Affiliate Terms

 
  

On June 26, 2014, Bluehost’s Affiliate Program Terms were updated and reorganized to clarify the terms of the program. Please note that the revised terms will require all affiliates to reach the USD$100 referral fee minimum threshold within twelve months of the first Qualified Purchase they refer to Bluehost. The updated terms are effective on June 30, 2014.

The Bluehost Inc. ("Bluehost" or "Company" or "we") affiliate program (the "Affiliate Program") is designed to help you generate income in exchange for referring new hosting clients to Bluehost. These Affiliate Program Terms (the "Affiliate Agreement") are a contract between Bluehost and you (the "Affiliate" or "you"), and it governs the terms and conditions of your participation in the Affiliate Program.
BY REGISTERING AS AN AFFILIATE YOU ARE AGREEING TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE AFFILIATE PROGRAM.

1. #

   Payment Requirements:

   1. As a Bluehost affiliate, you may accrue a one-time referral fee for each purchase of a hosting account that you refer to Bluehost that meets the definition of a "Qualified Purchase" and the requirements set forth herein. A "Qualified Purchase" is the purchase of Bluehost's hosting services by a new and unique customer who: (i) clicks on an affiliate tracking link, (ii) completes the signup process within ninety (90) days of clicking on the affiliate tracking link, (iii) maintains an active account with Bluehost for a minimum of ninety (90) days; and (iv) did not transfer from a Bluehost partner or related company.
      
   2. Affiliate accounts must be active at the time of the referral. No referral fee will accrue for sales that occurred before your participation in the Affiliate Program.
      
   3. # In order for affiliate referrals to accrue and be eligible for your first referral fee payment, you must (i) reach a minimum threshold of USD$100 (the "Minimum Threshold") in referral fees within twelve (12) months of the first Qualified Purchase you refer to Bluehost; and (ii) provide Bluehost with all relevant tax and address documentation, as further discussed herein. The Minimum Threshold only applies to the first payment issued to you under the Affiliate Program. All subsequent referral fees or credits for Qualified Purchases will accrue and only become payable once you have provided all relevant tax and address documentation.
      
   4. # You are solely responsible for keeping all information up to date including postal and email addresses, name, payment information, tax information and any other personal information that will impact the ability to issue a valid payment. Each Affiliate is required to submit an accurate and up to date W-8/W-9 tax form. If you have not submitted a tax form, we have provided some of the most commonly required tax forms under the "Tax Form" tab located in the "Settings" tab in the affiliate portal for your convenience. If we do not receive the necessary tax or payment information from you within ninety (90) days of a Qualified Purchase that would otherwise trigger a referral fee, such referral fee shall not accrue and no resulting referral fee will be owed with respect to such Qualified Purchase. Your tax information is required to be on file in order for your referral fees to accrue and become payable.
      
   5. Affiliates are solely responsible for ensuring that all payee information is accurate and up to date in the affiliate system. Bluehost is not responsible for any lost or stolen payments.
      
   6. Missing or untracked affiliate referrals must be reported during the then current referral period (either between the 1st and the 15th of the month or between the 16th and the end of the month) and will be credited to your account at our sole discretion, provided that such credit has accrued pursuant to the terms contained herein. Referrals that are not reported during the then current referral period will not be credited to your account.
      
   7. The affiliate referral fees are determined approximately 45 days after the end of the month in which the Qualified Purchase is recorded. Payments are then processed and sent to Affiliates between the 16th of the month and the last day of the month. EXAMPLE: A Qualified Purchase recorded in January will be sent to the Affiliate between March 16th and March 31st.
      
   8. Payments are sent using the PayPal mass payment system. Bluehost pays for the transaction fee associated with the mass payment system. You are required to supply a PayPal address to receive payments. If you would prefer to receive payments by check, you must notify Bluehost and payments will be sent to the address you provide. Please note that payments by check take up to an additional thirty (30) days to arrive. For larger affiliates with balances of over USD$10,000 per month, Bluehost offers a wire transfer option. To update your payment information, please contact the affiliate department.
      
   9. In the event that Bluehost re-issues any payment, a USD$35 charge will apply and be deducted from the Affiliate's earnings.
      
   10. Affiliates are responsible for making sure they are able to accept payments. Please ensure that your bank or PayPal account can accept payments from US-based companies.
       
   11. Affiliates are responsible for any and all fees, taxes, exchange rates, surcharges and other expenses incurred in order to receive their referral fees. Please check with your local banking institution or PayPal to find out if any of these apply for your account.
       
   12. Because of the high frequency of credit card fraud and cancellation rates, Bluehost reserves the right to hold referral fees for up to two (2) additional months for verification. At Bluehost's sole discretion, we reserve the right to cancel referral fees in the event that we are unable to collect funds, the order is fraudulent, the customer cancels within the first ninety (90) days, or if we learn that the referral fee was earned improperly for any other reason.
       
   13. Bluehost will be using the URL Pink.host to raise awareness for Breast Cancer Awareness. We will not pay affiliate bounties on any referrals sent to Pink.host and will instead donate a portion of the bounty to Huntsman Cancer Institute (http://healthcare.utah.edu/huntsmancancerinstitute/).
       
2. #

   Reversals:

   1. If a referred customer initially purchases a hosting package with a term of at least one (1) year and then downgrades their hosting package to a term of less than one (1) year within one (1) year of their initial purchase, the applicable referral fees paid to the Affiliate will be reversed and deducted from future earnings.
      
