We made some big changes today to our affiliate payouts that are really going to be favorable for WestHost affiliates. Previously we paid a flat $65 for all qualifying affiliate referrals, regardless of the hosting plan selected. Today we’ve implemented a system that will pay $95 to affiliates who refer clients that sign up for our higher hosting plans. Effective immediately, if you refer someone to our Personal Value, Business Value, Business Pro, or Business Semi-ded plans, you’ll receive a $95 commission. For some of you, that change represents several hundred dollars of additional affiliate income you’ll take home each month, just for doing exactly what you’ve already been doing.

Another bonus is that we didn’t drop the original commission for the smaller plans. If you refer one of our other plans, such as the Personal Basic, Personal Starter, or Business Starter, you’ll still receive the current $65.

WestHost will also be implementing a commission for affiliates who refer dedicated servers clients to us. Look for that change to come sometime in the near future.

It’s never been a better time to be a WestHost affiliate! Sign up for the program at http://affiliates.westhost.com

WestHost first explored the idea of an official corporate blog a couple of years ago. Our Marketing Department had a meeting to discuss ways in which WestHost could continue to promote our client-centric hosting philosophy, and among numerous suggestions, blogging was one of those ideas added to the list. At the time, blogging was relatively new in general, certainly among other Web hosts, and ultimately, the WestHost blog idea was put on the back burner in favor of other projects we wanted to get implemented, such as community forums, new plans, new features, new hosting platform etc.

Of course blogging eventually evolved into what it is today, with everyone from large corporations and average Joe’s using it as a tool to promote what blogs are really good at promoting: transparency and personalism. The last couple of years at WestHost we have seen some exciting projects and features released, and who knows what would have happened if we hadn’t have allocated the resources to those projects that we did at the time. Regardless, I’m pleased to report that WestHost has finally arrived on the blogging scene!

Our Plans
Initially, when we reviewed the possibility of a blog again, it was difficult to come up with what we wanted to blog about. Many of our internal staff were on board for the project, and had plenty of things to say, but the ideas of “how personal is too personal”, and “how professional is too professional” seemed to be filters on some of our original concepts. In the end we agreed on some things and came up with more than a few ideas.

For many years WestHost has maintained an opt-in newsletter called the Webmaster Connection (formerly the WestHost weekly), full of Web site tips, tricks, notable sites and WestHost specials. Moving forward, this blog will replace that newsletter. Past issues of the Webmaster Connection will still be accessible by visiting the Webmaster Connection archives in our Member’s Area. We’ve always received numerous favorable comments on the content of that newsletter, so we hope to provide the same kind of tips and tricks in this blog. We’ll also be promoting new specials through the blog, so make sure you check back if for nothing more than to get a new deal. We’ll have posts from different department heads at WestHost on topics ranging anywhere from internal affairs, to ways to tweak your WestHost VPS. In addition to that, we’ve contacted a few of our more prominent forums members and asked them if they are interested in contributing. There was largely a favorable reaction to that as well, so you’ll also occasionally be hearing from among existing WestHost clients. Finally, is our plan to invite guest contributors and industry experts on board to offer sage advice in a number of areas, such as maximizing your online marketing and monetizing your Web site.

In the end, we hope the blog will serve as a tool for us to interact with existing and potential WestHost clients, a hub for WestHost related news and specials, an occasional inside look on WestHost from some of our staff, and a resource for you to read articles written by your peers and industry experts.