Endurance International Group

Fatcow.com the third of EIG hosts to comply with the FTC

I hate to be repetive, but Fatcow.com is  added onto the list of Endurance International Group hosts to send out FTC compliance notices to their affiliates.  If you read my last two posts you will see that just like Justhost.com and ipower.com they used the same exact notice.   I will continue to do a post for each notice I recieve from Endurance International Group.  Unless EIG stole this notices from Justhost.com,  I think it is safe to say that Justhost.com is a eig owned site.  I can only hope that ipage.com is next.  After all it was a chat on ipage.com and fatcow.com that lead me to look into their connection.

The first email about Federal Trade Commission guidelines was sent to Just Host affiliates.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/endurance-international-group/just-host.html

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/endurance-international-group/ipower-com.html

I can only hope that ipage.com is next.  After all it was a chat on ipage.com and fatcow.com that lead me to look into their connection.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/fatcow/fatcow-sucks-beware-read-this-fatcow-review-first-before-buying.html

A copy of the Email from Fatcow.com

Dear FatCow Affiliate,As you may know, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has strict guidelines that relate to affiliates who offer reviews, rankings, endorsements and testimonials; and we require all affiliates of our CJ program to comply with these requirements.To be compliant with the FTC

Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising,

FatCow expressly requires you to disclose that there is a “material connection” between you and FatCow anytime you offer an endorsement or testimonial on our services.

View more information about FatCow’s strict adherence to the FTC Endorsement Requirement.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

If you provide reviews, rankings, endorsements or testimonials about a service for which you receive commissions from us, you must clearly disclose the fact that you receive such compensation in a clear and prominent place–that is close to your endorsement.

The FTC takes the Endorsement guidelines seriously and has started to enforce them for both content providers like yourself and advertisers like FatCow.

As an advertiser, FatCow will monitor affiliate sites to be sure our services are represented appropriately. Failure to comply with the endorsement guidelines could result in removal from our affiliate program and the cancellation of commissions.

TIPS FOR MAKING SURE YOUR SITE IS COMPLIANT

To make it easier for you, we’ve pulled together information, based on a recent FTC enforcement case, to illustrate ways you can disclose a material connection between you and your advertisers. Take a few minutes to review this summary at:

FatCow Affiliate Disclosure Requirements and Examples

The FTC also offers a variety of resources to help make it easier for you to comply with the guidelines, including:

Please note: These links are intended to provide guidance only. If you provide endorsements of some type, you should obtain legal advice on how the FTC rules apply to you.

Please take steps immediately to make sure your site is in compliance with these guidelines. Several of our leading affiliates have already posted their disclosures, and they continue to enjoy great success.

Best wishes,

The FatCow Affiliate Team

So what does this email from Fatcow.com mean?

In short if your a review site, and you don’t disclose that you created your site for the purpose of making money they will remove you from the affiliate program.  Here are the steps they recommend to be in compliance with the FTC.

  1. Frequent: Disclosures must be available on any page that has an endorsement.
  2. Clear: Language must be easy to understand; don’t attempt to hide the fact that it’s a disclosure.
  3. Conspicuous: Place your disclosure close to your endorsement or review. Differentiate the disclosure’s font treatment from the rest of your site.
  4. Require no action: The user shouldn’t need to click, hover or scroll to locate or understand the nature of your disclosure.

If Fatcow.com sticks with this, I have to commend them on doing things ethically.  I hope they did not start doing this because the FTC contacted them first.  I will be sure to contact them should I find any violators.

Be warned if you run a so called top review site, and you have Fatcow.

Ipower.com the second of EIG hosts to come clean?

If you read my earlier post, then this post on ipower.com is going to be very similar to the Justhost.com post.   I will continue to do a post for each notice I recieve from Endurance International Group.  Which I think it is safe to say that Justhost.com is a eig owned site as the notice for Ipower.com is almost exactly the same. until now I have never wrote anything on Ipower.com as a host, unless you read my previous posts on Endurance International Group.

