GoDaddy Affiliate Program Review: Is It Worth It?

GoDaddy is one of the most popular domain registrars and web hosting service providers.

Much like every other hosting service, they also have an affiliate program.

If you’re wondering whether the GoDaddy affiliate network is worth your time and effort, you’ve come to the right place.

GoDaddy affiliate program should not be your first choice because of its lower commission rates and poor customer service. They have many products and boast a 45-day cookie, but the controversies surrounding their brand turn off many customers. Use it only if you can’t find a better program.

GoDaddy affiliate program has its pros and cons, but it can be a profitable opportunity for some.

In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about the GoDaddy affiliate program.

About GoDaddy

If a person has ever wondered about building a website, chances are, they are aware of GoDaddy.

It’s the biggest domain registrar and web hosting company globally, with more than 80 million domain names registered with them.

They also have over 20 million customers and are nearly as old as the internet itself.

The company was founded in 1997 By Bob Parsons.

Two years later, its name was changed from Jomax Technologies to GoDaddy.

It was one of the first domain registrars that helped people get their ideas online. Now, it is the world’s largest web host by market share.

Many of us think of GoDaddy as only a domain registrar, but that’s not true. Apart from a variety of domain name services, the company offers a wide range of other internet products.

Some of their important services include:

Web hosting and storage
eCommerce solutions
Email marketing
Professional email hosting
Website security
SSL certificates
Web design services

You can get a full list of their products by reading the official catalog.

Here’s the link to their website. Many of these products are commissionable, which means you can earn money by promoting them as an affiliate.

Keep in mind that some of these services, like SEO, are not commissionable.

While GoDaddy may not be as famous as Facebook or Google, they undoubtedly have made a name for themselves.

The company is renowned for its advertising campaigns in the newspapers and on television.

In the past, they’ve used celebrity spokespeople and Super Bowl commercials to grab attention.

However, their reputation has sometimes been hurt by their marketing campaigns.

They’re known for creating overtly sexual ads.

If you haven’t seen how GoDaddy promotes their services, check out this list of most NSFW GoDaddy commercials ever.

Overview of GoDaddy Affiliate Program

Now that you are familiar with GoDaddy and their services, it’s time to discuss their affiliate program.

GoDaddy pays you a 10% commission for referring customers to their websites. For top-performing affiliates, this number can go as high as 30%.

GoDaddy tracking cookie lasts for 45 days, which means if someone clicks your affiliate link and visits GoDaddy’s website, you will be paid commission if they purchase anything within 45 days.

As we’ve discussed, you have a range of products you can promote, all of which will earn your commission as long as a sale is made within 45 days after a visitor clicks your link.

GoDaddy keeps coming up with exclusive deals and coupons, which you’ll find in your publisher’s account.

You can also create discount codes yourself for certain services. It may help to increase the conversion rate when you promote services with custom discount codes.

When you sign up as a GoDaddy affiliate, you get access to more than 100 ads, banners, coupons, and other marketing materials to help you promote their products and services.

Back in the day, GoDaddy used to have its own managed affiliate program. However, they have now partnered with Commission Junction (CJ) to manage the program.

In case you’re not aware, Commission Junction or CJ Affiliate by Conversant is a popular affiliate network where you can find thousands of products to promote from hundreds of advertisers.

With the help of CJ, you can create a deep affiliate link to any page on GoDaddy’s website.

For example, you can link people to GoDaddy’s bulk registration page where they can search and register multiple domains, hopefully earning you lots of commission.

You also have an integrated dashboard with your other CJ affiliate programs.

Lastly, the usual affiliate marketing rules apply here too. Your domain name or advertising cannot use GoDaddy’s trademark, and your website should not look like theirs.

You cannot provide any cashback offers to make visitors buy the products. Also, you can only use discount coupons supplied to affiliates.

Pros of GoDaddy Affiliate Program

GoDaddy has got a lot of things right when it comes to their affiliate program.

They’ve already made sure it’s easy for you to earn and receive your money by integrating with Commission Junction.

But there are also a few other advantages to GoDaddy’s affiliate program. They include:

Well-Known Brand

As we’ve said, GoDaddy has strong brand recognition, and it can work in your favor as a publisher.

