WP Engine Affiliate Program Review

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Web hosting is a very competitive niche to promote as an affiliate marketer but if you can think outside the box and be creative with your promotions then it can be a very lucrative market.

One reason for this is that the commissions per sale in this niche are very large. You can expect to earn around $50-100 per sale on average through most web hosting affiliate programs and commissions can go into the hundreds per sale or even 4 figures in some cases.

Web hosting is something everyone who wants to do business online needs and as long as the internet exists, its evergreen-ness means that you can expect to earn from this niche for a long time.

WP Engine is a web host that caters to a specific segment of the hosting industry – people who use WordPress websites. They have two products – web hosting and WordPress themes and they pay some of the highest commission rates to affiliates who promote them.

Their affiliate program brings a lot of opportunities to earn for affiliates and as you will find out in a minute, is a very interesting program the way it is set up.

What is WP Engine?

WP Engine is a web hosting company that was started around 2012 and hosts only WordPress websites. When I first heard about them, it was the first time I’d ever heard of managed WordPress hosting.

Managed WordPress hosting is everywhere nowadays and is a type of hosting where the web host manages all the technical aspects of hosting a WordPress website. The customer does not have to worry about backups, security, updates, speed optimization, uptime, and so on.

This makes the service considerably more expensive than normal shared web hosting.

WP Engine offers different plans depending on the needs of the customer.

The Startup plan is the most basic, allows for one website, and is priced at $30/month. Then there’s the Growth plan which allows for 10 websites and is priced at $115/month. The Scale plan lets you have up to 30 websites and is priced at $290/month. Discount pricing is available when you choose annual billing.

Besides these three plans, WP Engine also allows custom plans for larger websites and businesses that need a lot more resources than are offered with the other plans.

WP Engine isn’t for everyone. If you’re just starting an affiliate website with WordPress that isn’t going to get any traffic for a while then you’ll be OK with shared hosting or even SiteRubix. If you have a site that has a lot of traffic and has outgrown shared hosting then WP Engine may be the web host you’re looking for.

In addition to hosting, WP Engine recently acquired StudioPress, the WordPress theme developer behind the Genesis framework. So they also offer access to these themes (excluding third-party ones) when users sign up for their service.

WP Engine Affiliate Program Overview

WP Engine has one of the best web hosting affiliate programs and offers some of the highest commissions. As you’re about to see, there are many good reasons why I say that their affiliate program is one of the best.

First, an overview of the affiliate program.

WP Engine’s affiliate program is managed exclusively through the Shareasale affiliate network. To promote this hosting, you’ll need to have a Shareasale account or you can sign up for one. You can use this link to apply for the WP Engine affiliate program and get a Shareasale account at the same time.

Commissions for making a WP Engine sale are interesting. They pay a minimum of $200 for any sale. So if someone pays for a startup plan which cost $30/month, you still get $200. If the customer’s first month’s payment is more than $200 though, WP Engine will pay you 100% of that amount. Someone signing up for a Scale plan which starts at $290/month will get you $290 in commissions.

Remember that there are also custom plans and customers may pay more for plans depending on their needs. This means that you can get paid a lot more for just one sale and WP Engine will give you, if you refer the right customer, up to $7500 per sale!

Earnings do not stop there as WP Engine rewards you with performance bonuses starting from just 5 sales. With 5 sales, you’ll get a $100 bonus. 10 sales will get you a $250 bonus and the bonus increases as you refer more sales.

Still, another way to earn additional commissions is to refer other affiliates. For every sale your referred affiliates make, you get a $50 commission. If you do refer an affiliate who promotes WP Engine successfully, you’ll get rewarded very well for referring that affiliate. This 2-tier aspect of the program is one of my favorite features of the WP Engine affiliate program.

In addition to earning commissions on hosting, you can also earn commissions by promoting StudioPress themes. Both WP Engine and StudioPress are managed through the same program and you can find all links for both programs in one place. Commissions for themes are 35% per sale.

The great thing about promoting either the managed web hosting or the themes is that you will earn commissions on the other products if someone decides to purchase it. So you can promote the web hosting and earn on themes or promote themes and earn those large $200 commissions if someone decides to get a hosting plan.

Cookies are set to 180 days which is a full 6 months of tracking your referrals. This is great because you get more time for your visitors to make a decision and still get paid.

