Cheesy / Misleading Marketing

[Kris Siegel]

So I'm searching Google today and noticed an advertisement regarding HostGator. At first it looked negative but when I clicked on it, it was not. You can view the page here: thetruthabouthosgator.com/.

If you take a look at the links, they all go through the following address:
http://www.critiquebureau.org/recommends/hostgator.

This is just a way to show in HostGator's statistics that this is a referral so they know how effective their marketing campaign is.

At first this doesn't appear to be a website owned by hostgator. They use different nameservers and the WhoIs information is private. The thing is, CritiqueBureau.org is the one hosting TheTruthAboutHostGator.com. Know who they are? While CritiqueBureau.org says on their website "Your trusted online product reviewer...", this is actually not true. They are, in fact, a marketing company.

The review doesn't sound real and since it's being hosted by a marketing company... doesn't give it any ground to stand on. Just seems like misleading marketing to me....

[slapshotw]

It's a hostgator affiliate. When you click on that link it redirects you to hostgator's site with the affiliate ID "melvin". If you then buy hosting, "melvin" makes money. This doesn't have to do directly with hostgator, and anybody can be an affiliate by going here:

http://www.hostgator.com/affiliates.shtml

I agree it's somewhat shady though (in that they aren't being upfront that they make money from their "review"), but this isn't a surprise. Have you ever seen those "top 10 host" lists? All those links are affiliate links.

[regentronique]

There is also something very dishonest about an affiliate promoting HostGator as "the best" when himself is hosted by "servint.net" ...

[Kris Siegel]

Interesting...

[Adorkable]

Originally Posted by regentronique

There is also something very dishonest about an affiliate promoting HostGator as "the best" when himself is hosted by "servint.net" ...

LOL! That's funny

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

I agree it's somewhat shady though (in that they aren't being upfront that they make money from their "review"), but this isn't a surprise. Have you ever seen those "top 10 host" lists? All those links are affiliate links.

This practice even has a generic term, "affiliate review scam". For lots of interesting and entertaining info, query Google for it; results include:

The False Affiliate Review: Alluring But Misleading

Frequently Asked Questions - SCAM review sites

YouTube - Top 10 Best Web Hosting Reviews - SCAMS EXPOSED

Originally Posted by regentronique

There is also something very dishonest about an affiliate promoting HostGator as "the best" when himself is hosted by "servint.net" ...

Very nicely put. (BTW, my snort woke up the dog, but others might not see the humor.) I think it would also be self-defeating.