Affiliate marketing has steadily increased in popularity as a cost-effective strategy for business growth. In fact, 4 out of 5 brands today implement some form of affiliate program incorporated into their marketing initiatives.
In particular, for small enterprises, this marketing strategy enables them to increase brand awareness and boost sales with minimal budget and less effort. It allows businesses to reduce ads costs while tapping into a wider market reach because of its pay-per-transaction nature.
Businesses utilize software and tools to optimize affiliate marketing outcomes and to make the process more efficient and effective. If you are among the few remaining brands without an affiliate program, here are some of the best affiliate marketing websites that may affiliate marketers attest to and can jumpstart your affiliate marketing initiatives.
But first — what exactly is an affiliate program?
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Best Affiliate Marketing Programs
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What is an Affiliate Program?
An affiliate program is an agreement in which a business pays another business or influencer (affiliate marketer) a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way. This can be achieved through web content, social media, or a product integration.
The affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes that product and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make. The sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to drive sales and generate significant online revenue. Extremely beneficial to both brands and affiliate marketers, the new push toward less traditional marketing tactics has certainly paid off.
An affiliate marketing website is one that makes money via affiliate or referral programs. Such websites are sometimes referred to as: Affiliate sites Authority sites Niche sites
An affiliate network is a service that connects publishers with brands. The network acts as the “middleman” so that both publishers and brands offering programs can find each other easily. Brands can find and contract affiliates fast to promote their products and open up a new sales channel.
ShareASale is one of the largest affiliate networks that has been running for nearly two decades, so it’s built up a lot of trust in the affiliate industry.
How do affiliates make money?
The affiliate gets a unique 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 within an allotted amount of time, then the affiliate will earn commission- affiliate revenue.
These cookies have a cookie life, which simply define how long the cookies will be tracking the user’s online activity.
For example, if a cookie has a 30-day life, your referral needs to make a purchase within 30-days of clicking your affiliate link in order for you to get paid, otherwise the lead will no longer be trackable.
If you’re interested in starting an affiliate program, there are different types of affiliate programs, and you’ll want to pick the one best-suited for your business. Let’s dive into the types of affiliate programs, next.
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Types of Affiliate Programs
When choosing an affiliate program (affiliate sites), you’ll 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’s 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?
Examples of affiliate programs include Tate’s Real World, Fullstaq Marketer, Inbound Closer and Traffic and Funnels, just to mention a few.
While those are questions, you’ll have to consider for yourself, let’s take a look at some general types of affiliate programs so you can begin brainstorming potential avenues for your own marketing efforts:
Search Affiliates
With this program, you’ll have freelancers or entrepreneurs pay their own money to promote your offer on search results or other online advertising platforms like Facebook Advertising. While you’ll want to ensure your partner is following search and advertising guidelines, this could work in your favor if your partner has an SEO background and wants to A/B test to see which ads result in the most referrals for you — and most ROI for them.
Bloggers and Influencers
If there are impressive bloggers or social media influencers in your industry who engage with your ideal buyer persona on a regular basis, 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’d 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, it’s likely that most of your buyers need to conduct research on that topic before purchasing. If that’s 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’d be interested in providing an affiliate link to your product or service in the text.
Coupon Sites
If you’re offering a new product or service that isn’t popular in the marketplace, you might try creating an affiliate partnership with a coupon site for a limited time. While you don’t 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
This is best in small doses. You don’t want any partners sending out bulk emails to customers who aren’t interested in your products or services, but with proper consideration for who’s 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’ll explore the top affiliate programs that you can join in your industry.
If you’re planning to launch an affiliate program, you can use the following examples as inspiration. Plus, you’ll get guidance on how much you should pay your partners and affiliates.
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Best Affiliate Programs
You now want to know which is the best affiliate program you should be considering for your business needs. We’ve divided the various programs based on the different marketing needs depending on the product to be marketed. You will surely find the perfect affiliate site for your product.
