Affiliate programs 101:
I see many people who are very good at affiliate marketing but are just making a few thousand bucks a month from it.
One of my friends, Jordan, has great skills, works a lot, creates a ton of valuable content, and ends up making only $2,000 a month.
That really hurts!
I took some time to figure out what the problem was. Within a second, I realized that he had participated in the wrong affiliate programs.
So, in the guide, I’m going to tell you top 20 highest paying affiliate programs that you can participate in, promote the products and make decent cash flow [At least $10K a month].
Most of the companies and brands have affiliate programs now. 81% of companies rely on affiliate marketing. There are various programs that fall into different categories like online courses, physical products, software programs, etc.
The catch is…they all show up to offer high commissions and are making the majority of the money on the back-end for such a ridiculous hard work of publishers.
This brings you and me to a question…
Which affiliate programs should you use that really play out?
It’s kinda confusing, right?
Well, I’ve broken down top ones from position #1 to position #20 right below after doing loads of research!
But before that, just a quick explanation of the term ‘affiliate program‘ if you don’t know.
What Is An Affiliate Program?
In more than simple words, an affiliate program is a system by which a vendor or a business pays commissions to affiliates either for any conversions or for generating traffic.
The affiliates who promote the products or services of the merchants, get a unique link for each product with their specific ‘affiliate IDs’ to track the clicks and conversions using cookies.
Affiliates have to apply for affiliate programs in order to get approved and start promoting their favorite products. Most of the programs are absolutely free to join.
An affiliate program is also known as an affiliate model.
That’s that!
Now let’s move with the core content real quick!
Best Overall: Book Like A Boss Affiliate Program
Book Like A Boss (BLAB) just launched a brand new affiliate program, giving you the opportunity to earn a 30% recurring commission for all new signups you refer. Plus, they’ll give you all of the graphics, branding, and support you need to build your promotions and make sales!
BLAB’s new affiliate program is currently the best in the industry.
BLAB makes it dead simple for freelancers and businesses to automate their scheduling and sell their services with customizable, branded booking pages that make it easy for their clients to book them.
What Shopify is to e-commerce, BLAB is to service-based businesses!
Whether you’re a consultant selling your time, a hair salon taking bookings, or a university scheduling campus tours, BLAB’s fully customizable, brandable booking pages are simple to set up without any tech knowledge required.
Join BLAB’s affiliate partner program today and immediately unlock:
> 30% recurring commission: Build up your recurring, passive income with 30% recurring commissions for signups you send to BLAB.
> 365-day cookie tracking: No other affiliate program attributes sales to you beyond 60 or max. 90 days. The BLAB program affiliate cookies track your referrals for an entire year, ensuring you get rewarded for your generous referral.
> Custom graphics & design support: Need some custom BLAB graphics to add to your promotional campaign? The BLAB design team will customize and produce any graphical assets you need to help you out.
And with over one hundred 5-star Trust Pilot reviews, you can rest assured that anyone you refer to BLAB will be taken care of.
1. ClickFunnels Affiliate Program
ClickFunnels is a leading funnel software on the internet. With its valuation crossing $400 Million…the company is touching the sky. It has a very popular affiliate program. In fact, it’s considered one of the best programs out there. You promote their services and they provide you with high recurring commissions every month.
The best part: If you reach 100 active users who signed up with your affiliate link, Clickfunnels itself will pay for your dream car all for free!
Cookie length: No limit [Lifetime].
Pros
1. Up to 40% recurring commissions on all sales made. But for a beginner, commissions are 20%. Once you make your first $1,000, then you can apply for 30%, and once you have 40 users registered up and running, you get 40% for life.
2. Cookies don’t get wiped out and have limitless length.
3. Free affiliate training by Clickfunnels.
4. Clickfunnels has a great helping community.
5. Gives away your dream car for free [The Dream Car Contest].
Cons
1. The strategies taught in their training may require you to invest some money.
2. A lot of people have become aware of its affiliate program so competition has gotten hard a bit.
3. You’ll need to wait 45-60 days for your payouts.
4. Can’t download CSV files to see compensations.
Hey, wait! There’s a reason why I kept it on the top. You will realize it too when you go to their Affiliate Training and then make your way to your Tesla, Lamborghini, or Ferrari.
