Why is it bullsh!t? It's their business, they can run an affiliate program or not; their decision. As long as they pay what's owed, there's no problem. I was an affiliate of a company that was bringing in over $600.00/month on just one single page (I have a content site). Having affiliates just wasn't working out for them and they shut their affiliate program down. Sure, I was disappointed. But that's biz. You just move on to the next thing.

Suzanne

Its completely legit dude.

Heres what YOU should do ASAP: Change your affiliate links to a similar offer so you can keep making money.

Problem solved.

Any questions let me know

Nick

Nothing either remotely illegal or unethical about it.

They have given you notice that it's going to happen. Business is business the company has to do what best for it's employees/shareholders owners etc.

Last year i had a company i was affiliate for change affiliate system 3 times in 3 months and no one got paid.. now that was unethical

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There's usually a clause in the affiliate agreement that states the company reserves the right to change or discontinue the affiliate program at any given time. As an affiliate you are pretty much at their mercy and subject to their whims it comes with the territory in this business. To me it doesn't seem like an ethical move. They appear to have folded up their tent and left town in the middle of the night. But what's ethical or isn't ethical is often up to interpretation they'll probably get away with it.

Big Mike is hitting it exactly right. It really depends on how their affiliate agreement reads about ongoing commissions. I'd bet there was an escape clause in it allowing either party to terminate the agreement.

I'd be upset to see a monthly recurring affiliate payment to suddenly disappear. I think many other responders were missing your point. It was not just commissions on new sales, but continued commissions for every month a customer continued using their service.

I'll be surprised if you discover they did not have an escape clause in their affiliate agreement, making what they are doing 100% legal, more questionable on the ethical side of things.

To me, this is exactly why affiliate marketing is a bad business model. You are dependent on someone else for your income. If they get up on the wrong side of the bed and change commissions or cease operations you are SOL. You are much better off selling your own products and keeping 100% of the profits.

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There often IS a clause allowing it. What is unethical and illegal is the GOVERNMENT changing things as they have. It is like "YIKES, your making money! We can't have THAT! HERE'S a NEW tax!". This becomes ESPECIALLY clear after so many legislators today have said that taxes are to "LIMIT UNWANTED BEHAVIOUR".

Anyway, affiliate programs just got more complicated and expensive. So they may just be unhappy about how others affected THEIR bottom line.

BTW you want to hear a REALLY bad thing? I did business with one company, and paid $99/year for the "privilege". They EVEN took a portion of all my profit! Well, about a year ago, they had a problem getting the $99, sent messages from ANOTHER address so I couldn't see them, and basically stole ALL my customers AND, of course, put THEIR page on MY site! I had to leave it up to allow my now FORMER customers to use THEIR site. They even sent them all an EMAIL that was confusing. Since I was one of my customers, I got THAT email, which is how I first heard about it. I later heard again from a friend that was ALSO a customer. If I want to pay the $99, GREAT, but I would have to start over from scratch! The customers are GONE!

OH WELL, serves me right, from now on, I will only use APIs to do that.

And look at ROIBOT! IT not only stopped paying commissions, but redirected EVERY link goiing to it to its purchaser! *****MANY***** big affiliates used it to route ALL their affiliate links since it simplified updates and provided tracking, statistics.

Steve

As long as you are not only selling as an affiliate to one product, there is nothing wrong with affiliate marketing. Sell one product and you could go to zero income overnight... sell 10 and you lose only 10% and a month or two can recoup that.

Though as always, having your own product is the most lucrative model, but not everyone can do that and those that cannot, do not always understand that they can outsource the product production.

It is their product, they can do whatever they want. LOL. I agree with the previous posters though. It is dangerous to have all your eggs in one basket.

I agree with Big Mike. If you brought a new client to the company and earned money every month when that client re-upped his hosting account (or whatever it was he did that got you paid) I'd be upset as well. I understand the fatalistic attitude of most of the posters, but if this were 100% legal and acceptable, what would stop any and every company from enticing you to send them customers, and then keeping the customers but telling you to shove off. I think there might be some legal issues (certainly some moral ones) you need to hash out with a competent attorney.

oh this sounds awful

I am sorry to say that it is completely legal. I am sure, that somewhere in the fine print of the Affiliate agreement it states that either side can terminate relations without the consent of the other (or others in the case of affiliate program members). Just as others have said here, business is business, and just as with any other company, online or offline, when sales go bad adjustments have to be made. If this weren't true then how come we have such a high unemployment rate? Because unfortunately the economy is in a dire situation and most businesses have had to cut expenses all around, from commissions to even cutting staff.

Let this be a lesson to always have a back up plan. As someone said here "don't put all your eggs in one basket", by doing so you are limiting your growth and success potential. If you want to get an attorney's opinion you can go ahead and do so, but I am almost certain that there probably isn't much you can do.

If you're getting paid a one-time fee for getting a customer, that is one issue. A company can cancel their affiliate program, make sure you're paid all commissions earned, and that's that.

On the other hand, if a web hosting company is promising recurring commissions where you get a cut for the lifetime of the customer, that is an entirely different story.

The company can cancel their affiliate program to cut-off newly owed commissions going forward. But for existing customers where you get a lifetime commission, they're probably on the hook to keep paying unless there was some real tight language in their affiliate contract when you signed up.

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BTW did everyone here get THAT upset when Amazon DRASTICALLY cut THEIR commission? Remember THAT!?!?!? I NEVER saw anyone mention about roibot. I'm sure some major companies saw their profit drop to like ZERO OVERNIGHT!

And what brian said is certainly right, but if they do it for YOU, they will have to do it for all. That could then become what is known as a "class action". If there are REAL reasons to avoid it, they could go bankrupt. If THAT happens, and you made a lot, don't be surprised if they ask for THAT back!

Did you REALLY make that much?(having perhaps 10s of thousands of dollars on the line) Do THEY make that much?(say 10s of millions) If the answer to #1 is no, you probably don't want to persue it. If they answer to #2 is no, a lawyer probably won't.

And good luck trying to PROVE that they still have the customers. Apparently, there is often a lot of turnaround.

Steve

If I were the web host I would think 50 times before closing it but it's their business and it's totally their choice.

Affiliates just get a commission and they are different from partners.

That's the reason you should start thinking about starting your own company and selling your own products because no matter how much recurring income you are making as an affiliate, it can go down.

Also, you should promote a reputable hosting company who you know won't turn their back on ya!

I've heard of this happening a couple of times. It is annoying if you've spent months or maybe years building up your sites and backlinks for that product but there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. It's their decision at the end of the day

Geeesh ... the things people say are unethical. The company belongs to them. The company wishes to cease their affiliate program. It's in the company's best interest to cease their affiliate program or they wouldn't be doing it.

They don't have to ask your permission to run any aspect of their business. They notified you so move on.