Bluehost Affiliate Program: behind the scenes

Bluehost Affiliate Program: behind the scenes

Bluehost affiliate program

Bluehost affiliate program is a simple way for you to earn a commission and for the web hosting platform to gain new customers. The service awards affiliates who refer new customers by promoting the webhost’s products.

By partnering with an affiliate program from Bluehost, you can boost your passive income exponentially. It is one of the simplest ways you can earn a substantial commission – if a customer spends $3.95, you can make $65. Be aware that you will only get that amount each time a customer purchases 12 to 36 months of hosting using your unique affiliate link.

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Disclosure

Full transparency: Please note, that this blog post contains my personalized Bluehost affiliate link/s. This means that, at NO additional cost to you, if you click the link and choose to make a purchase, I might earn a commission.
I do recommend certain products to you not because of the affiliate commissions rather than they are helpful, useful, and make my life easier to run Passive Income Boost.


Thank you for your support!

Also known as ‘associate / partner program’, affiliate program is basically an arrangement through which an online merchant pays an affiliate one a commission in exchange for online traffic and/or conversion. In other words, an affiliate website owner is only paid after a sale is made due to the link. This is what you can do with Bluehost affiliate marketing, but first, you need to understand what this passive income source entails.

Bluehost Affiliate Program unique tracking system

When you sign up for a Bluehost affiliate program, you will receive a dedicated affiliate link that will be unique to you. For example, the personalized Bluehost affiliate link looks like this:

https://www.bluehost.com/track/uniquelink/

You then have to place it on your blog or website as links or as banners. Each time a user clicks on Bluehost affiliate link or banner, they will be directed to the Bluehost website.
If the customer purchases a product through the link, the sale will be registered in your name and you will get a Bluehost affiliate program commission as a reward.
Like any other affiliate program, Bluehost affiliate links are also tracked to determine the commission each affiliate generated with their promotional efforts.

The best benefit of Bluehost affiliate program is that it tracks cookies for 30 days. In other words, even if a user buys a hosting plan within 30 days of clicking on the affiliate link, you will get paid. So even if you are able to sell more than 100 products in a month, you can increase the commission you get per sale. This is beneficial because if you take out PayPal and currency conversion charges, you don’t get the exact amount of the commission you earn.

Bluehost Affiliate Program promoted products

Bluehost sells three types of hosting plans, which you can promote as an affiliate with them. These are:

  • Shared Hosting ($3.95/month) – This is a basic hosting plan for blogs and websites. It has everything a user would need to get started. It includes a user-friendly dashboard, which is often promoted in affiliate programs that are directed towards new users.
  • VPS Hosting ($19.99/month) – These include the use of VPS or virtual private servers for large websites that have powerful features. In other words, this service allows users to run a server the way they want to. This option is scalable and is great for websites that get moderate to high traffic.
  • Dedicated Hosting ($79.99/month) – These include personalized servers that use a lot of power, up time and security. It is great for websites that experience high traffic.

How to join Bluehost Affiliate Program

The Bluehost affiliate program is FREE to join, doesn’t require much technical skills and takes just a few minutes to sign up for. All that you will need is the following:

  • your own website
  • an email address
  • PayPal account.

If you don’t have a PayPal account, you can get the commissions you earned wire transferred to your location. However, this option can only be availed once your balance exceeds $10,000 per month.

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Step 1 - Visit Bluehost.com

Once on home page, scroll down to the bottom of the page and from the footer menu under programs click on "Affiliates"

bluehost affiliate program

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Step 2 - Join the Bluehost Affiliate Program 

On this page you can read more deatils about Bluehost affiliate program and once you are all excited click on "Sigh Up"

bluehost affiliate program sign up

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Step 3 - Fill out the Affiliate Signup form

On the next page, the Bluehost Affiliate Signup form, you will be asked to provide the following info:

  • Account username (cannot be change once selected)
  • Password to be use to login to the Bluehost Affiliate dashboard
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Phone number
  • Address
  • Email address
  • Primary URL - your website address
  • PayPal Email Address - in order to receive your commission
  • Read and Accept affiliate terms

Once finished filling out the form click on "Sign up".