The first email about Federal Trade Commission guidelines was sent to Just Host affiliates.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/endurance-international-group/just-host.html

A copy of the Email from Ipower.com

Dear IPOWER Affiliate,As you may know, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has strict guidelines that relate to affiliates who offer reviews, rankings, endorsements and testimonials; and we require all affiliates of our CJ program to comply with these requirements.To be compliant with the FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, IPOWER expressly requires you to disclose that there is a “material connection” between you and IPOWER anytime you offer an endorsement or testimonial on our services.

View more information about IPOWER’s strict adherence to the FTC Endorsement Requirement.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

If you provide reviews, rankings, endorsements or testimonials about a service for which you receive commissions from us, you must clearly disclose the fact that you receive such compensation in a clear and prominent place–that is close to your endorsement.

The FTC takes the Endorsement guidelines seriously and has started to enforce them for both content providers like yourself and advertisers like IPOWER.

As an advertiser, IPOWER will monitor affiliate sites to be sure our services are represented appropriately. Failure to comply with the endorsement guidelines could result in removal from our affiliate program and the cancellation of commissions.

FOR MAKING SURE YOUR SITE IS COMPLIANT

To make it easier for you, we’ve pulled together information, based on a recent FTC enforcement case, to illustrate ways you can disclose a material connection between you and your advertisers. Take a few minutes to review this summary at:

IPOWER Affiliate Disclosure Requirements and Examples

The FTC also offers a variety of resources to help make it easier for you to comply with the guidelines, including:

Please note: These links are intended to provide guidance only. If you provide endorsements of some type, you should obtain legal advice on how the FTC rules apply to you.

Please take steps immediately to make sure your site is in compliance with these guidelines. Several of our leading affiliates have already posted their disclosures, and they continue to enjoy great success.

Best wishes,

The IPOWER Affiliate Team

So what does this email from Ipower.com mean?

In short if your a review site, and you don’t disclose that you created your site for the purpose of making money they will remove you from the affiliate program.  Here are the steps they recommend to be in compliance with the FTC.

  1. Frequent: Disclosures must be available on any page that has an endorsement.
  2. Clear: Language must be easy to understand; don’t attempt to hide the fact that it’s a disclosure.
  3. Conspicuous: Place your disclosure close to your endorsement or review. Differentiate the disclosure’s font treatment from the rest of your site.
  4. Require no action: The user shouldn’t need to click, hover or scroll to locate or understand the nature of your disclosure.

If Ipower.cpm sticks with this, I have to commend them on doing things ethically.  I hope they did not start doing this because the FTC contacted them first.  I will be sure to contact them should I find any violators.

Be warned if you run a so called top review site, and you have Ipower.

Just host – A start to Justhost.com being honest?

A friend of mine who is a Just Host affiliate sent me a email he got from justhost.com.   He runs a blog that is part personal / part business advice.  Where he places ads from hosts like Just Host, and other hosts through a rotating script.  Unlike the review sites that I go after he does not provide any endorsement for any of the hosts whose ads appear on his site.  He engages in a true form of advertising.  I for one would not run ads for them as I was not impress with the speed of the server when I had to upload a site for a customer.   This was a host that was supposed to have bought by Endurance International Group.  Which if true, would be the first of their hosts that I have ever tried.  My experience with Just Host can be found at:

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/justhost-just-dont-a-review-of-actually-use.html

