1. Overview
This Agreement contains the complete terms and conditions that apply to you becoming an affiliate in hellobonsai.com (Bonsai) Affiliate Program. The purpose of this Agreement is to allow linking between your website or your other channel and the hellobonsai.com website. Please note that throughout this Agreement, "we," "us," and "our'' refer to hellobonsai.com (Bonsai), and "you," "your," and "yours'' refer to the affiliate.
2. Participation in the affiliate program
2.1. In order to enroll in the Affiliate Program, you need to submit the online application through the affiliate signup form on the hellobonsai.com website. After receiving your application, we will review your website and notify you of your acceptance or rejection into our Program. We reserve the right to reject any application, however we encourage you to contact us if you feel we have made an incorrect decision. Including all of the channels in your profile that you’ll use when promoting hellobonsai.com will help us make a better decision.
2.2. Affiliate accounts with inaccurate, unlawful, harmful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, harassing, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable information, are not approved.
3. Linking, advertising & promotion
3.1. As a member of the hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program, you will be granted access to hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program details, including hellobonsai.com promotional materials, such as affiliate links to webpages within the hellobonsai.com website and banner creatives. In order for us to accurately keep track of all guest visits from Affiliate source to hellobonsai.com, you must use the Affiliate link that hellobonsai.com provides.
3.2. All domains that use your affiliate link must be listed in your affiliate profile.
3.3. Your Website will not in any way copy, resemble, or mirror the look and feel of our Website. You will also not use any means to create the impression that your Website is our Website or any part of our Website including, without limitation, framing of our Website in any manner.
3.4. If hellobonsai.com determines that your linking and advertising efforts can be identified as spam, it reserves the right to suspend the account immediately.
3.5. You are not allowed to use cookie stuffing techniques (setting cookies without the user clicking on the Affiliate link).
3.6. You may not use redirected pages and links to send a referee to hellobonsai.com website.
3.7. You are prohibited from generating browser extensions, pop-ups, pop-unders, iframes, frames, or any other seen or unseen actions that set affiliate cookies unless the user has expressed a clear and explicit interest in activating specific savings by clicking on a clearly marked link, button or image for that particular coupon or deal. Affiliate’s link must send the visitor to the hellobonsai.com website.
3.8. You are prohibited from initiating any software downloads that potentially enable diversions of commission from other affiliates in our program.
3.9. Users must be able to see coupon / deal / savings information and details before an affiliate cookie is set (i.e. “click here to see coupons and open a window to the hellobonsai.com website” is NOT allowed).
3.10. Your sites may not have “Click for Deal / Coupon” or any variation when there are no coupons or deals available, and the click opens the hellobonsai.com site or sets a cookie. Affiliates with such text on their landing pages will be removed from the program immediately.
3.11. Any hellobonsai.com employee reserves the right, at any time, to review the Affiliate’s placement and either approve or disapprove the use of affiliate links and require changing the placement of links or ask to comply with the guidelines provided in Affiliate Agreement or specific email with details.
3.12. Self-referring is strictly prohibited. This means that you cannot refer yourself by using your own affiliate link, and such activity will not receive a commission and may lead to the account’s suspension.
3.13. It is your responsibility to ensure that the tracking code is working properly before sending the referees to hellobonsai.com website. We are not responsible for any modification made to Affiliate links. Affiliate commissions are not paid for unrecorded sales due to incorrectly edited, masked, redirected or tampered Affiliate links.
3.14. Use of any of our trademarked terms as part of the domain or subdomain for your website is strictly prohibited, for example hellobonsai.website.com or www.hellobonsai-coupons.com.
3.15. You are prohibited from using any content on your website (social account, public post or any other online or offline location) that could deceive referrals to believe the website (social account, public post or any other online or offline location) is directly related to hellobonsai.com. Additionally, you may not advertise in any way that effectively hides or misrepresents your own identity, domain name and / or return email address.
3.16. You are prohibited from using any content that could fall into the following categories: adult content, gambling, content not yet rated, sensitive social issues, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, age or any other kind of discrimination, tragedy & conflict, violence, or is otherwise in any way unlawful, harmful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, harassing, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable to society or violates the law in any way.
3.17. Other generally prohibited forms of advertising include the use of unsolicited commercial email (UCE), postings to non-commercial newsgroups and cross-posting to multiple newsgroups at once. In addition, you may not advertise in any way that effectively conceals or misrepresents your identity, your domain name, or your return email address. You may use mailings to customers to promote hellobonsai.com so long as the recipient is already a customer or subscriber of your services or web site, and recipients have the option to remove themselves from future mailings. Also, you may post to newsgroups to promote hellobonsai.com so long as the news group specifically welcomes commercial messages. At all times, you must clearly represent yourself and your websites as independent from hellobonsai.com. If it comes to our attention that you are spamming, we will consider that cause for immediate termination of this Agreement and your participation in the hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program. Any pending balances owed to you will not be paid if your account is terminated due to such unacceptable advertising or solicitation.