Bluehost Signup Affiliate Program form

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Step 4 - Get your Bluehost Affiliate approval

After your Bluehost Affiliate application is reviewed and approved you will receive a welcome email with the following:


  • your Bluehost affiliate account login  
  • your Bluehost affiliate  personalized tracking link

Congratulations!


You are a step closer to start making passive income online.

Bluehost Affiliate account login

Bluehost Affiliate Program partner's interface

The user name and password you entered into the form will be your Bluehost affiliate program login or Bluehost affiliate login credentials. Once you log in, these are the basic elements that you will see:

  • Dashboard
  • Stats - pay period; campaigns; refeering links; payout history; acquisition details
  • Links - banners; widgets
  • Settings - account; tax form; api
  • Terms
  • Help

Bluehost Affiliate Program Dashboard

The "dashboard" tab is where you can see a bird’s eye view of your Bluehost partner's  account, including:

  • referring links
  • high performing campaigns 
  • payment information

For example, take this screenshot of the dashboard as an example.

bluehost affiliate program partners dashboard

Here you can set the date range to track your earnings, signups and the total number of clicks you get. At the bottom, you can see the links you are using to promote the web host and at the very bottom is a bar, which tells you how well your best links (the ones that are converting the most) are performing.

Bluehost Affiliate Program Stats

The "stats" tab is where you can see more details about your Bluehost partner's  account, including:

  • pay period information
  • campaigns details
  • referring links
  • payout history
  • acquisition details

Pay period information

This summarizes your earnings according to a two-week pay period.

bleuhost affilaite program stats pay period

Campaigns

You can track how well your campaigns are doing using this section of your account. This includes the number of clicks each receives and the total percentage of all signups along with a total amount. In addition, you can export the "campaigns" details in the "pdf" or "csv" formats.

bluehost affiliate partner program Campaigns

Referring Links

Here you can see the number of clicks you get from different links and campaigns along with the total signups. In addition, you can export the "referring links" details in the "pdf" or "csv" formats.

Bluehost affiliate partners program referring links

Payout History

Your payout history is basically a review of all of your signups and it also allows you to check payments and keep them on track. In addition, you can export the "payout history" details in the "pdf" or "csv" formats.

bluehost affiliate partners program payment history

Acquisition Details

Determine which promotions are working better than others by examining the domains that are bought via your tracking link. In addition, you can export the "acquisition details" details in the "pdf" or "csv" formats.

Bluehost affiliate partners program acquisition details

Bluehost Affiliate Program Links

The "links" tab is where you can find more details about your Bluehost partner's  tracking link. Bluehost provided pre-built scripts with your personal tracking code embedded. You can utilize different campaigns and promote them using:

  • banners
  • widgets

Banners

Bluehost also offers a range of banners to affiliate marketers which they can add to their website. All you need to do is copy and paste the provided link to the site. You can even customize the banner according to your design preferences. Currently, there are 33 banners with the following image dimensions:

  • small
  • wide
  • tall
Bluehost affilaite partners parogram banners

Affiliate widgets

You will need to download the Bluehost Affiliate WordPress plugin if you want to put up banners on your site. The widget "The Responsive Domain Name Checker" allows users to check domains without leaving your website so they can buy an available domain directly.

bluehost affiliate partners program widgets

Bluehost Affiliate Program Settings

The "settings" tab allows you make the following changes to:

  • account
  • tax form
  • API

Account

Here you can find your Bluehost Affiliate login information - username, change your password, update your account information, request payment change, change mailing options. In addition, if you wish, your can use this page to delete your Bluehost Affiliate Account.

Bluehost affiliate program account

Tax form

This is one of the Bluehost affiliate program requirements that international users have to adhere to. This will help you determine which tax form you need to complete, whether you are a US citizen or not. Otherwise, you cannot be paid as an affiliate.