Justhost

A copy of the Email from Just Host / Justhost.com

Dear Just Host Affiliate,We’ve made an important addition to the Just Host Affiliate Agreement that may impact the way you manage your online promotions.The change expressly requires you to disclose that there is a “material connection” between you and Just Host anytime you offer an endorsement or testimonial on our services. This disclosure is necessary in order to be deemed in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.View the FTC Endorsement Requirement in the Affiliate AgreementWHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU If you provide reviews, rankings, endorsements or testimonials about a service for which you receive commissions from us, you must clearly disclose the fact that you receive such compensation in a clear and prominent place–that is close to your endorsement.The FTC takes the Endorsement guidelines seriously and has started to enforce them for both content providers like yourself and advertisers like Just Host.As an advertiser, Just Host will monitor affiliate sites to be sure our services are represented appropriately. Under the updated Affiliate Agreement, failure to comply with the endorsement guidelines could result in removal from our affiliate program and the cancellation of commissions.TIPS FOR MAKING SURE YOUR SITE IS COMPLIANTTo make it easier for you, we’ve pulled together information, based on a recent FTC enforcement case, to illustrate ways you can disclose a material connection between you and your advertisers. Take a few minutes to review this summary at:Just Host Affiliate Disclosure Requirements and ExamplesThe FTC also offers a variety of resources to help make it easier for you to comply with the guidelines, including:

Please note: These links are intended to provide guidance only. If you provide endorsements of some type, you should obtain legal advice on how the FTC rules apply to you.

Please take steps immediately to make sure your site is in compliance with these guidelines. Several of our leading affiliates have already posted their disclosures, and they continue to enjoy great success.

Best wishes,

The Just Host Affiliate Team

So what does this email from Just Host / Justhost.com mean?

In short if your a review site, and you don’t disclose that you created your site for the purpose of making money they will remove you from the affiliate program.  Here are the steps they recommend to be in compliance with the FTC.

  1. Frequent: Disclosures must be available on any page that has an endorsement.
  2. Clear: Language must be easy to understand; don’t attempt to hide the fact that it’s a disclosure.
  3. Conspicuous: Place your disclosure close to your endorsement or review. Differentiate the disclosure’s font treatment from the rest of your site.
  4. Require no action: The user shouldn’t need to click, hover or scroll to locate or understand the nature of your disclosure.

I have to wonder if I am going to see more letters to other affiliates, if Just Host is owned by Endurance International Group.  Here is hoping this is a trend that puts this site off line.

If Just Host sticks with this, I have to commend them on doing things ethically.  I hope they did not start doing this because the FTC contacted them first.  I will be sure to contact them should I find any violators.

Be warned if you run a so called top review site, and you have Just Host.

Netfirms.com acquired by Endurance International Group

Netfirms.com, is not exactly a host the I had in my sights.  But one of their customers contacted me because they got an email telling them that the company had been taken over, upon further review the customer found the new owner is Endurance International Group which is a company that is in my sights as it has a lot of hosts, most of which engage in over the top affiliate commission’s which in turn motivate the so called “top host” lists.  Thankfully the customer that has posted to my blog was willing to send me a copy of the email, I tend to wonder if this is the same email that goes out to all customers that are acquired by Endurance International Group.    This is the first EIG acquisition that is openly acknowledged. On top of that migrations are not always smooth, Host4life comes to mind.  I had meant to post this sooner, but I had to set up a new machine, not to mention my copy of Photoshop went bonkers.

For details in to why Endurance International Group: https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/endurance-international-group/endurance-international-group-inc.html

The Netfirms email

I am pleased to announce that Netfirms will soon be transitioning to a new hosting platform, allowing you to benefit from:

  • Increased network security and a larger systems operations team, providing additional performance monitoring.
  • More disk space and data transfer for hosting accounts.
  • A new control panel with improved layout and navigation, custom designed from the ground up, based on user feedback.
  • Access to more than 200 tools and services for managing your website, domains and email, including more one-click application installs.

Plus, the new architecture is similar to our current clustered hosting technology in that your website and applications will continue to be distributed across a pool of servers, providing greater redundancy than traditional shared hosting platforms, with faster load times and fewer disruptions.

What You Need To Do

In the weeks and months ahead, we will be working very hard to make this transition a successful one. As with any change, there will be differences in the way you manage your account, and we will need you to be involved in the migration of your website and email. Not to worry, though: we will be in frequent communication with you to walk you through the process.