2. Shopify Affiliate Program
Shopify is one of the largest e-commerce platforms that lets you start your own business by creating an online store. It is fully cloud-based and hosted, so you won’t have to worry about upgrading web services.
You just need an internet connection to access your business real quick. And of course, it has a partner program too!
Cookie length: 30 days.
Pros
1. There are a lot of positives to work with Shopify.
2. It has strong pricing.
3. 100% commissions for the first two payments.
4. $2,000 for each conversion when someone buys the Shopify Plus plan.
5. Cookie length is considerable [30 days].
6. Affiliate portal is easy to use.
7. There’s a full-time marketing manager for you.
Cons
1. A bit disorganized deep linking.
2. No recurring commissions.
3. You have to wait for 2 months to receive a commission after a user starts using their services.
3. HubSpot Affiliate Program
I think you know HubSpot already. It’s a marketer and developer of software products. It was launched in 2006 to help organizations with their execution of inbound marketing strategies.
You can promote their products as an affiliate.
Cookie length: 90 days
Pros
1. Commissions up to $1,000 per sale.
2. Landing pages are phenomenally designed well with videos and other cool stuff to trigger purchases.
3. Cookie length is great.
4. Hubspot Affiliate Team is always there to help you out.
5. Diverse products to promote.
Cons
1. High prices of products so you’ve got to be very very specific about the audience you’re promoting to.
2. Catching users’ attention can be too much work.
4. PartnerStack Referral Program
PartnerStack is a growing software service company. It allows you to create and launch affiliate or referral programs with little to no work in no time.
It is pretty versatile compared to software services like Post Affiliate Pro and others.
Pros
1. 15% commission on each sale made.
2. User-friendly working system.
3. A promising brand that has high conversion rates.
4. Various other integrated programs within PartnerStack.
Cons
1. Commissions would have been better as their pricing starts at $800 per month.
2. You might not like the support staff as they sometimes don’t respond for ages.
3. No resources to help you promote their links. You’ll have to figure out what works best for you.
5. Bluehost Affiliates
Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting companies on the internet. It’s hosting over 2 million domains with its other sister companies at the moment.
Bluehost dominates the hosting by defeating other companies like GoDaddy, Wix, and others.
Cookie length: 30 days
Pros
1. Great one time payments [Commissions are up to $130 at a time but generally $65 for each sale].
2. Very helpful affiliate support team.
3. Really strong conversion rates that you can rely on.
4. Anyone can join.
5. Frequent offers and discounts are provided by the company to help affiliates.
6. They’re loved by their customers [Including me!].
Cons
1. You can only withdraw funds unless two sales are made or in other words, minimum balance to cash out is $100.
2. If customers downgrade their plans, you face a penalty in the future as a deduction from your earnings.
3. Very difficult to promote via paid services. Hence, you’ve got to create content.
4. Payments received after 45-60 days.
6. SEMrush’s Affiliate Program
SEMrush is a name in the online marketing industry that most people have heard of. In case you don’t know about it, I’ll explain. It is software as a service company that sells online marketing analytics subscriptions.
It is used by bloggers, marketers, and brands to grow their online presence.
Cookie length: 10 years
Pros
1. It is a problem-solving tool. Hence, grabs nice conversions.
2. Earn 40% recurring commissions.
3. You can get paid twice a month via wire or PayPal.
4. Automated payments.
Cons
1. Pricing is not friendly for beginners.
2. Got to show visuals in content for better conversions.
7. WP Engine Program
WP Engine provides fast web hosting to thousands of WordPress websites. It also lets a user build a responsive, beautiful, and professional website and applications.
Cookie length: 180 days
Pros
1. $200 to $249 for each signup.
2. Their service is simply awesome and trusted by professionals.
3. Monthly payments.
4. Occasional promo codes to boost sales.
5. Has a tremendous variety of split-tested banners.
Cons
1. There is a limited audience.
2. You have to have a good following to promote or you’ll have to spend money on funnels.
8. Coursera Affiliates
Coursera is an online learning platform that offers over a thousand courses on a wide variety of topics like digital marketing to personality development.
The courses have assignments and pre-recorded videos to teach.
Cookie length: 30 days
Pros
1. 20 to 45% commissions on any eligible purchase that your users make.
