Whats the deal with jp-domains? Whatever happened to their affiliate program?

[IDNCowboy]

I know people still buy using my link but I've been unable to view my earnings or even find out if the program still exists.. Michael ignores the question about the affiliate earnings in my email but answers other questions. I don't get what the secret is.. Is it still running or not? :( He can ignore the emails but he'll lose a longtime customer as I'm going for more .com's now and dropping some less searched .jp ...

[alpha]

in my experience, all domain registrars suck at something, be that price, customer service, toolset, shooting endangered species, time to reply to queries etc... but I have to say, I have not once had a single issue with jp-domains.

anyway, I've invited Michael to reply.

[alpha]

Regarding the affiliate program, we had set the program when the USD was 110-120 yen, however, after the USD lowered to extreme levels as low as $1USD=75 yen, we have been selling IDN domains below cost and actually losing money each time someone purchases an IDN domain at $15.

Customers from IDNforums was at the $15 price for new registrations; which currently is resulting in losses after credit card payment deductions for each purchase; thus any affiliate commissions which were a percentage of the earnings would be zero or negative. This has been continuing for 2 years; which we did not anticipate. Domain renewals have also been affected.

Any purchases for ASCII domains would be commissionable, however, 99% of domains purchased via referral of IDNforums; have been IDN domains, and thus resulting in zero affiliate earnings while the USD has affected us greatly.

We have added the option of purchasing in yen and will match any Japanese registrar; however at this time, $15 is actually lower than any Japanese registrar and we offered yen pricing to several random customers, however, at this current rate, currently no one is willing to switch to yen.

We are currently waiting for the USD to increase so that customers are more willing to switch to yen and we would be able to provide some form of affiliate earnings, although very small.

then also..

Please note that our company as a whole is very healthy as the number of registrations for ASCII, CO.JP, NE.JP and .GR.JP domains have been consistently rising each year thus covering for all of the losses we are incurring from IDN domains due to the currency rate fluctuations.

Thank you very much for your understanding.

IMO a very candid and honest answer.