Dreamhost temporarily increases affiliate payments for summer 2012

Dreamhost is running a summer promotion that is sweet and straight to the point: Instead of knocking a few extra bucks off the hosting price, they’re giving a little bit of love back to the affiliate who are promoting them with higher referral payouts for the next two months. This is great news for web publishers who might be dealing with the aftermath of Penguin & the generally weak economy, and it is a great reminder for those publishers who aren’t working with Dreamhost yet that this is a great advertising program that really treats its affiliate right.

How does the affiliate program work?

Well, the simple version is that you sell hosting and get paid. The details are a little trickier, but it gives you some room to work with.

The first step, of course, is to sign up for their affiliate program or, if you have a hosting account with Dreamhost already, you can get your affiliate link right from your web control panel under the “Rewards” heading.

Any time a new hosting customer uses your affiliate link or refers to your email address when signing up, you will get paid up to $97 (or $110 until mid-September 2012). Here’s the catch: You can share your commission with the customer in the form of a promo code. For example, you can increase your sales by offering $10 off a new hosting plan, and you will still make $87 when someone signs up with that deal. As the affiliate, you create the coupon codes and decide exactly how to split the referral bonus with your potential customers.

From mid-July to mid-September, you are earning $110 per sale, so you can give $50 away to a new customer and still pocket $60 for yourself!  You can apply these rewards directly to your hosting account, buy some stuff like mugs and mousepads from the Dreamhost shop, or just take the cash straight through Paypal or a check delivered monthly to your door.

The sale that keeps on selling

Not only does Dreamhost’s low price and relative customer satisfaction ensure that the sales keep coming in, you can also earn secondary-level referrals for those people who sign up under you and then make their own sales. While you will only get like $5 in rewards for these secondary sales, it is still a nice little incentive for affiliates to work together and scout for potential new sellers. Most new customers won’t participate actively in the affiliate program, but when they do it is a nice little bonus!

Now, get signed up!

Whether you need an extra hosting plan or just the extra income of an advertiser who pays well and treats their affiliates right, you need to check out Dreamhost. Of course, if you are thinking of expanding your hosting, make sure to grab one of those promo codes from over here before you pay full price.

Once you’re set up, or if you have any questions, just drop me an email or IM for some tips and pointers on getting started. After all, if you’re signing up to Dreamhost through my website, I’ve got a lot of incentive to make sure you are also successful in your own affiliate attempts!