BlueHost, HostGator and FatCow avoid paying affiliate commissions

[Welkin]

Hi guys,

I don't know if this topic is more suitable for this forum or the web hosting forum but I post it here cause it is about hosting companies' affiliate programs.

I've recently had the possibility to witness how the three popular affiliate programs (HostGator, BlueHost and FatCow) avoid paying commissions. The full article is located here (it's a bit long) and here is what I observed in brief: FatCow show a commission for a sale you referred to them in your CJ reporting stats but after that they remove it and do not pay it, BlueHost have a smart way to replace your affiliate cookie in the referral's browser and HostGator do not list a commission until you contact them about it. I don't want to say this is done for every commission cause obviously it is not but basically my experience demonstrates web hosting affilates do not get payment for the majority of people they refer to these companies.

 

[enlytend]

I can't speak personally about FatCow or BlueHost but Hostgator has a long history of tracking issues through CJ. If you go through their in-house program you will receive commissions promptly as earned.

The risks of chargebacks or getting slammed by competitors' links are facts of affiliate life - even if its all legitimate. There are unscrupulous merchants who post a suspicious number of chargebacks, and there are unscrupulous affiliates who use cookie-stuffing and other blackhat means to steal commissions from other affiliates. 120 day cookies are kind of a myth - a lot of people run security suites that delete these "evil tracking cookies" long before they expire. The sooner your visitors complete an action, the better.

 

[RazorNF]

Welkin, thanks for bringing this up. I just read the affiliate reviews on your blog and learned a few things today.

And a question for enlytend - is in-house always the way to go when given the choice?

 

[Welkin]

I can't speak personally about FatCow or BlueHost but Hostgator has a long history of tracking issues through CJ. If you go through their in-house program you will receive commissions promptly as earned.

The risks of chargebacks or getting slammed by competitors' links are facts of affiliate life - even if its all legitimate. There are unscrupulous merchants who post a suspicious number of chargebacks, and there are unscrupulous affiliates who use cookie-stuffing and other blackhat means to steal commissions from other affiliates. 120 day cookies are kind of a myth - a lot of people run security suites that delete these "evil tracking cookies" long before they expire. The sooner your visitors complete an action, the better.

Thanks for the tip about HostGator's in-house program. I will check it if I decide to promote them again some day eventually.

I do agree that there could always be some unintended tracking issues. What bothers me though is that in each of the cases I've mentioned there has been something wrong on the side of the advertisers. Either they will replace your cookie themselves, either they will remove an already tracked (and genuine) sale or they will just ignore your inconvenient email. In all cases there has been something fishy.

On the other hand I have used other affiliate programs and my complaints in regard with them have been almost not existent. That's why I suspect web hosting affiliate programs try to compensate their too high commissions with this questionable behavior.

Welkin, thanks for bringing this up. I just read the affiliate reviews on your blog and learned a few things today.

Thank you for the kind words. It's good if my writings have helped a bit.

 

[enlytend]

And a question for enlytend - is in-house always the way to go when given the choice?

It depends. Networks are convenient, there is some quality standard being maintained (varies!), you know you will get paid, you know WHEN you will be paid, and all your merchants are consolidated into one payment so its less to keep track of.

SOME in-house programs offer better terms and are more "hands on". Not the case with HG - the commission is lower if you promote them directly. But if the sales don't track through the network the higher commission is just a number. I had one sale not track through CJ, asked around, learned about the tracking discrepancies, and switched my links. No problems since then. I like them as a hosting company and frequently recommend them to clients so I'm fine with the tradeoff of lower commission for sales that actually track.

Hosting commissions "too high" ? Hmm - I don't know. There's a high profit margin on hosting and those numbers are probably based upon the average lifetime value per customer - at least at some companies...

Several big superaffiliates were promoting BlueHost for a long time (don't know if they still are) - they wouldn't have done so if they were having problems with them. Then again, they may have gotten more consideration and better treatment because they generated a very high volume of sales.

