How to make money with Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your blog, especially when you do not sell products or services. Joining an affiliate program can get you exclusive access to new content and special deals for your audience all while earning you more money.
There are many types of affiliate programs, ranging from online courses to website builders to marketing and business affiliates. Here, we are going to explore the best affiliate programs with the highest earning potential to ensure you can make money off the content you provide.
How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
What Is An Affiliate Program?
An affiliate program is an agreement in which a business pays another business or influencer a commission for sending traffic their way. This can be achieved through web content, social media, or product integration.
Why Do Affiliate Marketing?
Here are two reasons why you should consider doing affiliate marketing:
Low-Cost and Low-Risk
Starting a business means incurring upfront costs for products, employees, equipment, rent, and so on. This makes it risky and expensive. With affiliate marketing, all you need is a website. Even if it does not work out, all you have wasted is time and a little bit of money.
Also Check: How To Make Money On Etsy
Easy To Scale
A typical salesperson only sells products from one company. As an affiliate marketer, you can promote products from many different companies and earn commissions from all of them.
How Do Affiliates Make Money?
Affiliate marketer gets a unique link affiliate link from which clicks can be tracked, typically using cookies. The cookie then tracks the user to see if they make a purchase. If they do it within an allotted amount of time, then the affiliate will earn a commission.
Each cookie has a cookie life, which simply defines how long the cookie will be tracking the user is online activity.
If you are interested in starting an affiliate program, there are different types of affiliate programs, and you will want to pick the one best suited for your business.
How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Types Of Affiliate Programs
If you are looking to promote your products or services, there are a few affiliate programs you can consider. While choosing an affiliate program, you will want to keep in mind the avenues or platforms where your audience spends the majority of their time. For instance, does your buyer persona typically read blog posts, scroll Facebook, or use search engines when researching new products?
Alternatively, is your buyer persona someone who is always looking for a good deal, and would appreciate a link on a coupon site? Or are they more interested in doing tons of research before purchasing, making your promotion efforts more worthwhile on a review site?
While those are questions you will have to consider for yourself, let us take a look at some general types of affiliate programs so you can begin brainstorming potential avenues for your marketing efforts.
Types of a list How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing:
- Search Affiliates
- Bloggers And Influencers
- Review Sites
- Coupon Sites
- Email Marketing
Search Affiliates
In this program, you will have freelancers or entrepreneurs pay their own money to promote your offer on search results or other online advertising platforms like Facebook. While you will want to ensure your partner is following search and advertising guidelines, this could work in your favor if your partner has an SEO background.
Bloggers And Influencers
If there are impressive bloggers or social media influencers in your industry who engage with your ideal buyer persona regularly, you might consider partnering with them. For instance, if you sell kitchen appliances, it might be good to reach out to bloggers or YouTube influencers who post recipes and ask if they would feature your product as a recommended tool in their next recipe post.
Ideally, this would result in your target audience taking a look at your website, and if they like the products you offer, could provide additional revenue for the influencer.
Review Sites
If you offer a product or service that is more expensive or niche, most of your buyers likely need to conduct research on that topic before purchasing. If that is the case, it might be a good idea to research the top review sites related to your product or service.
Reach out to the business or writer who published the piece, asking whether they could be interested in providing an affiliate link to your product or service in the text.
Coupon Sites
If you are offering a new product or service that is not popular in the marketplace, you might try creating an affiliate partnership with a coupon site for a limited time. While you do not want to lose money by giving your product away at a discount, it could be effective at getting some first-time buyers to check out your website and become brand advocates.
Email Marketing
You do not want any partners sending out bulk emails to customers who are not interested in your products or services, but with proper consideration for who is receiving the email, this could be an effective method. For instance, if you sell design tools, you might partner with marketing agencies and ask them to include a link to your site within emails they send to design clients.
This could help their clients leverage your tools to create higher-quality content while giving agencies an added source of income. Are you a blogger or small business who would like to join an affiliate program to generate income? Below, we will explore the top affiliate programs that you can join in your industry.
If you are planning to launch an affiliate program, you can use the following examples as inspiration. You will get guidance on how much you should pay your partners and affiliates.
How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Top Affiliate Programs
- HubSpot
- AWeber
- Sendinblue
- ConvertKit
- GetResponse
- Fiverr
- Pabbly
- Unbounce
- Constant Contact
- Systeme.io
- Typeform
- Shopify
- Leadpages
- Wix
HubSpot
HubSpot mission is to help millions of organizations grow better. HubSpot award-winning CRM platform, which is comprised of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hub, and a powerful free CRM, gives thousands of companies the tools they need to manage the customer experience.