If you have any questions in the meantime, be sure to visit our transition information site, where you’ll find the most up-to-date information on the migration. We will continue to update the site with new information as it happens. Also, please do not hesitate to contact us by calling 866-317-4678 (press “1” for information regarding the transition) or emailing [email protected].

Please note: as part of the transition, domains will be transferred from the Netfirms registrar account to a registrar account with Tucows. Partnering with a company to manage the registrar side of things will allow us to focus on improving our core hosting services. This transfer will have no effect on your domains or where they point, and you will continue to manage your domains through your Netfirms control panel, just as you do today. More details >>

Why We’re Changing Platforms

We started Netfirms 13 years ago with a goal of delivering top-notch hosting and domain services to as many people as we could. Today, with 1.2 million hosted domains, we can’t help but be proud of how far we’ve come — and how far you’ve taken us. And now it’s time to take the next step: bringing our vision, our passion and our support to even more people in the coming years.

To help us take that next step, one of the top web hosting and domain management teams in the industry has acquired the Netfirms hosting and domain business. We realized that we needed a more scalable infrastructure, and that moving to an existing hosting platform, with proven reliability, would cause far less disruption to customer accounts than developing a solution in-house.

Please take a moment to review our revised Terms of Service, which will take effect on April 1, 2011. When customer accounts are migrated to the new hosting platform, which is located in the United States and managed by the new owners, customer data will, of course, continue to be hosted on a secure and confidential basis. Please review the new Netfirms privacy policy if you have any concerns.

The new Netfirms team has been in the business even longer than we have, and we trust them not only to continue providing the great service you’ve come to expect, but also to offer a variety of new features to help you better manage your websites and domains. More importantly, they have a proven track record of delivering on the same vision that we’ve all worked toward for the past 13 years.

We appreciate your ongoing support, and we understand that you, our customers, have made Netfirms the company it is today. On behalf of the entire Netfirms team, I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Thomas Savundra, CEO Netfirms

I recommend reading those links in the email if your a netfirms.com customer.

http://www.netfirmstransition.com/

Unused Domain Credits
If you currently have one or more credits for a new domain name registration, we encourage you to use them prior to March 15, 2011. Outstanding credits will not be carried over to the new hosting platform automatically. Reinforce your brand identity or protect yourself against visitor misspellings by using your domain credits to register alternate domain names.

I don’t think I have ever seen a point where Endurance International Group has acknowledged buying a host before.  I suspect Netfirms is the first.

If your with Netfirms.com you have to help them with the migration

If you want an example of an Endurance International Group migration, look up host4life.  From what I have seen most of the customers.

I would love to hear from people experiencing a migration from netfirms.

 

 

Endurance International Group – Which of their hosts pays the highest affiliate commission

One of the things I have noticed with Endurance International Group is that they have a referral and affiliate program.   Clearly its better to be an affiliate then send a referral.   Lets take iPage for example, they pay $115 per sale on their affiliate program, but only $25 per referral.  Credit does not have the same face value as money.  After all a $3.50 a month plan might only cost them $3, giving your $25 credit less value then $25 in your pocket.

Endurance International Group – Which sites are on Commission Junction

Once again your finding me doing what seems like work that benefits the Endurance International Group.  But to be honest I am seeing what I can do to cost them the most.  This is a Organization that is hides what sites they own.   As stated in one of my previous posts iPage is the cheapest of the hosts.  At  $3.50 a month, why would anyone else want to spend more with for the same thing?  If I really wanted to help Endurance International Group, I would try to sell you on buying from WebHost4lfe (Instead I intend to have a post telling you about the horrors of the buyout and forced migration)  As much as I had hoped, iPage is not the highest payout.  But it Certainly with a few other sites that share the second spot.  StartLogic is the highest at $125, with a unlimited hosting plan that costs $5.95 a month .  Host4life while the most expensive at $19.95  of the 20 unlimited hosting accounts is one of the second lowest in payouts at $75.00.

