NU
Best Affiliate Programs to make Money
How do bloggers make money?
The age-old question, right. There are four main ways most bloggers make money including, selling our own products, sponsored posts, ads, and affiliate marketing which is what I'm diving into today.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
The idea behind affiliate marketing is simple. After signing up to become an affiliate, you promote other people’s products through blog posts, Pinterest, youtube videos, and/or social media. When someone uses your link (given to you by the affiliate company) you make a commission. Commissions range anywhere from a few cents to a few hundred dollars or even a thousand dollars. It simply depends on the company.
You can promote as many products as you want or as few products as you want and pretty much anything you can think of has an affiliate program. The beauty of this is that the company you are “selling” for is doing the hard work for you. You’re just telling your audience how much it helped you, how much you enjoyed it, whatever the case may be.
The key to affiliate marketing is to be genuine and honest. If you're interested in growing your blog income through affiliate marketing and aren't sure where to start, here are 8 of the best affiliate marketing programs to make money with your blog. I'll be continually updating this post as I find new programs that I think will work for you so make sure to come back and check them out.
disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links which means I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you if you choose to use my link. and if you do, I appreciate you!
8 Best Affiliate Programs to Make Money
Ultimate Bundles
Ultimate Bundles is just as it sounds, it is a bundle of products like courses and ebooks specifically put together by multiple contributors at a very discounted price. Around 90-95% off of regular pricing. As an affiliate you not only gain access to loads of free affiliate marketing materials, you get a 40% commission and if you purchase one of the bundles and make more than five sales you actually get refunded for the bundle you bought and get it for free.
You can also contribute to the Ultimate Bundles bundle with an ebook or course you have and you will receive a 70% commission on any bundle sales you make. They have bundles that fit a variety of niches such as blogging, knitting, health and wellness, homemaking, essential oils and handmade products. Hands down, the Ultimate Bundles team is the best affiliate team I have ever worked with and highly recommend them to bloggers of any and all niches.
Sign up for Ultimate Bundles Affiliate Program Here
Ebates
Ebates offers cash back on over 2,000+ stores with offers of up to 11% back. It's free and easy to sign up and yes, you actually get paid! I bought a necklace on Etsy and went through the Ebates app and made back the price of the necklace in two days just by using Ebates for my online shopping. Ebates is perfect for anyone who creates a lot of gift guides or just wants to tell their audience about how to make some money while shopping. Because doesn't want to make some extra bucks this holiday season?
For every person, you refer you get a $25 bonus and the person you referred gets a $10 bonus. And yes, family and friends count! The Ebates affiliate program pays out every courter and the minimum payout is $5.01.
Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates is Amazon's affiliate program which means you can pretty much use Amazon affiliate links in every single post because they have everything you've ever wanted and everything you never thought you needed. Amazon's affiliate commission is a bit lower and depends a bit on which products you are selling but the average, to begin with, is a 4% commission and then it increases as you make more sales to about 8%. I know this commission is a lot lower than others but it is one of the easiest programs to get into and Amazon is a well-known and trustworthy company.
Amazon is a bit more particular about how you use their affiliate links and disclose them so make sure to read their terms of use carefully. Amazon Associates is easy to use and works really well if you have a lifestyle blog.
Awin
Awin is an affiliate network that you can sign up for and get access to thousands of other affiliate programs such as Etsy, Gym Shark, Asos, Fab Fit Fun Boxes and many many more. The affiliate program on Awin I personally enjoy is Etsy's because it fits really well into my other blogs where I write a lot of gift guides. And people seriously love handmade gifts!
Awin does require a $5 deposit to sign up which you immediately get refunded as soon as you make your first sale. Awin is the perfect affiliate network if you are a lifestyle blogger or a fashion/make up blogger.
Shareasale
Shareasale is another affiliate network that hosts multiple affiliate programs. This makes it much easier during tax time so you don't have to run around to 20 different affiliate programs and figure out how much you made. It's all in one place.