People hesitate to trust a brand whose name they’ve never heard of. Thanks to its notorious advertising campaigns, GoDaddy has become a reputable brand in the field of web hosting and domain registration services.

Even though there may be better offers available for the same products, an average person is more likely to trust GoDaddy as they are already familiar with the brand.

Also, it’s a fact that humans tend to go with the crowd and do what everybody else is doing. And as we’ve seen, GoDaddy has the numbers.

Longer Cookie Duration

Cookie duration is how long a generated cookie lasts from a click. This period is typically 1 to 30 days.

However, GoDaddy stores the cookie for 45 days, which directly results in more commission. Let’s understand how it works in simple terms.

Say someone comes across your site, reads an article or two, and clicks the GoDaddy affiliate link.

The cookie has been generated, and GoDaddy knows that you referred this person to their website. If that customer buys anything from GoDaddy in the next 45 days, you will earn a commission.

It doesn’t matter if the product is different from what you linked to; you will still make money because you brought the customer to their site.

Many Products to Promote

GoDaddy offers several services other than domain registration, which means you have more things to promote and earn commissions.

For example, it offers web hosting services. Their plans start from $5.99 per month—which includes free professional email and domain name.

Similarly, they offer various other services that you can earn a commission for.

Keep in mind that not all of their services are eligible for affiliate earnings.

You cannot earn a commission for referring customers to some of GoDaddy’s services like SEO and web design.

They offer many products, so make sure the product you are promoting is eligible for affiliate commission.

Several Coupons and Up-Sells

The GoDaddy affiliate program provides you various promotional codes and discount coupons to offer your visitors.

These coupons further build trust and show that you’ve taken the time to make the deal as profitable as possible for your viewers.

They also help attract more customers, and you’re able to send more traffic to GoDaddy.

Also, GoDaddy is good with upselling by throwing in freebies like domain name, email hosting, extra storage, and limited-time deals.

So visitors may end up spending more money by purchasing a plan for longer periods, resulting in more earnings for you.

Free Training – Reveals How I Make A Full-Time Income Online With Affiliate Marketing

Cons of GoDaddy Affiliate Program

Although GoDaddy does well on a lot of grounds, it lacks in certain places.

They’ve been in hot water because of their questionable practices and use of sexual imagery in advertisements.

Here’s what you should consider before joining the GoDaddy affiliate program:

Lower Commission Rates

Here’s the thing, you won’t get rich by promoting GoDaddy’s products and services.

The flat 10% commission rate may be acceptable for domain registrations, but it is very low for web hosting referrals.

Another downside is that the payments are one-time. This means that even though customers may be paying monthly for their services, you will only get paid once.

Other web hosting affiliate programs seem to offer better commission rates than GoDaddy.

For example, Bluehost pays a flat $65 per sale, which is excellent for entry products.

A2hosting also has generous affiliate payouts starting from $85. And Cloudways pays you $30 or $50 and 7% recurring for the entry product.

Setbacks and Controversies

Although GoDaddy is a well-established brand, it has got a lot of bad press in the last decade.

From unethical practices to animal rights, GoDaddy has been in controversies for many things.

In the past, their advertising campaigns have also featured overtly sexual Super Bowl ads.

These sexist and demeaning-to-women adverts certainly upset the female viewers of the Super Bowl, which constitute 40% of the audience.

There are other controversies as well. The CEO of GoDaddy, Bob Parsons, filmed himself shooting and killing an elephant at night in Zimbabwe and later posted the video on his personal blog.

These things have certainly discouraged many people from using GoDaddy, and more people are becoming aware of them.

Not the Best Customer Service

There have been a lot (and I mean a lot) of complaints from angry customers claiming that GoDaddy has terrible customer support.

If you take a look at the reviews for GoDaddy on Web Hosting Geeks, you’ll mostly only come across negative feedback.

Users hate GoDaddy so much that there’s even a website called antigodaddy.com featuring stories of poor customer support from the company.

Imagine being so mad at Godaddy’s customer service that you create a website, collect dozens of reviews from other angry users, and launch a movement against the company itself.

So it’s safe to say that GoDaddy does not have good enough customer support, which can be a deal-breaker for cautious buyers.