WP Engine makes sure that their affiliates can promote their product well by giving you a dedicated affiliate manager who will regularly check up on you to offer suggestions, help, and personalized creatives. This is something that I was really amazed by while promoting the program. It actually gave me the push to do some promotions.

There are lots of creatives available for both WP Engine and StudioPress and also loads of links to different parts of the website. Each WordPress theme also has its own links so you can be very specific with your linking to increase conversions and also to have different angles for your promotions.

WP Engine’s affiliate program gets an A+ from me as they seem to have everything the way they should for any affiliate program.

What I Like About WP Engine’s Affiliate Program

There are plenty of things to love about WP Engine’s affiliate program and I’ve mentioned some in the overview section above. These are the most important ones that I like personally about the program.

2-Tier Commissions

Not many web hosts offer 2-tier commissions so I’m really happy about this because this could become a passive source of income where you can just refer affiliates who think that this product would be a good fit for their audiences and then just collect $50 commissions.

Promote Themes or Hosting

The acquisition of StudioPress and the decision to merge both affiliate programs make it easier now to promote either product and earn from both.

All the links can be found in one place and you can benefit from the fact that they’re actively cross-promoting from each product. Being a StudioPress affiliate isn’t new to me because I was already promoting them before the acquisition.

Huge Commissions

Making $200 off a $30 sale looks weird but WP Engine isn’t throwing away money just to get some customers. They’re paying to acquire customers who would eventually end up paying more than your commission. In many instances, customers go for discount savings by purchasing annual plans which could be billed at over $300 ($30 x 10). Customers can end up renewing or even upgrading to bigger plans.

The big commissions are certainly attractive but you need to make sure that you’re truly helping your readers by recommending something that they really need. I don’t promote WP Engine often because my audience would find a host like SiteGround to be sufficient for their needs.

Dedicated Affiliate Manager

For real, these guys make you feel as though you have a desk in their office. They’ll email you and ask if you need any help or ask if you need a personal creative.

This is a great touch because it makes you want to just go promote and at least someone is accessible whenever you need so you can work out how you’re going to promote.

Most affiliate programs don’t do this and sometimes you won’t hear from them for months or rarely. Still, the best ones send regular newsletters and communication with helpful promotion ideas and creatives you could use. WP Engine also does send newsletters as well.

Pros:

What I Don’t Like About WP Engine’s Affiliate Program

There isn’t much to not like with the WP Engine affiliate program and I haven’t personally run into any problems with them. However, they aren’t perfect and there’s bound to be a complaint or two about them.

The reputation of Hosting Product

When I first heard about WP Engine years ago, they had a lot of really good reviews and I could see that they did have a good product that people would want.

Recently, I’ve been seeing some complaints about their service, mainly in the support department and a few about the actual service. Some people compare with other managed WordPress hosts and it may seem that some competitors might have a better hosting product.

This has made me somewhat reluctant to promote. However, keep in mind that no web host is perfect and you’ll see complaints about every single host out there. If you’re not comfortable promoting the hosting though, remember that you can promote the WordPress themes from StudioPress and still earn web hosting commissions. StudioPress makes very good themes some of which I personally own and use on sites that I have.

Cons:

Why Promote WP Engine?

While WP Engine isn’t for everyone, someone, somewhere needs WP Engine. You can be the one who will provide value and show this person the way.

Many people find success online and eventually outgrow the resources of a shared hosting environment. They may be using up their bandwidth allowance and having their websites go offline and just need more. Sure they can upgrade to VPS or a dedicated server but some of these options may be more expensive than getting managed WordPress hosting.

Others may be tired of getting their website hacked and their web host doing nothing or very little about it. They may not be very technical and would find peace of mind in having a service like WP Engine manage these things for them while they take care of building their business by posting content and doing minor maintenance on their WordPress website or blog.

There are people out there who need this service and can afford it or won’t mind paying for it. Know how to position the offer and you can benefit by earning those huge commissions.

Also don’t forget that when I say WP Engine, I’m also referring to the StudioPress affiliate program as well which comes under the same umbrella. StudioPress themes have a lot of value as everyone needs a great design for their website or blog. Help them get what they want and they might just decide that they need to move their website to a new host.