Interland Offers Partners Bonuses For New Business

The cash bonus program is retroactive to July 1, 2002, and pays partners cash based on the amount of new business generated monthly. The company said that partners, for example, can earn a bonus of $200 on a monthly recurring revenue increase of $100, with cash bonus totals reaching as high as $12,500.

Interland said it introduced the program to help its partners overcome the challenges of being a small business. Seventy-five percent of its 3,000 partners have fewer than 10 employees, the company said.

These partners "have the same issues as any small business,trying to make payroll, identifying new sources of revenue and marketing their businesses with limited resources," said Steve Flaig, area vice president of channel marketing for Interland.

The company will make several enhancements to Business Catalyst in the fall, with one aspect of the program centered on helping partners market their businesses, Flaig said, without providing further details.

Flaig said the cash bonuses are not a one-time promotion but a permanent piece of Business Catalyst.

"Our goal is to invest in the success of our partners and make our program as flexible as possible," he said. "What we found is that competitors offer bonuses, but the programs have unattainable levels for small businesses to get the bonus."

Geng Chang, chief "tech guy" at Sandglass, a Kensington, Md.-based solution provider that develops and implements interactive communication programs for academia and associations, said the incentives should benefit Interland's partners.

"I would say that we've reached a phase where if people are satisfied with the service and the price of their hosting, they are not going to change that easily," he said. "It's a 'if it works, I'm happy' approach, so this program may be helpful."