Affiliates can join the network and apply to join programs from thousands of top brands like Uber, Airbnb, Adidas, Allstate, and more. Brands looking to create their own affiliate program can use Impact and get access to the very best partnership tools.
Let’s get started.
Best Marketing and Business Affiliate Programs
HubSpot
HubSpot’s mission is to help millions of organizations grow better. HubSpot’s award-winning CRM platform is comprised of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hub, and a powerful free CRM. It gives thousands of companies the tools they need to manage the customer experience all the way from awareness to advocacy.
Commission:15% recurring or 100% of the first month’s revenue
Cookie life: 90 days
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’s revenue.
HubSpot’s plans range from $50 all the way up to $3,000+ per month. And 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’s affiliate program, you gain access to a large creative inventory, including demo videos, banners, and copy examples, 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.
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Elementor
Elementor is a dynamic drag-and-drop website builder used to create more than 7% of all the world’s 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. Unique amongst WordPress website builders, Elementor now offers cloud hosting features, as well.
Commission: 50% per sale
Cookie life: 45 days
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.
Moosend
Moosend is an affordable all-in-one email marketing automation solution that enables marketers to promote their business and increase their customer base with engaging campaigns.
Commission: 30% Lifetime Recurring
Cookie life: 90 days
Apart from the user-friendly email editor, you’ll get access to online forms, landing pages, audience management tools, segmentation, and personalization features to turn your subscribers into loyal advocates of your brand.
Moosend’s affiliate program allows you to earn a 30% lifetime recurring commission on every plan that your contacts buy. The 90-day cookie will give your audience the time they need to make a purchase, while you can earn extra commissions when your contact upgrades their plan.
Moosend affiliates can benefit from the pre-made materials (banners, templates, etc.) and available resources found in their affiliate dashboard. The affiliate team is also ready to assist and help solve problems that may arise.
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AWeber
AWeber has been the autoresponder of choice for over one million businesses and entrepreneurs since 1998. It’s a great tool for newsletter and email drip campaigns.
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: One year
Affiliates of AWeber can earn 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. However, 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, CRM, and more. This user-friendly tool is rapidly growing in popularity with over 175,000 users worldwide.
Commission: €5 when a referred user creates a free account + €100 if that user buys a subscription
Cookie life: 90 days
The affiliate program has two different streams: one for agencies and one for bloggers.
Sendinblue’s free and affordable pricing plans make it a very attractive revenue opportunity for bloggers and publishers in the email marketing space. You’ll get €100 every time you refer a paying customer and join a network of top affiliates like WPBeginner, Capterra, CodeinWP, emailvendorselection, emailtooltester, and many more.
Note: Even though the payout is in euros, the program is open to the United States and your commission will be converted based on currency rates at the time of the payment.
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ConvertKit
A new up-and-comer in the email marketing field, ConvertKit helps its customers grow their customer-base via landing pages, forms, and email drip campaigns.
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie window: 30 days
ConvertKit’s 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 all the way 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, however, offer any special deals or discounts for any product the affiliate might promote.
GetResponse
Along with email marketing, GetResponse offers landing pages, opt-in forms, webinar hosting, a CRM tool, and plenty of other marketing automation tools.
Just like AWeber, GetResponse has two affiliate programs you can choose from (or you can join both!):
- 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. However, the cookie life is only 30 days, rather than 120 offered in the in-house program.
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Fiverr
Fiverr has a few products you might promote on your own website or blog — including Fiverr (the freelance marketplace with digital services for everything from marketing to tech), Fiverr Pro (access to hand-vetted talent trusted by major brands), and Fiverr Learn (courses for freelancers and businesses looking to expand their skills).
Commission: $15-50 for Fiverr CPA, $10 CPA + 10% RevShare for Fiverr Hybrid, or 30% of every Fiverr Learn course order
Cookie life: 30 days
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.