As a HubSpot affiliate, you have the choice between a 15% recurring rate for up to one year or a flat rate corresponding to 100% of the first month revenue. HubSpot plans range from $50 up to $3,000 per month. It is not uncommon for customers to purchase more than one product at a time. So these payouts could quickly add up.
When you join HubSpot affiliate program, you gain access to a large creative inventory, including demo videos, and banners all designed to help you earn the most commission possible. Plus, you can cultivate a one-on-one relationship with the HubSpot affiliate team, whose members are all dedicated to helping you succeed.
AWeber
AWeber has been the autoresponder of choice for over one million businesses and entrepreneurs since 1998. It is a great tool for newsletter and email drip campaigns.
Affiliates of AWeber can earn a substantial income through two different channels:
Their in-house program offers a lifetime 30% commission. Plans typically range from around $20 to $150 per month, so the payout can add up.
Alternatively, you can earn up to $300 per account through CJ Affiliate. But, the cookie life with this option is only 45 days, rather than one year.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that helps businesses connect with customers via email marketing, SMS, chat, marketing automation, and more. This user-friendly tool is rapidly growing in popularity with over 175,000 users worldwide. The affiliate program has two different streams: one for agencies and one for bloggers.
Sendinblue free and affordable pricing plans make it a very attractive revenue opportunity for bloggers and publishers in the email marketing space. You will get €100 every time you refer a paying customer and join a network of top affiliates like WPBeginner, Capterra, CodeinWP, email vendor selection, email tool tester, and many more.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit helps its customers grow their customer base via landing pages, forms, and email drip campaigns. ConvertKit affiliate program is primarily addressed to existing ConvertKit users who feel their audience could benefit from email marketing products. The program offers a lifelong 30% commission for every referred paying customer or webinar subscriber.
With plans ranging anywhere from $29 per month to $2,000+, the income potential is a very attractive offer, and it costs you absolutely nothing to join the program. The program does not offer any special deals or discounts for any product the affiliate might promote.
GetResponse
GetResponse offers landing pages, opt-in forms, webinar hosting, and plenty of other marketing automation tools. Just like AWeber, GetResponse has two affiliate programs you can choose from.
Their self-hosted program offers a 33% recurring commission. With plans ranging anywhere from $15 to $1,200/month, the payout can be pretty substantial. You can also earn $135 for every sale referred through CJ Affiliate.
Also, the cookie life is only 30 days, rather than the 120 offered in the in-house program.
Fiverr
Fiverr has a few products you might promote on your website or blog including Fiverr Pro, and Fiverr Learn (courses for freelancers and businesses looking to expand their skills).
If you work with clients who might need to hire a freelancer for marketing, design, or tech skills, or you write a blog for entrepreneurs and want to promote Fiverr Learn, you might want to consider partnering with Fiverr.
The popular site, with over 5.5 million users, offers affiliates a dashboard to manage and monitor campaigns, and creative assets to help you promote their services. Of course, commission varies depending on the service you want to promote. Take a look at their full offerings here.
Pabbly
Pabbly is an online platform that offers multiple marketing and business management tools for email marketing, form building, subscription billing, email verification, workflow automation, and app integration. The most popular package is Pabbly Plus a cost-effective bundle of all the Pabbly applications.
Unique features of their affiliate program include:
You can promote all or any of their products to get a 30% commission within 40 days of the sale. They track sales of all their products using a single cookie. So whatever product you promote, will get you a commission on the sale of all the products purchased through your affiliate link.
This will save you from referring each product separately to your audience. Adding to this, they provide a single dashboard for monitoring sales, allowing you to view all your commission-related details such as sales, referrals, and payouts in a single place.
Unbounce
This popular landing page platform used by brands such as Campaign Monitor and Zola helps users design high-converting landing pages for SaaS businesses, eCommerce sites, and agencies. Unbounce affiliate program is impressive, allowing you to earn 20% of the recurring revenue for every customer you refer.
Also, your site visitors or social media followers get 20% off their first three months using Unbounce, making the exchange value for them, as well. Unbounce provides you with plenty of tools to succeed using their affiliate program, including a Partner coach, a custom dashboard to track progress, and training and promotional materials to ensure you are promoting your business as effectively as possible.
