Commission: $100 for every sale referred, or 33% of recurring subscriptions
Cookie life: 120 days
Payout Methods: PayPal, USD check, ACH, Eurotransfer, or other payment method
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: One sign-up
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.)
The product has two sign-up tiers: For everyone, including individuals, and for medium-to-large companies. Of the two, the “Everyone” tier is easier to market to the public, so when signing up for this program, think of ways you can incorporate mentions of GetResponse’s plans for individuals and small businesses.
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 $1090 for every sale referred through CJ Affiliate. However, the cookie life is only 30 days, rather than 120 offered in the in-house program.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Bloggers, content creators, publishers, marketing consultants, and online marketing experts who publish content for small businesses and freelancers.
Fiverr (My top Affiliate Program-The Finest Affiliate program on the Internet)
Commission: $15-150 per referral; or $10 + 10% recurring for 12 months; or another commission option depending on the product
Cookie life: 30 days
Payout Methods: Your preferred method
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $100
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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Content creators whose audience could use Fiverr’s services — for instance, if you create YouTube videos for small businesses who would benefit from hiring freelancers. We recommend looking at Fiverr’s library of products to find out what would best resonate with your audience.
Commission: 30% lifetime recurring
Cookie life: 365 days
Payout Methods: PayPal, Bank Transfer, or Both
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $50
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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Blogger, website owners, or social media experts whose audience would like to try email marketing. Due to its subscription billing tool, Pabbly is especially useful if your audience is interested in starting a subscription service or newsletter.
Commission: 20% lifetime recurring revenue
Cookie life: 90 days
Payout Methods: PayPal, Bank Transfer, or Both
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $50
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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Marketers, agencies, and bloggers who share content about marketing with a highly interested and qualified audience. If you’re an agency, you can refer them to Unbounce, and if you’re a blogger or content creator, you can share contextual information with your readers and viewers.
Commission: 50% lifetime recurring
Cookie life: 180 Days
Payout Methods: PayPal or wire transfer
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $30
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 50% 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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Bloggers, video marketers, and content creators whose audience is made up of freelancers and entrepreneurs. Because of Systeme.io’s course creation tool, it’s a great fit if your audience is interested in starting their own online course.
Commission: 20% upfront and 20% recurring
Cookie life: 30 days
Payout Methods: Unknown
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: Unknown
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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Marketers, content creators, and bloggers whose audience could use interactive content tools. Whether you’re writing for a business blog or creating independent content on LinkedIn, you can market Outgrow as a unique solution to engage followers. You can also create interactive content using Outgrow and encourage others to begin using it.
Commission: 30% to 40% recurring for the first year, then 15% lifetime recurring
Cookie life: 90 days
Payout Methods: PayPal or Stripe
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: One signup
Instapage is the most powerful landing page platform on the market — empowering companies like Verizon, HelloFresh, and Lattice to launch high-performing digital campaigns.
Partners are integral to Instapage’s continued innovation and evolution. The Affiliate Program offers a generous commission structure—with a 30-40% recurring commission for every paying customer. Instapage provides all the tools partners need to succeed, including a dedicated point of contact, promotional materials that are regularly updated, and opportunities to earn more via special contests and limited-time offers.
The program rewards Affiliates with profit-sharing opportunities and supports their efforts with social media assets and messaging. Instapage affiliates can earn:
- 40% on the first year of a customer's annual subscription
- 15% of a customer's annual subscription after the first year
- 30% on monthly subscription
Sign up for the Instapage Affiliate program here.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Content creators and bloggers whose audience is made up of medium-sized to enterprise businesses. Since Instapage’s pricing starts at $199/month, it’s less accessible to freelancers or hobbyists, but it’s well-positioned for audiences with larger budgets.
Best Online Course Affiliate Programs
Commission: 30% lifetime recurring
Cookie life: 90 days
Payout Methods: PayPal or Stripe
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $25
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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
As mentioned, Thinkific’s affiliate program is an excellent fit if you create content for other content creators and entrepreneurs. Thinkific’s subscriptions start at $0/month, making it a great fit for your audience if they’re interested in experimenting with course creation. Remember that they’ll need to upgrade, of course, before you start earning.
Commission: 30% lifetime recurring
Cookie life: 30 days
Payout Methods: PayPal
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: Unknown
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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Current Kajabi users who are a fan of the product and want to share it with fellow content creators.
