Overview
The following describes how to sign up and use the new affiliate program.
Signing up
Navigate to https://partners.dreamhost.com/ and click the Partner Sign Up button:
Fill in the appropriate information and click the Sign Up button when finished:
All affiliate accounts must go through an approval process and you will receive an email that states whether you are approved or not when that completes. While Dreamhost strives to review accounts as soon as possible, it may take up to one week.
Setting up your tax documentation
When you first sign in, the following message appears and prompts you to set up your tax documentation:
Click the applicable option for your type (Business or Individual) and location (US or Non-US) and fill out the form. After you complete the form, click the Complete Tax Registration button, which redirects you to TUNE Pay. Scroll down to the Tax Information section and click the Edit Details button:
Enter your Tax ID (EIN/SSN), upload your Tax Document, and click Save when finished. Your status changes from 'Not submitted' to 'Pending' and an email is sent to you that details your approval or any issues.
Setting up your payment method
When first signing in, a message appears that prompts you to set up a payment method:
Click the Add Payment Method button, which redirects you to TUNE Pay. Scroll down to the Payment Methods section and click the New Payment Method button:
The Create New Partner Payment Method page appears where you can choose your payment method. At this time, only 'Direct Bank Transfer' is offered. Enter the appropriate information into the fields and click the Create button when finished:
TUNE overview
Dashboard
The Dashboard section does not show pending conversions — it only shows approved conversions. Refer to the Reports section for instructions on how to view pending conversions (that are still within the 97-day holding period).
When you first sign into TUNE, the Dashboard page appears. The Dashboard is an overview of your affiliate account:
- Quick Stats: shows the Impressions, Clicks, Conversions (approved), Payout (approved), and a Year-To-Date Payout.
- Recent Notifications: shows any changes to offers or other news.
- Featured Offers: shows your current offers that are available. At this time, there is only the DreamHost Rewards Tier 1 offer available for new signups. If you feel that you might be eligible for an additional tier, please see the Additional Offers section.
- Performance: shows a graph of your clicks and payouts for the last 7 days.
Offers
There are three options in the Offers dropdown, which are described below:
- All Offers: shows your current offers. You will only see the current DreamHost Rewards Tier 1 offer available at this time.
- My Live Offers: shows the same information as the All Offers section at this time.
- Scheduled Changes: shows any changes to offers. This section will usually be blank unless there is a scheduled promotion running.
Reports
There are three options in the Reports dropdown, which are described below:
- Performance Report: shows all different types of metrics. You can set custom report options and filters and save them to be viewed under Saved Reports later. This section will only show approved conversions. Any pending conversions will not show on this report.
- Conversion Report: shows all approved conversions and pending conversions, including payout. You can set custom report options and filters and save them to be viewed under Saved Reports later.
- Saved Reports: shows all your saved reports where you can access and edit them.
Tools
There are four options in the Tools dropdown, which are described below:
All tools are considered advanced and some might not work with your current offer and/or may result in loss of tracking. Use with caution or contact affiliates@dreamhost.com for more information.
- Ad Groups: allows you to manage your ad groups or set up a new ad group.
- Mobile App: allows you to download the "Publisher Dashboard Mobile App".
- APIs: allows you to set up APIs for TUNE. Please refer to TUNE’s API Documentation.
- Pixels/Postbacks: is reserved for specific partners. Please contact affiliates@dreamhost.com for more information.
My Account dropdown
There are five options in the My Account dropdown, which are described below:
- Account Details: shows your account details. You can edit this information by clicking the pencil icon next to the User Details or Company Details sections. You can change your password by clicking the Change Password button.
- Payments: opens TUNE Pay, where you can change your payment settings and see payment details.
- Settings: allows you to change the language displayed on TUNE.
- Notifications: shows any notifications sent from the affiliate team.
- Contact Support: opens up your default email client and begins a message to affiliates@dreamhost.com. You can also email affiliates@dreamhost.com directly with any questions.
Offer information and tracking link
Navigate to Offers > All Offers and you will see the Offers section:
When you click the Name ('DreamHost Rewards Tier 1'), the Offer page opens:
Your Tracking Link
The Tracking Links section is where you can customize your tracking link and you can simply use the provided link to start referring. There are additional parameters that you can pass to track how your conversions are doing. The following describes each one:
- Source — a non-unique parameter that can be used to track the source of the link. This is commonly used to track where the link is placed. It can be up to 255 standard alphanumeric characters.
- Add Creative — used to add a creative file to the link. This includes banners that can be used to promote DreamHost.
- SubIDs — non-unique parameters that can be used to add additional metrics to a conversion. SubIDs are often used to note specific conversions for optimization.
- Click ID — a unique identifier that can be used to track specific individual clicks or sessions in other tracking systems.
- Unique ID — similar to click IDs, these are additional unique identifiers that can track specific clicks or sessions in other tracking systems.
- Deep Link — if you are interested in deep linking, please reach out to our support team for more information.
Offer Details
The Offer Details section shows the details of your current offer. The expiration date is always pushed back. Limited offers may be available at a future date during limited-time promotions and will have a hard expiration date.
Payout
The Payout window shows the default payout for the offer. The payout shows a default of $0 as this is the payout for any conversions that do not match the payout structure. You can see the payout structure by clicking on the Payout Structure Name.
