
Hey Anish,
If you read my post you’ll see that I basically recommend the same thing. I don’t go after highest payouts. Some of my referrals are friends/family/clients who I know in-person. I go for the highest quality and try to find the highest payout within that group. One of the reasons I’m not promoting Hostgator/Bluehost anymore. I’ve got an update I’ve written for this post and need to ditch a few and showcase a few others I’ve been testing out.
I have an account with every host I promote so I know what the quality of service is like, how good support is, etc. I recommend others do the same.
Let me know how things are going with ASO – I’m looking at testing them out as I’ve always heard good things and have had a couple VPS’s & small hosting packages with them in the last couple years. I gotta test them out soon though before I promote since they were acquired by EIG and I want to make sure the quality hasn’t dropped.
I used both affiliate programs from bluehost and hostgator, and even if hostgator pays slightly larger amounts per sale, I saw that bluehost is more often selected.
Why is that? we know that hostgator is a huge company, well known everywhere, much better than bluehost, so why some users choose bluehost instead of hostgator?
Hey Helen,
Hostgator is more well known, but I believe they’re mostly well known for the wrong reasons. People have had A LOT of problems with them since they were acquired by EIG. Bluehost may appeal more or when people search they see more good things about them. Arvixe has been my most successful so far, much much better than Hostgator & Bluehost.
You always need to test offers and see what attracts the clicks and what the conversion rate is like across the offers you’re posting. I’m always testing, I’m currently working with 2-3 other hosts not mentioned here (will be doing an update in the next couple weeks). Nothing works well forever, where I had a lot of success with Hostgator in the past – I just don’t have it anymore. Plus their service really went downhill in recent years, so I don’t like promoting them. Probably going to keep them on my list, but with a big warning.
Thank you for this great list. I found it very informative for starting your affiliate with web hosting.
Hey Michael…
I’ve been testing out a lot of different hosts recently. I have most of my clients on hostgator and bluehost with dedicated servers but I’m starting to do more than just client work and everybody that follows me pretty much already uses hostgator or bluehost.
I signed up for arvixe through your link for one of my affiliate niche projects. Hopefully I can start recommending it to my readers!
Right on, appreciate it. I’ve been really happy with Arvixe so far, conversions are great and people stick around. Don’t think I’ve lost more than a couple commissions due to fraudulent signups in the past ~18 months
Hey Michael!
Great article man, really helpful! Can you please define fraudulent signups?
In this case I’m referring to people who signed up with fake details or a stolen credit card, which triggered the commission but they never got their hosting setup — so I don’t get the commission since they never made it through the 60 day minimum. They were pulled pretty quickly after getting the notification, so I’m guessing they were fraudulent more than people who signed up & cancelled before 60 days.
All I was saying is that I’ve only had a couple ‘fraud’ signups – where the commission was given to me and then pulled. A lot of sketchy affiliate programs will claim fraud (when there isn’t) or skim leads (not give you credit for the sale) so they don’t have to pay out. Basically Arvixe has been very legit with their program, no issues so far.
I joined Arvixe affiliate program but haven’t started promoting them. My question is about creation and use of custom coupon codes.
If i create a custom coupon in my arvixe account and people use my coupon on the checkout page when buying hosting from arvixe, will I get credit for the sale even if the customer did not use my affiliate link.
I mean when my coupon is used will i get credit for the sale regardless of the link the customer buys from?
Hey Dayo,
Yes, if someone just uses your affiliate coupon it’ll credit you with the sale. And I believe it even overwrites the link click if they clicked someone else’s link. You might want to confirm with the Arvixe affiliate manager, but I’m 99% sure that’s how it works.
Have you made sales just by sharing and providing your custom coupon without providing your affiliate link?
I once asked arvixe this question and i got a reply via email that it has to be through my affiliate link. At that time i felt the person that replied to that email didnt really know what he/she was talking about or maybe he/she just didn’t understand my question. What’s the use of a customized coupon if it can’t get me a sale?
This is why i prefer to ask an affiliate who is already promoting them. I just sent arvixe another email right now regarding this same question. I’ll wait and see what the reply will be.
The affiliate manager at Arvixe just replied my email, and here’s his reply:
Hi,
Thank you for reaching out to us. Unfortunately the customer has to use your link. The coupon does not affect the sale.
Regards,
Oops. Sorry about that. I guess I’m used to other companies doing it that way. Good to know, thanks for posting back with the answer – will probably help someone else out in the future 🙂
Do you promote arvixe using free traffic or do you buy traffic? If yes, what kind of traffic do you use, ppc, banner ads, etc?
Michael are you still doing great with Arvixe? Good question above how do you promote?