Commission: Up to 30% lifetime recurring
Cookie life: 90 days
Payout Methods: PayPal
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: Unknown
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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Bloggers and content creators who target other freelancers and content creators on a budget. Teachable subscriptions start at free.
Commission: $150 USD for all full-priced plan referrals. This is not lifetime commissions.
Cookie life: 30 days
Payout Methods: PayPal or direct deposit
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $10
Shopify is a complete commerce platform that allows you to start, grow, and manage a business.
With nearly 20 million merchants on Shopify (huge market if you want to sell products), 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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Bloggers, course instructors, video marketers, and influencers whose audience is interested in launching an ecommerce brand.
Commission: Up to 50% lifetime recurring
Cookie life: 90 days
Payout Methods: PayPal or Stripe
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $50
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 up to 50%. Membership prices range from $49 to $99 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.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Current Leadpages customers whose audience would benefit from a dedicated landing page tool — such as experienced freelancers and startup owners.
Commission: Up to $500 per referral + 10% lifetime recurring
Cookie life: 60 days
Payout Methods: PayPal
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $50
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%.
This Affiliate Program is Best For
Content creators and bloggers whose audience is interested in launching their own WordPress website or web application. It’s a great fit if you talk about website hosting or technical topics on your platform.
Best Travel Affiliate Programs
Commission: 20% + 10% for returning customers
Cookie life: 30 days
Payout Methods: Bank transfer
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: One sale
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.
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.
Commission: Up to 50% per click-out. Not a lifetime commission but you make alot of money on each click!!!!
Cookie life: Session
Payout Methods: Bank transfer
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $500
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.
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 flight results on Cheapflights' page. This is their most popular travel affiliate tool and generates the highest revenue per visit.
Commission: Flat rate — up to $0.65 per click-out. No lifetime commission but also pays alot of money per click.
Cookie life: Session
Payout Methods: Bank transfer
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $500
Momondo is a global travel search site that compares cheap flights, hotels, and car rental deals.
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
Commission: 4%, No lifetime Commissions.
Cookie life: 60 days
Payout Methods: Direct deposit, check, or Payoneer
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $50
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.
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 has a true interest in luxury travel to the Caribbean.
Best Personal Finance and Investment Affiliate Programs
Commission: $10 per qualified lead
Cookie life: 30 days
Payout Methods: PayPal, Check, Wire Transfer, Direct Deposit, or ACH Transfer
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: $10
Acorn is a “micro-investing” mobile app that helps people between the ages of 25 and 35 invest their money wisely. If you own a financial advice blog that serves this demographic — especially if they haven’t yet accrued capital or assets — this is the affiliate program for you.
Affiliates receive $10 for every referred customer. You’ll receive a wide variety of creative assets to help you promote the app and a dedicated account manager to help you boost your marketing efforts.
Commission: 7% per sale and $5 per free trial
Cookie life: 30 days
Payout Methods: Direct deposit
Minimum Sales Threshold Before Payout: Unknown
Sage Financials — a cloud accounting solution built on Salesforce that provides accounting, analytics, and reporting tools for small and mid-sized businesses — has an impressive affiliate program that includes a dedicated support team, commission paid directly into your bank account (and currency of choice), and detailed reporting on your performance and earnings.
Best of all, you're able to receive commission even from free sign-ups Sage receives from your website or blog. If you feel your website visitors or blog readers are interested in accounting tools, this could be a good partnership to explore.
Now that we’ve gone over some of the best affiliate programs overall, let’s go over the programs that pay the highest commission.
Best High-Paying Affiliate Program
- Semrush: $200 per Subscription
- Liquid Web: $150 Per Sale
- Coursera: Up to 45% Per Sale
- BigCommerce: 200% per Sale
- Shift4Shop: $5 - $25 per Signup
- Flywheel: 300% per Signup
- TripAdvisor: Minimum 50% per Booking
- Volusion: 200% per Signup
- Invoice Ninja: 50% per Signup
- Capitalist Exploits: 50% per Sale
1. Semrush: $200 per Subscription
Commission: $200 per subscription, $10 per free trial, and $0.01 per new sign up
Cookie life: 10 years
Semrush is a SaaS company that specializes in SEO and competitive analysis tools for digital marketers. Its affiliate program offers $200 per subscription, so if you refer 10 people only, you’ll be bringing in $2,000 per month. Plus, they offer a very generous 10-year cookie life.
Since Semrush’s affiliate program functions under a first cookie attribution model, if a referral were to cancel their subscription and sign up again in the future (within 10 years), you still get a commission on that second subscription.
