If you’re in the digital marketing niche and you often write about hosting services and other online products and services, a hosting affiliate program should be right up your alley. For today’s article, we’re doing a review of Flywheel so that you can find out whether it’s a lucrative opportunity for you.
We’ll go through all of the information you may want to know about this brand and the perks that affiliates can get, including the commission rates you can expect. We’ll also compare it to similar programs so that you can make an informed decision.
As you might have been able to tell, Flywheel offers hosting services designed for a very wide audience — whether that be bloggers who are just starting their journey, freelancers, or larger companies, designers, and even agencies.
Everything you will find on the Flywheel website is designed for WordPress-managed websites, and we thought we’d mention this because if your readers’ sites run on a different content management system, they might not be the best buyer personas.
They also handle migrations quite effectively based on the information that we found about it, so all in all, Flywheel hosting seems to be a pretty good choice.
As a Flywheel affiliate, you can promote a wide range of products, from the lowest-priced plans designed for low traffic websites managed by rookies to the ones specifically designed for large companies.
But how much does everything cost? And we have to answer this question because this affiliate marketing model works on a percentage instead of a fixed commission rate.
To give you an idea, the Tiny plan from the Managed WordPress Hosting category is priced at $13 per month and billed at $150 per year. This one addresses websites that get up to 5,000 visits per month and don’t require more than 20GB in bandwidth and 5GB in storage.
By contrast, the Agency plan for the same type of service costs $242 per month and is billed at $2,900 per year, but it is quite generous in that it works with up to 30 sites, 400,000 monthly visits, 50GB in storage, and up to 500GB in bandwidth.
The Growth Suite category, which can be used for anything like hosting, billing, as well as client management is more expensive. In this sense, the lowest plan is priced at $113 per month (billed at $1,350 per year) while the one made for agencies costs $275 per month (and is billed at $3,300 per year).
There are larger plans available, but those aren’t disclosed on the Flywheel website. So, to sum up this section, while Flywheel isn’t the cheapest hosting available, it’s effective and dependable and as an affiliate, it can definitely make you some money.
At the time we’re writing this, we couldn’t find any information as to whether this program is also managed by other networks. It seems that it’s run by the company itself, and you can use the brand’s website to join.
You will be asked for some basic information, including where you intend to promote Flywheel services, and then you’ll get your answer in a matter of a few working days.
It doesn’t cost anything to join the Flywheel hosting affiliate program, so that’s a benefit in itself. Even some affiliate platforms like ShareASale ask for some money to review your application and once you are accepted, they return that sum to you. But that is not the case with Flywheel.
As a Flywheel hosting affiliate, you are not going to be able to make any recurring commissions. However, the one-time one that you will receive is pretty generous.
Apparently, the brand gives you 300% out of the pricing value per month. So, unlike some other programs in the same niche that give you a cut out of the yearly plan purchased by your audience or that give you a fixed commission, this brand pays you three times the value of the monthly plan.
For example, with the Tiny plan that we previously noted and that costs $13 per month, your earning will basically be $39. It will be a one-time thing, so you are not going to be paid another each time one of your referrals renews their services, for example.
When it comes to how much you can earn in one go, there is a limit — $500. Even so, it’s considerably higher compared to what other hosting companies managing their own affiliate programs have to offer. For example, most of the maximum that we have seen in this sense is about $125 tops — only the Liquid Web program allows you to make anything up to $7,000.
Another aspect that we have to note is that you will be paid after a waiting period of 90 days. This so-called NET90 system is utilized to ensure that someone who gets the monthly plan maintains it for three months. In other words, the brand makes sure that your money will be coming from somewhere.
You do not have to worry about the processing of payments since the company seems to be using only one method at this time — PayPal.
Read more: Top Affiliate Programs and Networks Available in Australia
From what we’ve gathered, it seems that Flywheel allows its affiliates to promote their services pretty much anywhere on the Internet.
If you’re wondering about PPC, we suggest you get in touch with a company representative so that you know if you can use the company’s name in your ads — most do not agree with this practice, though.
Other than that, the sky’s the limit as to what marketing methods you can use to get your affiliate links out there.