If you are a marketer hoping to help clients increase conversions on their landing pages, this partnership could be a win-win for you both.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact offers powerful email marketing tools for small businesses, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. Among other things, users of Constant Contact can create Instagram and Facebook Ads, automate their email marketing campaigns, target new e-commerce customers, and send follow-up emails to increase revenue to their online stores.
The company affiliate program enables you to earn for all qualified leads and when the referral becomes a customer of Constant Contact. Also, you will receive promotional materials, a tracking dashboard, and personalized support to help you succeed with the affiliate program.
Constant Contact is used by major brands including Facebook, WordPress, and Shopify. If you believe your clients or prospects could benefit from email marketing tools, this is a good partnership to consider.
Systeme.io
Systeme.io is a fast and simple marketing tool that has everything you need to launch, grow, and scale your online business. There are over 200,000 customers that use Systeme.io to build sales funnels, send unlimited emails, create and manage online courses and blogs, run affiliate programs, build websites, and automate almost every aspect of their marketing.
Systeme.io offers six different pricing packages, ranging from $27 per month to $828 per year. Along with their extensive pricing tiers, they have multiple lead magnets and online courses that can help affiliates pull in the maximum number of leads to their funnels. Affiliates can leverage all six pricing plans and onboarding materials to convert new users.
Systeme.io affiliates earn 40% lifetime commissions on all subscriptions and course sales. They earn 5% second-tier commissions if their referrals successfully promote the platform themselves.
This affiliate program offers attractive income potential with a monthly payout of over $100,000 to their affiliates, and over $2,000,000 in total affiliate commissions earned so far.
Typeform
Typeform, which offers conversational forms and surveys including Contact Forms, Employee Satisfaction Surveys, and Event Lead Capture Forms, offers a 20% recurring commission on Typeform, as long as the subscription remains active.
This adds up quickly, and the service is relatively cheap, making it easy for your referrals to make a purchase. If you refer 100 customers who sign up for a monthly basic plan, you would bring in $580 every month.
Shopify
With nearly two million merchants worldwide, Shopify has truly proven itself as a market leader in the drop-shipping industry. Shopify has everything you need to start your online store, including website builders, shopping carts, web hosting, store management tools, analytics features, payment processing, and much more.
If your audience is all about e-commerce and needs help setting up an online store, the Shopify affiliate program might be for you. Affiliates earn a whopping commission on the cost of a monthly subscription. Also, when a referral signs up for a Shopify Plus account, you get paid a flat $2,000 bounty payment.
In Shopify affiliate, you get priority support for your own Shopify store, as well as free Shopify content to promote to your audience. Joining the program is free.
The main drawback may be that the target for this program is quite a niche since you will need an audience that sells products online and does not already have a solid e-commerce platform.
Leadpages
Leadpages is an online tool that lets you create easy-to-customize landing pages to collect contact information and boost your conversion rates. Their affiliate program is only open to Leadpages customers. Each paying customer referred brings in a lifetime commission of 30%. Membership prices range from $25 to $200 per month.
Leadpages will sometimes run special offers, such as a $5,000 bonus for affiliates who drive sales by a given date. All affiliates get access to banners, sidebar images, and social media-friendly links. You also have the option to share a unique link to a free content page rather than a product page.
Wix
If you are interested in unlimited payouts with minimal effort, Wix could be for you. The web development company is one of the most popular web hosting platforms and offers $100 per Premium referral with no limit on the number of people you can refer. Wix provides links and creatives, including banners and landing pages in all languages, to make it easy for you to include their link on your site.
It is important to note that there is a minimum sales target you need to reach to get paid $300 per month. If you feel your website, blog, or social channel is visited regularly by prospects who might be interested in creating their website on a hosting platform, this could be a good program for you, but if you are unsure if you can meet the minimum sales target for a while, you might want to reconsider.
How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs
- WP Engine
- Kinsta
- Bluehost
- Hostgator
WP Engine
There are millions of websites on the internet, and more than 40% are built on WordPress. WP Engine provides super-fast web hosting for thousands of WordPress websites around the world. WP Engine affiliate program runs on the ShareASale network.
By promoting WP Engine plans, you can earn $200 per signup or 100% of the customer first monthly payment which is higher. You gain access to exclusive affiliate discounts you can offer to your audience.
You can also promote StudioPress themes and earn 35% of the sales generated. These purchases get 60 days of cookie tracking. It is important to note, that the WP Engine affiliate program is two-tiered, which means that you will get paid not only for referring customers but also for referring affiliates. You get $50 for each of their referrals.
While it may not be easy to find an audience looking to build a new WordPress website, when you do find those users, the profits can be huge.
