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The best and worst domain name affiliate programs

January 24, 2017

The best and worst domain name affiliate programs

Domain Name Affiliate Programs Reviewedby Tim white

I've rated the affiliate programs on a scale of A+ (the best) to F- (don't waste your time). Let's start with the good ones.

Namesilo = A+

These guys offer a 10% commission of the first purchase of new customers. Minimum payout is $50 and earned commissions are held for 60 days.

Pros:

You can create a custom coupon that gives a $1 discount for any domain registration or transfer.
Automatic payouts.
They email you whenever you earn a commission (the only affiliate program that does this).
You earn commissions on premium domain name purchases (again, the only affiliate program that does this).
Pays promptly on the 1st of each monthly via Paypal.
Support is quick to respond to any issues.

Cons:

You only receive a commission for a first-time order made by a new customer.
They charge a 2% fee for Paypal payouts. And Paypal is the only payout method available, besides account funds.

The big benefit to Namesilo is that their prices and support are great, so their service kind of sells itself. Plus, they pay you automatically. There's no need to go login, generate some report, and request to be paid. All affiliate programs should follow this example.

But of course it'd be nice it if they also paid commissions for more than only the 1st purchase of new customers, such as on all purchases made by new customers for 30 days, or on domain renewals.

Namecheap = A+

Namecheap's commission is 15% of the first purchase of new customers. Minimum payout is $100 and earned commissions are held for 30 days.

Pros:

No Paypal fee is deducted from your payout.

Cons:

No commission is earned for premium domain name purchases.
Very limited reporting. No refferal click reports, and the earnings report is somewhat hidden in your account's Billing section.
You have to manually request a payout once your earnings reach $100. But Namecheap usually makes the payout within the next business day.

Namecheap has a good reputation and some pretty good prices, so it's not hard to promote this company.

Netim = A+

Netim is a French domain registrar that pays commissions in euros via Paypal. The earned commission varies by TLD, but on average seem to be about 10%. Minimum payout is €50.

Pros:

Commissions are earned on all purchases the referred customer makes within 30 days.
No Paypal fee is deducted from your payout.

Cons:

You have to manually generate a report once your earnings exceed €50, and then open a support ticket requesting to be paid to your Paypal account. But Netim usually makes the payout within 1 business day.

Netim has a large selection of ccTLDs and gTLDs with very good prices, so again, it's not too difficult to refer customers to their service.

Domain.com = B+

Domain.com now offers an affiliate program through Commission Junction with varying commission levels based on the product purchased. In TLD-List's case the primary product is domain names, and the commission is 30% of each new sale. Since the affiliate program is run via Commission Junction, the minimum payout is $50, and commissions are held for 60 days.

Pros:

The 30% commission rate is very high.
Automatic payments made via bank transfer through Commission Junction.

Cons:

No commission is earned for renewals, premium domains, or sunrise domain name purchases.

I previously had a very poor experience with the Domain.com/Netfirms/Dotster affiliate programs that were run by parent company Endurance International Group, Inc. My earned commissions went unpaid for over 4 years. However, their new affiliate manager recently reached out to me, apologized, and reimbursed me for the unpaid commissions. Redemption!

Uniregistry = C

Uniregistry's affiliate commission varies by TLD, but most are 20%, and a handful are 35%. The minimum payout is $250 and earned commissions are held for 60 days.

Pros:

Commissions are also paid on domain renewals for customers you've referred.

Cons:

$250 minimum payout threshold. This is the highest threshold I've ever seen for any affiliate program.

In 2015, Uniregistry decided to not pay their affiliates for commissions already earned on premium domain names, which of course was met with a lot of pushback from their affiliates.

Later that same year, I discovered I wasn't being paid any of my Uniregistry commissions. Contacting Uniregistry support didn't seem to help, so I created a complaint thread on gtld.link. Other affiliates chimed in that they also had not been paid. Soon after, Uniregistry reached out to me and claimed they had fixed their records, and finally issued me a payout. Other affiliates did not seem to be as lucky though.

101domain = C-

The 101domain affiliate program offers 5% commission on new customer orders. Minimum payout is $100 and earned commissions are held for 60 days. Payouts are made via mailed checks.

Pros:

They will eventually pay you. The amount may not be what you're expecting, but they will mail you a check.

Cons:

Their affiliate reporting system is "broken" so that it looks like you've earned a lot more than you actually have.
To get paid, you typically have to email their billing department and tell them that they owe you money.

101domain's affiliate program could use some improvements. Apparently, the earnings report available to you on their website does not include things like chargebacks and cancelled orders. So while it may appear you've earned some money, 101domain affiliate support will contradict that, and email you an Excel spreadsheet of what you've actually earned, which is always significantly less than the affiliate earnings report on their website would indicate.

So there's no way to know how much you're earning without emailing them periodically and asking for "the real earnings report". I've been dealing with this for over a year, they say their developers will fix it, but it still has not been fixed.

Additionally, you have to periodically check if their system has determined that you've exceeded the $100 payment threshold (Payments > Previous Payments > look for a pending payout). Once a payout is pending, you must email their billing department at [email protected] and tell them that they should pay you, after which you'll receive a check in the mail.

In my opinion, it's probably not worth the hassle.

Bigrock = F-

Their affiliate program is a complete scam. They do not pay their affiliates. Avoid it like the bubonic plague.

Bigrock claims they pay 20% commission on domains with a 45 day holding period and a minimum payout threshold of $50 for affiliates based in the US.

Don't believe it.

Since November 2015, their affiliate commission report states I've earned $143.62. Here's some screenshots:

Note that all the amounts are incorrectly notated in Indian Rupees instead of US dollars. If they were actually rupees, that'd mean Bigrock is selling domains for about $0.07 USD each.

I've never been paid by Bigrock. I've made multiple requests to receive a payout, contacted their support, etc. The only response I've ever received was: