Affiliate Networks & Marketing Platforms Where You Can Earn Cash
What is an Affiliate Program?
An affiliate program is an agreement in which a business pays another business or influencer (‘the affiliate’) a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way. This can be achieved through web content, social media, or a product integration.
How do affiliates make money?
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 within an allotted amount of time, then the affiliate will earn commission.
Each cookie has a “length” or “cookie life”, which simply defines how long the cookie 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.
Types of Affiliate Programs
If you’re looking to promote products or services, there are a few affiliate programs you can consider. When choosing an affiliate program, 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?
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, marketers pay their own money to promote affiliate offers on search results or other online advertising platforms like Facebook Advertising. This is a great option for marketers with an SEO background and want to A/B test to see which ads result in the most referrals — and ROI.
Influencer Programs
If you’re a blogger or social media influencer who engages with a specific audience, consider partnering with a company whose products would appeal to them. For instance, if you are a food blogger or YouTube influencer who creates recipe content, consider partnering with a company that sells kitchen appliances by featuring their product in your content in exchange for commission for every product sold via your affiliate link. Ideally, this would result in additional revenue if your audience likes the products you’re promoting.
Review Sites
Blind buying products online can be daunting for consumers, which is why they often turn to review sites during the buyer’s journey so they can conduct research before purchasing. Review sites partner with individual companies or affiliate networks to review products and services in exchange for an affiliate link.
Coupon Sites
Similar to review sites, coupon sites partner with companies to provide buyers with discounts on products and services in exchange for a kickback.
Email Marketing
This is best in small doses. You don’t want to send out bulk emails to an audience who isn’t interested in promoted products or services. However, with proper consideration for who’s receiving the email, this could be an effective method. For instance, if you work for a marketing agency, you could partner with a company that sells design tools and include an affiliate within emails you send to design clients. This could help your clients create higher-quality content while providing an added source of revenue.
Affiliate Networks
Can’t decide on which affiliate program to try first? Consider joining an affiliate network. Instead of offering products from only one company, affiliate networks act as a marketplace and provide a larger pool of brands and offers to choose from. This option may appeal to beginner affiliate marketers because you don’t have to manage as many partnerships at once. Plus, there’s no limit on how many affiliate networks you can join, so the possibilities are endless.
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.
Top Affiliate Networks for Earning Passive Income
You probably started your blog with the goal of making some money somewhere down the line.
And when it comes to making money from your blog, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to turn traffic into cash.
But affiliate marketing is only a viable strategy if you can find quality products that your visitors are interested in (and that you can feel proud to recommend).
To help, we’ve collected the best affiliate platforms and networks on the market. Collectively, they’ll give you access to tens of thousands of merchants and millions of products.
Whether you want to promote physical products or digital products, or big brands or small brands, you’ll find an affiliate platform on this list that can connect you to something that fits.
Let’s dive in, starting with one of the biggest affiliate platforms out there.
Rakuten Advertising
Commission: Depends on the merchant
Cookie life: Depends on the merchant
Formerly known as Linkshare, Rakuten is one of the oldest affiliate networks in the game. Because Rakuten has been a trusted name in affiliate marketing for so long, it has been able to establish partnerships with some of the biggest brands in the world including Sephora, New Balance, and jetBlue.
Despite Rakuten’s impressive partner roster, it only has partnerships with around 1,000 merchants — which is far less than other competing networks. Still, if you’re a small business or new to affiliate marketing, it may be advantageous to sign up with Rakuten so you can get access to affiliate offers from brands your audience recognizes.
Like many other affiliate networks, commission rates vary based on the product and what merchant it comes from.
Awin (Formerly Affiliate Window)
Awin, a shorter rebrand of the original Affiliate Window, is another popular affiliate network that gives you access to over 13,000 different merchants.
Awin actually acquired ShareASale back in 2017, though the two are still run as separate entities and have different merchants.
With 13,000+ merchants, you’ll find a lot of options for both physical and digital products at Awin.
Some of the notable big names are:
- Etsy
- AliExpress
- HP
- XE (money transfer)
- StubHub
- Under Armour
- Gymshark
You’ll also find lots of smaller merchants across a range of niches.
Awin was founded in Germany, so you’ll find a little bit more of a European tilt to the merchant list, though there are also plenty of US/global companies.