3.18. Affiliates that among other keywords or exclusively bid in their Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Impression campaigns on keywords such as hellobonsai.com, hellobonsai, www.hellobonsai, www.hellobonsai.com, bonsai, and/or any misspellings or similar alterations of these – be it separately or in combination with other keywords – and do not direct the traffic from such campaigns to their own website prior to re-directing it to ours, will be considered trademark violators, and will be banned from hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program. We will do everything possible to contact you prior to the ban. However, we reserve the right to expel any trademark violator from our affiliate program without prior notice, and on the first occurrence of such PPC bidding behavior.
3.19. You are prohibiter from creating a social media account or website that includes hellobonsai.com trademark(s) in the page name and/or username.
3.20. You shall not transmit any so-called “interstitials,” “Parasiteware™,” “Parasitic Marketing,” “Shopping Assistance Application,” “Toolbar Installations and/or Add-ons,” “Shopping Wallets'' or “deceptive pop-ups and/or pop-unders” to consumers from the time the consumer clicks on a qualifying link until consumer has fully exited hellobonsai.com site (i.e., no page from our site or any hellobonsai.com content or branding is visible on the end-user’s screen). As used herein “Parasiteware™” and “Parasitic Marketing” shall mean an application that: a) through accidental or direct intent causes the overwriting of affiliate and non affiliate commission tracking cookies through any other means than a customer initiated click on a qualifying link on a web page or email; b) intercepts searches to redirect traffic through an installed software, thereby causing, pop ups, commission tracking cookies to be put in place or other commission tracking cookies to be overwritten where a user would under normal circumstances have arrived at the same destination through the results given by the search (search engines being, but not limited to, Google, MSN, Yahoo, Overture, AltaVista, Hotbot and similar search or directory engines); c) set commission tracking cookies through loading of hellobonsai.com site in IFrames, hidden links and automatic pop ups that open hellobonsai.com site; d) targets text on web sites, other than those web sites 100% owned by the application owner, for the purpose of contextual marketing; e) removes, replaces or blocks the visibility of Affiliate banners with any other banners, other than those that are on web sites 100% owned by the owner of the application.
3.21. FTC disclosure on your website or any other placement is mandatory – you must disclose that the compensation is being received for the content posted on Affiliate’s website or any other placement.
3.22. Hellobonsai.com reserves the right to monitor your site at any time to determine whether you are following the terms and conditions of the Affiliate Agreement. We may inform you of any changes to your site that should be made, or to ensure that your affiliate links to our website are located appropriately and to notify you of any other changes that should be made. We also reserve the right to terminate your participation in the hellobonsai.com Affiliate program if the necessary changes to the website are not implemented within a reasonable time (30 days).
3.23. You are solely responsible for the maintenance and information updates on their site. For example, if the hellobonsai.com pricing policy changes, it will be up to you to keep up and update the information on their site. We may monitor your sites to make sure that it is up-to-date and to notify you of any changes that should enhance the performance.
4. Affiliate tracking cookies
Default cookie tracking is set for 60 days. If a previous affiliate’s cookie is already placed in the same user’s browser it will be overwritten with the new cookie. We do not guarantee the 60-day cookie validity period and do not take the responsibility if cookies are deleted intentionally by the user or the user has changed browser / device during the purchase by the end-user (client).
5. Affiliate commissions
5.1. Affiliate commissions are issued 35 days after the end of the running month. For example, the payout for the commissions earned during September are paid out 35 days later - November 4th or the next closest business day. Commissions are approved for completed orders (purchases on the hellobonsai.com website) only, including cancelled and refunded orders. All incomplete or fraudulent orders will not be commissioned.
5.2. Missing or untracked orders must be reported by Affiliate before the 20th of the new month for the previous month. Each case is reviewed individually and the hellobonsai.com reserves the right to make the final decision whereas the sale in question should be credited to the Affiliate.
5.3. Commissions are paid once a month, with a minimum payout threshold of $100. Hellobonsai.com reserves the right to pause payouts at anytime for an unlimited period in the event that we need to perform additional verification.
5.4. It is your responsibility to make sure the payout details are correct. We have the right not to pay the commissions if payout details are missing or incorrect.
5.5. If the commissions are older than 2 years and have not been withdrawn - they will be removed from your affiliate account's balance.