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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.
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: 30 days
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, it will get you a commission on the sale of all the products purchased through your affiliate link. Also, this will save you from referring each product separately to your audience.
- A single sale of Pabbly products can provide you the minimum commission of $183.
Additionally, 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’s affiliate program is impressive, giving you the opportunity to earn 20% of the recurring revenue for every customer you refer.
Commission: 20% of recurring revenue for every customer you refer
Cookie life: 90 days
Plus, your site visitors or social media followers get 20% off their first three months using Unbounce, making the exchange valuable for them, as well. Unbounce provides you with plenty of tools to succeed using their affiliate program, including a Partner coach, custom dashboard to track progress, and training and promotional materials to ensure you’re promoting their business as effectively as possible. If you’re a marketer hoping to help clients increase conversions on their landing pages, this partnership could be a win-win for you both.
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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 ecommerce customers, and send follow-up emails to increase revenue to their online stores.
Commission: $5 for each referral that signs up for a free trial, and $105 when your referrals pay for a new account
Cookie life: 120 days
The company’s affiliate program enables you to earn $5 for all qualified leads, and $105 when the referral becomes a customer of Constant Contact.
Additionally, you’ll 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.
Commission: 40% recurring
Cookie life: 180 Days
Systeme.io offers 6 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 6 pricing plans and onboarding materials to convert new users.
Systeme.io affiliates earn 40% lifetime commissions on all subscriptions and course sales. Plus, 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.
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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 referrals. That means you’ll earn up to 20% of a referred customers’ subscription to Typeform, as long as the subscription remains active.
Commission: 20% recurring
Cookie life: Unknown
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 will bring in $580 every month.
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Best Online Course Affiliate Programs
Thinkific
Thinkific’s powerful all-in-one platform makes it easy to share your knowledge, grow your audience, and scale the business you already love. The platform enables users to create, market, and sell online courses and membership sites under their own brand.
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: 90 days
You’re an ideal candidate for Thinkific’s affiliate program if your audience is made up of any of the following:
- Content creators with skills and knowledge to share;
- Business leaders who want to create courses for customers; or
- Entrepreneurs who want to add new revenue streams
As an affiliate partner, your perks include a 30% lifetime recurring commission, a competitive 90-day cookie window, and access to ready-to-post creative and promotional content. Thinkific affiliate partners earn up to $1,700 per referral every year.
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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.
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: 30 days
The Kajabi Partner Program is currently only open to Kajabi users. As an affiliate, you’ll receive a 30% lifetime commission for any new member you bring to Kajabi that stays active past their trial period. What’s more, you will be treated to special rewards as you progress. Each level unlocks exciting bonuses only available to Kajabi Partners.
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Teachable
Teachable helps you create and sell beautiful online courses. With over 18 million students and 186 thousand active courses, Teachable is one of the most reputable e-learning platforms. Plus, it’s heavily endorsed by Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income.
Commission: 30% recurring, with the ability to earn up to 50% commission through monthly bonuses
Cookie life: 90 days
Ranging from Facebook ads to cake decorating tips, Teachable is suited for a variety of niche subjects. Teachable’s affiliate program pays a recurring 30% commission on the referral’s 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.
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Best Website Builder Affiliate Programs
Shopify
With nearly 2 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 and store management tools, analytics features, payment processing, and much more.
Commission: 200% commission after a referral has been an active subscriber for 2 months
Cookie life: 30 days
If your audience is all about e-commerce and needs help setting up an online store, Shopify’s affiliate program might be for you. Affiliates earn a whooping 200% commission on the cost of a monthly subscription (that’s up to $2,400!). Additionally, when a referral signs up for a Shopify Plus account, you get paid a flat $2,000 bounty payment.
On top of the money, as a 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 absolutely free. The main drawbacks may be that the target for this program is quite niche, since you’ll need an audience that sells products online and doesn’t 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.