If you must be an affiliate with these Endurance International Group sites, I recommend doing it through Commission Junction.  I have found many complaints with several affiliates about not being paid directly.  Not to mention its in the Endurance International Group’s interests to pay Commission Junction.  What I list does not cover cj.com’s commission for each payout.

Here is a list of the 25 sites this graphic seems to point to that I have found have affiliate prorgarams out of all the known Endurance International Group sites:

So far I have found 25 hosts that offer a affiliate program, but I suspect there are far more sites out there.

Endurance International Group Affiliate Payouts

Host Name Pay Out With CJ
Dot5Hosting $80.00 Yes
PowWeb $95.00 Yes
FatCow $110.00 Yes
EasyCGI $110.00 Yes
iPage $115.00 Yes
Ipower $115.00 Yes
IpowerWeb $115.00 Yes
StartLogic $125.00 Yes
HyperMart $60.00 No
DomainHost $60.00 No
ehost $60.00 No
Enteryhost $60.00 No
FreeYellow $60.00 No
HostCentric $60.00 No
IMOutdoorsHosting $60.00 No
NetworkHosting $60.00 No
USANetHosting $60.00 No
Xeran $60.00 No
BlueDomino $60.00 No
Globat $75.00 No
ApolloHosting $75.00 No
Webhost4Life $75.00 No
Spry $100.00 No
VPSLink $100.00 No
BizLand $110.00 No

Endurance International Group Affiliate Terms of Service

Its been my experience when looking at their terms of service on their sites that they have pretty much the same thing.  But I recommend that you read for yourself.  Commision Junction seems the most up front what you can not do which is:

Commission Fees may not be paid for the Qualified Purchase if the Referred Customer has been offered or received coupons, refunds, credits or discounts from the Affiliate or if the Referred Customer has joined a business-opportunity program (as determined by FatCow in its sole discretion) that is managed or participated in by the Affiliate, unless FatCow has provided its prior written permission.

Thats pretty much what the terms of service for each of the Endurance International Group’s CJ.coms look like.  But I suggest reading these terms of service for each Endurance International Group sites for yourself.

Want a cheap unlimited host from The Endurance International Group?

Chances are you may have found this post because its about ‘cheap unlimited host’. ‘There are  twenty cheap unlimited hosts under the Endurance International Group.  While all of them offer the same package, there not the same price.  So today I decided to go through and see who is the cheapests and who was the most expensive.  Not to mention I wanted to see if all the sites offered hosting.  Not all of them do. 3 do not offer hosting, 8 do not offer unlimited hosting.  The remaining 19 plus iPage which is not listed make 20 sites that can be called a  “cheap unlimited host”.  I  found the owner of these cheap unlimited(s) while looking into the Endurance International Group.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/endurance-international-group/endurance-international-group-inc.html

*WARNING* I do not endorse any cheap unlimited host!!!

If anything I would tell you to avoid these sites and sites that offers you a promise that simply can not be kept.  Its a gamble any time you get into a cheap unlimited host that offers more then is reasonable feasible.  You never know at what point the cheap unlimited host is going to shut you off.  There is always an unwritten profit margin that a host is not going to let you pass.  Sometimes its called processor usage.  Often when I see that someone was shut down because they  exceeded 1 – 3 % of processor usage I have to wonder how powerful the server they were on, or how old it might be.  Granted with The Endurance International Group you may have a longer limit then other unlimited providers due to the fact they use their customers as an advertising platform.

Why would I create a list of cheap unlimited hosts?

Some people no matter what I say will still buy cheap unlimited hosting, and for that matter will flock to the cheapest of them.  Despite the possibility of getting burned, its perceived as a deal.   So if your not going to listen to my warning,  you might as well know which one is the cheapest.   I went through all the sites I could find on The Endurance International Group BBB page.

http://www.bbb.org/boston/business-reviews/internet-services/the-endurance-international-group-inc-in-burlington-ma-76863/

I found that 20 of them offer unlimited hosting.  iPage was not listed, but i am including it on my cheap unlimited host list.  All offering essentially the same thing Unlimited space and bandwidth with various sign on bonuses (carbonite, Google adsense, free domain……..).  So if you have to have one of these hosts you might as well have the one with the cheapest price.  Why pay more then you have to for what is essential the same cheap unlimited host plan?

