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ReliableSite ending referral program, says GTFO before 30 October
Just got the email:
Email contents
Hi there, Over the years, affiliates like you have helped introduce many businesses to ReliableSite. Thank you for every customer you've sent our way. As we move forward, we've decided to retire our affiliate program. Following this change, new referrals will no longer earn commissions. If you have a remaining balance, please email [email protected] to request your withdrawal, specifying whether you would like the balance sent to PayPal or applied as credit to your ReliableSite account. The last day to submit your request is October 30th, 2026. After this date, no further affiliate credits will be issued or requests accepted. Where to go from here If you run a hosting company, agency, MSP, or any business with clients who need servers, our reseller program may be a better fit going forward. Instead of earning referral commissions, you sell ReliableSite servers under your own brand, set your own prices, and keep the margin. Join for free with no monthly fees. Get industry-low pricing. Integrate with popular billing platforms. Access a full set of tools to support your business. All you need is an active website that offers hosting-related services. View full reseller program details If you have questions about your balance or the reseller program, please open a ticket and our team will be glad to help. We truly appreciate your support and partnership. Thank you for being part of the ReliableSite journey over the years. Best regards, The ReliableSite Team
Normally I wouldn't think provider-side changes like these are newsworthy, but after the 158% price increases earlier this year, I figured this was sufficiently meritorious LET drama.
Source for 158% price increase
@tritium said:
The rate is 158% for me on an i7-4790, going from $19/m to $49/m. For that new rate, I can access far newer hardware elsewhere for around the same price, so I will be leaving Reliable Site which is unfortunate.
Per the email, RS is directing people to switch over to their reseller program - but last I looked, the reseller program does not give you volume discounts. You're reselling at their retail prices.
I guess they realized that after rthe 158% price increases, they were paying 158% more referral commissions which was a bit much.
Edit: fixed quote formatting
Comments
@ReliableSiteHosting does your reseller program members able to buy the servers from you at discounted prices, or will it be the same price as you sell it on your site?
This host gets a lot of controversy. Take a hint
Like?
they could have given fixed comissions like $20 a sale, instead of % and keep affiliate program alive. For reseller program the provider needs to offer volume discount. Also, if a webpro/freelancer sells the dedi from reseller account he has to take into account his margin plus the payment gateway fee which ranges from 3% to 10% depending upon volumes. Not everyone can use Stripe and Paypal. So its hard for reseller to make profit initially unless they have tons of clients under-them. Also, dedis mostly sold via reseller programs by various hosts have negligible margins like 3% to 5% for starters. Rarely it goes to 20% and then we can talk about reseller's profit. Wait, reseller also has to provide support to end-user so he needs to hire atleast single employee and pay fee to them.
honestly affiliate programs are just for marketing, and Radic has simply decided that cost for the affiliate marketing isn't needed and is an unnecessary spend. for brands that have an established presence its kind of pointless. I'm surprised more keep their affiliate programs with higher payout.
cut affiliate program to reduce spending?
hmmmm,sounds a bad idea
I don't know what RSNET affiliate commission rate was but lets assume 10%. That's $14~ in commission on a $140 server. Across hundreds of servers that adds up and would be thousands/tens of thousands per month. as a business you should always look for ways to reduce spending, but of course this type of thing is a bit different.
you can setup any affiliate rules you like, usually it is not lifetime recurring commission
but if RS use that lifetime recurring model, they do need spend a lot on affiliate payouts, then it make sense why they gonna shutdown the affiliate program ( after the hardware price rise )
Yes, resellers receive special rates.
No, this was not about the commission. The majority of affiliate referrals were fraudulent in a way of where the customer had already knew about us and was planning on purchasing direct, but were lured into affiliate clicks post initial visit and interaction.
One example of that is fake coupon sites that would post discounts that were expired years ago or don't exist just to get an affiliate click. There were several others.
We appreciate everyone who legitimately used our program, there were many, but the bad apples made the program a big waste of time for us to operate. We plan on introducing a variety of improvements for customers and vendors that truly add value for everyone.