Web hosting is a compulsory expense for anyone with a website. The quality and type of hosting you choose can have an impact on the usability of your website, and this can even factor into search engine rankings and visibility. But for those who are trying to keep costs down, there are more novel ways of paying these expenses.
Web hosting can be costly in some cases. For a basic website, shared hosting may be sufficient, in which case you can host a website from around $50 annually. But for anything more serious, or any commercial venture looking for professional web functionality, the costs can be much more considerable.
Especially for sites that encourage user generated content, having robust hosting in place is essential to keep your website running. Large volumes of traffic, too, can crash websites without the right hosting in place. As a result, website owners often find themselves chasing more reliable, and consequently more expensive hosting solutions.
Hosting affiliate program deals enable website owners to earn money on referrals for web hosting. These schemes are designed to encourage more business for hosting companies. By paying out an amount of money, or credit towards the referee’s hosting bill, users are incentivized to recommend their friends and business contacts for their hosting needs. The hosting company gets to pay a fixed price for acquiring a new customer, while you get to earn money toward your hosting bill.
The rate of payout on successful referral varies between different affiliate programs. But depending on the size of the hosting packages your referred contacts opt for, you may be able to earn sufficient commissions to offset the cost of your hosting package altogether. Some choose to use their commissions to pay their hosting bill, whereas others seek to generate an income from their affiliate programs for commercial reasons.
Once you have found an affiliate program that offers good quality hosting and the right schedule of payments, you can start to plan your own hosting requirements. For example, if the referral rate is $10 per new account, and your own hosting costs $80 per annum, you know you need to refer 8 contacts to the host to cover your costs.
For those who operate in IT and tech industries, this can be a good way to operate. A web designer, for instance, might even choose to refer clients to web hosting affiliates as a rule. This could provide a secondary source of revenue from those clients, while providing them with a useful service that is essential to their website.
Even for those with a wide network of associates, a personal recommendation to a web host can provide a valuable insight for those choosing a hosting provider.
Affiliate programs can be a win for both the hosting company and the website owner referring. Whether it is as a means of covering the costs of your hosting bill, or part of your wider commercial strategy, hosting affiliate programs can deliver significant benefits for those who participate.
