Buying from your own Affiliate Links

[athlon24]

have you tried to buy something in your own affiliate links? Do they give commission on your purchase? For example, I have bluehost referral and I used that to purchase web host, will they give me the commission?

[slee]

it really depends on who you have affilliate links with. you will need to read their rules. generally in my experience you can buy from your own affilliate links as they just want to get sales but make sure you read their rules first.

[akira07]

@atlhon24
funny idea, why you not try it? I think it's allowed, because what their looking for is a sales, and i think commision still received

[fayans]

Interesting! Why haven't I thought of this before? Logically speaking, I don't think they will pay you using your own affiliate link. I could be wrong though...

[athlon24]

the reason I am asking is to be sure. i want to save some cash. I'll be buying a web hosting with unlimited domain, bandwidth and storage. I know bluehost and hostgator are the best out there but I want to know if I will get a commission if I purchase it with my own link. anyone tried it in those two web host?

[sarahG]

It depends on the company. Can't speak for bluehost although anyone who says 'unlimited bandwidth and storage' is not very professional if you ask me - no hard drive is unlimited and I'd rather not be on a shared server where even just one person tries to use 'unlimited' anything.

However, in regards to affiliate links, you just need to read the terms and if necessary contact the company to be sure. Either that or get a friend to sign up and buy through their link. Give them a cut of the income perhaps.

[athlon24]

Either that or get a friend to sign up and buy through their link. Give them a cut of the income perhaps.

That is a good idea, maybe I will try that.

So Sarah, you don't favor using unlimited storage? What can you suggest then? What is your web host?

[Donace]

I recall hostgator allowing it when I was setting up a a prize giveaway..i.e. i brought a package and gave it away.

But as has been said double check with bluehost.

[athlon24]

@Donace
so you mean, you actually get your commission in hostgator when you purchase to them?

[Swtrose]

have you tried to buy something in your own affiliate links? Do they give commission on your purchase? For example, I have bluehost referral and I used that to purchase web host, will they give me the commission?

I would sooner purchase from someone else's link and help them out.

[athlon24]

@Swtrose
You are very much welcome to use my link if you purchase, just give me a buzz or even not :D

[sarahG]

So Sarah, you don't favor using unlimited storage? What can you suggest then? What is your web host?

My hosts are based in the UK so I don't think they'll deal with anyone outside the UK, sorry.

As mentioned, no unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth doesn't exist. A server is just a big computer (sometimes not even that much better spec'd than your own computer) running server software. It has a harddrive and that harddrive has a limit, so how can it be unlimited?

You will also get terms within these offers as no hosting company can continually upgrade a harddrive to keep space available, even if they could, would you want your site going down on every upgrade?

Look for a decent host that offers a suitable amount of space and bandwidth for what they're charging. In US dollars that should be around $50 for 100-200mb of space and 1-2GB of bandwidth. Anything cheaper and the host will have to oversell or cram on so many sites that your site becomes even more dependent on everyone else. More sites means the potential for more vulnerabilities and security holes.

I've lost a weekend to fixing and cleaning up client sites because another site on the server had a security hole in it. It's not fun. I doubt you want your site to go offline or be hacked due to a neighbouring site.

[athlon24]

You are saying that there is no unlimited thing in web hosting. But Hostgator and BlueHost are offering just that. How they keep up with the unlimited thing? I'm not quite sure. Hmmm.

So you are actually suggesting that it's better for me to purchase a dedicated server with exact amount of storage and exact amount of bandwidth?

[Donace]

re: the unlimited HDD issue, there are some (of the bigger hosts) that use SAN storage etc and therefore in theory it is possible to have 'unlimited'. Without knowing more about hostgator/bluehost I cannot comment on their setup.

In regards of a dedicated...if you have the know how it is the best way to go, I personally like the look of ovh.co.uk for £25 a month you can get a decent dedicated. I have one on a trial now and if it works out I will probably port my site over.

@athalon, yes I did get my commission as I paid for 3 months (using a special voucher to get a bit of discount) netting me nice profit in exchange for the 'prizes'. Of which I think the winners extended their hosting.

[athlon24]

@donace, what do you mean by special voucher? and you say, you got your commission? from hostgator or bluehost?

[Kevin]

it really depends on who you have affilliate links with. you will need to read their rules. generally in my experience you can buy from your own affilliate links as they just want to get sales but make sure you read their rules first.

I agree. Some companies encourage users to use their affiliate link, some don't mind and some will ban you from their affiliate program if you try and buy using your own link ie. it really depends on the terms and conditions.

[Donace]

@athlon, from hostgator.. the voucher was for first month hosting at $0.01, and yes I got he commission, I cleared it with the affiliate department and got it in writing before I commenced just to be extra safe ;)

Best option contact them and save all correspondence, and screenshot any 'livechats' JUST in case it turns pearshape because the rep was uninformed your legally covered then. (wont go into legal knitgrit now).