A  cheap unlimited host list for the Endurance International Group

The below list is in order of the cheapest price per cheap unlimited host.   All of these sites belong to the Endurance International Group. Keep in mind you may have to sign up for almost three years to get the price I have listed.  The price listed is per month.

iPage $3.50
FatCow $3.67
PowWeb $3.88
Dot5Hosting $3.95
HyperMart $4.25
Globat $4.44
DomainHost $5.95
ehost $5.95
Enteryhost $5.95
FreeYellow $5.95
HostCentric $5.95
IMOutdoorsHosting $5.95
Ipower $5.95
IpowerWeb $5.95
NetworkHosting $5.95
StartLogic $5.95
USANetHosting $5.95
Xeran $5.95
ApolloHosting $6.95
Webhost4Life $19.95

…. And the cheap unlimited host winner is iPage

If you have to have a cheap unlimited host, and it has to be from the Endurance International Group why pick any other host then iPage.

…. And the cheap unlimited host loser is Webhost4Life

Compared to iPage you could save $16.45 a month, $197.40 a year, $394.80 over 2 years, $592.20 over 3 years.  For that matter its hard to call Webhost4Life a cheap unlimited host considering most hosts do not have their unlimited hosting price this high.

They all have the same plan, with the same support team.  So why pick any other cheap unlimited host plan?

What if you went with one of the sites that offer their cheap unlimited plan for $5.95 a month?

You will pay $2.45 extra per month

You will pay $29.40 extra per year

You will pay $58.80 extra for a two year period

If your getting the same essential cheap unlimited host plan from the cheapest company, why would you want to pay even a penny extra?  The cheap unlimited plan to go with is the one by iPage if you have to have one from the Endurance International Group.

Endurance International Group, Inc

Back when I first reviewed iPage and Fatcow I came across Endurance International Group.  All because these two hosts appeared in webhostingstuff top 25 hosts.  In the 2nd and 4th positions, both out pacing hostgator.  Never mind that I have now gone through 30 webhosts on webhostingstuff and I have shown there is no reasonable ranking going on unless you factor in webhostingstuff.com getting something under the table.  After all one of the sites that was number 25 is now out of business.  From what I can see there is nothing showing that Endurance International Group is going out of business.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/fatcow/fatcow-sucks-beware-read-this-fatcow-review-first-before-buying.html

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/hosts-that-use-exposed-reviews/dont-buy-from-ipage-com-until-you-read-my-review-to-save-time-and-money.html

How did Endurance International Group get my attention?

A chat session with iPage had me wondering how many companies this support operation had to take care of.  All because the chat operator had to ask me what url I was referring to.  I told the operator that it was the main page, after all a site only has one main/home page.  The chat operator kept asking me for the main page until I gave them iPage.com.  Having used chat programs with my hosting companies, I can tell you my techs knew what site, and for that matter what page of the site a customer was on.  Clearly something that this group should be using as opposed to having customers tell a chat operator what site they are on.

It was my first impression that it was just an outsourced support working with multiple hosting companies.  But there was also this that one of the chat operators told me:

Bryan Smith: FatCow is the sister company of iPage.

