Affiliate Policy

Affiliate Policy

This Affiliate Program Agreement (also “Agreement”, “Affiliate Agreement”, “Terms and Conditions”, “Affiliate Terms and Conditions”,) is entered into by and between Small Business HQ and the Partner (also” You”, “Affiliate Partner”, “Affiliate”). This Agreement sets forth the terms and conditions of your use of the Affiliate Program (the “Affiliate Program” or the “Services”). Your acceptance of this Agreement signifies that you have read, understood, acknowledged and agreed to be bound by this Agreement, along with Small Business HQ ‘s Universal Terms of Service Agreement, which is incorporated herein by reference. The terms “we”, “us” or “our” shall refer to Small Business HQ. The terms “you”, “your”, “User”, “customer” or “Affiliate” shall refer to any individual or entity who accepts this Agreement.

Nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to confer any third-party rights or benefits. Small Business HQ, in its sole and absolute discretion, may change or modify this Agreement, and any policies or agreements which are incorporated herein, at any time, and such changes or modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting to the Small Business HQ website (this “Site”).

You acknowledge and agree that (i) Small Business HQ may notify you of such changes or modifications by posting them to this Site and (ii) your use of this Site or the Services found at this Site after such changes or modifications have been made (as indicated by the “Last Revised” date at the top of this page) shall constitute your acceptance of this Agreement as last revised. If you do not agree to be bound by this Agreement as last revised, do not use (or continue to use) this Site or the Services found at this Site. In addition, Small Business HQ may occasionally notify you of changes or modifications to this Agreement by email. It is therefore very important that you keep your account (“Account”) information, including your email address, current. Small Business HQ assumes no liability or responsibility for your failure to receive an email notification if such failure results from an inaccurate or out-of-date email address.

Participation in the Affiliate Program

In order to enroll in the Affiliate Program, you need to submit your application through the affiliate signup form on the Small Business HQ website (the Website). All affiliate signups are reviewed by us before deciding if an application is accepted. If we determine that your application is not suitable for the Affiliate Program, it may be rejected for any reason.

Your Responsibilities

As a Small Business HQ Affiliate, you agree that:

  • It is your full responsibility to provide us with accurate account information and it is your responsibility to keep that information up to date. Such information includes, but is not limited to: contact details, payment details, tax information, all website URL(s) where Small Business HQ is promoted, promotional means and practices and any other details we may request. Small Business HQ reserves the right to request any additional information about each website, where Small Business HQ is promoted and any additional information about the practices used to promote Small Business HQ on those websites. If by any means you fail to provide the requested data or the data is not accurate it may result in exclusion from the Affiliate Program, temporary suspension or termination of your Affiliate account and loss of any Commissions.
  • The Affiliate must act in good faith and refer clients in good standing. Clients in good standing are your referred web hosting account owners that have provided valid contact information, have active accounts that do not exceed any limitations as per the Small Business HQ Terms of Service and are not flagged for high fraud risk. Active account refers to your referred new users who have created an account and have not canceled it in more than 45 (forty-five) days.
  • You should not make any recommendations or take any actions that would result in a potential revenue loss for Small Business HQ.
  • You should not use any marketing practices that may attract clients that are not in good standing.
  • You should not act in your own will as per modifying, copying or altering any banners, icons, graphics or any other content that is contained in Small Business HQ ’s Links including but not limited to altering and modifying any copyright or trademark notices, without prior written approval from Small Business HQ.
  • You shall not use self-referral methods; you can’t click on your affiliate links and/or banners and make orders via your unique affiliate link. Matching IP addresses that were used to log in to the Affiliate panel and to make the purchase, are going to be considered as self-referral and no exceptions will be made. Additionally, the use of VPN services to make a purchase via the affiliate link will also be considered a violation. Violations can result in the loss of all accrued Rewards and dismissal from the program.
  • The Affiliate should not engage in any blackhat SEO/spam link building techniques in order to generate more referrals for Small Business HQ.
  • You agree not to violate any applicable law.
  • You should be loyal to Small Business HQ and should not misuse its confidence and shall not damage Small Business HQ reputation.
  • Not to advocate, promote, or encourage violence or discrimination against any person, organization, or governmental entity.

If Small Business HQ suspects or detects patterns of violations of the Affiliate Program Agreement, Small Business HQ reserves the right, as a result of Program Agreement violation, to suspend and/or terminate your Affiliate account and cancel all Commission payments due.

Affiliate Advertising

Only promotional materials that are approved by Small Business HQ may be used in the Affiliate’s Site in order to advertise Small Business HQ. Approved promotional materials refer to the materials that are provided in your Affiliate Area. Approved promotional materials may contain Small Business HQ trademarks, service marks, logos and slogans for you to display on your Affiliate Website. By signing this agreement we grant you a non-exclusive, limited and non-transferable license to access, download and place the approved promotional material on your website with the sole purpose to promote websites operated, controlled and owned by Small Business HQ.