[ap4a]

It's impossible to provide unlimited server space and bandwidth, or anything else, no matter what the host says or what technology the use. We live in a world limited by scarce resources and hosts aren't able to create those resources from nothing. Instead what they rely on is people being caught up in the promise of unlimited resources and buying in to it, but never needing it which then permits them to oversell the resources they do have. It's a gamble on their part, if every client used the resources supposedly available they would quickly crash. That's why they have acceptable usage policies whereby they can kick you off for trying to use what you pay for.

It's a con, plain and simple.

[sarahG]

You are saying that there is no unlimited thing in web hosting. But Hostgator and BlueHost are offering just that. How they keep up with the unlimited thing? I'm not quite sure. Hmmm.

So you are actually suggesting that it's better for me to purchase a dedicated server with exact amount of storage and exact amount of bandwidth?

No I never mentioned a dedicated server. If you want to get one of those then you need a fair bit of cash behind you for a decent server. Shared hosting is fine, but paying out say $20 a year for unlimited space and bandwidth is only going to cause you problems and $20 is less than an hour of work so your support is hardly going to be great for that price, especially once you need it more than once.

Unless you're going to swamp your site(s) with videos or massive software then it's unlikely you'll need 'unlimited' space. And unless you expect to be getting thousands of visitors a day, it's unlikely you'll need the unlimited bandwidth either. Check your stats, see how much you're using at present and get something similar or with a bit of room for expansion. Most decent hosts will allow you to upgrade so upgrade when you need it.

[Swtrose]

I don't plan on switching host. I have never been happier. No down time.;)

[athlon24]

Ok. I'm convinced now. I will not got for unlimited bandwidth for my blogs.

@Swtrose
What's your host? How big is it's storage and bandwidth? How much is the monthly cost?

[wahmsuzanne]

This whole idea is an interesting one ... for me it really depends on the product and the company ... and WHERE I heard about the product and such.

If I follow a blog and that blogger has taught me a great deal about a product or service and at some point I decide to purchase ... they've EARNED my business and they deserve the commission. If I were to get set up as an affilaite ... and circumvent their affiliate link to purchase ... I would feel pretty lousy about it. Just remember karam and what comes around goes around ... If you want to make a living as an affiliate ... don't you want to EARN your reader's "business"?

I promote BANS (the eBay affiliate software) on my blog and I am willing to help anyone who needs help. I once had a gal send me about 15 emails asking detailed questions ... I spent hours or days answering them (screenshot, etc.) and she purchased the software through her own link. She sent me several more emails asking detailed questions ... and although I tend to bend over backwards for others ... I didn't spend nearly as much time helping her as I would've if she had used my links.

So for me it does depend on the product and the situation. *SmiLes* Suzanne

[Swtrose]

Ok. I'm convinced now. I will not got for unlimited bandwidth for my blogs.

@Swtrose
What's your host? How big is it's storage and bandwidth? How much is the monthly cost?

http://www.visionthishosting.com

Well I have Corporate Blog Hosting, which is $30.99 a month.

I receive 4000 MB of Hard Disk Space. and 100 GB of Monthly Data Transfer.

They do offer personal blog hosting for $4.99 a month.

[athlon24]

@Swtrose
wow, It cost a lot for 4GB. I cannot afford something like that.
I tried to visit the site but there is no indication how much space they offer for the blog hosting. Any idea?

[sarahG]

And you're never going to need 4GB of space for a standard blog site, unless you intend to post up a video every week.

I have a reseller account with 500MB of space and 10GB of monthly bandwidth and I use less than half of that for around 10 sites, 4 of which are blogs, one is a photo blog.

Can you not see the stats that your site currently uses. You can find out how large your site is by checking downloading a copy and checking the file size in windows if necessary. Use some sort of stats program (ideally one from your host) to see your bandwidth. Then buy a package that will cover that and perhaps just a little more at first. Go with a host that doesn't quibble if you want to upgrade, and then you just upgrade to a larger package of space and b/w when you need to.

Don't pay out unnecessarily.

[athlon24]

I found one web host, it's 3ix.com. it's only $1/month. it offers 10Gb space and 20GB bandwidth. Did anyone tried web host before? I think it's a fair trade for me as of now because I only have 1 blog and I'll just upgrade later if I needed to add a domain on it.

[sarahG]

I'd do a bit of a search on a cheapo company just to be on the safe side. $12 a year will cover around 5 minutes of support time. Also, if you use 10GB of space, and say the server has a 200GB harddrive in, that's a possible 20 sites on a server, at $1 a month each, is $20. Most decent servers cost at least $100 a month to run.

Also, a quick search and http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/3ixorg-c69202.html

So no, I wouldn't trust them with my own site.

Your best option is to get recommendations from people who are already using a company and have been for a few months/years. There's a number of sites with forums specific to hosting - webhostingtalk.com (I think) is one of them.