Exclusive Semrush promotional material is available in five different languages, and applicants are automatically pre-approved, so the sign-up process is only a few minutes, enabling you to get started right away.
Commission: $150 per sale, or 150% of managed hosting cost
Cookie life: 90 days
Liquid Web is a web hosting and cloud management service provider. They offer a range of dedicated servers, WordPress server plans, and virtual private servers (VPS) for 45,000 customers across 150 countries.
Liquid Web affiliates earn 150% of the monthly hosting cost with a $150 minimum. Depending on the plan selected, affiliates can earn several hundred dollars per sale. For example, if you get a $400 per month Dedicated plan customer, you would earn a $600 commission, vs $150 if you referred a $29 managed wordpress site plan. There’s also a 50% bonus for prepaid plans.
Affiliates also have access to a dedicated support team, custom landing pages, and get advanced of exclusive promotions.
3. Coursera: Up to 45% Per Sale
Commission: 10-45%
Cookie life: 30 days
Coursera offers over 1,000 courses and specializations ranging anywhere from Digital Marketing to Applied Data Science and Personal Development. Each course consists of pre-recorded videos, puzzles, and assignments.
Coursera's affiliate program runs on the Linkshare network and offers a commission ranging from 10% to 45% with bonuses for strong performance. Courses and Specializations are generally priced between $29 and $99. As a Coursera affiliate, you get access to professionally-designed banners and a monthly affiliate newsletter with curated content recommendations.
Commission: 200% or $1,500 per enterprise customer
Cookie life: 90 days
Founded in 2009, BigCommerce is an online store builder that powers thousands of e-commerce stores in over 150 countries. It serves a wide variety of industries, including
fashion, automotive, manufacturing, food, and health.
When you refer visitors to BigCommerce, you earn 200% of the customer's first monthly payment (that's up to $500 per referral!), or $1,500 per enterprise customer.
5. Shift4Shop: $5 - $25 per Signup
Commission: $5 - $25 per Signup
Cookie life: 120 days
Shift4Shop is an e-commerce platform with a high focus on SEO. It provides you with all the tools you need to build, promote, and grow your online store. Users can use Shift4Shop to start an online business, add a shopping cart to an existing site, or replace their current shopping cart platform.
Affiliates earn a commission from $5 to $25 on each referred customer and have access to a wide range of marketing tools and content, including banner images, affiliate marketing-specific newsletters, and more. Affiliates are also put in touch with a dedicated affiliate manager for guidance. Shift4Shop’s affiliate program runs on the ShareASale network.
6. Flywheel: 300% per Signup
Commission: 300%, up to $500 per referral
Cookie life: 90 days
As another dedicated WordPress hosting solution, Flywheel aims to take away all the hassle that comes with web hosting so users can focus on doing what they do best — creating and designing websites.
Flywheel affiliates can earn up to $500 per referral. You get access to tons of creative assets, from banners to co-branded landing pages to stylish social images. The Flywheel team will even work with you to create custom images that can take your commissions to the next level.
It's worth noting that there is no minimum threshold limit to receive a payment.
7. TripAdvisor: Minimum 50% per Booking
Commission: Minimum 50% per booking
Cookie life: 14 days
Crowned the "world's largest travel site", TripAdvisor provides travelers with the wisdom of the crowds to help them decide where to stay, how to fly, what to do, and where to eat. The site helps you compare prices from 200+ hotel booking sites so you can find the lowest price on the hotel that's right for you.
Powered by Commission Junction, TripAdvisor's affiliate program pays a 50% commission off the revenue generated from a user clicking on links and/or ads that send them to a TripAdvisor partner site. Which means, unlike most other affiliate programs in this list, you don't have to wait for your referral to make a purchase to earn your commission. As soon as someone comes from your website and clicks on one of the ads or links on the TripAdvisor website, you get paid.
On average, affiliates will earn between $0.15-$0.75 per click-out. While it may not seem like a lot, since your revenue is only dependent on clicks (and not purchase), this can add up quite nicely.
8. Volusion: 200% per Signup
Commission: 200% per Signup
Cookie life: 45 days
Volusion is an e-commerce solution that enables small businesses to create, manage, and expand their online stores. They provide customers with exports to help them every step of the way, including help with domain purchase, web design, cart integration, SEO, and security.
Affiliates get paid a 200% commission on the referred customer's first monthly payment, which can range anywhere from $29 to $299 (or even higher with their Prime custom tier). As an affiliate, you get access to marketing material to assist in your promotional efforts.