Was doing really well with Arvixe until they shut down their program 🙁 I promote via a variety of methods, but mostly through my network of sites that primarily drive traffic via organic. If you look at some of the big hosting keywords I’m generally in there somewhere. I also promote directly to my clients and network if they’re looking for hosting.
I rarely run paid traffic against hosting programs anymore, I find they don’t convert well enough as people normally jump to Google and look around for reviews, etc – and the affiliates promoting there get the credit. So my solution was to go where those other affiliates were 😛
I have the url Hosting.deals what your thoughts on its best use? A review site with affiliate links? Sell the name to one of the top hosting companies ? Other ideas ?
Sounds like a good place to post coupons and price comparisons 🙂
hello,
I have two questions.
1. If i use a domain like bluehostdiscount, it will be a problem? (Bluehost)
2. Suppose someone click on my affiliate link but he didn’t buy from my link. After that he click someone else affiliate link. Who will be paid? Because bluehost give 90 days cookies.
Thank you
It might be a problem, most people don’t like you using their trademarks. I would stick with a more generic domain personally.
Most programs work on last touch. Bluehost is 120 day cookie but if they click your link and then someone else’s, it would go to that other person if they were the last one clicked.
Hi,
Say, I have an account in one of these web hosting affiliates then someone ask me to create them a site and I’ll use my affiliate link. Is that valid? Isn’t there a policy like one account per IP?
Hmm. I would get the other person to signup and pay for it and then just send you the cPanel login details to create the site (they can usually just forward the email). Signing up a bunch of accounts from the same IP might get you marked as fraud and you’ll need to explain. They should allow it if the signups are legit, but I’d just avoid that headache by getting the other person to signup and then forward details to you.
Hey Michael,
Any experience with 1 & 1 affiliate plans?
No experience, but I looked at their payouts.. really low percentage of sale. I also had a bad experience as a 1&1 customer years ago so I’ve vowed to never promote them 😛
Hi you have not mention … About ipage ..they provide good commission ..right now they provide $105 …
Just added iPage!
Hello Michael
SO a good business would be giving away free Squeeze pages and direct them to the hosting?
Could definitely work 🙂 Lots of people doing free WordPress install/setup in exchange for someone setting up hosting. Just check with the affiliate manager first, should be fine with most though.
Very Nice List, I may continue promoting Blue host and will try out Arvixe. Do you know of any web hosting provider that pays recurring income?
Regards,
RJ.
Just an update, Arvixe shut down their affiliate program – I posted some new ones I’m using above. There are some hosts that pay recurring but the ones that do pay very little, like 10-15% recurring which is nothing on a $4-10/mo hosting plan. It would take you 10+ years to earn in ‘recurring’ commission what you could make all up front with another host that pays one-time. Recurring also relies on those people you refer staying around for a long time, and in hosting people move around every 1-3 years I’ve found.
What about adblockers – most of them block affiliate links. It’s not smart to use the links provided by affiliates (it may be better to create custom links not recognized by ad blockers).
Nothing you can do about ad blockers. Redirects are good but they’ll just redirect to the link that’s blocked by an ad blocker.. If you’re using the host’s banners I suggest uploading them to your own site and creating your own redirect for sure, at least people with ad blockers will be able to see the banners if you host them.
Very nice post all my doubts regarding hosting affilates has been cleared at a single place,will you please
Share some tips as well to promote these hostings.
I’ll put a post together on driving traffic sometime 🙂
Hi!
Do i have to be a Bluehost customer if i want to promote them? I use their hosting package now but i moved to a new host and i want to keep promoting BH through affiliate marketing – will it hurt in any way if i stop being their customer?
Thank you!
Nope! Almost every host will let you promote them without being an active customer. All of the ones I’ve listed above (and I just updated it) allow you to signup to their affiliate program without being a customer.
Hosts just want new customers, they don’t care if you’re one as long as you send them some 🙂
Please can i use facebook ads to promote my inmotion and hostgator hosting affilliate programs? Please i need a reply.
Yes, shouldn’t be a problem. You can just double check their terms and if you’re unsure send an email to their affiliate manager – normally the AM email is listed somewhere on the site.
Waoh! Great stuff Mike. I’ll make sure I point others to this post. Just one question. Experience has proven that promoting several services/products without really sticking to any properly can be detrimental. How many web hosting service providers should one normally promote? I run MoneyMasterTutorials.com and have received this question a couple of times
I normally stick to 1 per traffic source. You want to test an offer out, then if it doesn’t work try another. If you’re listing ‘top X hosts’ then you’ll obviously want to include more, but try to point people towards the main one.
