Website referral program · for accountants, agencies and freelancers
You make one introduction. A fifth of their hosting is yours every month they stay.
One of your clients has a website nobody has touched since 2019, and they know it. You aren’t going to build them a new one and you have no wish to manage whoever does. So send one email. We design the website, write it and build it in seven days, register the domain, host it and answer that business for as long as it stays with us. A fifth of what it pays for hosting reaches you on the 15th of the following month, with no cap on how many you send and no date at which it stops.
- 20%of the monthly hosting, for as long as they stay
- $15once per referral, after their second payment clears
- 15thof the month, by bank transfer, in arrears
One business, one introduction: shares of their hosting paid to you, counted cumulatively
A share is a fifth of one client’s hosting for one month, and the $15 launch fee is paid once on top of the first two. One introduction isn’t a windfall and we aren’t going to pretend it is. Ten a year, kept for three years, is a standing monthly payment worth having.
How it works
Three steps, and you do only the first one
There’s nothing to sell, nothing to demonstrate and nothing to support afterwards. If you can send an email, you can be a partner.
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You introduce them
Send your client your partner link, or fill in the introduction form with their name and email and we’ll write to them. Either way the referral is recorded against your account the moment it happens.
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We build it and we run it
Our own designers and writers build the site in seven days. Today you pay $1 for the website plus your first month of hosting. After that hosting is $8.99 a month, billed on the same date each month until you cancel, and you can cancel in any month. The same build is openly sold at $1,500, which is what a US agency charges for a small business site of this size. We register and point the domain, set up the mailbox and the SSL, take the monthly hosting payments through Stripe and answer every question they ever have, by email and live chat.
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You get paid, every month
A fifth of what they pay for hosting lands in your account on the 15th of the following month, for as long as they stay with us. If what they pay for hosting goes up, your share goes up with it from that month.
The rates
What you earn on, and the one thing you don’t
These are the published rates and there’s no second, better set for people who negotiate. Percentages, so they hold whichever currency your client is billed in.
| What you earn on | How it is charged to them | Your share | How often you’re paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Their hosting | Monthly, with no contract and no minimum term | 20% | Every month |
| The mailbox, the SSL, the backups and the domain run for them | Inside their hosting, never billed on top of it. The registry’s own annual fee for the domain name is billed separately at cost | In the 20% | Every month |
| The website itself | $1, once, and there’s no margin in it to share | Nothing | Never |
| Launch fee, once per referral | After their second monthly payment clears | $15.00 | Once |
What a share is. One share is a fifth of one client’s hosting for one month, rounded up to the cent rather than down. It’s a percentage and not a fixed sum, which is why the examples below count shares: your clients won’t all be hosted on the same thing.
Why the website pays nothing. A site costs us four people and the better part of a week, and the customer pays a dollar for it. There’s no margin on that to share, so we don’t invent one. Everything you earn comes out of the hosting, which is also why we’d rather you sent us businesses that will still be in business in three years than as many as possible this month.
Why the launch fee waits. It’s paid once the customer’s second monthly payment has cleared, not on sign-up. That way nobody is paid for a referral that never started, and we don’t have to claw anything back off you two weeks later.
If what they pay changes. Your share is a fifth of whatever their hosting is that month, so it follows them up or down from the month it changes. Nobody is locked to the rate their client started on.
Worked through
What it adds up to
Two examples, both worked from the rates above and nothing else, and both counted in shares: one share is a fifth of one client’s hosting for one month. They’re arithmetic, not a forecast, and what you earn depends entirely on how many businesses you introduce and how long they stay.
Example one
A single client, month one to year three
The smallest possible version of this: you introduce one business, they take a website for a dollar and they stay hosted with us. Here’s every share you’re paid, and the one flat fee.
- Month 1 One share: their first hosting payment clears and your fifth of it is on that statement 1
- Month 2 One more, and the $15 launch fee lands on the same statement 1
- Months 3 to 12 Ten more shares, and nothing for you to do in any of them 10
- Year one Twelve shares, plus the $15 launch fee once 12
- Year two Twelve more shares, nothing else to do 12
- Year three Twelve more shares 12
- Three years Thirty-six shares from one email, and it carries on into year four 36
Example two
Twelve a year, for three years
Closer to what an accounting practice or a chamber of commerce does: one introduction a month, year after year, with clients dropping off along the way.