If by the decision of any party the Affiliate Agreement is terminated, upon termination your non-exclusive, limited and non-transferable license to access, download and place the approved promotional materials of Small Business HQ will be immediately and automatically withdrawn.

Inappropriate ways of advertising include, but are not limited to:

  • The Usage of any illegal and/or spam method of advertising, such as: unsolicited email, unauthorized placing of the link in forums, newsgroups, message boards, etc.;
  • Bidding on keywords and phrases containing the “Small Business HQ ” trademark, or variations or misspellings of the trademarked term on Pay per Click or Pay per Impression campaigns on the search engines (Google, Bing or others) without our prior approval. You are not allowed to use the Small Business HQ Website(s) as display URL in Paid media ads and to direct-link or redirect to the Small Business HQ Website(s);
  • Using non-unique copyright infringing content to promote Small Business HQ;
  • Using traffic generated by pay to read, pay to click, banner exchanges, click exchanges, PPV advertising, pop-up/under, or similar methods;
  • Providing cash backs, rewards or any other kind of incentives to obtain the sale without our prior approval;
  • Offering price savings methods, including coupon(s), voucher(s), discount codes, or added value offers without our prior approval;
  • Using our advertising and promotional materials, trademark or name in a way which negatively affects our image;
  • Using frames or any other techniques or technology that places your affiliate tracking cookie in any means other than an actual click-through;
  • Using link cloaking or masking techniques or technology with the goal to promote Small Business HQ on websites and/or networks not explicitly listed in your affiliate profile and hiding that traffic source;
  • Your website(s) must NOT contain lewd, obscene, illegal or pornographic material, or any other material that is deemed to be objectionable. This includes, but is not limited to, bigotry, hatred, pornography, satanic materials, trademark and copyright materials, all content of an adult nature, etc. The declaration of any materials as such is subject to our reasonable opinion;
  • Your domain name(s), company name, logo, trademark, product(s), project(s), service(s) must NOT contain keywords and phrases containing the “Small Business HQ ” trademark or any other variations or misspellings confusingly similar to Small Business HQ trademark, name, logo or domain name, without our prior approval;
  • Your domain name(s), company name, logo, trademark, your product(s), project(s), service(s) must NOT contain keywords and phrases that contain or are confusingly similar to third-party trademarks, names, logos or domain names unless you have been duly authorized by the trademark owner.

Small Business HQ shall have the sole right to decide if a promotional method you use is appropriate. The use of any advertising method that we consider inappropriate may result in a warning, suspension or termination of your affiliate account and cancellation of all outstanding Commission payments due. Additionally, any rude, aggressive or offensive in any means communication with the dedicated affiliate manager will result in a permanent ban from the Affiliate Program with no exceptions made.

Affiliate Tracking Cookies

We track affiliate sales automatically by using cookies. The cookies are automatically placed in the browser of the user who clicks on the affiliate link in order to reach our website. Every cookie is stored for up to 30 days. If a previous affiliate’s cookie is already placed in the same user’s browser it will be overwritten with the new cookie. If cookies are deleted intentionally by the user, Small Business HQ does not hold responsibility for this action.

Payments

We greatly value and appreciate those who recommend and promote our services and products to others. Affiliates are paid a fixed percent or dollar value, as agreed between the parties and stated in writing, for each confirmed paid referral they make that is not canceled or refunded, so long as you remain an affiliate and this agreement is in effect.

The cost of our products and services may change at any time and without notice. The affiliate payment for our products and services may change at any time and without notice. There is no guaranteed minimum payment from any referral.

Any advertised payments to affiliates for referrals, whether a lump sum or a percentage, refer to the gross amount paid by us. What you receive may be slightly less after taking into account third party processing fees. In particular, payments to affiliates will primary be via PayPal or other means with payments in US dollars, and PayPal or other merchant processing charges a fee for its services.

Affiliate payments are made approximately 30 days after the end of the month in which the payment generating transaction occurred. Fraudulent signups associated with an affiliate, or suspicious activity may result in a longer payment period.

Payment amounts for a referral may differ between affiliates if separately negotiated in writing.

Affiliates shall be responsible for all taxes and other similar levies as required by any law or regulation. Affiliate agrees as a condition of payment to accurately provide all identification and tax information necessary to allow us to comply with legal requirements.

Affiliates understand that payment tracking can never be 100% accurate and this may be affected by events beyond our control, such as customers not accepting cookies or other mechanisms through affiliate referrals are tracked.

Invoicing

We will provide you with the Commission statement due in your Affiliate Area at the start of a new month. Payout requests for the previous payable period should be submitted via specified email until the end of the previous month. If the request will be submitted after the end of the previous month – the payout will be transferred to the next payments round.