   2. Referred customers that issue a chargeback or are found to be fraudulent (e.g. false information, fake/stolen credit cards, selling counterfeit goods etc.), as determined in Bluehost's sole discretion, will be reversed regardless of the amount of time that has passed since the signup occurred.
      
   3. Customers using non-standard rates (rates not available through the Affiliate Program) are not eligible for affiliate referral fees, as determined at Bluehost's sole discretion. Non-standard rates include but are not limited to: sales, promotions, email offers, prepaid accounts and discounted pricing offered for educational, government, non-profit or charity organizations.
      
3. #

   Affiliate Restrictions and Responsibilities:

   1. Affiliates MAY NOT offer cash back, rewards or other incentives to drive traffic/sales via their affiliate tracking links.
      
   2. Affiliates MAY NOT use traffic that is generated by pay to click, pay to read, banner exchanges, click exchanges, CPV advertising, pop-up/under, SPAM, purchased traffic or similar methods.
      
   3. Affiliates MAY NOT use cookie stuffing techniques that set the tracking cookie without the user actually clicking on the referral link (for example a 1x1 pixel iframe).
      
   4. Affiliates MAY NOT bid on or use Bluehost's trademark, trademark +, or misspelled keywords for the purpose of PPC on Internet search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask etc.).
      
   5. Affiliates MAY NOT use Bluehost's trademark, trademark +, or misspelled keywords in their domain names.
      
   6. Affiliates are responsible for ensuring their tracking code is working properly before sending traffic to Bluehost's servers. Any modification to the links is the sole responsibility of the Affiliate. Referral fees may not be paid for tracking errors caused by editing, masking, redirecting or tampering with affiliate links, as determined in Bluehost's sole discretion.
      
   7. Affiliates MAY NOT use redirected pages and links to send a user to our site. For example, you may not have a PPC link on a search engine that redirects the user to our site.
      
   8. Domain forwarding is prohibited -- you may not purchase a domain and set it to forward directly to our site using your affiliate link.
      
   9. Affiliates MAY NOT copy Bluehost's website or any portions thereof, including, without limitation, any of Bluehost's trademarks or other intellectual property, and display them on their own site or subdomain or use them in any way without Bluehost's prior express written permission.
      
   10. Affiliates MAY NOT engage in the advertisement of business-opportunity sites or use marketing practices that attract fraudulent or short-term customers (customers with low retention and renewal rates) which shall be determined at our sole discretion.
       
4. #

   FTC Disclosure Policy:

   1. It is our intent to treat our customers fairly. Accordingly, we require all Bluehost affiliates to comply fully with all applicable laws, regulations and guidelines concerning advertising and marketing, including without limitation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Endorsement Guides (See the FTC Endorsement Guide for more information.), which require that material connections between advertisers and endorsers be disclosed. This means that all affiliate websites (e.g. directories, review/rating sites, blogs and other websites) and any email or collateral that provide an endorsement or assessment of Bluehost, must prominently disclose the fact that you may receive compensation for referring customers to Bluehost.
      
   2. For more information and suggestions about how to comply with these guidelines, please click the "FTC Disclosure" tab under the Terms tab when logged in to your affiliate account. Please note that the FTC Disclosure page is only intended to provide guidance. It does not purport to provide legal advice and it does not guarantee that you will be in compliance with FTC regulations if you follow the suggestions presented. You are advised to seek and obtain your own legal advice on how these rules apply to your website or other promotional activities for which you receive compensation.
      
   3. At our sole discretion, we reserve the right to withhold referral fees and/or terminate the affiliate relationship for your failure to comply with Bluehost's FTC disclosure policy or with any other applicable regulations or guidelines, as determined by Bluehost at our sole discretion.
      
5. #

   Deactivation:

   1. Affiliate accounts may be deactivated at any time without warning or notice at our sole discretion. Any affiliate who violates Bluehost's Terms of Service, including without limitation, these Affiliate Program Terms, or any applicable law is subject to having their affiliate account deactivated immediately, and any and all accrued, but not yet received, referral fees will be forfeited.
      
   2. In our sole discretion, any false or misleading advertising or suspected fraudulent activity associated with your affiliate account will result in immediate deactivation.
      
   3. Affiliate accounts generating a large number of fraudulent accounts, as determined in our sole discretion, will be deactivated.
      
   4. Affiliates may not resell hosting. All referred customers must provide their own payment method and contact information to be a Qualified Purchase. If Bluehost determines in its sole discretion that an Affiliate is reselling hosting, the affiliate account will be immediately deactivated.
      
   5. If you would like to discontinue your participation in the Affiliate Program at any time, simply remove your affiliate links from your website and no longer promote them. For accounting purposes, our systems will retain your account and personal information.
      
6. #

   Changes:

   1. Bluehost may change any of the terms and conditions in this Affiliate Agreement, in whole or in part, at any time at Bluehost's sole discretion. Unless otherwise provided, such modifications will take effect when posted on Bluehost's website and apply to all referral fees that have not yet accrued. If we make any significant changes to this Affiliate Agreement, we will post a notice on this page for at least thirty (30) days after the changes are posted and will indicate at the bottom of this Affiliate Agreement the date of the last revision. In addition, Bluehost will use reasonable efforts to provide you with seven (7) days advance notice of any changes that materially impact your participation in the Affiliate Program. Unless otherwise provided, your continued participation in the Affiliate Program following our posting of any modification on our website will constitute your acceptance of all changes. If you do not agree to any such changes, your sole and exclusive remedy is to deactivate your account as described above.
      

If you have any questions regarding our Affiliate Program, please open a Ticket in the Affiliate queue or call us toll free at 888-401-4678
Thank You,
Bluehost