2. Monthly affiliate newsletter with curated content recommendations.
3. Wide range of courses to promote, as said already.
4. A dedicated support team.
Cons
1. Most of the courses are low ticket ones.
2. No recurring payments.
9. iTunes Affiliate Program
Who would have not heard of iTunes? If you haven’t, you’re an alien from Saturn for sure. It is developed by Apple Inc. A media library, media player, internet radio broadcaster and mobile device management application.
Most of the people I’ve come across as humans, use it.
Cookie length: 24 hours
Pros
1. 2.5-7% commissions based on the types of products you promote.
2. Can promote with paid ads.
3. Of course, one of the biggest companies on the planet.
4. High valuation.
5. Converts really well on social media.
Cons
1. I don’t like the cookie life at all. It would have been better.
2. Somewhat unspecific for promotion.
3. Competition is touching the sky.
10. ConvertKit Affiliates
In this fast-moving world of hustle and bustle, who doesn’t want to use email services to grow businesses and audiences? Well, that’s what ConvertKit is all about.
It’s an email service provider specifically marketed towards small and big businesses that are wanting to build their audience fast.
Cookie length: 30 days
Pros
1. Nice 30% recurring commission.
2. A 14-day free trial to support affiliates.
3. Blog resources available.
4. Works best when you provide content.
5. Practicing it with SEO generates long-term results.
Cons
1. Deep linking is not available.
2. You need to wait 60 days before you can get paid.
3. Not enough FAQs about their program.
11. HostGator Affiliate Program
Again, a ninja web hosting company worth over $250 Million. It is one of the top hosting companies in the list.
For sure, HostGator allows talented personalities like you and me to partner with them and benefit each other by taking part in one of the best affiliate programs out there: HostGator Affiliates
Cookie length: 60 days
Pros
1. $65-$125 per sale.
2. A great company to work with.
3. You can create custom coupon codes to increase sales [Upto 60% Off].
4. Deep linking available.
5. Special offers come and go every time.
6. Co-branded landing page [However, you’ll first need to generate a good amount of sales].
1. There’s too much competition.
2. Huge signup cancellation penalties.
3. You can’t create passive income [per customer] with this program because of no recurring payments.
12. Microsoft Affiliate Program
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Microsoft Affiliate Program or not. Microsoft is also dedicated to their affiliate programs. I’m honestly fortunate that I’ve found theirs. You’re going to love it too!
You can seriously do a ton of things with it.
Pros
1. Earn up to 10% commissions [Commissions may vary from country to country or by products].
2. Definitely a variety of products to promote.
3. There’s a lot of potential to earn.
4. Promote both physical and digital stuff.
5. The program is explained thoroughly.
6. Both companies and individuals can apply for it.
Cons
1. You actually have to be good at affiliate marketing to promote its products because they’re high-ticket products.
2. Commission rates have still been some better.
3. You’ve got to put in a lot of work to create the stream.
13. GetResponse Affiliate Programs
GetResponse is one of the top email marketing service providers on the web. You have seen that I mentioned ‘affiliate programs’ on the top. Well, there’s a reason. GetResponse offers two affiliate programs: one that pays recurring commissions and the other that pays one time payments.
Cookie length: 120 days
Pros
1. 33% recurring commissions or $100 one time payments.
2. Get paid every month.
3. Affordable and versatile company to promote.
4. Effective with both paid and organic promotion.
5. Free 30-day trial to help you earn money by making referrals work.
6. Resources and tools available for affiliates.
Cons
1. GetResponse should pay some attention to their landing pages and website design.
2. There’s room for improvement in the products.
3. Content is somewhat disorganized.
14. Teachable Affiliates
Teachable is a great online learning platform that allows you to create, sell, and buy great courses. It has millions and millions of students on fire and learning with its courses. If I go into figures, there are over 18 million students and over 186 thousand active courses at the moment.
Like, why wouldn’t you want to promote their courses?
Cookie length: 90 days
Pros
1. A huge company to work with.
3. Ease of use and flexibility is outstanding.
4. Nice structure of courses that keep the customers hooked.
5. A helping community.
6. 30% recurring commissions.
Cons
1. Some sales pages are not impressive at all.
2. You might need to do some paid marketing to hit thousands per month.
15. WordPress Affiliate Program
WordPress.com is the best place to build and host your blogs/websites in seconds. It is owned by the AUTOMATIC company. At present, over 33% of the websites on the internet are hosted by WordPress.