I’d recommend signing up to a couple affiliate programs that look interesting, maybe purchase the product yourself so you know the checkout process and how support is – then just pick whichever stands out to you as the best or you think will appeal most to your audience. Point people to it and see how it does, if it doesn’t do well after a good amount of traffic (few hundred to 1000+ clicks) then try another program.
Hi,
Can you guys explain to me, so i thought this was fairly simple as for example if if hosgator makes 5 sales through me and the fee per sale is $50, i make $250, but through commision junction i am seeing an EPC fee, what is that? Please explain to me..Thanks
Inside Commission Junction you’ll get the flat-rate, which is now $75 per sale. If you go through their direct program (on their website) it’s $50-125 per signup. EPC stands for “Earnings Per Click” – it’s how much CJ affiliates are making on average for every click. If you want to know their payout in CJ, click on their program in the list and there’s a section called “Program Terms” (I think) and it’ll list how much commission they pay per product.
Don’t waste your time with bluehost. They do not credit all your sign up. You will need about 100 clicks to get credited for one sign up. They are scam that needs to be avoided. Even the little sign up you make they will find one excuse or the other to deactivate your acoount and dey you payment. Look at what they sent to me after I make $545 in 8100 clicks in 5 months from my blogs:
“Emmanuel,
Your account has been deactivated. Per our Affiliate terms, “In our sole discretion, any false or misleading advertising or suspected fraudulent activity associated with your affiliate account will result in immediate deactivation.” Various problems have been found relating to information provided in your hosting accounts, which have been connected back to your affiliate accounts, as well. We do require complete and accurate information in both our affiliate and customer accounts, and providing false information is grounds for removal from our affiliate program.
Regards,”
When I asked them to be specific, they refused to say. I went to BBB to report them and found out they have a lot of complaints there and BBB advised people to stay away from them. Bluehost is a big scam please stay away.
I appreciate your feedback but I haven’t had those same issues. “They do not credit all your sign up” – this can simply be the program not converting as well. I have programs where I’ve sent thousands of clicks and only gotten 1-2 sales. Either their landing pages suck and don’t convert well or you’re not sending good traffic.
The other problem with hosts like Bluehost/HostGator/etc is that they’ve been around a long time, so it’s possible someone already signed up with them before, cancelled, and then clicked your link and signed up again. Since they’re not technically a ‘new’ customer, you wouldn’t get the commission.
Try one of the lesser-known hosts with a good offer (like free domain name registration, etc) and see how it does.
nice information about affiliate marketing. I appreciate ….thank you very much
I just signed up to arvixe affiliate program, this is what they said to me:
“program will be terminated as of 10/17/2016”
Update the post 🙂
It has been updated 🙂
This article is very informative. Thank you for sharing. Can you recommend me which one I should choose for beginner in affiliate marketing? I red some reviews about web hosting affiliate programs, some affiliate programs are not paying, some doesn’t have good tracking software to track affiliate sales.
Hmm, if you’re just starting I’d go for one of the higher paying programs as you’re not as likely to drive volume. Or one of the programs with good brand recognition (DreamHost, Bluehost, etc) and freebies (ie. free domain name).
You’ll want to do your own affiliate link tracking, almost every program has crappy tracking. So just create a redirect and use the stats from that.
Never thought that web hosting affiliate pays so much. I’m totally on this from foot to head now on.
Really Great post____it is really nice
But you can also add 1&1 or more
I’ve looked at 1&1, but they have pretty low commissions and I had a really bad experience with them as a customer a long time ago so I would never promote them.
Just talk to Arvixe and it no longer offer an affiliate program.
Please, update your post.
cheers
Rui
Yeah, Arvixe shutdown their program in October. I’ve since moved onto SiteGround and iPage, just went through and updated the whole post 🙂
Thank you for this overview
Very informative article.I have one clarification in a2 hosting.if the customer buy hosting service through my link but he has selected hosting plan in monthly basis.how long time it will take to get approval for my sale?the same 45 days is applicable for getting approved?if the person is not renewed for next month how it will affect my approval?
Yep, as long as they pass the 45-day mark you’re good, no matter if they pick monthly or annual billing.
If someone signs up monthly they need to pay for at least 2 months for your commission to get approved. Signup on Day 1, pay again on Day 30/31, approval on Day 45. If they don’t renew for that second month you won’t get a commission.
I normally try to push people towards buying the annual plan because it’s the better discount and they’re more likely to stick around. So depending on how you’re promoting, be sure to mention they should buy it for as long as possible because the discount is only for the first payment, so if they pick monthly it’s going to cost them a lot more over 1 or 2 years than paying upfront and getting 50% off.