Some popular affiliate programs within Shareasale are Tailwind (15% per sale), PicMonkey (30% per sale), and WP Engine ($200 per sale). The minimum payout is $50 and affiliate commissions vary from program to program. Shareasale also has a plethora of other affiliate companies that fit pretty much every single niche which is why I highly recommend joining it.
Your Prefered Hosting Site
This one is a little vague but like I've said before when using affiliate links make sure it's a company you use and trust and if you're a blogger using affiliate links…which you are because you're reading this, then chances are you're using a web host. Each web host has a different affiliate commission but most have tiers that increase based on the number of monthly sales you make.
If you use SiteGround, WP Engine, Shopify, basically whatever host you have, they most likely have an affiliate program. Hosting affiliate commissions tend to be quite high usually $50 or more per sale and sometimes up to $200-$2000 depending on the hosting.
WP Engine Affiliate Program ($200+ per sale)
Shopify's Affiliate Program ($58-$2k per sale)
SiteGround's Affiliate Program ($50-$100 per sale)
How Do You Promote your Affiliate Links?
Having a list of affiliate links is great and all but now what? The fun thing about affiliate marketing is that you are promoting products you already use so you really don't have to sell. My favourite way to promote affiliate links is through my blog. Gift guides are a fantastic way to promote affiliate links because you're saving your audience time by doing the tough stuff for them. You can also promote your affiliate links on your favourite social media channels.
Remember to always disclose there are affiliate links either within your blog post or within a post on social media and read the terms and conditions for every affiliate program.
Great list but I would add Clickbank to that list, I think it is one of the best platforms especially for people who are just starting out.
Thank you. I’ve personally never used Clickbank before but I’ll have to check it out. Thank you for the recommendation!
This is great I need More affiliate links for my blog
Thank you for stopping by, Louise!
Hi,
Thanks for such great content, really appreciate this.
If you don’t mind me asking you a relevant question that would be great and helpful.
Actually I am an tech blogger who has so far worked with adsense and now when i feel like i have built up good number of traffic and followings i feel like i should start affiliate marketing.
I have searched on engines for affiliate marketing tools for so long and all i got was bunch of expensive and complex ones.
However there were companies like revglue that came up offering people free CMS affiliate tools for wordpress and they are also offering 100% commission which seems pretty attractive. I’ll try to share the link with you revglue(.)com/free-wordpress-plugins hope you can guide me through it or maybe suggest me something else as guide.
Regards
Hey!
I’ve personally never used a tool like revglue and when I looked on their website I was a bit confused on what it was actually used for. To honest, when you’re first starting out with affiliate marketing there’s no need to put money into anything. I just look for products I already use and I’m sure as a tech blogger you have a ton of things you use and just look to see if any of those products have an affiliate program. Most of the time they do. That’s where I’d recommend starting.
I love this post ! i red your blog fairy often and you’re always
cominig with some great stuff i shared this on my
facebook and my followers loved it Keep up the good work :
)
Thank you so much, I really appreciate that and I’m glad you found this post so valuable!
Hi Gillian
Thanks for this amazing affiliate programs which accept beginners.
I am a beginner too and I also look forward to seeing me as a successful affiliate marketer.
Hey Tarun,
I’m so happy to hear you found my affiliate marketing post so helpful for you!
Awesome list! I’ve never heard of the Ultimate Bundles website before! Thanks!
Thanks so much, Teya! The Ultimate Bundles are a really incredible company and have soo many options for affiliate marketers!!
Hi Gillian,
Thanks for this list. I like ShareASale a lot.
I also use Impact, which has some great programs too.
Thanks Jip,
I’ll make sure to look into it and test it out over the next few weeks and see what I think. Always up for hearing about new programs!
[…] they are looking to find once they get there can help you pick the correct affiliate products and programs once you want to start […]
[…] an extra income stream (for affiliate products, services, […]
[…] to increase your sales this month, then it might be best to focus on promoting products that have a high commission rate. On the other hand, if you want to generate more leads for your business overall, you should […]