Relationship of the Parties

Both the Affiliate and Small Business HQ agree that they are entering into this Affiliate Agreement as independent contractors and this agreement creates no partnership, agency franchise, joint venture, sales representative or employment relationship between them. You have no authority to accept or make any representations or offers on the behalf of Small Business HQ. You cannot make any statements on your website or otherwise that would contradict anything in this section.

Account Termination

At any time, you can cancel and terminate your affiliate account by contacting us through the Affiliate Area. Small Business HQ will send you a confirmation that your account has been terminated, as requested.

Small Business HQ can terminate an affiliate account:

  • With a seven-day prior notice without providing any explanation.
  • Immediately without any prior notice, if your affiliate account or you violate the Affiliate Program Terms and Conditions.

After an affiliate account is terminated, the sales associated with the affiliate will no longer be tracked by us and you will no longer qualify for any future Commissions. Additionally, Partner will be considered an inactive Affiliate if the account will not have any new Conversions for the last six months and such accounts will be parked as dormant. If any Commissions are due at the time of termination, they will be paid to the Affiliate after any applicable holding period with the regular payout cycle. No outstanding Commission payments will be due if your account is terminated due to the violation of these Terms and Conditions.

Once the Affiliate account is terminated, the Affiliate is obliged to remove any and all promotional materials, links, logos, trademarks, and slogans of Small Business HQ from his website within a period of 3 business days. This provision survives the termination of the Affiliate Agreement. Upon the termination of this Affiliate Agreement, the Affiliate no longer has the right to use any of Small Business HQ trademark(s), logo(s), and slogan(s) and will refrain from any actions that may affect the reputation, the image and any business relations with current and potential clients of Small Business HQ, directly or indirectly.

Once the Affiliate account is terminated, this Affiliate Agreement is terminated automatically.

Confidential Information

Each party acknowledges that, as a result of this Affiliate Agreement, it may gain access to certain Confidential Information of the other party. “Confidential Information” means all documentation and information, including techniques, algorithms and processes and technical, business and marketing information, designated or marked by the party disclosing such documentation and information orally, visually or in writing (the “Disclosing Party”) as “proprietary” or “confidential” or the like, or that the other party (the “Receiving Party”) knows to be confidential, or should reasonably consider to be confidential under the circumstances of its disclosure, supplied by the Disclosing Party to the Receiving Party in connection with this Affiliate Agreement.

During the Term and for a period of five (5) years thereafter, each Receiving Party agrees (a) to hold the Disclosing Party’s Confidential Information in strict confidence, using the same degree of (but no less than reasonable) care and protection that it exercises with its own Confidential Information of a similar nature; (b) not to directly or indirectly disclose or otherwise make available any Confidential Information of the Disclosing Party to a third party; and (c) not to copy or use Disclosing Party’s Confidential Information for any purpose other than as necessary to fulfill Receiving Party’s obligations or exercise its rights under this Affiliate Agreement. Each party will disclose the other party’s Confidential Information only to its employees and affiliates with a need to know in order to fulfill such party’s obligations hereunder. In addition, the Receiving Party will be allowed to disclose Confidential Information of the Disclosing Party to the extent that such disclosure is approved in writing by the Disclosing Party or is required by law or by the order of a court or similar judicial or administrative body, provided that (to the extent permitted by law) the Receiving Party notifies the Disclosing Party of such required disclosure promptly and in writing and cooperates with the Disclosing Party, at the Disclosing Party’s reasonable request and expense, in any lawful action.

The obligations of this Section will not apply to Confidential Information if such information: (a) is publicly available prior to or at the time of disclosure, or later becomes publicly available through no act of the Receiving Party; or (b) was, prior to disclosure hereunder, rightfully known to the Receiving Party (other than in connection with this Affiliate Agreement) without confidentiality restriction.

Governing Law

Any controversy, claim or dispute arising under this Affiliate Agreement will be resolved according to the jurisdiction and legislation where the Small Business HQ entity servicing your Affiliate account is located.

Changes to the Affiliate Program Terms

We remain the right to change any policies or terms of this Affiliate Agreement at any time. The amendments and/or supplements of the Agreement are effective immediately upon being posted to the Small Business HQ website. The current Terms and Conditions of the Affiliate Agreement are always available publicly on Small Business HQ ’s website. If by any means you do not agree with the amendments and/or supplements of the Affiliate Agreement, you can cancel your account within 10 business days, counting from the date of the amendments and/or supplements. Only an official Small Business HQ officer has the right to make any amendments and/or supplements to this Affiliate Agreement. No agent of, or person employed by or under contract with, Small Business HQ has any authority to alter or vary this Affiliate Terms and Conditions Agreement in any way. No oral explanation or oral information given by any party shall alter the interpretation of this Affiliate Agreement.