Like ShareASale and CJ, you’ll need to individually apply to merchants within the network. Then, you can generate your links and start tracking statistics.
What you need to know about Awin
- Niche/product types: With over 13,000 merchants, you’ll find both physical and digital products for almost every niche.
- Average commission rate: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Cookie duration: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Minimum payout: $20
Awin pros and cons
Pros:
- Lots of merchants to choose from
- Dedicated WordPress plugin to help you import products
- Low minimum payout (only $20)
Cons:
- $5 sign up fee (it’s refunded if you’re approved, but you’ll lose it if you’re not approved)
HubSpot
Commission: 15% recurring or 100% of the first month’s revenue
Cookie life: 90 days
HubSpot’s mission is to help millions of organizations grow better. HubSpot’s 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 — all the way from awareness to advocacy.
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.
ShareASale
ShareASale is one of the most popular affiliate networks out there.
Whereas Amazon Associates is focused entirely on Amazon products, ShareASale houses affiliate programs for 4,500+ merchants, both big and small.
From one spot – the ShareASale dashboard – you can sign up to all these merchants, generate links, and view your statistics.
Note, you’ll need to individually apply to merchants and be approved by each merchant, which is a pretty standard approach for an affiliate network like this.
Overall, ShareASale is a great option for both digital and physical products.
For example, on the digital side, you’ll find plenty of WordPress theme and plugin shops, hosting providers, etc.
And on the physical side, you’ll find plenty of big and small merchants. For example, there’s Warby Parker (sunglasses), Sun Basket, Wayfair, Reebok, NFL Shop, plus thousands of other small and large businesses.
Basically – no matter what niche your website or blog is in, you can probably find some offers worth promoting.
What you need to know about ShareASale
- Niche/product types: A little bit of everything, including both physical and digital products.
- Average commission rate: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Cookie duration: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Minimum payout: $50
ShareASale pros and cons
Pros:
- Thousands of merchants for both physical and digital products, including lots of well-known merchants
- Trustworthy – They’ve been around for many years and work with lots of big brands
- Lots of exclusive merchants. Over 1,000 of the merchants at ShareASale only work with ShareASale
- Has a bookmarklet that makes it easy to generate custom affiliate links
Cons:
- The dashboard design is a little clunky, though it’s gotten a lot better.
Elementor
Commission: 50% per sale
Cookie life: 45 days
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.
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.
Amazon Associates
If you want to promote physical products on your website, Amazon Associates is a good option.
With Amazon Associates, you can earn a commission on pretty much anything sold at Amazon.com.
What makes this program even more valuable is that you earn a commission on everything new that someone you refer purchases, even if it’s not the product you linked to.
For example, if you link to a $5 toothbrush but that person ends up buying a $500 TV, you still get the commission (as long as it’s within the cookie duration, of course. Also, the product can’t have already been in that person’s cart).
In the past, Amazon Associates paid you a commission rate based on how much revenue/sales you drove. However, since 2017, Amazon has moved to a flat-rate commission structure where you’re paid a flat percentage based on the category that each product is in:
While some high-volume affiliates didn’t like the change, this shift makes Amazon Associates even more attractive for smaller sites as you no longer need to worry about hitting a certain amount of sales volume to earn a higher commission.
What you need to know about Amazon Associates
- Niche/product types: Anything sold on Amazon’s website (including products from third-party vendors).
- Average commission rate: Ranges from 1% to 10% depending on the category.
- Cookie duration: Cookies last for 24 hours. However, if you have people directly add a product to their carts, you’ll get a 90-day cookie but only for the specific product that’s in their carts.
- Minimum payout: $10 for Amazon gift card or direct deposit.
Amazon Associates pros and cons
Pros:
- Massive selection of products
- Universal cookie, so you get credit for everything people buy within the cookie duration
- Amazon is by far the biggest name in eCommerce
- Very low payout threshold – only $10
Cons:
- The universal cookie only lasts for 24 hours
- Some categories – like video games – have very low commissions (1%)
- You need to register for each country individually
- Amazon has been known to slash commissions every so often
Moosend
Commission: 30% Lifetime Recurring
Cookie life: 90 days
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.
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.
AWeber
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: One year
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.
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.
PartnerStack
PartnerStack is the go-to affiliate network for B2B technology partnerships.