Commission: 50% on all referrals for four years
Cookie life: N/A; instead of cookie, Invoice Ninja tracks by account creation from referral URL (for four years)
Invoice Ninja, a free open-source invoicing app for freelancers and businesses, offers a Ninja Pro Plan for just $10 a month — and, as an affiliate partner, you can make 50% on all referrals for four years. That means, if you refer 100 Pro users, you'll receive $5,000 every year for the next four years.
Additionally, any user can start free and upgrade when they decide it's worthwhile, so it's easy for your site visitors to give the tool a try. You can provide their affiliate link in your email signature, on a blog post, or in an email newsletter, and Invoice Ninja provides both logos and ads to make it easy to promote their tool. If your social media followers or website visitors are typically online entrepreneurs or freelancers, this could be a good partnership to consider.
Commission: 50%
Cookie life: 365 days
Capitalist Exploits provides trade recommendations for investors and anyone looking to outperform the market by sharing only the best low-risk/high-reward opportunities to subscribers.
If your target audience consists of investors, high net-worth individuals, people interested in investment, financial advisors, or wealth managers, then this program might be for you.
Capitalist Exploits pays a 50% commission on any referred sale with absolutely no limits. Their products range from $1,575 to $3,499. This means each referral brings you a minimum of $787.50. Affiliates also receive exclusive access to paid membership trials for your audience.
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.
Best Affiliate Marketing Networks
- Amazon Associates
- eBay Partner Network
- Rakuten Advertising
- PartnerStack
- CJ Affiliate
- ShareASale
- FlexOffers
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.
If you write about animals, for instance, you can promote cat treats or dog toys. If your audience is interested in cars, you can recommend jumper cables — you get the idea.
Additionally, if someone ends up on Amazon through your link and buys something other than what your content links to, you still get commission on the user's entire cart.
Ultimately, the only downside is some categories have particularly low commissions, such as video games and electronics.
For businesses with large audiences, Amazon recently launched its 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.
Currently, you must have a YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook account to qualify. Amazon looks at the number of followers and other engagement metrics of your social media accounts to determine whether you're eligible for the program.
Commission: 1-4%, depending on the category
Cookie life: 24 hours
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.
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.
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.
Commission: Depends on the merchant (average is 25% recurring)
Cookie life: Depends on the merchant (typically 90 days)
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 Gorgias, Sendoso, 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 20-100% of a sale for the lifetime of the customer you helped create.
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.
Commission: Depends on the merchant
Cookie life: Depends on the merchant
CJ Affiliate (formerly known as Commission Junction) is one of the most popular affiliate networks out there, holding 7.69% of the market share.
One of the benefits of using CJ Affiliates is its selection of brand partnerships which cover many verticals including retail, travel, finance, and network & home services. Currently CJ partners with over 3,800 brands including household names such as Barnes & Noble, Office Depot, J.Crew, and Blue Apron.
Commission: Depends on the merchant
Cookie life: Depends on the merchant
ShareASale partners with thousands of merchants of all types, so finding the right affiliate product is a breeze — no matter what your niche is. Some of its most well-known brand partners are Etsy, Reebok, and Warby Parker.
After joining the network, you have to apply to the individual merchants you want to use. Once approved, you’ll be able to generate affiliate links and view sales stats on the ShareASale dashboard.
Because of the wide variety of products and merchants available, commission rates vary.
Commission: Depends on the merchant
Cookie life: Depends on the merchant
FlexOffers has an impressive affiliate database that is comprised of over 10,000 ad partners from over 65 networks. It partners with some of the biggest retailers on the planet including Samsung, Nike, Microsoft, and Macy’s.
FlexOffers’ easy-to-use dashboard includes access to over 650 million products so you can find the offer that works best for you. Once you find the product you’re looking for, you can then take advantage of its automated affiliate links so you don’t have to create it manually.
Commission rates vary based on the merchant and publishers are paid every month on NET 60 terms, meaning that each month’s commissions are processed 60 days after the last day of the month.
Ultimately, when deciding which program to choose, there are many key elements to keep in mind, including how established your online following is, and how much you want to earn.
And, most importantly — who is your audience, and what are they interested in?
Think about what your website visitors or your social media followers need and could benefit from, and choose an affiliate marketing program that will let you promote products in support of that. Once you do that, you’ll be well on your way to exponentially multiplying your affiliate income.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.