Their referral program allows you to take part in and promote the paid plans.
Pros
1. The best company in the whole world [I believe it because I use its VIP plans].
2. Earn up to 20% commissions [Highest – $300 per sale].
3. Loved by their users.
4. Offers and discounts [Almost every month].
5. They manage about 80% of the SEO [You can use it to your advantage as an affiliate].
Cons
1. Affiliate marketing managers didn’t respond to my queries unless I started earning commissions [It was my problem].
2. Not enough FAQs about the program.
16. AWeber Referral Program
AWeber is one of the most email marketing platform designed for small businesses. It has over 100,000 active users using it for their benefits.
You are allowed to partner with them and promote their services.
Cookie length: 12 months
Pros
1. 30% recurring commissions.
2. Better services than Mailchimp.
3. Nice landing pages.
4. Zero cost to sign up.
5. Many affiliates’ resources including PDF documents to assist.
Cons
1. You need to have a website to get substantial results.
2. The minimum threshold payout is $50 for non-US affiliates and $30 for US affiliates.
17. Kinsta Affiliates
Kinsta is a WordPress hosting company, that offers could-based hosting. They host some of the biggest sites out there like AdEspresso, Ubisoft, ASOS, and Intuit. I’ve used it: It’s actually very fast.
Their affiliate program is really good.
Cookie length: 60 days
Pros
1. There are plans that range from $30 to $1500 a month or more.
2. Earn up to $50 to $500 per referral.
3. It’s the best WordPress hosting out there.
4. Managers and support team is always there to help you grow.
5. Once you create an evergreen piece of content, that works for you passively forever.
6. The company is worth what it charges.
7. Has great landing pages.
8. Great user experience is provided.
Cons
1. The company is fabulous but starters won’t pay $1500+ just for the hosting.
2. You have to target Businesses that are raising real funds.
18. Instapage Affiliate Program
Instapage is a service that lets you build landing pages for online marketing campaigns. It offers useful features such as A/B testing, page building, and multiple campaign management.
Instapage has raised over $18 Million, now!
Do you want to promote the company? I personally would love to.
Cookie length: 120 days
Pros
1. 50% commission on the first sale and then 30% lifetime revenue share.
2. Helping affiliate manager.
3. Newsletter to give you knowledge.
4. Of course, a nice company.
5. A ton of creatives and content to get you started.
6. Marketing material provided.
7. Free to join.
Cons
1. Being an affiliate, sometimes you can feel a bit insecure with Instapage.
2. The dashboard is difficult to understand in the beginning.
3. You can mess it up so don’t please create custom URLs.
19. 3dcart Affiliate Program
3dcart is a company that develops e-commerce software for businesses just like Shopify. In other words, it’s a full web store solution for people who are just starting out with online businesses. It includes all the features that are required to grow an online business.
Cookie length: 30-360 days [Based on your choice]
Pros
1. They pay up to 300% commissions.
2. Generous recurring commissions.
3. Bonuses and incentives.
4. Get access to marketing content.
5. Conversion rates are above average.
6.Very professional.
Cons
1. The support team takes some time to reply.
2. Prices could have been a bit higher being such a good solution.
20. Lenovo Affiliate Program
You all know about Lenovo. A brand that offers smartphones, tablets, computers, workstations, server storage, and other accessories.
Their affiliate program kills when it comes to promoting electronic gadgets.
Pros
1. Leading PC company.
2. Weekly coupons.
3. Banners, links, and content available.
4. 5% commission on each sale made.
Cons
1. You can’t just promote the products randomly.
2. It’s a must to understand user behavior before you offer.
3. Will require work with SEO to get good results.
4. Not enough information that you can dig out.
There we go! These were the top affiliate programs that you can take advantage of. You’ll have to put in the work to make it work.
Bonus:
21. Uscreen Affiliate Program
Uscreen is an all-in-one platform that lets people sell their videos online, through a website or on their own apps. It allows them to build their own streaming service like Netflix, that they are completely in charge of.
Cookie length: 60 days
Pros
- 20% recurring commission
- For enterprise and custom plans, your referral fee can go over $200/mo
- Higher commission rates for top performers
- Affiliate contests with cash bonuses
- Video streaming industry is on the rise and you stand a good chance of making a lot of money in it
Cons
- Paid ads are not allowed
- Right now, Uscreen sends payouts only through PayPal
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How Long Have You Been Doing Affiliate Marketing? If You’re Just Starting, Which Program You’re Going To Choose First?
