Some 80% of brands run an affiliate program to reach new customers, reportedly devoting over 10% of their marketing budgets to affiliate marketing. An $8.2 billion industry, affiliate marketing has become a high-value, low-risk way to drive sales and awareness for brands, and revenue for their affiliates.
As an affiliate marketer, often referred to as a “publisher,” there is no shortage of affiliate programs to promote in your content. But not all are created equal: some programs offer low commissions or are run by sketchy brands, while others can offer mutually beneficial and authentic partnerships that benefit your audience.
With so many affiliate programs to choose from, how do you know the best options for your business? Explore the top 25 affiliate marketing programs and start earning more revenue.
What’s the Difference Between an Affiliate Network and an Affiliate Program?
An affiliate marketing network curates products from different brands and then works together with the affiliate marketers. In other words, it runs affiliate marketing programs for many brands and acts as the middleman between the brand and the affiliate. Examples of well-known affiliate marketing networks are AWIN, CJ Affiliate, and ShareASale.
With an affiliate program, the brand oversees and runs the entire process. Instead, brands often use affiliate marketing software, like ReferralCandy or Refersion, to manage the program on their own. They can also appoint dedicated affiliate managers to liaise with the affiliates. One of the benefits of operating your affiliate program directly is that you don’t have to pay any affiliate network fees.
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1. Refersion
Refersion is a platform that e-commerce store owners can use to incentivize their customers for promoting their business. It allows merchants to design different types of offers, create links and coupon codes, customize commission structures, track sales, and integrate the software with their e-commerce solutions. Refersion integrates directly with major platforms such as Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce. It also has API keys available for customized integration with other programs. best affiliate programs for beginners 2022
The software enables merchants to quickly view how every affiliate contributes to their ROI through three key performance indicators—effective earnings per click, average order value, and total revenue per affiliate.
Refersion values continued engagement with its affiliates. Its dashboard has a Message tab, where brands can directly exchange messages with their affiliates. Through integrations with Mailchimp and Klaviyo, online sellers can email newsletters to update partners about new products, fresh creatives, or images to help market their brand or any changes to commissions.
Commission: The platform offers affiliates 15% for all referrals who register with the platform using their link or by responding to an email for a direct-billed Refersion subscription.
Payments: Users have three options for paying affiliates: via the integrated PayPal feature, gift cards sent to affiliates via email, and by check or deposit.
Resources and support: Refersion’s customer success and development team can help optimize their settings. To start, the Refersion Marketplace is a great place to find potential affiliates. Get discovered by over 8,000 affiliates when you place an offer here.
Cookies: The platform’s cookie length is flexible—merchants can choose between two days to two years.
2. Canva
Just like Canva is one of the favorite graphic design tools among novices, its affiliate program is also one of the best programs for beginners. Not only is it free to join, but there are also no minimum sales. It’s ideal for design influencers or bloggers who are active in the design niche.
Commission: You can earn as much as $26 for each new subscriber that signs up for the Canva Pro plan ($12.99) using your affiliate link. If the user signs up for a monthly plan, you’ll earn a monthly commission of 80% for the first two months of the membership. If the user signs up for an annual plan, you’ll receive a one-off commission of 25%.
Payments: You can get paid by means of e-transfer or PayPal. Payments are processed monthly.
Resources and support: To help affiliates get started, Canva shares a how-to guide, ad templates, community tips, and news. They also offer round-the-clock email and live chat support.
Cookies: 30-day duration
3. Fiverr
Fiverr is one of the top marketplaces for freelance services. From design to writing, it offers a wide range of services. As its services include virtually any need, it doesn’t really matter who your target audience is.
With Fiverr’s affiliate program, there are actually a few products that you can promote, making it a good choice for beginners. These include Fiverr Logo Maker, And. co, and, obviously, Fiverr itself.
Commission: Each commission is different for each product. Depending on which category is purchased, you can earn anything from $15 to $150.
Payments: You need to have $100 in your account before you can claim payment. Payouts are made once a month via PayPal, Payoneer, or wire transfer. The latter method is only available for payouts of more than $1,000.
Resources and support: You’ll get a dedicated affiliate manager and access to tutorials and a portfolio of creative assets. To help affiliates keep tabs on their campaigns, they can use the intuitive dashboard.
Cookies: 30-day duration
4. SEMrush
If you blog about content marketing, SEO, PPC, PR, and marketing in general, be sure to check out the affiliate program of SEMrush. What makes its affiliate program so attractive is that it offers you numerous ways that you can earn a commission. Unlike many of the other programs that reward you only for new sign-ups to paid plans, with this program, you can earn money for new trials too. Plus, the cookie duration is also a lot longer than most other programs.