[slee]

i second what Sarah is saying. i would never go with a company who say they provide you with unlimited anything. if you started using lots of bandwidth they will surely try and charge you more eventually

[ap4a]

You have to use a bit of common sense when buying on the internet, and try to separate the good deals from the cons. Think about it for a second, do people honestly think that intelligent people would spend $30+ a month on 4GB hosting if the $1 a month for 10GB hosts were any good? The short answer is no they wouldn't. Good deals are a little cheaper than the norm, not drastically cheaper with unsustainable offers.

Next time you see hosting for a dollar have a think about how they come to that cost - how much does the computer hardware cost? The cables connecting the computer to the net? The bandwidth cost? To put it in perspective - how much did your computer cost, and how much is your broadband? Could you get a legitimate deal on that for $1 a month? If not, don't expect a host to be able to either.

[Swtrose]

My blog gets a lot of traffic too. I receive 47, 289 visits last month alone.

My blog is also hosted on my main site http://www.todays-woman.net.


Here is the info you asked for............

* 1000 MB of Hard Disk Space.
* 15 GB of Monthly Data Transfer.
* PHP 4 or PHP 5
* cPanel X with Fantastico
* 5 Email Account
* 10 SQL Databases
* Starting at $4.99 per month

or

* 500 MB of Hard Disk Space.
* 10 GB of Monthly Data Transfer.
* PHP 4 & PHP 5
* cPanel X with Fantastico
* 1 Email Account
* 1 SQL Databases
* Starting at $2.99 per month

[athlon24]

:eek: now i am really messed up. I'm reading all of the stuff. reviews and etc. now i don't know where to host my site. I was even thinking to leave it as it is in my free web hosting. I don't really have much budget and I can't spend $5/month in hosting. :eek: and the thing is, I only have 2 sites as of now. Both in free web host.

[sarahG]

Why do you want to move from your free host? Are you too restricted there or is there another reason?

The packages that swtrose posted up were pretty cheap for reasonable hosting but they come recommended so you can trust them, but again, do you need 500mb of space per site or for even 2 sites (you may be able to get the option of an Add On domain which means you can run two sites under one hosting package).

If you have no major reason to move hosts then save up for a while and stick where you are for now. If you can't afford $5 a month then concentrate on ways to earn $5 a month and then look at moving.

[athlon24]

I think, the free web host that I am using right now is too slow to load and there are frequent downtimes. there are intervals where I usually get a SQL database error. and I'm getting tired of it. i found 3ix to be cheap but review says, its not good. :(

[sarahG]

I understand. Well I think you'll find similar problems with any cheap host as, as explained, they will need to oversell their cheap accounts to cover their costs and time, and make a profit, which means probably double the number of sites that a server should have. More sites means more space taken up (on average), more bandwidth being used and the potential for more downtime and connection issues.

However, your new thread asking for recommendations is a good move to at least get a few companies to look at that you know are well recommended.

[Swtrose]

The packages that swtrose posted up were pretty cheap for reasonable hosting but they come recommended so you can trust them



You can't trust them, because they come recommended? Well that's a first. I'll have to disagree with you there Sarah.

Your new thread asking for recommendations is a good move to at least get a few companies to look at that you know are well recommended.

I'm confused. Above you said that "The packages that swtrose posted up were pretty cheap for reasonable hosting but they come recommended so you can trust them."

Now you've said :get a few companies to look at that you know are well recommended."

Which one is it.

The second statement is a contradiction of the first.

[sarahG]

I said 'they come recommended so you can trust them'

ie. You can trust the packages (despite being quite cheap) because they come well recommended.

My comments don't contradict each other because they both are along the same lines.

I think you've misread what I posted?

[athlon24]

in addition to the one submitted in my new thread, I'm trying to read some reviews and and i think sarahG is right, when she said that all unlimited offers are problematic. Because I observed that all reviews are good until such time that the web host offered unlimited. I still don't have a decision yet, but now, I have ideas, thanks to all.

[sarahG]

Relax girls.. :D chill off. :D :p

I realise you may not mean it but that's pretty patronising. We're both older than you for a start. And my reply was perfectly fine, just pointing out that Rose misread my post.

[athlon24]

oooppss, sorry.. my bad. won't happen again..

[Swtrose]

I said 'they come recommended so you can trust them'

ie. You can trust the packages (despite being quite cheap) because they come well recommended.

My comments don't contradict each other because they both are along the same lines.

I think you've misread what I posted?

That I did. My most sincere apologies. I think I need more sleep. lol I read can as can't. Soooo sorry!

I realise you may not mean it but that's pretty patronising. We're both older than you for a start. And my reply was perfectly fine, just pointing out that Rose misread my post.

That I did. Thank you for pointing that out Sarah.

Rose puts the dunce cap on and sits in the corner.:o

[sarahG]

That I did. My most sincere apologies. I think I need more sleep. lol I read can as can't. Soooo sorry!

It's easily done. I had to reread my reply to be certain I'd not made a typing error! ;)

[samevil]

Interesting topic indeed...

[kocharvimal]

lol...your brain works on the other side than that of normal people...i don't know if it works or not..but if it does...do tell me..lol