Check Out A List Of My Favorite Affiliate Programs

How to Join the GoDaddy Affiliate Program

As we’ve discussed, the GoDaddy affiliate program is managed by Commission Junction (CJ).

So before you start promoting GoDaddy’s products and services, you need to sign up as a publisher on Commission Junction.

Click here to register on Commission Junction. Once the registration is complete, you’ll need to add details about yourself and your website. You will also have to enter your payment and tax information.
If you have a new website with low traffic, I don’t recommend signing up just yet. Your account will get deactivated if you don’t bring any sales within your first six months. If you have multiple websites, you can add them by going to Account > Websites > Add Website.
Once you’ve set up your Commission Junction account, you can apply for your chosen affiliate program. Go to the Advertisers tab and search & apply for GoDaddy.
On Commission Junction, advertisers have two options for accepting new affiliates: automatic review and manual review. GoDaddy is a manual review advertiser, which means they’ll check your website and other details before approving your application.

However, I’ve seen that almost everyone is accepted unless they have sites with fake coupons, violence, nudity, etc.

So once you’ve applied to become a GoDaddy affiliate, all you have to do is wait.

If it’s been a few days and you haven’t received a response, you can try emailing GoDaddy’s affiliate program team.

Be sure to include your website details and that you would like to promote their products. Most likely, you’ll get a response within a day or two confirming if you’ve been approved or not.

Commission Junction pays you via check or direct deposit. If you’re not from the US, you can use Payoneer to get a virtual bank account and receive the payments.

How Much Money Can You Earn as a GoDaddy Affiliate?

As a publisher, your primary source of income from the GoDaddy affiliate program will be your website.

As we’ve said, GoDaddy provides you over 100 banners, ads, and other marketing materials to help you promote their services.

One of the best ways to make money is by writing blog articles targeting low-competition keywords (bonus points if you can get your hands on a few buyer keywords).

This way, you’ll not only send targeted, quality traffic to GoDaddy but also grow your website’s page views and revenue from other sources such as ads or info products.

Now, you might be wondering how much money you can make with this program.

Well, if you head over to Commission Junction to look up GoDaddy, you’ll see that 3-month and 7-day EPC is $22.88 and $25.35, respectively.

This means that in the last three months, publishers have earned $22 for every 1000 targeted visitors they sent to GoDaddy’s website, while for the previous seven days, the average is $25.

This figure gives you an idea of how much money you can earn, depending on the amount of traffic you send.

Should You Go for It?

GoDaddy’s program is by no means a bad affiliate program. They’re offering reasonable commission rates for domain registration, and their strong brand recognition instantly builds trust and increases conversion rates.

However, as we’ve discussed, they are trashed by users for their poor customer support, and their commission rates are not the best for web hosting and other services.

GoDaddy has also been in controversies regarding their sexual advertising and animal cruelty.

Besides, they also hold a bad reputation for their unethical practices like recording domain searches on their platforms and registering good domain ideas to rack the prices.

Overall, if you want to promote web services and earn affiliate income, GoDaddy should not be your first choice.

I recommend signing up for their affiliate program if you cannot find or get approved by other hosting and domain affiliate programs out there.

Of course, it never hurts to join the program and see if you can increase your earnings. But it remains a fact that there are better web hosting and domain registration affiliate programs available on the internet.

Not only do they offer better services to their customers, but they also give you more commission.

For example, Namecheap offers a 20% commission for domain registration and 35% for web hosting order.

Bluehost has a 120-day tracking cookie and offers a $65 commission on all qualified hosting purchases. Both of these programs are available on Commission Junction.

Final Thoughts

GoDaddy affiliate program offers an OK commission rate, and there are many commissionable products you can promote.

The promotional codes and discount coupons are an excellent way to attract more customers, hopefully resulting in more earnings.

GoDaddy has built a name for itself, but their news-worthy setbacks and blunders make everything feel dubious.

They might be the biggest domain registrar, but current users report that the customer service is horrible.

Combining these facts, we conclude that it’s better to find a more trustworthy and higher-paying affiliate program if you want to promote web services.

Of course, you have nothing to lose, so you may give it a shot and see how your earnings change.