Affiliate marketing is a well-known strategy to drive sales and generate passive income.
While the generated clicks and impressions often go unrewarded, many affiliates have managed to establish a personal brand, allowing them to earn a substantial share of their income from affiliate marketing.
According to a 2020 report by Awin, content and blogger websites earned nearly a 40% share of publisher commissions through the US affiliate marketing programs and by using the top AI tools for affiliate marketing.
Further, affiliate marketing is one of the top eight strategies for digital marketing that is used by both businesses and individual marketers to improve their sales.
Regardless of your niche, these are the eight best affiliate programs for any beginner.
1- Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates Program, launched in 1998, was the first online store to offer affiliate marketing programs. The program is user-friendly for both beginners and veterans.
It helps content creators monetize their traffic. There are millions of products and programs available on Amazon. You need to select a niche to get started. Content creators can easily share links to direct their audience to their recommendations and earn from qualifying purchases.
How to Become an Amazon Affiliate?
To be part of the Amazon affiliates, create an Amazon account. Fill the forms with the relevant answers to the questions. Select your niche, products you want to sell, and also choose how you want to drive online traffic and monetization.
The last step is security verification, where you need to provide your phone number and wait for Amazon to call you. In the end, you need to set-up your payment and tax information to start getting paid.
Congrats! You are an Amazon affiliate after completing these steps!
Price: It is free to be a part of the Amazon Associates Program.
Pros
- Amazon Associates Program provides millions of products.
- It is trustworthy and reliable. When you shop with Amazon, they ensure 100% privacy and keep all your information safe.
- If people follow your affiliate links and make purchases more than you referred, then you will get a commission for that, as well.
- You get 90 days to earn a commission if your customers visit your links and add anything to the cart.
Cons
- It provides low commission. Starting from 4%, Amazon’s affiliate commission rates go up to 10% only.
- It provides only 24-hour cookie duration if customers miss-out to add the item to the cart.
- Amazon does not use PayPal as an option to pay their affiliates a commission.
- It does not allow to share Amazon affiliate links through emails other than the ones that include blog posts.
- Amazon affiliate program does not get credit for the products bought from outside the country.
2- DJI
The DJI Affiliate Program, an online marketing platform, allows affiliates to promote DJI products online. DJI has an in-house affiliate program and pays a 5% commission.
How to Become a DJI Affiliate?
Visit the DJI website to get unique referral links and share them online. You can also add advertisement plugins to your website. When someone clicks your link and buys from the DJI Online Store, the referral link and order information gets generated in the DJI Affiliate Program system automatically.
Related: The Top Affiliate Marketing Strategies To Earn The Highest Commission
You will receive a commission payment in your account as long as the product is not returned and refunded within 15 days.
Price: It is free to subscribe. However, purchasing drones is costly.
Pros
- As the purchases go directly through DJI, it ensures the latest products and highest quality.
- You earn commission on sales around the world.
- The average affiliate commission is US$30.
Cons
- Orders that are placed within 30 days from clicking on your link are considered as an affiliate sale.
- It provides a low commission rate between 3% to 5% of the purchase price.
3- HubSpot
HubSpot is a platform that gives thousands of companies the tools they need to manage the customer experience, starting from awareness to advocacy.
The HubSpot Affiliate Program provides you an opportunity to earn a commission for customer referrals using unique affiliate links in emails, blog posts, or webinars. You can earn up to US$1,000 for each product purchased.
How to Become a HubSpot Affiliate?
To join the program, you need to click the “Get Started” button on the HubSpot Affiliate Program page. Fill in your information, such as name, email, company name, website URL, country, and the number of your marketable audience.
You must have a website and audience that involves the SMB community and is in a relevant niche. It is to ensure that HubSpot has partners that are not hit-and-run type affiliates.
Price: It is free to be a part of HubSpot affiliate program.
Pros
- It allows you to gain access to a large creative inventory, including demo videos, banners, and copy examples.
- You can utilize a one-on-one relationship with the HubSpot affiliate team.
- Cookie life is 90 days.
- It provides up to US$1,000 in commission for each product purchased.
Cons
- It provides expensive products that have long sales lead times
- It does not provide credit for future upgrades.
4- ShareASale
ShareASale has some of the best merchant choices available. It currently works with more than 1,000 merchants that offer everything from physical products to software services.
How to Become a ShareASale Affiliate?
For each product or service, you have to apply separately to become an affiliate. The application process is relatively easy, and you can access data on conversions from existing affiliates.
Related: Affiliate Hacks For Newbie Marketers
Affiliates use ShareASale to find products that they can promote and earn a commission for referrals on those products. You need to have a website to create an affiliate account on ShareASale. A website is required even if you plan to promote an affiliate deal using PPC or Google AdSense.
On the other hand, merchants make use of ShareASale to implement, track, and manage their affiliate programs.
Price: It is free.
Pros
- ShareASale provides insight into the effectiveness of the merchants.
- It also gives you details, such as the average sale, conversion rate, earnings per click, and their rank in their service.
- The commission rate offered is quite good at 10%, which can increase up to 30 to 40%.
Cons
- It provides a limited number of links available from most merchants.
