Ever wondered how sharing your favorite products could earn you extra income?
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your content, especially when you don’t sell products or services.
Joining an affiliate program can get you exclusive content and special deals for your audience while earning you more money.
There are many affiliate programs ranging from online courses to website builders, to marketing and business affiliates. Let’s explore:
- What is an affiliate program?
- How do affiliates make money?
- The best affiliate marketing networks for beginners
- The best affiliate programs
What is affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based online marketing strategy where businesses reward affiliates for driving traffic or sales to the company’s products or services through the affiliate’s marketing efforts. It is basically when you try to earn money by placing affiliate links on your social media account or website and have people purchase a product through your link.
What is an Affiliate Partner?
An affiliate partner is creator, influencer or business that partners with a company and earns commissions by promoting the company’s products or services.
Affiliates, often content creators, bloggers, or social media influencers, leverage their platforms to promote products relevant to their audience. Whether through engaging content, reviews, or enticing promotions, affiliates act as virtual salespeople, earning a commission for each conversion they facilitate.
What makes a good affiliate partner?
An excellent affiliate partner is someone who is committed to mutual growth, has a proven track record of driving high quality leads or sales and prioritizes transparent communication.
Remember, a great affiliate partner is not just a promoter but a trusted extension of a brand’s marketing team.
How do affiliates make money?
Over the years I’ve learnt that you don’t need a ton of page views or a high social media following to make great income through affiliate marketing. However if you already have a pre-existing social media following then you can promote products in the niche in which you post your content. For example if you talk a lot about books or fashion on social media you could choose to promote products in that niche.
Think about it this way, if you enjoy a product why not get paid to promote it?
Many affiliates start their journey by creating a website to have a home base for their marketing efforts. The affiliate gets a unique link (an “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 time, the affiliate will earn a commission.
Each cookie has a “length” or “cookie life”, which defines how long the cookie will track the owner’s online activity.
For example if the cookie has a 30-day life, your referral needs to purchase within 30 days of clicking your affiliate link for you to get paid – otherwise the lead will no longer be trackable.
If you’re interested in joining an affiliate program, there are different types of programs, and I suggest you pick the one best suited for your business.
Best Affiliate Networks And Programs
Best Affiliate Networks
1. Amazon Associates
One of the main advantages of affiliate marketing with Amazon is that people already know the company and love to shop there, so it’s not a hard sell. Additionally if someone ends up on Amazon through your link and buys something other than what your content links to, you still get commission on the user’s entire cart.
The only down side is that some categories such as video games and electronics, have particularly low commissions.
2. eBay Partner Network
The eBay Partner Network pays a commission of 1% to 4%. Based on the product category, you earn a percentage of eBay’s revenue from that purchase.
Hight ticket parts you can promote are under Parts and Accessories, or Fashion.
The down side of the program is that it offers a cap for each category – with most falling well under $1000. Your earning potential is thus limited.
3. Rakuten Advertising
This is one of the oldest networks in the game. It has been able to establish partnerships with some of the biggest brands including Sephora, New Balance and JetBlue.
Despite it’s impressive partner roster, it only has partnerships with around 1,000 merchants – far fewer than other competing networks.
4. PartnerStack
PartnerStack is the go-to B2B technology partnerships. If you’re new to B2B affiliate marketing, it operates very similarly to B2C affiliate marketing – except the commissions are usually higher and typically paid for longer.
Think recurring revenue of 20%-100% of a sale for the lifetime of the customer you helped create.
5. ClickBank
This is the second-most-popular affiliate network in the world. But unlike other affiliate platforms, ClickBank serves as a marketplace for both people who create products and affiliates.
It’s very easy to join, no cap or complicated metrics. It’s basically a simplified affiliate network, open to anyone who wants to give it a shot.
6. CJ Affiliates
CJ Affiliates (formerly known as Commission Junction) is one of the most popular affiliate networks out there, holding 7.69% of the market share.
Currently, CJ partners with over 3,800 brands, including household names such as Barners and Noble, Office Depot, J.Crew and Blue Apron.
7. ShareASale
ShareASale partners with thousands of merchants of all types, so finding the right affiliate product is a breeze – no matter your niche. Some of its most well known brand partners are Esty, Reebok, and Warby Parker.
After joining the network, you have to apply to the individual Merchants you want to use. Once approved you can generate affiliate links and view sales stats on the ShareASale dashboard.
Commissions vary because of a wide variety of products and merchants.
8. FlexOffers
flexOffers is an impressive affiliate database that is comprised of over 10,000 ad partners from over 65 networks. It partners with some of the biggest retailers, including Samsung, Nike, Microsoft, and Macy’s.
FlexOffer’s easy-to-use dashboard includes access to over 65 million products to find the best offer for you.
Best Affiliate Programs
1. ClickFunnels
Best thing about this is that you earn recurring revenue monthly for every customer that keeps their account active.
ClickFunnels owner Russel. says – just get and keep 100 or more active clickfunnels members, and you’ll qualify for your dream car! how great is that?
2. Fiverr Affiliates
Earn $15-$150 per referral; or $10+10% recurring for 12 months; or another commission option depending on the product.
If you work with clients who might need to hire a freelancer for marketing, design, or tech skills, you might want to consider partnering with Fiverr.
3. RankIQ
This is an SEO tool made just for bloggers. It offers a high paying affiliate program that will pay you $100 per person who purchases the product and due to monthly bonuses you could have the potential for earning up to $225 per person.