When you join the network, you’ll gain exclusive access to some of the world’s most reputable and top-paying B2B affiliate marketing programs like Notion, Monday.com, and Webflow.
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 out for longer. Think recurring revenue of 20-50% of a sale for the lifetime of the customer you helped create (this depends on the brand – some offer 12 months or one-off commissions only).
Through the in-app dashboard, you’ll be able to easily monitor your performance across all of the programs that you are currently part of. Built-in partner engagement features like challenges, in-app messaging, learning materials, etc. allow for more connectivity and engagement with the partner program managers.
Like with other affiliate networks, you will need to apply to each individual partner program separately, but you’ll be paid out altogether once a month via Paypal or Stripe once you hit the network’s $5 payout threshold.
If you are looking to work with top-tier B2B companies that provide higher commission and conversion rates, the PartnerStack Network should be the first place you start your search for affiliate marketing programs.
What you need to know about PartnerStack
- Niche/product types: B2B SaaS and tech products, digital-first products only
- Average commission rate: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with, but commissions include cost-per-action and percentage structures.
- Cookie duration: Up to 90 days, depending on the merchant that you sign up with.
- Minimum payout: $5 USD
PartnerStack pros and cons
Pros:
- Hundreds of exclusive, world-class B2B companies to partner with
- Dedicated partner program managers who are invested in your success
- Cookies last up to 90 days, 30 days longer than the average affiliate marketing link cookie.
- Low payout threshold at $5
Cons:
- Partner reporting could be more robust than where it is currently at today
Sendinblue
Commission: €5 when a referred user creates a free account + €100 if that user buys a subscription
Cookie life: 90 days
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.
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.
ConvertKit
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: 30 days
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. (You can learn more about ConvertKit by reading reviews.)
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.
Rakuten Marketing (Formerly LinkShare)
Rakuten Marketing (formerly known as LinkShare) is a popular affiliate network that includes a lot of big merchants. Notable merchants are:
- Walmart
- Best Buy
- Macy’s
- Papa Johns
They also have some smaller merchants, though their network isn’t as large as ShareASale, CJ, or Awin (it’s “only” around 1,000 merchants).
So if you want access to a huge variety of merchants, you might be better off with one of the other networks. But Rakuten is a good option for getting access to the big guns, and they also have some nice features like the ability to rotate ads without the need for an external solution (like a WordPress advertising management plugin).
What you need to know about Rakuten Marketing
- Niche/product types: With 1,000+ merchants, you can probably still find offers in most niches.
- Average commission rate: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Cookie duration: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Minimum payout: $50
Rakuten Marketing pros and cons
Pros:
- Gives you access to big-name merchants like Walmart and Best Buy
- A trusted name (Rakuten is a billion dollar company)
- Nice-to-have features like easy ad rotation
Cons:
- The back-end dashboard looks a little dated in my opinion
- Not as big a selection as some other affiliate networks
GetResponse
Commission: $100 for every sale referred, or 33% of recurring subscriptions
Cookie life: 120 days
Along with email marketing, GetResponse offers landing pages, opt-in forms, webinar hosting, a CRM tool, and plenty of other marketing automation tools. (You can learn more about GetResponse by reading reviews.)
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.
Fiverr
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
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).
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.
CJ Affiliate (Formerly Commission Junction)
CJ – formerly known by the lengthier name of Commission Junction – is another affiliate network that brings together thousands of different merchants under one roof (a lot like ShareASale).
Along with ShareASale, CJ is one of the biggest affiliate networks out there, which means that you’ll be able to connect with thousands of both big and small merchants. Currently, the exact number is 2,696 different merchants.
Some of the big physical and digital companies using CJ are:
- Lowes
- Overstock
- Office Depot
- Priceline
- GoPro
- IHG (Hotels)
- Grammarly
You’ll also find lots of smaller merchants, as well.
Like ShareASale, you’ll individually apply to these merchants from the CJ dashboard. Then, you’ll be able to generate links and view statistics.
I think CJ’s affiliate dashboard has a bit of a higher learning curve than ShareASale, but I prefer it to ShareASale once you figure out how everything works.
What you need to know about CJ
- Niche/product types: Like ShareASale, CJ covers a range of niches and both physical and digital products.
