Global Virtual Opportunities (GVO) is a web hosting company that offers folks who hold a re-seller account commission on new accounts they bring in.
Joel Therien started his company in Canada and now operates out of San Antonio, Texas.
Annual revenue figures aren’t available, but since the company started more than ten years ago, and successfully managed an international move, it appears to be fairly stable. The company has a B+ rating (on a scale of A+ to F) from the Better Business Bureau.(1)
Signup cost: $44.94 per month, ongoing
The good: Turnkey operation makes getting started virtually instantaneous.
The bad: Re-selling requires opening – and keeping open – a Titanium level account.
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Folks who sign up as affiliates with GVO can re-sell hosting accounts to earn commission and bonuses. GVO offers three hosting plans:
- Personal Web Hosting: $5.56/mo when paid for one full year; includes 1 domain and cPanel
- Business Web Hosting: $7.96/mo when paid for one full year; includes 10 domains and cPanels
- Enterprise Web Hosting: $11.96/mo when paid for one full year; includes 20 domains and cPanels
All of these hosting plans include unlimited disk space and bandwidth. Users also get site building and marketing tools, unlimited subdomains, email and FTP accounts, and MySQL databases. Hosting plans also offer autoresponders. The Personal Web Hosting account does not offer add-on or parked domains.
When users purchase a hosting plan, they get access to a broad variety of tools and functions that have one-click installation, like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, phpBB, MediaWiki and BuddyPress. Also, hosting packages include one-click installations of PHP 5, PHP MyAdmin, Cron, Curl, Perl, CGI, SSI, Frontpage, Awstats, Webalizer, and Log Manager. No plans offer Ruby on Rails or SSH.
Marketing tools available to hosting clients include Blogger Builder, and the company’s own eResponder pro, GVO Conference, and Easy Video Producer. eResponder pro can handle up to 10,000 subscribers; users can write, send and track results of mailings; GVO’s website copy says they “welcome responsible bulk emailing” to double opt-in contact lists. GVO Conference offers web conference capabilities, and Easy Video Producer makes video production and streaming possible.
Re-sellers only have access to WebHostManager (WHM) and specialized Internet marketing tools beyond what comes with the standard hosting packages, including a prospecting system and banners.
Opportunity
Titanium hosting plan holders can sign up for GVO’s affiliate program; this hosting plan is $44.95 per month. Commissions are earned on new paid sales. Affiliates earn 50% commission in their first month.
GVO also has a bonus program. Affiliates who bring in five new paid accounts in a calendar week earn $100. Those who bring in higher volumes can earn higher bonuses; bringing in 100 new clients nets a $500 bonus.
If an affiliate brings in an account-holder who also becomes a re-seller, that affiliate can earn an additional bonus of 20% commissions on downline sales. An affiliate who brings in two re-sellers can pick up 5% commission six levels of downline sales; bringing in four re-sellers means picking up ten levels of downline sales.
The Good
This is a turnkey operation with no investment beyond committing to a hosting plan. Affiliates who re-sell hosting packages are at liberty to develop their own hosting packages and set their own rates. Each person who buys a re-sold hosting plan gets their own cPanel for backend site building and maintenance, and GVO handles all tech support, so there’s very little direct involvement between the affiliate and his or her clients once the hosting plan is sold and paid for.
The Bad
There’s no policy and procedures manual online, nor is there any kind of contract language mentioned. It’s unclear how often commissions are paid, and in what format (Do they send a check? Are payments made electronically?). It’s also unclear how affiliates communicate with GVO as far as keeping track of sales, how disputes are resolved, etc.
Recap
Global Virtual Opportunities makes re-seller hosting available to Titanium package-holders, who pay $44.95 per month for their own service. These affiliates get a commission based on the paid hosting package sales they bring in, and bonuses based on volume. If these paid sales pick up-reseller accounts, then affiliates earn commissions on downline sales.
Affiliates without a strong Internet background may find special challenges in soliciting new customers from whom they can earn a commission. Affiliates are also reliant on GVO for their customers’ tech help and infrastructure – if something goes horribly awry, the affiliate is at the mercy of GVO just as much as his or her clients.
On the other hand, GVO’s infrastructure is its own; there is no middle man between the affiliate and GVO – GVO is materially invested in the business, so there’s no reason to believe they are not completely committed to providing quality tech support and maintaining the hardware that makes it all work.
There are no meetings or conference calls for affiliates to attend, no inventory to carry, equipment to maintain, or quotas to make. Joining GVO seems pretty painless and relatively easy as as far as the company’s expectations of its affiliates.
For the right account-holder, one who’s really Internet-savvy and already has (or has strong plans for) a viable online presence that includes strong marketing practices, this could be a relatively passive way to earn a few extra bucks.
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