Commission: Up to 50% commission
Cookie life: 30 days
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 10+ 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 (like a blog post or video) rather than a product page.
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Wix
If you’re 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 amount of people you can refer (which means, if you refer 10 people, you’ve already made $1,000). Additionally, 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.
Commission: $100 per Premium sale
Cookie life: 30 days
However, it’s important to note that there is a minimum sales target you need to reach to get paid — $300 per month (if you make less than that, your earnings will stay in your account until you reach that benchmark). If you feel your website, blog, or social channel is visited on a regular basis by prospects who might be interested in creating their own website on a hosting platform, this could be a good program for you, but if you’re unsure if you can meet the minimum sales target for a while, you might want to reconsider.
Crowdbotics
Crowdbotics makes it faster than ever to build complete, scalable apps for business. With Crowdbotics, professionals can turn ideas into real code using a matched library of components and a network of on-call experts.
Commission: Payouts start at $750 per referral and vary by project size
Cookie life: Contact Crowdbotics for more information
Crowdbotics references a library of millions of production-grade software packages to identify the most effective components and workflows for a given project. Once your referral partner starts building their app, you can claim various rewards from Crowdbotics ranging from cash payouts to development credits.
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Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs
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.
Commission: $200+ per signup
Cookie window: 180 days
WP Engine’s affiliate program runs on the ShareASale network. By promoting WP Engine plans, you can earn $200 per signup or 100% of the customer’s first monthly payment — whichever one 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’s important to note — WP Engine’s affiliate program is two-tiered, which means that you’ll 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.
Commission: Up to $500 per referral + 10% recurring
Cookie life: 60 days
Kinsta’s affiliate program pays an initial commission, followed by a recurring 10% monthly payment. Affiliates can earn up to $500 initially, depending on the type of plan the referral has purchased:
- Starter: $30
- Pro: $100
- Business: $150
- Enterprise: $500
While 10% may not seem like much, your referrals are likely to have a high lifetime value, thanks to Kinsta’s high customer retention rate of 95%.
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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’s products or services on your own 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.
Commission: $65 per sale
Cookie life: 45 days
Best of all, it’s free to join their affiliate program, and Bluehost offers reliable tracking to ensure you get credit for each lead you provide them. Plus, Bluehost offers affiliate managers who can offer support or personalized advice. With such an accessible program, there are a ton of Bluehost reviews with the pros and cons.
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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.
Commission: $65 to $125 per signup
Cookie life: 60 days
It’s free to become a HostGator affiliate, and their tiered payouts are substantial — you can 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. 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’s low-risk for your website visitors to try it out.
GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is an eco-friendly, secure web hosting platform, allows you to earn up to $100 per sale. They have a tiered program that pays generously including $50 for just one sale, and $100 for six or more. Additionally, the company provides a selection of creative assets, content, and banners to ensure you’re proud of the link or banner you include on your website or blog.
Commission: $50 for one sale; up to $100 for six sales
Cookie life: 30 days
If you believe your blog readers or website visitors are interested in exploring web hosting platforms (for instance, if you write content for freelancers), this could be a good option to explore. Best of all, the company promotes eco-friendly alternatives, so you can feel good knowing you’re spreading a positive, “green message” to your site visitor
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Best Retail Affiliate Programs
Amazon Associates Program
Commission: 1-10% (depending on the product category)
Cookie life: 24 hours
Amazon is one of the most popular online shopping platforms, so if you’re looking to buy something, chances are you’ll 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’s 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.
For businesses with large audiences, Amazon recently launched their new Amazon Influencer Program as an extension to the Associates program for social media influencers. You get similar benefits to the online Associates program, as well as your own page on Amazon with a unique URL to showcase the products you recommend to your followers.
Hammacher Schlemmer
Commission: 8% on any sale
Cookie life: 30 days
Hammacher Schlemmer is America’s longest-running catalog with a lifetime of over 150 years and continues to successfully sell items ranging from electronics to outdoor living gear. Additionally, the company offers an impressive affiliate program with the potential to earn incredibly high commissions.