- Average commission rate: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Cookie duration: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Minimum payout: $50 for direct deposit or $100 for check.
CJ pros and cons
Pros:
- Huge range of big and small merchants to choose from
- A nice back-end dashboard to help you manage your affiliate marketing efforts
- Has a deep link generator bookmarklet that makes it really easy to generate links
Cons:
- The dashboard is a little complicated when you’re just getting started (though I like it overall).
Pabbly
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: 30 days
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, 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
Commission: 20% of recurring revenue for every customer you refer
Cookie life: 90 days
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.
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.
Constant Contact
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
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.
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.
Typeform
Commission: 20% recurring
Cookie life: Unknown
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.
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.
Outgrow Affiliate Program
Commission: 20% upfront and 20% recurring
Cookie life: 30 days
Outgrow is an interactive content builder that helps marketers to create personalized content including calculators, viral quizzes, eCommerce recommendations, forms, surveys, chatbots, polls, and assessments. Personalized solutions like interactive content add real value to the customer and increase user engagement, improve conversions, and generate leads that marketers can then use for segmentation and retargeting.
Along with 20% commission upfront and 20% on recurring payments, Outgrow affiliates receive 24/7 chat support and opportunities to get featured on Outgrow’s webinars and podcasts.
Systeme.io
Commission: 40% recurring
Cookie life: 180 Days
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 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.
Best Online Course Affiliate Programs
Kajabi
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: 30 days
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 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.
Teachable
Commission: 30% recurring, with the ability to earn up to 50% commission through monthly bonuses
Cookie life: 90 days
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.
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.
Thinkific
Commission: 30% recurring
Cookie life: 90 days
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.
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.
iSpring
Commission: 10% per sale
Cookie life: 90 days
iSpring is an international software development company that produces tools for eLearning content authoring and online training. Their flagship product is iSpring Suite, an award-winning authoring tool that allows the creation of interactive online courses, quizzes, video tutorials, role-plays, and ebooks.
iSpring Suite has an intuitive interface that is familiar to everyone (the tool works as a PowerPoint add-in) and offers solutions for any learning need. And that’s why it has become popular among people from different fields: from university professors to corporate instructional designers.
The affiliate program includes iSpring Suite and iSpring Suite Max, which cost $770 and $970, respectively. Thus, you can earn from $77 to $97 from a single purchase and around $1000/month if you provide 10+ customers monthly. You will receive verified commissions quarterly.
Best Website Builder Affiliate Programs
Crowdbotics
Commission: Payouts start at $750 per referral and vary by project size
Cookie life: Contact Crowdbotics for more information
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.
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.
Wix
Commission: $100 per Premium sale
Cookie life: 30 days
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.
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.
Leadpages
Commission: Up to 50% commission
Cookie life: 30 days
Leadpages is an online tool that lets you create easy-to-customize landing pages to collect contact information and boost your conversion rates. (You can learn more about LeadPages by reading reviews.)
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.
Shopify
Commission: $150 USD for all full-priced plan referrals
Cookie life: 30 days
Shopify is a complete commerce platform that allows you to start, grow, and manage a business.
With Shopify, merchants can build and customize an online store as well as sell in multiple places, including web, mobile, in person, brick-and-mortar locations, pop-up shops, and across multiple channels from social media to online marketplaces.
Millions of entrepreneurs have chosen Shopify to build their business from Hello World to IPO.
The Shopify Affiliate program is made up of thousands of global content creators, course educators, influencers, and review sites who help their audiences launch successful businesses on Shopify, while earning competitive referral commissions, and elevating themselves as leaders in the industry.
The program is free to join and provides an opportunity for experts to monetize their audience and earn a commission.
Shopify affiliates gain access to a global creative library, lead magnets, a monthly newsletter, and curated email programming that are all designed to support content creation and conversion rate.
Through measured performance and referral quality, eligible partners have the opportunity to join Shopify’s invite-only Commerce Coach program that offers higher commission rates and a wide variety of other exclusive benefits.
Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs
GreenGeeks
Commission: $50 for one sale; up to $100 for six sales
Cookie life: 30 days
GreenGeeks, 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.
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.
Hostgator
Commission: $65 to $125 per signup
Cookie life: 60 days
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’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.
Bluehost
Commission: $65 per sale
Cookie life: 45 days
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.
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.