What this assumes
- One introduction a month, twelve a year, every year.
- Each client pays you one share for every month they’re hosted with us, whatever their hosting is, so a client introduced in January pays twelve shares in their first year and one introduced in December pays one.
- Nobody leaves in the year they join. After that, one in five stops each year.
- The launch fee lands the month after the second payment, so eleven of the first twelve are paid inside year one and the twelfth carries into year two.
- Whole clients and whole months. Rounded, so a column may be a share out.
| Measure | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introductions you send | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Still with us at the year end | 12 | 22 | 30 |
| Shares from the ones you introduce that year | 78 | 78 | 78 |
| Shares from the ones already on the books | 0 | 132 | 240 |
| Launch fees paid that year | $165 | $180 | $180 |
| Shares paid that year | 78 | 210 | 318 |
| Shares paid in total | 78 | 288 | 606 |
Read the fourth row rather than the last one. In year one nothing arrives from clients already on the books, because there are none; by year three that row alone is 240 shares, and it’s paid on thirty businesses before you introduce a single new one. That’s how a recurring share works: the fourth year starts where the third finished, not at zero.
These are worked examples built from the published rates, not a projection, a forecast or a promise of income. Nothing on this page is financial advice. What a share comes to in dollars depends on what the client is paying for hosting that month, and what you earn depends on how many businesses you introduce and how long they stay. We have no way of knowing any of those in advance.
Getting paid
The 15th, by bank transfer
Commission is worked out at the end of each calendar month and paid in the middle of the next one. No portal to chase, no invoice to remember, and nothing that expires if you forget about it for a year.
- How often
- Monthly, in arrears. Everything that cleared in March is paid on April 15. If the 15th is a weekend or a federal holiday it goes on the last business day before it.
- How
- ACH bank transfer to a US account in your name or your company’s. Your clients pay us by card through Stripe; we pay you directly, so nothing depends on a wallet balance you have to withdraw from.
- Minimum payout
- $25. Below that the balance rolls into the next month and keeps rolling until it clears the threshold. It never expires, and it’s paid in full if you leave the program.
- Invoicing
- We self-bill by default: we raise the invoice on your behalf and send it to you with the payment, which is one less thing in your month-end. Send us your own instead if you would rather.
- Taxes
- We collect a W-9 before the first payment and issue the year-end form the IRS requires. Commission is your income and you’re responsible for reporting it. We aren’t able to give you tax advice and won’t try.
- Adjustments
- If a month is refunded or charged back, the commission on that month comes off your next statement and is shown as a line on it. That’s the only circumstance in which anything is taken back.
- Tracking
- A partner link with your own code, with a 90-day window, plus an introduction form for the clients who come to us by email instead of clicking anything. If both happen, the earlier record wins.
- Reporting
- A partner dashboard in your browser: every referral with its status, what each one is worth this month, the next payment date and the running total. Monthly statements as PDF and CSV. It runs in the browser, so there’s nothing to install and no software to keep up to date.
- Notifications
- An email when a referral is recorded, when their site goes live, when a launch fee is due and when a payment is sent. Turn any of them off.
November 2026
Statement PS‑1130
- 6 introduced
- 4 started
- 3 live
- 1 stopped
- Monthly shares22 live clients
- 22
- Adjustment1 refunded month, February
- -1
- Launch fees3 referrals reaching month two
- $45.00
- Total for March
- 21 + $45.00
Paid December 15, 2026 by bank transfer. Self-billed invoice SB‑1215 attached.
Who it is for
Who a website referral program suits, and who it doesn’t
This works when you already have the trust of people who need a website and have been putting it off. It works badly for everything else, and we’d rather say so before you spend two weeks on it.
It suits
- Accountants and bookkeepers. Half your clients are sole proprietors on a Facebook page and at least one of them asks you every January who does websites. Do I need a website if I have Facebook and Instagram is the one to send them first.
- Business advisers and chambers of commerce. A recommendation that costs the business a dollar to act on, and after that a hosting bill they would be paying someone anyway, is an easy one to make.