They offer 8% commission on any product you’re able to sell through your own website or blog. While 8% might not sound like a lot, consider some of the higher-priced items they sell, including a Muhammad Ali Autographed Photo Collage for $5,000, or the Full Immersion Professional Racer’s Simulator for $65,000.
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Spocket
Spocket, a dropshipping supplier, wholesaler, and distributor of high-quality American and European products, enables entrepreneurs to sell products from thousands of dropshipping suppliers around the world.
Commission: 20% per bronze subscriber; 25% per silver subscriber; 30% per gold subscriber (up to 445.50 per subscriber)
Cookie life: 90 days
They also offer an incredibly impressive affiliate program — you can make up to $450 for each customer you refer to Spocket, and you’ll continue to collect commission off your referral’s Spocket account as long as they remain a customer.
Their program will also provide you with the tools and resources you need to successfully promote their business. If your website visitors are entrepreneurs or ecommerce businesses, this is a good affiliate program to explore.
EBay Partner Network
With over one billion listings from a wide range of product categories, eBay’s affiliate program shares a lot of the same advantages as Amazon’s — well-known brand, high conversion rates, and a diverse selection of products.
Commission: 1-4%, depending on category
Cookie life: 24 hours
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.
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Best Beauty and Cosmetic Affiliate Programs
Ulta
Ulta is a go-to brand for beauty enthusiasts who want both affordable and prestige skincare, makeup, and personal care products. Ulta is popular for its diverse offerings, which can cater to the tastes of a large readership.
Commission: 1-5%
Cookie life: 30 days
Ulta’s affiliate program pays 1-5% in commissions. While this number may seem low, the company is ranked #2 in the beauty and cosmetics online space, meaning that your readers have likely heard of it and could even be current customers. You are provided with dynamic banners and text links to promote Ulta’s products. The company has ongoing promotions, including free shipping and free products, to help you drive more sales.
Sephora
If you serve a more affluent readership, Sephora is the affiliate program for you. The retailer offers a wide selection of prestige beauty products, including skincare, body care, makeup, and fragrances. Additionally, they offer a superior customer experience — for instance, they offer a free gift with any purchase and have a strong rewards program.
Commission: 5%
Cookie life: 24 hours
Sephora’s affiliate program offers a 5% commission rate on all sales, which is higher than Ulta’s and most online retailers’ commission rates. Like most programs, Sephora gives affiliates access to promotional banners and other creative assets, which you can use on your site and social media accounts.
The only downside to this program is that the cookie length is uncommonly short: The cookie will expire just 24 hours after the user clicks on the affiliate link.
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FragranceNet.com
A leader in the online perfume space, FragranceNet.com gives you access to hundreds and thousands of top designer fragrances and aromatherapy products. It sells other products, too, such as skincare and makeup. However, due to its specialization in fragrances, we recommend it for bloggers who primarily write about fragrances.
Commission: 1-5%
Cookie life: Unknown
Affiliates earn 1-5% for every purchase generated through their link. The brand gives you access to links and banners, fresh blog content, seasonal ads, and coupon codes to drive your referral to a conversion. The program is run through the Rakuten platform.
BH Cosmetics
Born and raised in LA, BH Cosmetics is one of the leading companies in the beauty industry. They are passionate about creating new and innovative beauty trends and dedicated to bringing customers the best in cruelty-free cosmetics. They also run promotions and sales regularly to help convert those leads.
Commission: 8%
Cookie life: 60 days
BH Cosmetics affiliates receive an 8% commission on purchases made within 60 days of the user’s visit. The site has an average order value of $38 and an on-site conversion rate of 6.46%.