Kinsta
Commission: Up to $500 per referral + 10% recurring
Cookie life: 60 days
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’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%.
WP Engine
Commission: $200+ per signup
Cookie life: 180 days
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’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.
Best Retail Affiliate Programs
Spocket
Commission: 20% per Bronze subscriber; 25% per Silver subscriber; 30% per Gold subscriber (up to 445.50 per subscriber)
Cookie life: 90 days
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. 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.
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.
Ultimately, if you’re able to find products or services on Hammacher Schlemmer’s website that align well with your own core offerings or might interest your buyer persona, you might consider partnering with the brand.
Additionally, this affiliate program could be a good idea for an ecommerce business interested in expanding their offerings. Hammacher Schlemmer provides tools (including password-protected online reports) and content to help your online store succeed.
Target
Commission: 1-8% (depending on the product category and sales volume)
Cookie life: 7 days
While it doesn’t offer as wide a selection as Amazon or eBay, Target remains a highly recognizable brand with a variety of different products.
Target’s affiliate program operates on a volume-based commission structure, meaning that your commission increases as the number of items purchased increases. Sadly, a product category that does not benefit from this model is the Health and Beauty products — the commission on this category caps at 1%, regardless of volume.
It’s also critical to note — most people tend to prefer buying Target products in-person, rather than online, so this could have an impact on your returns.
Avangate Affiliate Network
Avangate Affiliate Network is an affiliate network that’s focused on digital goods and software, rather than physical products.
For example, you’ll get access to popular software merchants like:
- Bitdefender
- Kaspersky
- Hide My Ass (the VPN)
- Awario
In total, Avangate Affiliate Network gives you access to 22,000+ pieces of software, so if your site promotes a lot of digital products, you’ll definitely want to join this one.
What you need to know about Avangate Affiliate Network
- Niche/product types: Avangate Affiliate Network focuses on digital goods and software products. You can browse the full merchant marketplace without needing to sign up.
- Average commission rate: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with, but Avangate advertises up to an 85% commission rate and Avangate Affiliate Network’s digital products usually have a higher commission rate than the physical products you’ll find at other networks.
- Cookie duration: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with. Avangate Affiliate Network lets merchants set their cookie length anywhere between 30 to 180 days, so you’re guaranteed at least 30 days at a minimum.
- Minimum payout: $100
Avangate Affiliate Network pros and cons
Pros:
- You can opt to be paid via PayPal
- Lots of unique software products to choose from
- Most merchants offer pretty high commissions. It’s not uncommon to see 50%+ commissions
Cons:
- The $100 minimum payout is higher than most other affiliate networks
ClickBank
Like Avangate Affiliate Network, ClickBank is another affiliate network that has a lot of digital products, though it also offers physical products as well.
Whereas platforms like ShareASale and Awin have a lot of big, nationally known merchants, ClickBank is definitely more on the “smaller” end of merchants.
For example, you’ll find a lot of merchants who are selling eBooks, online courses, or membership sites. These merchants might not have the name recognition of a national or international brand, but they can be great offers if they fit your niche.
There’s also a downside, though – some of the ClickBank products just aren’t very high-quality products. And while ClickBank has gotten better with its review process to filter out the bad merchants, you’ll still want to be careful about which merchants you choose to promote.
What you need to know about ClickBank
- Niche/product types: ClickBank definitely leans towards digital products, but you’ll find some physical products as well (and ClickBank makes it easy to filter between the two).
- Average commission rate: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with, but usually pretty high. You’ll find both percentage and flat-rate commissions.
- Cookie duration: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with, but usually ~60 days.
- Minimum payout: $10
ClickBank pros and cons
Pros:
- Lots of smaller niche offers that you won’t find at other affiliate platforms
- Pretty high commissions for most merchants
- $10 minimum payout makes it easy to get paid
- Offers weekly payments
Cons:
- ClickBank’s generous refund policy means you might lose commissions after the fact
- You have to wade through some low-quality products
FlexOffers
FlexOffers is a long-standing, popular affiliate platform that gets you access to 12,000+ different advertisers/merchants.
It has one of the better-looking dashboards, in my opinion, and FlexOffers adds 50+ new merchants per day, so you can always find new offers.