Kinsta
Kinsta was founded in 2013 by veteran WordPress developers with a desire to create the best WordPress hosting platform in the world. They strive to offer WordPress hosting that is fast, secure, and reliable. Kinsta affiliate program pays an initial commission, followed by a recurring 10% monthly payment.
Bluehost
Bluehost, a web hosting platform that supports more than 2 million websites, offers a phenomenal affiliate program for any business or entrepreneur looking to monetize their blog or website. If you promote Bluehost products or services on your blog or website either through custom banners or links, you can earn anywhere from $65 to $130 per sale generated from your website an incredibly high fee.
It Is free to join their affiliate program, and Bluehost offers reliable tracking to ensure you get credit for each lead you provide them. Bluehost offers affiliate managers who can offer support or personalized advice.
Hostgator
Hostgator offers both web hosting and building tools and is incredibly low-cost for startups or eCommerce businesses with limited budgets, for instance, a starter plan costs only $3.84/month. It Is free to become a Hostgator affiliate, and their tiered payouts are substantial you can make $65 per signup if you provide Hostgator with 1 to 5 signups per month and up to $125 per signup if you provide Hostgator with over 21 signups.
You can either embed tracking links on your site or create a custom coupon code. Since Hostgator provides a 45-day money-back guarantee, it is low risk for your website visitors to try it out.
How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Retail Affiliate Programs
Commissions for retail stores are much smaller because the purchase price is much smaller. But this also means that it is easier to get your audience to buy those items commitment, which could translate into high conversion rates and higher returns.
Amazon Associates: Amazon is one of the most popular online shopping platforms, so if you are looking to buy something, chances are you will find it on Amazon. Amazon Associates get commissions between 1% and 10%, depending on the category the product purchased falls under. The most valuable items to promote are clothes and luxury beauty products, both of which can earn you a 10% cut on the price.
One of the main advantages of doing affiliate marketing with Amazon is that people already know the company and love to shop there, so it is not a hard sell. The company has very high conversion rates, especially around the holidays. And because the product selection is so vast, it fits most kinds of businesses.
If you write about animals, for instance, you can promote cat treats or dog toys. If your audience is interested in cars, you can recommend jumper cables.
Also, if someone ends up on Amazon through your link and buys something other than what your content links to, you still get a commission on the user in the entire cart. The only downside is some categories have particularly low commissions, such as video games and electronics.
Amazon recently launched its new Amazon Influencer Program is an extension of the Associate program for social media influencers. You get similar benefits to the online Associate program, as well as your page on Amazon with a unique URL to showcase the products you recommend to your followers.
Currently, you must have a YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook account to qualify. Amazon looks at the number of followers and other engagement metrics of your social media accounts to determine whether you are eligible for the program.
eBay Partner Network
With over one billion listings from a wide range of product categories, eBay affiliate program shares a lot of the same advantages as Amazon, a well-known brand, high conversion rates, and a diverse selection of products.
The eBay Partner Network pays a commission of 1% to 4%. You earn a percentage of the revenue eBay earns from that purchase, based on the product category.
High-ticket items you can promote fall under Parts & Accessories, or Fashion. You can have a look at the complete rate card here. The one downside of this program is that it offers a cap for each category with most falling well under $1,000. Your earning potential is thus limited.
Best Personal Finance and Investment Affiliate Programs
Acorns Acorn is a micro-investing mobile app that helps people between the ages of 25 and 35 invest their money wisely. If you own a financial advice blog that serves this demographic especially if they have not yet accrued capital or assets, this is the affiliate program for you. Affiliates receive $10 for every referred customer.
You will receive a wide variety of creative assets to help you promote the app and a dedicated account manager to help you boost your marketing efforts.
Sage Financials
A cloud accounting solution built on Salesforce that provides accounting, analytics, and reporting tools for small and mid-sized businesses, has an impressive affiliate program that includes a dedicated support team, commission paid directly into your bank account, and detailed reporting on your performance and earnings.
You can receive a commission even from free sign-ups Sage receives from your website or blog. If you feel your website visitors or blog readers are interested in accounting tools, this could be a good partnership to explore.
When you are looking for affiliate programs, you might want to consider affiliate networks like LinkShare or CJ Affiliate which offer many different programs to choose from. There are no limits to the number of affiliate programs you can join.
Now that we have gone over some of the best affiliate programs overall, let us go over the programs that pay the highest commission.
