I’ve seen this mentioned a few places this morning, but Web Hosting’s Dirty Laundry is a good write-up of something everyone looking for web hosting should be aware of.
In this case, DreamHost is a web hosting company that offers a “referral bonus” if you get them a customer. And a disclaimer is in order: we do often refer our clients to Dreamhost if they need hosting and then split the referral bonus with said clients. We’re happy to do so, as we have had a positive experience hosting our own sites there; we only refer hosting companies that we use ourselves. But what of hosting review sites, which purport to offer unbiased reviews to the general public?
Nearly every web host that’s listed on these totally unbiased and completely objective sites have one thing in common – they all have affiliate programs. Each unsuspecting visitor that clicks through to a “highly rated” web host earns the site-owner a hefty little commission. The hosts that pay out the biggest commissions are usually the ones that you’ll find listed near the top of all these lists.