Using your Tracking Link
Once you have set your additional parameters, you can start sharing your tracking link and begin bringing in conversions. See the following E-Book to learn more about how to create a successful affiliate campaign:
Rewards Tiers
The Rewards Tiers table describes how much of a reward you'll earn for each of DreamHost's products:
Additional Offers
Additional Offers and promotional discounts are not available to new affiliates. While DreamHost has different tiered payout structures, these are reserved for affiliates who have brought in a consistent and considerable amount of conversions. If you feel that you have brought in a decent amount of conversions, send an email to affiliates@dreamhost.com for more information.
97-day holding period
Earned rewards are available for redemption after the 97-day holding period, provided that the affiliate has chosen to cash out their rewards. For affiliates who have completed adding a payment method and have successfully submitted tax documents, approved conversions are paid out via Direct Bank Transfer between the 15th and the last business day of the month. Conversions must be outside of the 97-day holding period and approved for payout on, or before, the 14th of a given month in order to be paid out by the last business day of that month. Any conversion that is approved for payout after the 14th of the month will be paid out during the following month's payout period.
In the event of possible credit card fraud or high cancellation rates during the 97-day holding period, DreamHost reserves the right to hold the rewards for up to two (2) additional months for verification. At DreamHost's sole discretion, it reserves the right to cancel rewards in the event of any the following reasons:
- DreamHost is unable to collect funds from the referred customer.
- The order is fraudulent.
- The customer cancels within the first 97 days.
- The reward was earned improperly for any other reason.
Disclosure
Affiliate links come under the Federal Trade Commission’s guidelines of endorsements. Additionally, DreamHost affiliates are required to clearly disclose on their website that they are earning commissions for their reviews or the traffic coming to DreamHost from their site. Failure to do so may result in removal from DreamHost's affiliate program and cancellation of commissions in addition to being penalized by the FTC.
Disclosures must appear on any page that has a review, recommendation, comment, or article that promotes a product or service for which you receive compensation. You cannot claim that you do not receive compensation if you accept payment through an affiliate program.
Do not use vague or obscure language in your disclosure: it must be immediately apparent that you may collect compensation for your review or rating.
Examples:
- Clear Disclosure: This blog contains DreamHost affiliate links. This means I may earn a commission if you purchase DreamHost services through my link without any extra cost to you. This commission helps me keep the site running. Thank you for your support!
- Unclear Disclosure: Websites need $$$ to operate. We may receive compensation for your purchases through our link, but we are totally unbiased and do not make falsified representations for the services, claiming them to be something they’re not.
Learn more about the FTC disclosure requirements here.
Follow these tips to make sure you’re in compliance:
- Place the disclosure high on the page/email/and so on.
- Evaluate the size, color, and graphics of the disclosure in relation to the rest of the content. If someone can miss seeing it, you’re doing it wrong.
- Account for viewing on different devices: your disclosures should be responsive and still visible/prominent on mobile.
- Don’t bury the disclosure or distract from it with other media.
Your disclosure must be immediately evident to a typical visitor who views a review, ranking, or endorsement. A visitor should not need to scroll, click, or hover to learn that you receive compensation.
Affiliate restrictions and responsibilities
Please thoroughly review the following items:
- DreamHost does not accept “coupon-only” sites in its affiliate program. DreamHost reserves the right to deactivate any account that uses coupons/discounts as a primary method of promotion at its sole discretion.
- Double-check your affiliate link. Affiliates are responsible for ensuring that their tracking code is working correctly before sending traffic to DreamHost’s servers. Any modification to the links is the sole responsibility of the affiliate. Rewards may not be paid for tracking errors caused by editing, masking, redirecting, or tampering with affiliate links, as determined at DreamHost’s sole discretion.
- Domain forwarding is not allowed. You may not purchase a domain and set it to forward directly to DreamHost's site using your affiliate link.
- Remember: no copy + paste, please. Affiliates MAY NOT copy DreamHost’s website or any portions of it, including, without limitation, any of DreamHost’s trademarks or other intellectual property, and display them on their own site or subdomain or use them in any way — you need DreamHost’s prior expressed written permission for that.
- Don’t try to be DreamHost: purchasing, either directly or indirectly, the search name “DreamHost” or any misspelling or variant thereof from websites, search engines, or other directory referral services is prohibited.
- Skip the spam: violations of DreamHost's Anti-Spam Policy or its Terms of Service will result in immediate forfeiture of all rewards payments. Additionally, you are prohibited from (1) outranking DreamHost’s internal paid search ad on any keywords, (2) direct linking to DreamHost.com from any paid search ads, and (3) using DreamHost.com as a display URL.
- Scamming is prohibited. Gaining referrals through misrepresentation, improper use of DreamHost intellectual property (e.g., DreamHost trademarks and copyrighted material), or impersonation of DreamHost personnel is strictly prohibited and can result in loss of accrued rewards and/or removal from the program.
- You can’t use your own link: referred accounts must use different billing and payment methods than the referrer to qualify for rewards.
- Keep the referrals out of the family: customers cannot refer themselves or their spouse/civil union partner. No exceptions will be made. Violations can result in the loss of all accrued rewards and dismissal from the program.
See DreamHost's Terms and Conditions page for more information.