As an affiliate, you’ll get exclusive access to coupons and banners you can use on your website, blog, or emails. You’ll also receive monthly affiliate newsletters. Plus, their dedicated in-house affiliate team runs monthly incentives and affiliate contests to encourage you to promote your affiliate link.
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Other affiliate programs
Boatbookings
If you think your website visitors might be interested in chartering yachts, you might want to join Boatbookings’ affiliate program. Boatbookings specializes in luxury yacht chartering, boat rentals, and sailing and motor yacht vacations.
Commission: 20% + 10% for returning customers
Cookie life: 30 days
On the charter value of a boat, Boatbookings receives commission on the net charter value (not including APA or any additional items ordered). On this commission, affiliates will earn 20% as a base rate, with a possibility for escalating rates if referring multiple clients. When customers return to Boatbookings, affiliates receive an additional 10% commission on that second purchase.
Cheapflights
Cheapflights is a travel comparison site that helps users find the cheapest plane tickets.
Cheapflights is another company that rewards its affiliates not for bringing paying customers, but for sending traffic to their partners.
Commission: Flat rate — up to $0.45 per click-out
Cookie life: Session
Affiliates are paid a flat fee when a user clicks through — $0.45 per click-out for desktop and tablet, and $0.25 for mobile.
As an affiliate, you get access to various creative assets, ranging from banners to search boxes and travel widgets, that allow your visitors to conduct a search on your site and display flights results on Cheapflights’ page. This is their most popular travel affiliate tool and generates the highest revenue per visit.
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Momondo
Momondo is a global travel search site that compares cheap flights, hotels, and car rental deals.
Commission: Flat rate — up to $0.65 per click-out
Cookie life: Session
Each time someone clicks on a flight on Momondo’s website from your site’s link, you will earn $0.65 for desktop and tablet users, and $0.45 for mobile users.
Sandals Resorts
Sandals is one of the most well-recognized names in Caribbean resort travel. All Sandals Resorts offer luxurious vacations for couples and families traveling to Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, and more.
Commission: 4%
Cookie life: 60 days
The Sandals affiliate program pays you a commission for referring users to book either a stay in one of the Sandals Resorts or booking an activity. While 4% might seem like a small percentage, these luxury resorts have daily rates that range from $150 to over $2,000 per person — which means, if a couple were to book a romantic week in a Sandals Resort at $500 per person per night, you would earn a commission of $280!
This program is only worthwhile, however, if your site and audience have a true interest in luxury travel to the Caribbean.
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How Do I Join Affiliate Programs?
There are primarily two types of programs: self-hosted programs, and ones in an affiliate network.
First, self-hosted programs run on the company’s website with affiliate software tools. You join these by searching for Brand + Affiliate Program, finding their program page, and filling out a form to apply.
With either approach, there are either automatic approvals or manual approvals. Some programs accept anyone; some automatically add you if you hit specific benchmarks. Many programs require an Affiliate Manager to review your application manually.
What Are the Requirements to Join Affiliate Programs?
To join, you need a website and a way to receive money – either a PayPal account or a bank account. Although you can participate without a website by adding links on social media, this works best for high-end social media influencers, and I always recommend having a website.
I recommend you have a well-designed website with an SSL certificate installed for HTTPS. You should own a business email address connected to your domain and have a PayPal account set up.
Conclusion
No matter which one of the best affiliate programs you want to join, there are a ton of different high-ticket categories to match your unique interests.
The examples in this article should give you some ideas on how to choose a niche, implement a user-friendly interface, and incorporate the right content strategy into your own website. Now that you know the top affiliate opportunities, you can start trialing them. Each program has its own pros and cons.
Diversify by working directly with some brands and finding others through affiliate networks. There is no limit to how many affiliate programs you can promote, as long as they are relevant to your audience.
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David Fortune has been the editor NoBSIMReviews.com since 2019. He is an expert at writing content on stock advisory services, side hustles, reviewing online business opportunities and many more topics. You can learn more about David on our about us page.