- Trade associations and chambers. A member benefit that’s a benefit, and a line of income for the association that isn’t another sponsorship deal.
- Web freelancers and small agencies. For the inquiries you turn down because the budget is a few hundred dollars, which is roughly where a custom build stops adding up for you. Pass them here instead of saying no, and keep the relationship.
- Printers, sign makers and photographers. You are already doing the van wrap and the storefront. The website is the missing third of the same job.
- IT support firms. You look after their computers and their email already and you don’t want to start building websites at nine on a Sunday.
- Networking groups and business coaches. Where the introduction is the whole trade and everyone already understands why you’re paid for it.
It doesn’t suit
- Anyone who wants to resell under their own brand. This program puts our name on the work. White label is a different arrangement and a different conversation.
- Coupon, cashback and voucher sites. The website is already a dollar. There’s no discount left to hand out and nothing for that model to work with.
- Anyone wanting a one-off bounty. Most of the money here arrives in the second and third years. If you need it all on sign-up this will disappoint you.
- Anyone selling to larger companies. A firm that needs a custom build at a custom price isn’t who this is for, and sending them here wastes their time and yours.
- Anyone who would rather not mention it. We ask every partner to tell their client up front that they’re paid for the introduction. If that’s awkward for your professional obligations, don’t join.
- Anyone with no existing audience. There’s no advertising allowance here and no leads passed to you. The program rewards a relationship you already have, not one you’re hoping to build on our name.
Joining
One email, then a link and a code
There’s no application fee, no minimum number of referrals and no target to hit to stay in. Applications are read by a person and answered inside three business days.
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Write to us
Email [email protected] with who you are, what you do and roughly who your clients are. One paragraph is enough. If you have a website of your own, send the address.
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We answer in three business days
If it fits, you get the partner agreement to read and sign, your own link and code, and your dashboard. If it doesn’t fit, you get a reason rather than silence.
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Make your first introduction
Send a client the link, or put their name and email into the introduction form and we’ll write to them the same business day. The referral appears on your dashboard immediately.
Questions
What partners ask first
Anything not answered here, ask us by email or on chat and a person who runs the program will answer, usually the same business day.
Do I have to sell anything?
No, and we’d rather you didn’t try. You make the introduction and we take it from there: the questions about pricing, the domain, what happens if they want to leave, all of it. You’re never expected to give an estimate, demonstrate anything or hold a pricing conversation on our behalf.
Is there a limit on how much I can earn?
No cap on the number of referrals, no cap on the total, and no expiry date on a referral. A client introduced in 2026 who is still with us in 2032 is still paying you 20% of their hosting in 2032.
Can I pass my commission on to my client as a discount?
It’s your money and you can do as you like with it, including rebating it to them. What we can’t do is cut what your client pays for hosting to make room for it, because that is what pays for the hosting, the backups, the mailbox and the person who answers them. What we do ask, either way, is that you tell your client up front that you’re paid for the introduction.
What if two partners introduce the same business?
The earlier recorded introduction wins, whether that was a click on a link or a name typed into the introduction form. Where the records can’t separate them, we split the commission down the middle and tell you both. It happens perhaps twice a year.
Do I need to be an LLC, or have an EIN?
Neither. Sole proprietors and partnerships are welcome and paid the same way, into a US bank account in your own name. We collect a W-9 before the first payment and issue the year-end form the IRS requires. The commission is your income and reporting it is your responsibility; we can’t advise you on tax and won’t pretend otherwise, so take the first year past someone who can.
Is there a contract, and how long is it?
A short partner agreement, three pages, in the same plain English as this page. Either side can end it with thirty days’ notice, and ending it doesn’t stop the commission on clients you have already introduced. There’s no minimum term, no target and no exclusivity: you can be a partner of ours and of someone else’s on the same afternoon.
What do you do for my client after the site is live?
Host it, back it up nightly, renew the SSL, keep the domain pointed, run the mailbox, and make the changes they send us, two a month on Basic and as many as they send on Complete. They can also change prices, photographs and opening hours themselves from any browser. Support is by email and live chat, in writing, so there’s always a record, and what we are held to is on the service level page. They can cancel in any month with no contract, no notice period and no exit fee, which is the same promise we make to everybody.