There are good and bad program managers and merchants in every niche. You need to keep an eye on things.

 

[Welkin]

Just to add a piece of related information.
It appears that HostGator really make efforts to avoid paying a commission for a real referral.
In regard to the same case mentioned above (and about two months later) they reverted my commission in CJ. When I asked them about the reason, they said it was a referral that already had an account at HG. Well, since I had known that person for many years, this was an obvious lie. After they realized I could easily prove that they were not right, they paid me the commission but this time via PayPal (without answering what was the reason for using PayPal).
So, in brief, over a period of 2 months, HostGator tried to not pay me a particular commission twice. And while the first attempt could be attributed to a bug, the second one was extremely suspicious...

 

[Makis.TV]

I found myself easier to earn money from hostgator affiliate program than selling my own hosting, which is kinda of weird.
One thing that you must all know about HG is their hold period which is 2 months, in those months if they get a chargeback you wont get paid at all, which is fine.

Most weird part is that they reserve the right not to pay any comission if in those 2 months the affiliate account hasnt got any active website running on his hosting account even though he keeps on paying his monthly hosting fee, that is kinda lame and most people dont know about it.

 

[Welkin]

I found myself easier to earn money from hostgator affiliate program than selling my own hosting, which is kinda of weird.
One thing that you must all know about HG is their hold period which is 2 months, in those months if they get a chargeback you wont get paid at all, which is fine.

Yes, I think it is fine. They do not make money in this case so they do not pay you too.

Most weird part is that they reserve the right not to pay any comission if in those 2 months the affiliate account hasnt got any active website running on his hosting account even though he keeps on paying his monthly hosting fee, that is kinda lame and most people dont know about it.

I would agree even with this despite it is not quite proper since they get money in this case.

But in my instance, neither of this was the reason (the guy paid in advance for several years and there is an active site). The reason they stated wasn't true and since I knew the guy, I was able to get the commission at the end. The bad thing is that in most cases you do not know the people you refer so it's not easy to prove anything even if you suspect that something is not right.

 

[enlytend]

I suspect hosting companies get a lot of fraudulent signups because of the high payouts.

Most weird part is that they reserve the right not to pay any comission if in those 2 months the affiliate account hasnt got any active website running on his hosting account even though he keeps on paying his monthly hosting fee, that is kinda lame and most people dont know about it.

Let's say some affiliate gets a bunch of friends to sign up for accounts, each one puts in about $20 for 2 months hosting then they cancel the account - that's a nice scammy profit for the affiliate, even after paying off their friends.

They could just as easily put sites up, but now you're adding a domain name into the cost and increasing the difficulty of making them all look like they're unrelated ...

There's no excuse for some of the problems, but I can understand hosting companies in general being paranoid.

 

[Makis.TV]

Its weird having an active and paying account and not giving any commission if there is no website uploaded, hostgator is getting paid for its services while the affiliate partner never gets their share.

Same logic can be found if that account uploads a real website after 4-5 months, hostgator will get paid but I wont get my share...

 

[Archangel]

I had 2 ppl use my HostGator affiliate link. Both kept their accounts. My cj.com reports show that the transactions never happened...

 

[juliamedlton]

I think that there is no such matter is exist or done by these companies.

 

[ryuken2]

I am sending a lot of traffic via HG's in house aff tracking program. I don't know why they are not recording the sale. As the HG is now sold to new company, hope they address this issue and don't shave commisions.

I don't promote CJ anymore becuase they are known for shaving commision of affilaites.

 

[Welkin]

I had 2 ppl use my HostGator affiliate link. Both kept their accounts. My cj.com reports show that the transactions never happened...

I think they are simply cheating. In my case, it was proved - they tried twice not to pay a particular commission with obviously incorrect explanations so it could not happen unintentionally.

The bad thing is that I'm not sure this is because of CJ. I find it has become a common practice for big companies to cheat their affiliates and these include companies having nothing to do with CJ.

Maybe they rely on the fact that most affiliates continue promoting them even when they have suspicions.