Hi,

I posted this originally over at the DP forums but I think this may be a better place to get ideas.

We're looking to join an affiliate network so we can offer our webhosting services through affiliates. I've taken a look at CJ, Clickbank and a couple of others however they don't seem suitable for our needs. CJ's startup costs seem prohibitive as well.

In a nutshell, what our company is looking to offer is basically:

a) Recurring revenue for our affiliates
b) A onetime referral fee too (per signup)

But our emphasis is on A because the industry is saturated with 100s of programs offering ridiculous onetime rewards like $100 - $300 per account.

Has anyone (as a seller -- or webhost) dealt with any respectable affiliate network which can give good exposure to our services and get us some quality publishers?

Thank you for your suggestions. :)

Regards,
Asher

I always recommend doing in house as your primary means. It will take good affiliate management (hire an affiliate manager if needed), affiliate recruiting, etc. However you are avoiding 20-30% network commission fees on all payouts and it is best for the long term.

If you're looking for the best bang for buck network, definitely look at shareasale.com

Good luck, feel free to let me know if you have any questions I'd be happy to help answer them for you

Thanks, I will take a look at shareasale.com, in the meantime everyone else can pitch in their opinions too ;)

Has anyone tried AffiliateBot?

I haven't seen many hosts using affiliatebot. Were there any main reasons you were interested in them? Many affiliate networks and their affiliates are much more focused on different types of offerings (i.e. submits, diet/health, dating, etc.) and many times hosting doesn't quite fit into their system as well.

Make sure they allow a verification period on the sales that you offer a money back guarantee on to help deter fraud. Ask about previous hosting offer results, etc.

I always recommend doing in house as your primary means. It will take good affiliate management (hire an affiliate manager if needed), affiliate recruiting, etc. However you are avoiding 20-30% network commission fees on all payouts and it is best for the long term.

If you're looking for the best bang for buck network, definitely look at shareasale.com

Good luck, feel free to let me know if you have any questions I'd be happy to help answer them for you

Well, i will also recommend shaeasale.com. It is not worth to fight with bigger hosts that are offering $150 to $300 per sale. This is something that smaller companies cannot afford to offer.

And hire a marketing person who can take other approaches to promote your affiliate program apart from cj, clickbank or shareasale.com. A good marketing guy can target smaller hosting forums, web master forums to promote your affiliate program.

I would look at running an in house affilate system and purchase a good affiliate software and start there. shaeasale.com have quote a few webhost on there with their affilate programs. I guess the market can get crowed.

I like hostingcertified view and start targeting small forums and such, not a bad idea.

I haven`t used the company I`m about to suggest for webhosting affiliate program but I have for other subscription services. Click2sell.com have many diverse ways of allowing you to pay your affiliates and don`t charge a set up fee. They only take a 1 to 3 dollar commission fee after the sale. When you have your affiliate program set up search google for affiliate announcer. This will allow you to `advertise` your affilate program to other websites who promote affiliate programs, some just to fill up space others might take a small commission themselves if you offer a two tier affiliate program, ie; affiliate 1 signs up affiliate 2 then affiliate 2 brings in a client and receives their commission. Affiliate 1 would get a percentage of the sale from affiliate 2`s sale for bringing in affiliate 2 who actually got the sale.
If you need any more advice email me and I`ll be only to glad to help :)
By the way I`m researching these forums to find a reliable reseller hosting company which allows master reseller status so that some of my clients can become resellers themselves. Is this possible and what are my responsibilities as a web host even if the company I go with offers tech support of which I have no idea of just that I would like to do this.
Sorry for the question on top of yours, got carried away, hope my answer helps anyway.