According to its website, 25% of Fortune 500 companies use its tool. So, you can rest assured knowing that you’re in good company.
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Commission: $200 for every new subscription sale, $10 for every new trial, and $0.01 for every new sign-up
Payments: Approved transactions are paid only 20 days after the end of the month in which they were locked.
Resources and support: You’ll get access to exclusive SEMrush creatives. Account managers are also available to offer support.
Cookies: 120-day duration
5. GetResponse
GetResponse’s free-to-join affiliate program is ideal for bloggers and content creators whose target audiences need an online marketing strategy. One of the attractive features of its program is that it offers two programs.
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Commission: You can either opt to get paid $100 for each new sale that you refer or 33% of every referred customer’s payments. The latter approach can help to create a sustainable stream of long-term revenue.
Payments: Depending on the program that you pick, payouts will be once a month or 60 – 75 days from the time of referral.
Resources and support: You get access to free marketing materials like videos, sales copy, and banners. They also offer detailed referral statistics so that you can keep tabs on how much you’ve earned.
Cookies: 120-day duration
6. ConvertKit
Influencers and bloggers who get that email marketing is important and whose audiences would be interested in signing up for an email marketing tool can check out ConvertKit’s affiliate program. Unlike many of the other programs on our list, ConvertKit uses the recurring model. This means that you’ll earn the set commission every month for as long as the referral’s ConvertKit account is active. For example, if you have helped ConvertKit to get 10 accounts on its lowest monthly plan, you can earn almost $90 each month.
Commission: You’re paid a recurring 30% commission for every sale made via an affiliate link.
Payments: No information is readily available. Interested parties will have to reach out to ConvertKit for more information about how payments are processed.
Resources and support: Unlike most of the other programs, ConvertKit offers its affiliates a training course to help them get started. Then, to help them drive sales, affiliates get access to evergreen webinars, video, and graphics assets.
Cookies: 30-day duration
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7. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the leading CRM platforms. As their plans range anything from $50 to more than $3,000 per month, the earning potential is massive. According to its website, the average commission payout in 2020 was almost $300.
One of the advantages of its program is that it gives affiliates the freedom to choose if they want to receive a recurring commission or a flat rate. What’s more, it also doesn’t have any minimum sales requirements.
Commission: With the recurring-rate program, you can earn a 15% monthly commission. With the flat-rate program, you’ll receive 100% of the first month’s revenue as one flat-rate payment.
Payments: Interested affiliates must reach out to HubSpot directly for information about its payout schedule.
Resources and support: You’ll get access to a big creative inventory that includes demo videos, banners, and even copy examples.
Cookies: 90-days
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8. Hostinger
Bloggers who like to write about website management, web development or online business can check out Hostinger’s affiliate program. While its commission is some of the highest, the minimum payout is $100 and you have to wait 45 days. All in all, considering the level of support affiliates are offered, it’s one of the best affiliate programs for newbies.
Commission: You can earn at least 60% commission for every hosting package sold (one-month hosting plans are excluded). The commission is not paid for hosting upgrades or renewals.
Payments: Commissions are only paid out after 45 days. The minimum payout is $100 for transfers via PayPal and $500 for payouts via bank transfer.
Resources and support: You can easily keep track of your campaigns via the control panel or reach out to your personal affiliate account manager for support. Hostinger also shares marketing material, like banner packages, that’s customized to fit your style.
Cookies: 30-day duration
9. WP Engine
WP Engine’s affiliate program is an award-winning program that’s hosted by ShareASale. One of its perks is that it includes exclusive custom discounts and deals that you can share with your followers. Plus, you can also earn bonus commissions for sending at least 5 referrals per month. One con is that you don’t earn a commission for add-ons or plan upgrades.
All in all, it’s one of the best-paying programs for content creators who focus on WordPress plugins and themes.
Commission: For each new purchase, you can earn a one-time payment. The minimum amount for WP Engine hosting plans is $200. The commission rate for a StudioPress theme purchase is 35%.
Payments: Payouts are made on the 20th of each month. Though, the commission will only be paid if the new referral didn’t cancel within the first 62 days (for WP Engine hosting plans) or 60 days (for StudioPress theme purchases).
Resources and support: You’ll have a dedicated WP Engine affiliate manager. There are pre-designed banners and landing pages as well as custom co-branded assets.
Cookies: For WP Engine, the duration is 180 days, while for StudioPress theme sales it’s only 60 days (though, it’s still longer than most programs).