- The process can be time-consuming, as you need approval from each merchant as an affiliate.
5- Bluehost
Bluehost is a popular hosting provider. The hosting plans provided by Bluehost are affordable. It also provides a 60-day money-back guarantee.
The Bluehost affiliate program permits you to earn US$65 per sale. It also offers 90-day cookie life to its affiliates. Therefore, if the user that you referred purchases in this duration, then the sale gets credited to you.
How to Become a Bluehost Affiliate?
You will need to own a website to become a Bluehost affiliate. Register your domain and buy website hosting from Bluehost. Next, you have to choose a web hosting plan.
Once you created your website, register for an Affiliate account at Bluehost. Choose from a wide choice of tested links and add them to your website. Finally, get a commission for every sale generated through your website.
Price: You can become a Bluehost affiliate after registering on the Bluehost website. The shared hosting plans start at $2.95 per month.
Pros
- Bluehost affiliates earn large one-time payouts starting at US$65 for each qualified hosting plan purchase.
- Bluehost offers a tiered commission to recognize successful and loyal affiliates. Therefore, the more sales you make over time, the higher your overall payout.
- Bluehost affiliate program provides a dedicated support team to help solve problems of their affiliates.
- It regularly sends notices of discounts and seasonal promotions to their affiliates.
Cons
- Affiliates must earn $100 or two sales before they can withdraw their money.
- If your referred Bluehost customers decide to downgrade their hosting plan, then your referral fee will deduct from future earnings as an affiliate.
- Before you use the Bluehost affiliate program, you need to master the tactics and strategies of search engine optimization.
6- SEMRush
SEMRush is a popular SEO tool website that one can use to track keywords, conduct site audits, and view competitive insights. The affiliate program of SEMRush is called BeRush that offers its affiliate partners a 40% commission. SEMRush affiliate program helps you promote the SEMrush SEO tool.
Related: The Top Affiliate Tools For WordPress
How to Become a SEMRush Affiliate?
After signing up for BeRush, you can start using your affiliate referral id to make money from its affiliate program.
Whenever someone clicks on your BeRush affiliate link and makes a purchase, you get a commission for every SEMrush subscription they buy for a lifetime, until your referral stops paying for their plans.
You receive a commission as an affiliate from sales of all the plans from SEMrush, including Pro, Guru, and Business.
Price: It is completely free to join.
Pros
- It provides a 40% recurring commission for a lifetime.
- It gives ten years of cookie life with all your affiliate referral links.
- You earn commissions twice a month.
Cons
- It does not allow coupon-promoting websites.
- You cannot receive commissions for self-referrals.
7- BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a platform for creating beautiful, intuitive eCommerce websites. It also offers affiliate programs.
You can refer visitors to BigCommerce upon signing up for the BigCommerce affiliate program and earn 200% of the customer’s first monthly payment or $1,500 per enterprise referral.
How to Become a BigCommerce Affiliate?
You can join the affiliate program through Impact Radius to grow your revenue with the leading eCommerce platform. The BigCommerce program gives you access to a variety of creative materials, along with dedicated support.
Related: The Best Affiliate Programs That Anyone Can Join
You need to fill out an affiliate application that is free to get started. Finally, earn referral commissions with the high-paying eCommerce affiliate program.
Price: The participation is free of charge.
Pros
- The program provides you a 200% bounty per referral and $1,500 per Enterprise referral, with no cap on commissions.
- The affiliate dashboard offers a comprehensive look at your clicks, trials, sales, and commissions.
- It gives direct access to an affiliate expert who understands your business and your goals.
- It provides easy access to pre-made text links, banners, and content.
Cons
- The program takes time and energy to set up.
- You need to source and pitch affiliates that are in line with your brand’s values.
- You need to be wary of affiliate theft.
8- Wix
Wix is a website building company serving millions of users worldwide. Wix also offers an affiliate program to encourage site owners and bloggers to earn money.
To make money with Wix, you need to join the Wix affiliate program, promote, drive traffic, and convert to leads.
How to Become a Wix Affiliate?
Go to the Wix affiliate program signup page and register yourself. The Wix team usually takes some time to approve your application. Wix considers several factors before approving your application. The foremost requirement is high traffic volume. If your site is generating thousands of page views daily, then there is a chance of your account getting approved by the Wix team. You can start promoting Wix once you get approval.
Price: It is free.
Pros
- Wix is a popular and trustable name among web developers, web designers, app developers, and site owners.
- It provides a competitive commission structure.
- It gives fast and timely payments.
Cons
- There are fewer chances to get approval.
- It demands high traffic requirements.
- You must reach the US$300 minimum threshold in a month. Otherwise, they can terminate your account.
Final Thoughts
As per the Statista report, affiliate marketing spending in the US alone is likely to reach US$8.2 billion by 2022.
Affiliate marketing programs serve as additional sales channels for big brands. People can sign up for these programs, get a link, and convince others to click it on their videos, blog, or review sites.
Successful affiliate marketers should know how to approach affiliate marketing with a value-based mindset. Now that you know the best eight affiliate marketing programs for beginners, it is time to start choosing products and promoting them.