Highest Paying Affiliate Programs
Elementor is a dynamic drag-and-drop website builder used to create 6% of all the world websites. With hundreds of widgets, integrations, website templates, and design tools, Elementor users can customize and scale their WordPress website-building process without writing a single line of code.
Yet, Elementor is more than simple software it has 100k members in its online community where web creators share advice, host meetups, and push each other to professional growth.
Elementor affiliates earn 50% per sale. The software has five pricing packages, ranging from $49 to $999 per year. This broad array of pricing tiers makes it easier for affiliates to strategically market various plans to specific audiences.
With notable affiliates earning north of $10,000 a month, Elementor is an attractive option to consider.
Semrush
Semrush is a SaaS company that specializes in SEO and competitive analysis tools for digital marketers. Its affiliate program offers $200 per subscription, so if you refer 10 people only, you will be bringing in $2,000 per month. Plus, they offer a very generous 10-year cookie life.
Since the Semrush affiliate program functions under a first cookie attribution model, if a referral were to cancel their subscription and sign up again in the future, you still get a commission on that second subscription.
Exclusive Semrush promotional material is available in five different languages, and applicants are automatically pre-approved, so the sign-up process is only a few minutes, enabling you to get started right away.
Coursera
Coursera offers over 1,000 courses and specializations ranging anywhere from Digital Marketing to Applied Data Science and Personal Development. Each course consists of pre-recorded videos, puzzles, and assignments.
Coursera affiliate program runs on the Linkshare network and offers a commission ranging from 10% to 45% with bonuses for strong performance. Courses and Specializations are generally priced between $29 and $99.
As a Coursera affiliate, you get access to professionally designed banners and a monthly affiliate newsletter with curated content recommendations.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is an online store builder that powers thousands of e-commerce stores in over 150 countries. It serves a wide variety of industries, including fashion, automotive, manufacturing, food, and health.
When you refer visitors to BigCommerce, you earn 200% of the customer first monthly payment or $1,500 per enterprise customer.
Flywheel
Flywheel aims to take away all the hassle that comes with web hosting so users can focus on doing what they do best creating and designing websites. Flywheel affiliates can earn up to $500 per referral. You get access to tons of creative assets, from banners to co-branded landing pages to stylish social images.
The Flywheel team will even work with you to create custom images that can take your commissions to the next level. It is worth noting that there is no minimum threshold limit to receive a payment.
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor provides travelers with the wisdom of the crowds to help them decide where to stay, how to fly, what to do, and where to eat. The site helps you compare prices from 200+ hotel booking sites so you can find the lowest price on the hotel that is right for you.
Powered by Commission Junction, the TripAdvisor affiliate program pays a 50% commission off the revenue generated from a user clicking on links or ads that send them to a TripAdvisor partner site. This means, that, unlike most other affiliate programs on this list, you do not have to wait for your referral to purchase to earn your commission.
As soon as someone comes from your website and clicks on one of the ads or links on the TripAdvisor website, you get paid. On average, affiliates will earn between $0.15-$0.75 per click-out. While it may not seem like a lot, since your revenue is only dependent on clicks, this can add up quite nicely.
Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja, a free open-source invoicing app for freelancers and businesses, offers a Ninja Pro Plan for just $10 a month, and, as an affiliate partner, you can make 50% on all referrals for four years. That means, that if you refer 100 Pro users, you will receive $5,000 every year for the next four years.
Also, any user can start free and upgrade when they decide it is worthwhile, so it is easy for your site visitors to give the tool a try. You can provide their affiliate link in your email signature, on a blog post, or in an email newsletter, and Invoice Ninja provides both logos and ads to make it easy to promote their tool.
If your social media followers or website visitors are typically online entrepreneurs or freelancers, this could be a good partnership to consider.
Capitalist Exploits
Capitalist Exploits provides trade recommendations for investors and anyone looking to outperform the market by sharing only the best low-risk or high-reward opportunities with subscribers. If your target audience consists of investors, high net-worth individuals, people interested in investment, financial advisors, or wealth managers, then this program might be for you.
Capitalist Exploits pays a 50% commission on any referred sale with absolutely no limits. Their products range from $1,575 to $3,499.
This means each referral brings you a minimum of $787.50.
Affiliates also receive exclusive access to paid membership trials for their audience.
Ultimately, when deciding which program to choose, there are many key elements to keep in mind, including how established your online following is, and how much you want to earn.
Think about what your website visitors or your social media followers need and could benefit from, and choose an affiliate marketing program that will let you promote products in support of that. Once you do that, you will be well on your way to exponentially multiplying your affiliate income.
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