FlexOffers has lots of offers from both small brands and big brands, including well-known names like priceline.com, Macy’s, Skechers, Lenovo, and more. You can browse a full directory of all the merchants before signing up if you want to see what’s available.
Like the other big affiliate platforms, FlexOffers has been around for years, so you can trust that they aren’t going anywhere.
Additionally, FlexOffers assigns every publisher a dedicated account manager, which is a nice touch. Your account manager can help you find the best offers to promote and otherwise work to improve your affiliate marketing.
What you need to know about FlexOffers
- Niche/product types: With over 12,000 merchants, you can find physical and digital products across all niches.
- Average commission rate: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Cookie duration: Depends on the specific merchant you sign up with.
- Minimum payout: $50 within the USA or $100 outside the USA.
FlexOffers pros and cons
Pros:
- Huge selection – 12,000+ merchants to choose from
- Nicely designed backend dashboard
- You get a dedicated affiliate manager
Cons:
- If you’re outside the USA, the only payment option is PayPal (unless the payment exceeds $5,000 – then you can use a wire transfer)
Walmart Affiliates
Walmart’s affiliate program is technically part of Rakuten Marketing, but I’m still giving it its own section because I think it makes a valuable contrast to Amazon Associates.
If you’re selling physical products, Amazon Associates is definitely the biggest name in the affiliate game. And yeah – there’s a reason for that. Amazon holds almost 50% of the US eCommerce market.
Compared to that, Walmart has just 3.7% of the online retail market (eBay, which you’ll see next, is actually in second place at 6.6%).
However, when Amazon Associates switched from its old commission structure to its new category-based approach, the Walmart affiliate program became a little more attractive because it offers higher commissions than Amazon in some categories.
For example, Walmart will give you a 4% commission on toys, while Amazon only gives 3%.
Additionally, Walmart’s tracking cookie lasts for three days, whereas Amazon’s only lasts for one day (24 hours).
In the end, this is something you really just need to test if you sell a lot of physical products.
If you’re already using Amazon, and Walmart offers higher commissions in your category, see if switching to the Walmart affiliate program moves the needle on your revenue (in either direction).
What you need to know about Walmart Affiliates
- Niche/product types: Anything sold on Walmart’s website (which includes some third-party vendors)
- Average commission rate: Ranges from 1% to 18%. Most categories are 4% or 1%.
- Cookie duration: Cookies last for three days.
Walmart Affiliates pros and cons
Pros:
- Huge product selection
- Higher commissions than Amazon in some categories
- A well-known, trusted brand
- Longer cookie than Amazon
Cons:
- $50 minimum payout, which is higher than Amazon
- While the product selection is bigger than almost every other store, it still doesn’t come close to Amazon
eBay Partner Network
As the name suggests, eBay Partner Network is eBay’s own affiliate network. With it, you can earn a commission for promoting eBay listings.
Yes – anything that’s listed on eBay, which is obviously going to give you access to a huge selection.
The only downside is that many of eBay’s products are transient due to the auction approach (though you can also find plenty of permanent listings).
What you need to know about the eBay Partner Network
- Niche/product types: Mostly physical products, though you can earn for anything on eBay so you’ll find digital products as well.
- Average commission rate: The exact commission depends on the product category, but you’ll earn anywhere from 50%-70% of eBay’s revenue. Note: This is not the total purchase price of the product – you’re earning a percentage of eBay’s own commission.
- Cookie duration: 24 hours, but you can still earn a commission even if the auction takes up to 10 days to end (as long as the person placed a bid within the first 24 hours).
- Minimum payout: $10
eBay Partner Network pros and cons
Pros:
- Huge variety of products because you can promote anything on eBay
- Can sell used products, which is unique
- Low payout – just $10
Cons:
- The cookie only lasts for 24 hours
Which affiliate network should you use?
Here’s the great thing about affiliate platforms and networks – you don’t have to choose just one!
So this is kind of a trick question…
Rather than choosing a single network, sign up for all the ones that interest you so that you can find the best advertisers and payouts.
Really, the only reasons to limit the number of platforms that you use are:
- Convenience – You probably don’t want to have to log in to 11 different dashboards on a regular basis.
- Minimum payouts – If you spread your traffic too thin, it might be hard to regularly hit each platform’s minimum payout.
Other than that, have at it and find some awesome offers to promote to your site’s visitors!