Let me know in the comments.
[FAQs] Frequently Asked Questions
An affiliate program is a system by which a vendor pays affiliates for the conversions they referred.
Of course! You can definitely make decent money once you’re approved as an affiliate for a particular program.
Well, most of the programs cost nothing to join but there are some that require a small investment.
great sharing man there are some good affiliate programs listed i just come to know through this article thanks for sharing these resources. i am having difficulty applying this information to my website as i don’t have directly working experience with affiliate networks. I have searched the internet and found a website named revglue which is offering some easy solution to my problem. They claim to do all the work for me by providing data, deals coupons and i don’t have to make any account with google or amazon to earn money. With all this they are still offering 80% of commission to me and take only 20% for themselves for their services. Since you have enough experience in affiliate earning so i must request you to please check this out, or anyone reading this comment if you have worked with this website than please share your experience with me. This is where they are claiming some bold promises revglue(.)com/bespoke, your help will be much appreciated if it lead me to problem resolution. thanks in advance
Hi, Alex! Thanks for the comment and extremely sorry for the delay because of a technical problem. I took my time in researching about RevGlue. Form what I’ve found is that you may trust them based on people’s reviews and opinions that I know as affiliate marketers. Still, I’d recommend you to commence doing it yourself because when you do that, you’ll get good at everything. Things can go wrong sometimes but that’s the real beauty of affiliate marketing. If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact my support [speak@shivanshbhanwariyadigital.com] and we’ll definitely assist you out from scratch with zero expectations. Have a nice day!
Thanks for the helpful information, Shivansh. Appreciate it.
You’re very welcome, Kevin. Thank you for your constructive feedback.
Awesome post. These affiliate networks are great for making money these days.
Yes, indeed, Rupam! You’re completely right. Thanks for taking the time to read the post. Happy affiliate marketing! 🙂
Those who are not in the development field, their content can also be used to make money by product promotion. Thanks for the helpful information on affiliate programs (hosting). I really appreciate you for encouraging thousands of blogger with the proper information, and also the motivation.
These are best affiliate marketing tips for the guys in the WordPress niche. This is very important & informative to learn at the beginning. I was always bothered how the affiliate program works & how I market the products but after learning from this article, I understood that its simple to start this market by just making hard work on it. I believe these are the great affiliate programs, to begin with. They provide almost everything for newbies like me to start with. Well, I’m going to try this immediately & I hope it goes smooth.
Quick questions are; my blog is new (9 months old) and able to drive only a few hundreds of readers per day. Is there any minimum threshold of traffic before making money from affiliate sites or should I apply it now; also I want to ask that how much traffic and page views are expected to apply for the affiliates programs require your reply about it. Can you please show which are the best affiliate programs for technology & travel niche? Thanks in advance.
Hi Prisha! Thanks for reading the post and acknowledging it! I really appreciate that. So, first of all, you don’t have to have thousands, hundreds, or even tens of visitors per day to apply for these affiliate programs (mostly). You can go out there and apply to any of these without having to worry about traffic or any other kind of thing. For sure, they will get you approved for all they want is to grow their business. If you can help them in any way, you’re good to go.
I hope you do wonders in your industry. If you ever feel lost or frustrated, just let me know if I can help you in any way. Connect with me on Instagram, FB, LinkedIn, Twitter, or whatever, and I’ll never step back to help.
Best of luck!
It was a great post. As an Affiliate Manager of https://www.rebump.cc/i/affiliates/ i must admit that this post will be helpful to lots of affiliate. Looking forward to see more post like this one.
You’re very welcome!
Okay, now this is like the best article I have come across today. You did a great job by sharing this informative and accurate post Thanks for sharing this knowledge with us.
Thank you, Franca! Have a wonderful day!
Awesome ranking, thank you! I’m not a beginner in affiliate marketing, so I can say that this article may be helpful for almost everyone 🙂 So I’m a blogger in Ecommerce field and my latest best finds in the highest paying affiliate programs are AliDropship Affiliate Program (software) and Divi (themes).
Hey Anastasi!
Thanks for letting us all know about that. 🙂 Yes, they’re pretty good.