You can add banners to your blog or website, actually write about the brand and its services so that you convince your readers to get Flywheel, and you can also use social media for this.
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When it comes to the reasons you may want to consider before becoming a Flywheel hosting affiliate, the fact that the services offered by the brand are pretty good is one of the most significant ones that we have to note.
Then there’s the fact that the hosting platform is very easy to use and you also get to work with an affiliate manager, who can answer your questions in case you run into a problem.
The commission itself is more than decent, especially when compared to other programs, including those hosted by large brands such as GoDaddy.
The only downside to all of this would have to be the lack of recurring commissions. So, even if someone chooses to use Flywheel for years and years to come, you aren’t going to be paid a single cent each time that person renews their subscription.
Even so, we’d say that Flywheel is a relatively good option if you are looking to diversify your income streams and you don’t want to recommend the same hosting services time and again.
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This is one of the most popular hosting services out there today. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who trust Bluehost and use it for managing their websites.
As an affiliate, you can make anything between $65 and $120 per sale. There is a 45-day waiting period that you need to be informed about, so you’ll get your earnings after one month and a half.
On the upside, Bluehost is one of the companies that use Paypal to process their affiliate payments, so that is one less thing to worry about.
We’d say that WP Engine is probably the best alternative when it comes to other hosting affiliate programs — and that’s because you can make up to $200 per sale. It all depends on the types of products that your referrals opt for, of course.
To make things even better, WP Engine works with ShareASale, one of the largest networks in the affiliate marketing space. So, if you already have several other niche websites and you already use ShareASale, everything will be super smooth.
Read more: Tradedoubler review
We reviewed the HostGator affiliate program in the past and we suggest that you give it a read if you have some time on your hands. This is another company that’s fairly well-known in the web hosting space, so you aren’t going to have to worry about your audience being wary of buying their services.
The HostGator program resembles the one managed by Bluehost in many ways, including when it comes to the commissions you can expect. For the smallest purchases, you can make $65 while for a higher number of referrals per month, you can make a rate of $125.
The tracking cookie lasts for two months, which isn’t that bad, either.
While the rate of this program is slightly lower compared to that of others, we’d say that it still makes a good option if you’re looking to recommend several hosting services to your readers.
As an affiliate, the minimum you can make for someone you convince to get a yearly plan would be $50. There is a maximum amount available, too, for those affiliates that manage to convince their audience to make more than 20 purchases.
The nice thing is that the waiting period for the earnings to hit your account is just 30 days with this one, unlike the NET60 system that some other companies use.
Now here’s an example of something that really doesn’t compare to either Flywheel or any of the additional hosting programs that we have previously mentioned.
GoDaddy offers just 15% out of every purchase made through your affiliate link and the reason that’s not really worth writing home about is that it can be quite low depending on some products.
On the upside, GoDaddy does use CJ Affiliate to manage their affiliate program, so at least you get everything in the same place (statistics, commissions, and everything else). It probably wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that if GoDaddy were to manage the program itself, it would be a pretty complicated thing.
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We recently did a review of this program. It definitely has its perks. First of all, you can make as much as 30% out of all of the purchases made through your links, and while that might not seem like such a huge benefit, the 120-day cookie duration definitely is.
Weebly might be less known compared to other hosting companies, but it’s still pretty reliable, convenient, and effective. Since everything works through ShareASale, that can be another advantage you ought to consider.
Read more: SurfShark affiliate program
This program is by far one of the highest earning ones that you should look into. And the reason we’re saying this is that you can sometimes get paid up to $7,000 per signup, depending on the plans that your audience opts for.
The cookie lasts for 90 days and the lowest commission you can make with this one is $150 — so it’s significantly higher compared to what we’ve seen with other offers.
So, is the Flywheel affiliate program a good one or should you skip it entirely? This is a question that only you can answer based on the information that we presented in this article.
But all in all, it definitely looks like this would be a good income opportunity for people that regularly write about hosting and other digital products and services.
We also couldn’t find any negative reviews coming from affiliates while researching this post, which should give you a clue as to whether people had issues with their payments or anything else. We would have liked for the commission to be a recurring one, but even with this drawback, the Flywheel affiliate program seems a solid one.
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