6. Affiliate account suspension & termination
6.1. Hellobonsai.com reserves the right to suspend your account anytime based on violations of this Affiliate Agreement.
6.2. Affiliate accounts referring to a large number of fraudulent orders will be suspended.
6.3. Affiliate accounts that are left inactive and have no commissions approved will be removed from the system. Inactive affiliate account is defined as any account that has no transactions posted for a period of 6 months, nor replies to our inquiries for a period of 30 days.
6.4. We reserve the right to terminate your participation in the hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program immediately and without prior notice if you commit fraud in your use of the hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program or should the Affiliate abuse this program in any way. If such fraud or abuse is detected, we shall not be liable to you for any commissions for any fraudulent sales.
6.5. We may cancel your application if we determine that your site is unsuitable for our Program, including if: a) it promotes sexually explicit materials, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age, promotes illegal activities; b) incorporates any materials which infringe or assist others to infringe on any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights or to violate the law; c) includes "Bonsai", “hellobonsai” or variations or misspellings thereof in its domain name; d) is otherwise in any way unlawful, harmful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, harassing, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable to us in our sole discretion.
6.6. Any pending commissions owed to you will not be paid if your account is terminated due to unacceptable advertising or solicitation.
6.7. Either you or we may end this Agreement AT ANY TIME, with or without cause, by giving the other party written notice. Written notice can be in the form of email or mail. In addition, this Agreement will terminate immediately upon any breach of this Agreement by you.
7. Modification
We remain the right to change any policies or terms of this Affiliate Agreement at any time at our sole discretion. In such an event, you will be notified by email. It is therefore very important that you keep your affiliate account information, including your email address updated. Hellobonsai.com 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.
The modifications of the Agreement are effective immediately upon being posted to the hellobonsai.com website. Only an official hellobonsai.com officer has the right to make any amendments to this Affiliate Agreement.
Modifications may include, but are not limited to: changes in the payment procedures, commission updates and hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program rules. If by any means you do not agree with the amendments of the Affiliate Agreement, you can cancel your affiliate account and end this Agreement at any time. Your continued participation in the hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program following the posting of the change notice or new Agreement on our site will indicate your agreement to the changes.
8. Disclaimer
Hellobonsai.com makes no express or implied representations or warranties regarding hellobonsai.com service and website or the products or services provided therein, any implied warranties of hellobonsai.com ability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement are expressly disclaimed and excluded. In addition, we make no representation that the operation of our site will be uninterrupted or error free, and we will not be liable for the consequences of any interruptions or errors.
9. Miscellaneous
9.1. You agree that you are an independent contractor, and nothing in this Agreement will create any partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, sales representative, or employment relationship between you and hellobonsai.com. You have no authority to make or accept any offers or representations on our behalf. You cannot make any statements, whether on your website or otherwise that reasonably would contradict anything in this section.
9.2. This Agreement is an electronic contract that sets out the legally binding terms of your participation in the hellobonsai.com Affiliate program. You indicate your acceptance of this Agreement and all of the terms and conditions contained or referenced in this Agreement by completing the hellobonsai.com Affiliate Program application/signup process. This Agreement shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the state of California, San Francisco, without regard to the conflicts of laws and principles thereof.
9.3. You may not amend or waive any provision of this Agreement unless in writing and signed by both parties.
9.4. Limitation of Liability. We will not be liable for indirect, special or consequential damages arising in connection with the Program, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Further, our aggregate liability arising with respect to the Program will not exceed the total referral fees paid or payable to you under these terms and conditions. All claims made hereunder by you against us shall be made within 90 days of the act or omission, which forms the basis of such claims.
9.5. You hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless hellobonsai.com, and its subsidiaries and affiliates, and their directors, officers, employees, agents, shareholders, partners, members, and other owners, against any and all claims, actions, demands, liabilities, losses, damages, judgments, settlements, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) (any or all of the foregoing hereinafter referred to as "Losses") insofar as such Losses (or actions in respect thereof) arise out of or are based on (i) any claim that our use of the affiliate trademarks infringes on any trademark, trade name, service mark, copyright, license, intellectual property, or other proprietary right of any third party, (ii) any misrepresentation of a representation or warranty or breach of a covenant and agreement made by you herein, or (iii) any claim related to your site, including, without limitation, content therein not attributable to us.
9.6. 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, but not limited to, any business, technical, financial, and customer information, disclosed by one party to the other during negotiation or the effective term of this Agreement, will remain the sole property of the disclosing party, and each party will keep in confidence and not use or disclose such proprietary information of the other party without the express written permission of the disclosing party.
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 restrictions.
If you have any questions about this Affiliate Agreement, please contact us at affiliates@hellobonsai.com.