Thanks for your fast response.one of my friend choosed a2 hosting lite web plan for 1 month price for $9.99 first time.wat will be the cost for second month?or the same as first month? I have another doubt.I saw in some websites they are offering coupons for a2 hosting.shall we give coupons for our customers?if yes how it will works and how it will affect my commission? Thanks
$9.99 is the regular price on the base plan, so it should be $9.99 for the second month. Using coupon codes doesn’t impact your commission since they offer a flat rate commission, so it’s fine to promote them with a coupon. They have a default coupon on their site as well for 51% off the first invoice.
Hi very useful article.recently i have tried to sign up a2 hosting affiliate program.but they are asking website URL for sign up.but I don’t have website.how to sign up without a website?shall I give my direct affiliate link to my customers through email?
Hey Anitha,
Most hosts will ask for a link to where you’ll be promoting – if there’s a field on signup that asks how you’ll be promoting you could explain that it will mostly be via email. However, if it requires a website URL you can always try a facebook page, twitter profile, etc.
An email to their affiliate manager could also sort it out – if you click through to their program there’s a ‘contact us’ tab that’s publicly accessible.
My personal suggestion would be to actually build yourself a website. If you’re going to be promoting hosting it can’t hurt to put together a personal site or affiliate site and learn the ropes 🙂
Hi thanks.i have sent a mail to a2 hosting affiliate manager recording affiliate sign up.I have mentioned I m going to do email marketing without a website.I got this reply
You can mention that it’s email marketing, but I would like to review any campaigns before you send them. —.what shall I do now friend?because I m new to email marketing.but some of my frnds are looking to buy gud hosting plans?how to get approved a2 hosting affiliate?
You share the information you shared with me? It’s much easier to set up a site where you say you’ll be promoting things. They want to make sure you aren’t just buying lists and spamming. My suggestion is to setup a proper affiliate site for your promotion, or try another host who is more lenient.
Hi thanks for this nice article.I have joined ipage affiliate program recently.for payment they are asked to submit tax forms.I am from India and how to submit w8 form details online?I did not understand that form fields.previously I did not pay any tax.can u tell me to submit the form?I saw lot of consumer complaints about ipage affiliate payments.they are really paying?
You need to do some research for India on how to fill out a W8-BEN, I’m not familiar with the tax treaty between US & India. It basically lays out whether or not the host needs to keep money for taxes. In most cases (that I know of), you request they don’t take any taxes and you get the full amount, so you can pay income taxes in your own country.
Hello. I am using RoseHosting’s affiliate program and my earnings are OK so far. I like the program since there is monthly recurring commission. I would recommend it.
I have a post on recurring affiliate programs. Glad you’ve had a good experience, but I think you’re leaving money on the table by going monthly. Personally, I find it more valuable to get paid out multiple years worth of commissions upfront, rather than a small trickle each month over years.
i have registered for a2hosting as affiliate, its been one week still its not approved……….
Is it normal to take this much time with a2hosting?
It took awhile for me as well. Just checking emails looks like about 9 days. Can always try emailing the affiliate manager, it’s on the contact us page (under the affiliate subdomain).
hey i want one hosting can pay with one card in a alot websites .
i mean use one card in alot accounts .
thank you for help man
Have anyone tried Hostgator’s program? Do you get convert better when they have the 99 cent first-month deal?
nice post, I think a2 hosting is one of the top performing hosting company for both as a beginner for the new website or blog and also for the affiliate for the best commission to get from them so I also use a2 hosting you can check here
Michael –
How long does it take clicks/sign-up’s to show up in your Blue Host affiliate dashboard? Is it instant?
Thanks!
It should update pretty quick, I don’t know about instant though. I only login and check stats a couple times a month.
You could always test it, click it in an incognito window and see how long it takes to update.
Thanks Michael. I found out it’s pretty much instant for both clicks and views.
Thank you so much for the info. I have been doing web design as a hobby for about 12 years but only just now started it officially as a business so my website is still under construction. I just signed up for HostGator and GreenGeeks affiliate programs because I have good experience with both.
I admire how you answered all the comments. You obviously care about your users. Thanks again!
If you have experience with them and you trust them, then they’re definitely the best choice for you to promote. You can speak with real experience and people pick up on that. I’m glad you found my post helpful 🙂
Great list. I’m running Godaddy on CJ and get $100 each sale. They are also have recurring every year around $25.
But Godaddy sometimes block transaction from my country so I will try Bluehost as you mention on the post.
Thanks Andy!
Yeah, you need to find a host that works well with your audience – and making sure they can buy the product from their location is a good first step 😛
Let me know how it works. I’d recommend looking at A2Hosting and SiteGround as well. Sometimes the independent hosts are more lenient than the big guys.
Thanks Michael for breaking down these hosting programs. I personally like Bluehost program, but am branching out to others. Thanks for sharing!!