More and more I am seeing people recommending their host after only a very short period of time. Upon visiting the host's website, you are almost guaranteed to be greeted with news of an affiliate program.

It doesn't take much to conclude that these people are recommending their host on WHT and on others purely to get the payouts from their host if someone signs up.

I know this is near impossible to moderate/track on WHT but the more I see it, the more unethical I think it is. How can you give an independant opinion on your host if they are offering you $50+ to make the opinion good, even if their service is substandard?

What are everyone's thoughts?

I'm yet to see someone suggest a host, and have their affiliate racking url, as the url they post in their recomendation. The mods would delete that in a heartbeat.

Now if they have an arrangement with the host, and post the host's url, and get kickbacks from signups from WHT, then yeah, impossible to track and police. :eek3:

Bob, from what I've seen your latter statement seems to be the case. All the new client has to do is mention their referrer's name or URL when they signup and the dollars come their way...

have their affiliate racking url, as the url they post in their recomendation I have actually seen some users on WHT do this before, not for hosting but for 2Co accounts and template monster. They only get deleted by mods if they are noticed.

Originally posted by whatever
They only get deleted by mods if they are noticed.

If you see them, please report them. We would love to be able to read every thread..but that is just not possible. We catch some from reading but most are from reports from fellow members, and we appreciate that.

As for the topic, without the link, there is really not much we can do without actual proof. We know it happens and try to curtail it as much as possible. I think we are already seeing the impact as a double edged sword.

For example, someone joins the forum and immediatley praises their host. They are almost always immediately questioned by members asking for proof of site, length of time, etc. The good part of that is it helps weed out some of the spammers. The bad part is that it can be a troubling start for those who are legitimately happy with their host and getting no kick-backs for it. Immediatley being questioned and ran through the ringer is not exactly enjoyable. Some understand why it happens, some don't. I just wish there was a way to lessen the impact of it without sacrificing the effect it has on weeding out the spammers.

From what I've seen this isn't much of an issue, do you guys have any recent specific examples?

Yeah. In General, all this referral marketing is extremely effective.

I was at a seminar recently on marketing and how to promote your business and it was all about getting your clients to become "crusaders" for you. They use your words to promote you (cue in elevator statement) and they refer you, not because they necessarily use you, but because you have a good relationship with them.

Although financial benefit was one of the many ways to gain referrals, its usually through business networking and having a good business relationship with them that gets the referrals.

Why not take advantage of a good hosting company's affiliate program if they have one?

You do not have to be bias to do that, unless you are only in for the money.