4. Capitalist Exploits
This is an investment program meaning you’ll get high ticket commissions for this. Earn from $750 to $1250 for everyone who purchases the Insider Program.
The downside of this is that converting a $2.5k product without a prepared audience is harder than drinking a pint of beer upside down. It’s better to have a pre-existing audience for this, but there’s away around it in case you don’t have an audience – all explained by the Insider affiliate team.
5. Elementor
Elementor is a dynamic drag-and-drop website builder used to create more than 7% of the world’s websites.
Commissions are 50% per sale and are paid out through PayPal or your preferred method. The minimum sales threshold before payout is $200.
The software has five pricing packages, ranging from $49 to $999 annually. This broad array of pricing tiers makes it easier for affiliates to market various plans to specific audiences strategically.
With notable affiliates earning north of $10,000 a month, Elementor is an attractive option.
6. Moosend
Moosend is an affordable all-in-one email marketing automation solution that enables marketers to promote their businesses and increase their customer base with engaging campaigns.
Moosend’s affiliate program allows you to earn up to 40$ lifetime recurring commissions on every plan your contact buys.
Moreover the 90-day cookie period will give your audience the time they need to purchase, while you earn extra commissions when your contact upgrades their plan.
7. AWeber
Aweber has been the autoresponder of choice for over one million businesses and entrepreneurs since 1998. It’s an excellent tool for newsletter and email drip campaigns.
Affiliates of AWeber can earn substantial income through two different channels:
- Their in-house program offers a lifetime 30% commission. Plans typically range from $20 to $150 monthly so that the payout can increase.
- Alternatively you can earn up to $300 per account through CJ Affiliates. However, the cookie life with this option is only 45 days rather than one year.
8. Castos
Castos is an all-in-one podcasting platform for new and veteran podcasters. With more than 65,000 podcasts, it’s a powerful platform for podcasts at any stage of their journey.
Castos also offers an industry leading WordPress plugin called Seriously Simple Podcasting that lets you manage your shows from your WordPress dashboard.
Users love Castos because it helps them generate revenue. With Castos Commerce, listeners can send donations to the podcaster. With Castos Ads, users can choose to have ads dynamically inserted into their show. That’s easy money without any work.
9. ConvertKit
Anew up-and-corner in the email marketing field, ConvertKit helps its users grow their customer base via landing pages, forms, and email drip campaigns.
With plans ranging from $29 per month all the way to $2,000+, the income potential is a very attractive offer, and it costs nothing to join the program.
10. Kajabi
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that lets users create online courses, launch marketing campaigns, build landing pages, and design the perfect website.
The Kajabi partner program is currently only open to users. As an affiliate, you’ll receive a 30% lifetime commission for any new member you bring to Kajabi that stays active past their trail period.
11. Teachable
Teachable helps you create beautiful online courses. With over 18 million students, and over 186 thousand active courses, Teachable is one of the most reputable e-learning platforms.
Ranging from Facebook ads to cake decorating tips, Teachable is suitable for a variety of niche subjects.
Teachable’s affiliate program pays a recurring 30% commission on the referrals monthly subscription fee.
Plans can go anywhere from $29 to $499 per month, meaning you’ll be able to earn up to $150 a month per sale.
12. Wix
If you’re interested in unlimited payouts with minimal efforts, 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 amount of people you can refer.
If you feel your website, blog, or social cannel is visited on a regular basis by prospects who might be interested in creating their own website, this could be a good program for you.
13. DreamHost
DreamHost’s affiliate program a chance to earn up to $200 per referral, appealing to those keen on recommending DreamHost’s hosting services.
Affiliates can track their progress through a user-friendly dashboard, making the program accessible to both beginners and experienced marketers.
14. HostGator
HostGator offers both web hosting and building tools, and is incredibly low-cost for startups or e-commerce businesses with limited budgets – for instance a shorter plan costs only $3.84 per month.
You cam make $65 per signup if you provide HostGator with 1-5 signups per month, and up to $125 per signup if you provide HostGator with over 21 signups.
15. Acorns
Acorns 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 haven’t yet acquired capital or assets – this is the affiliate program for you.
16. Sage Financials
Sage Financials is a cloud accounting solution built on Salesforce that provides accounting, analytics and reporting tools for small and mid-sized businesses.
Commission is paid directly into your bank account (and currency of choice), and detailed reporting on your performance and earnings.
Best of all, you’re still able to receive a commission even from free signups Sage receives from you.
17. Semrush
Semrush is the software that enables marketing professionals to build, manage and measure campaigns across all channel to improve their online visibility.
The Semrush affiliate program offers $200 for each sale and $10 for a free trial activation. Plus, they offer a very generous 120-day cookie period.
The program is open to bloggers, social media influencers, YouTube creators, course creators, and all-in-one marketers. You can monetize your traffic and boost your earnings regardless of your niche.
18. FlyWheel
As another dedicated WordPress hosting solution, FlyWheel aims to take away the hustle 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 a tone of creation assets, from banners to co-branded landing pages to stylish social images.
19. TripAdvisor
Crowned the “world’s largest travel site”. 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.
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 (and not purchases). this can add up quite nicely.
Choose the Right Affiliate Program for You
Ultimately when deciding which program to choose, there are many key elements to keep in mind, including how well established your online following is, and how much you wan to earn.
And mostly importantly – who is your audience, and what are they interested in?
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’ll be well on your way to exponentially multiplying your affiliate income.
P.S When you use these links and/or sign up for these services. Of Sense and Cents may receive a commission. This means you help support this website and enjoy all these ways to earn and save extra money.