Bluehost affiliate program tax form

API

API or Application Program Interface is basically for affiliate marketers who have been working as Bluehost affiliates for a while and have been quite successful at it. The interface allows them to make and manage their own reporting stats for personalized campaigns.

Bluehost affiliate program api

Bluehost Affiliate Program Terms

The "terms" tab has the Bluehost's term and conditions.

Bluehost Affiliate Program Help

The "help" has answers to most frequently asked questions and provides additional information and resources about Bluehost affiliate program.

How to promote Bluehost using affiliate marketing

Once you became Bluehost affiliate, after applying and getting approved for best hosting Bluehost Affiliate Program and it's time to promote it using your personalized Bluehost Affiliate link. As a Bluehost Affiliate partner, you can use the following  best affiliate practices to succeed.

1.

Create Blog Posts Promoting Bluehost

Write and promote honest Bluehost reviews about the hosting site and the products they offer on your personal blog or as a guest blogger. This includes the packages they offer, how much money users may save down the line and how using Bluehost will improve their online presence.

2.

Record "How to" Video Tutorials

Video tutorials can give potential customers a hands-on experience of using Bluehost that can compel them to sign up. For example, you can create a step-by-step tutorial on how dedicated hosting works and how it can help them increase online traffic to their blog or affiliate content or how it can help them save money.

Make sure the tutorials are simple to understand though. If you use technical terms, make sure you explain all of them in simple terms. Otherwise, you will lose viewers in droves.

3.

Consider using Email Marketing

Add a form to your blog or your website to collect as many email subscribers as you can for your affiliate. However, make sure you send them relevant content or a number of them will hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button.

For example, you can send them a video tutorial or an ebook that details Bluehost’s hosting products (WordPress hosting, shared hosting, VPS hosting etc), with your Bluehost Affiliate link embeded in the body of the email, when they sign up for your email list.

4.

Use Social Media

Social media can give you informal platforms where you can promote your affiliate links without seeming pushy. You have to take a subtle approach though. For example, most social media users will be put off by blatant affiliate links. Thus, rather than using the official affiliate link, use a redirect link which is cleaner in comparison. A clean and simple link will attract more clicks.

Similarly, make sure that you are active on platforms where you are promoting Bluehost. Reply to comments on your posts quickly, chat with potential customers and explain the products the affiliate offers in detail and share your experince. The more engaged you are, the higher the chances for conversions.

5.

Include in your resource page

Resource page can be a great place to promote all of the products that you use in your online business. 

6.

Offline recommendation

Do you trust your family? How about your friends, neighbors, co-workers? Do they trust you? If they are, why not recommend them the Bluehost hosting services?

FTC rules / Disclosure

To ensure a trustworthy relationship between consumers and merchants, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) came up with a disclosure policy. This essentially states that all affiliate marketers have to disclose their role in promoting the merchants, products and brands that are displayed on their website. As a Bluehost affiliate, you are NOT exempt from this rule.

The disclosure has to be easy to see, frequent and clear. Plus, it has to be on every page where there is a review, recommendation, comment or article that promotes Bluehost services and products and for which you receive commissions. The best thing to do is describe your relationship with the company whether you are an employee and whether you just get commission for sales.

There are NO EXCEPTIONS to the FTC disclosure policy. The good news is that the rule can work in your favor. It can prevent you from ruining relationships with consumers and erode their confidence in you. Clear and visible disclosures benefit both advertisers and consumers.

Bluehost Affiliate Program Review Summary

This Bluehost affiliate program review is far from the real thing. Benefit from your own affiliate campaign today by signing up to the platform and take the first step to generate passive income online.

About the author

Levi

W2 employee in the hunt for #PassiveIncome ! I am covering my journey to create a Boost in my income through: A) Passive Income Online (#AffiliateMarketing, #EmailMarketing) B) Passive Income Offline (#RealEstateInvesting for positive cash flow).

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