10. Weebly
Like WP Engine, Weebly’s affiliate program is also hosted by ShareASale and it also offers regular opportunities that affiliates can earn a bonus. It’s free to join and open to affiliates from across the globe. Though, one negative is that you’ll need to have at least $50 in commissions in your account before you can receive a payout.
Commission: You can earn a 30% commission.
Payments: Affiliates are paid by means of check, direct deposit, or Payoneer. Payouts are made once a month.
Resources and support: Weebly doesn’t make any special mention of which resources you’ll receive to help you. So, it’s best to reach out to them directly.
Cookies: 120-day duration
11. Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the top eCommerce hosting providers and the host of choice for WordPress. As the plans are really cheap (they start at $2.95), you stand a very good chance of getting referrals to sign up. In fact, according to its website, it paid out more than $5 million in commissions in 2020 alone. One of the drawbacks of its affiliate program, though, is that you should have at least $100 in your account in order to receive a payout.
Commission: You can earn $65 for each qualified hosting purchase.
Payments: Commission fees get processed about 45 – 60 days after the end of the month. Affiliates have the option to get paid via PayPal, wire, or ACH transfer.
Resources and support: As they offer a big selection of creative assets, you can use ads or banners that work well with the branding of your website. Affiliate managers are also available round the clock.
Cookies: 90-day duration
12. Liquid Web
Liquid Web offers two partner programs. In addition to its affiliate program, it also has a refer-a-friend program aimed at existing Liquid Web customers. For the sake of brevity, we’re only looking at the affiliate program.
All in all, it’s one of the top affiliate programs. Unlike some of the other programs, affiliates will also get exclusive sales and promotions as well as free giveaways that they can give to their audience. So, if you’re a beginner, these incentives can really help to get referrals.
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Commission: You’ll earn 150% of the monthly hosting cost (with a minimum of $150). Pre-paid plans also have a 50% bonus.
Payments: Approved transactions will get paid 15 days after the end of the day they are locked.
Resources and support: You’ll receive a dedicated affiliate manager, custom landing pages as well as custom content and links.
Cookies: 90-day duration
13. SiteGround
SiteGround offers web hosting services for small businesses. While its pricing is slightly more than some of the other web hosting companies on our list, at about $14.99, it’s still good value for money which should help you to land many new sales.
There are two major benefits that make SiteGround’s affiliate program ideal for beginners. Firstly, they pay out once a week. Secondly, there’s no minimum payout threshold. So, you’ll basically get rewarded immediately. Also, we love that they increase the amount per sale that affiliates will earn if they manage to make more sales per month.
Commission: It uses a sliding scale to determine how much commission you’ll earn. For example, for 1 – 5 sales per month, you’ll earn $50 per sale. The amount per sale increases the more sales you clinch per month.
Payments: Weekly payouts. No minimum payout thresholds. Withhold period of 30 days.
Resources and support: A number of banners and helpful screenshot images are shared with affiliates. Affiliates also receive one month’s hosting on the house, while a custom landing page is also available for active affiliates.
Cookies: 60-day duration
14. Wix.com
For influencers and bloggers who generate high traffic, there’s Wix’s affiliate program. Many small businesses turn to Wix when it’s time to create their company websites as it’s so easy to use. So, you’ll have a big pool of potential users to sell to.
While it pays a generous commission, it does have a minimal transaction requirement of $300 per month. In other words, if you don’t generate a commission of at least $300 per month, you could be booted out of the program. Another drawback is that you may not promote any special sales that Wix offers.
Commission: You can earn $100 when a referral buys a Wix Premium Plan.
Payments: Affiliate fees will get paid about 45 days after the end of each calendar month.
Resources and support: You can launch and keep track of your campaigns via a dashboard. Here, you’ll also be able to access detailed statistics and customize reports. Creative resources are also provided and get refreshed regularly. free affiliate programs
Cookies: 30-day duration
15. Shopify
If you own and manage an active website with an established audience and have worked with Shopify or another eCommerce platform, you can also check out the Shopify Affiliate Program. To join is free, but you must have a track record of creating original content.
Commission: You’ll receive a commission for merchants that you refer to one of Shopify’s paid plans using your affiliate link. For more information about how much, you’ll need to reach out to Shopify.
Payments: Payouts are made only via PayPal. Payouts are made twice a month for balances of at least $25.
Resources and support: It offers a Growth Center where you’ll find resources that will help you to develop content and optimize your performance. There’s also a library of ready-made lead magnets and product announcements. As an affiliate, you’ll also have your own personal dashboard that you can use to get detailed performance insights.
Cookies: 30-day duration