The chat operator gave me more information then he/she should have. The support company was not well put together because they had to ask which website I was referring to.  But by the  time I reviewed Fatcow, and was I looking for FatCow’s BBB record.  The search engine results brought me to:

http://www.bbb.org/boston/business-reviews/internet-services/the-endurance-international-group-inc-in-burlington-ma-76863/

It became clear that while it was not only outsourced it was part of a company that buys out webhosting companies.  They claim to have natural growth, but all the growth appears to be mostly acquisition.   While looking at some hosts its becomes clear that the buy outs don’t happen smoothly.  One company out of all those bought out by Endurance International Group sticks out, and that is host4life.   It seemed prior to being bought out, people actually liked that company, but the opinion is clearly in the negative now. I have to say that  Endurance International Group has me curious.  So I am adding another part to my reviews which is all the sites that appear under Endurance International Group.

Endurance International Group appears out of the picture with their acquisition.

I have a bottle of Tylenol on my desk, looking over the bottle I can tell you what company Tylenol is a division of.  Which is MCNEIL-PPC, inc.  You goto tylenol.com and you find MCNEIL-PPC, inc.  When you got to iPage.com and FatCow.com you can’t find a reference to Endurance International Group.  I have gone through several of their sites looked at the bottom of the main pages, look through various terms of services.  Yet not one site brings me any detail about being owned by Endurance International Group.  I have read some sites that indicated that they are the third largest hosting provider in the U.S.  having around some 700,000 customers.  But nothing open to telling the customers that their hosting company is a division of Endurance International Group. When I was looking at how Endurance International Group, is a green company (more about that in another post).  I found a order link. http://www.enduranceinternational.com/green/

I get the following page: http://www.enduranceinternational.com/endurance/hosting.bml?

They have a lot of companies to link to on their greenwashed sites.  Greenwashing by means of buying energy credits.

Endurance International Group where hosting customers are a reusable commodity

One thing sticks out to me on Endurance International Group’s website:

Access Millions of Potential Customers

Learn more about the vDeck Integration Program (VIP) which puts your product or service in front of a high-quality, targeted audience of small business owners looking for cutting-edge solutions.

It appears that Endurance International Group is using their customers as an advertising base.  Much like what AOL did with their service.   This is my assumption, but based on this page: http://www.enduranceinternational.com/vip/

I am going to assume that products are placed inside of a customers login area.  Looking at several of the sites randomly they cover their butts from the people they sell the advertising to.

http://www.fatcow.com/legal/legal_privacy.bml

http://www.ipage.com/legal/legal_privacy.bml

http://www.webhost4life.com/legal/legal_privacy.bml

http://www.apollohosting.com/legal/legal_privacy.bml

http://www.ehost.com/legal/legal_privacy.bml

http://www.freeyellow.com/legal/legal_privacy.bml

and the list goes on…….  But every site I have look at has the same privacy policy.  The part that connects  hosting company to Endurance International Group is 5. Online Shopping.

Online Shopping. At some Web sites that you access through links on FatCow, you can purchase products and services or register to receive materials, such as a catalog or new product updates. In many cases, you may be asked to provide contact information, such as your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, and credit/debit card information. If you complete an order for a Web site or service that is not provided by FatCow, FatCow has no control over the third parties’ use of any personal information you provide when placing such an order. Please exercise care when doing so. If you order products directly from FatCow, we will use the personal information you provide only to process that order. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete that order.

In addition to hosting fees, Endurance International Group is also making money on the back end off their clients through advertising.

Here is the list of sites that I know of with Endurance International Group

AccountSupport
ApolloHosting
BizLand
BlueDomino
DomainHost
Dot5Hosting
Easy CGI
EasyCGI
eHost
EntryHost
FatCow
FreeYellow
Globat
HostCentric
HostYourSite
HyperMart
IMOutdoorsHosting
iPage
Ipower
IPowerWeb
Networkshosting
PowWeb
PureHost
ReadyHosting
Spry
StartLogic
The Endurance International Group, Inc.
USANetHosting
VirtualAvenue
VPSLink
WebHost4Life
Webstrikesolutions
Xeran
YourWebHosting

I have heard rumor that they also own Justhost, but at this time I have not found anything to confirm that.

Endurance International Group a company with so much more to review

If you have a horror story, a success story, or information for me to look at with Endurance International Group, this is the place to post.