How Web Hosting Affiliate Tracking Works
Affiliate programmes are often vague about the part that matters most: whether a referral will actually be credited to you. This page explains exactly how WebsNP tracks referrals, decides attribution, and handles the awkward cases.
1. The referral link
Every affiliate gets a unique code and two equivalent ways to use it.
-
The clean link:
https://www.websnp.com/ref/YOURCODE— records the visit and forwards straight to the WebsNP home page. -
Deep linking: add
?ref=YOURCODEto any WebsNP page, so you can send someone directly to VPS hosting or reseller hosting rather than the home page.
Both forms are recorded identically. Deep linking usually converts better, because the visitor lands on the thing you were actually recommending.
2. What gets recorded, and what does not
Tracking a referral does not require surveilling the visitor. WebsNP records the minimum needed to credit you correctly and to spot abuse.
What we store
- Your affiliate code, and the page the visitor landed on.
- The date and time of the click.
- The referring site, where the browser sends one.
- A one-way hash of the visitor's IP address — enough to notice one network generating dozens of signups, but not the address itself.
- A short browser identifier, so a refresh or a back button is not counted as a new click.
What affiliates never see
- Your referred customers' e-mail addresses, phone numbers or postal addresses.
- Their invoices, services, passwords or support tickets.
- Anything about visitors who clicked but did not sign up, beyond the count.
Your dashboard shows the customer's name and what you earned. That is the whole extent of it.
3. The attribution window and who wins
The attribution window is how long a click stays creditable. At WebsNP it is currently 30 days.
Current attribution model: last valid click
If a visitor follows affiliate A's link on Monday and affiliate B's on Friday, then signs up on Saturday, affiliate B is credited. The most recent valid referral before signup wins. This is the industry norm, and it rewards whoever actually prompted the decision to buy.
Once a customer is attributed, they stay attributed
Attribution is decided once, when the account is created, and it is permanent. Nobody can claim a customer who already belongs to another affiliate, and no later click can move them. It also means services that customer buys later still count for you, subject to the rate configured for each service.
A signup outside the window is not a referral
If the 30-day window has expired by the time they sign up, no referral is recorded. Equally, an existing WebsNP customer who follows your link does not become your referral — they already had an account before you introduced them.
4. From referral to commission
A referral on its own earns nothing. Commission is recorded when your referred customer actually pays.
- Invoice paid — commission is calculated per line, on the net amount excluding VAT, at the rate configured for each service. See the commission rates.
- Pending for 30 days — the order can still be refunded or cancelled in that period.
- Available — the holding period has passed and the amount can be withdrawn.
- Paid — settled through a payout request.
What happens on refunds and cancellations
If the order behind a commission is cancelled, terminated or refunded, the commission is reversed. If it was still pending it is cancelled outright and never counted. If it had already become available or been paid out, the amount is recovered from your future earnings and both the original entry and the reversal stay visible in your history — nothing is quietly deleted.
Why the holding period is there
It is not there to delay you. Reversing a payment already sent is far more disruptive than waiting 30 days, so the programme waits until an order has settled before treating the commission as yours.
5. How invalid referrals are caught
Programmes that do not police abuse end up paying for it by cutting rates for everyone. WebsNP checks referrals against several signals.
Blocked outright
- An affiliate ordering through their own referral link.
- Commission on any invoice that was never actually paid.
- A second commission on a line already paid on — the ledger will not allow it.
Flagged for a human to look at
- A signup e-mail or phone number matching the affiliate's own.
- An unusual number of signups arriving from a single network.
- Repeated orders that are cancelled or refunded shortly after being placed.
How flags are treated
A flag is a prompt for review, not a verdict. Households, offices and mobile networks all share IP addresses, so no account is suspended on one signal alone. A member of our team looks at flagged referrals, and either clears them or rejects them with a reason.
Related pages
Now you know how it works — join the programme
Sign in to your WebsNP client area, open the Affiliate section and submit your application. Our team reviews each application and you will hear back by e-mail.
Not a WebsNP customer yet? Create a free account — you do not need to buy anything to become an affiliate.