Top 5 Best Affiliate Programs
To help facilitate your transition from hobbyist to money making content creators, we’ve made a list of the best affiliate programs for 2020.
Easy to find affiliate programs. Search affiliate GIANTS like Share A Sale, ClickBank, and Awin
The following is a list of reliable and reputable online affiliate networks that can provide you the best affiliate programs. You can join multiple affiliate networks at a time meaning increased income for you.
ShareSale is a larger network with more than 1000 merchants. They all pay good commissions. The fee for affiliate to use their service is 20% of affiliate revenue. With over 15 years of experience, it’s a reliable source for your affiliate program needs.
With so many vendors, it is an ideal for niche and multipurpose websites. It offers both digital and physical products, limited only by your imagination.
With zero customer complaints on file, the Better Business Bureau gives ShareASale an A+ rating.
Get paid on the 20th of each month, as long as you have a minimum balance of $50. Payment options include checks in the mail, wire transfer, or direct deposit, and payoneer.
Trusted by many large companies, you’ll find everything from Namecheap, WP Engine, Endy mattresses and much, much more! Some of these companies are even exclusive to ShareSale so If you want to advertise their products, you can only do so through ShareASale.
If you’re looking for a reliable affiliate network that offers a wide variety or affiliate options (eliminating the need to join multiple other networks) Give ShareAShale a try.
Whether you want to offer services, physical goods, SAAS (software as a service), or digital downloads to your audience, ShareASale (affiliate link) has you covered.
Awin is another big hitter in the affiliate marketing space. With partners like Udemy, Lufthansa Airlines, and Etsy, your efforts will be backed by some highly reputable brands.
There’s a slight barrier to entry for Awin. To sign up, you’ll be required to comlete a 2 step verification process:
- Have a website that is live and publicly accessible.
- Pay a $5 deposit which will be credited to your Awin account afterwards.
Boasting products from industries such as Finance and Insurance, Retail and Shopping, Telecommunications and Services, and Travel they offer a variety of partners for everyone.
Both physical and digital goods can be found on Awin’s affiliate network, with a range of commision options including cash and pourcentage payouts (some up to 500%).
Bonus, Awin makes all its payments via PayPal on a bi-monthly or monthly basis.
Unless you’ve never been on the internet, turned on a radio or TV, you’ve probably heard of the behemoth that is Amazon. Amazon has the largest affiliate marketing program out there, with over 1.5 million seller products.
With its easy-to-use technology, get up and selling your first products in under an hour. With a suite of tools available for beginner to seasoned marketers create custom links, custom tools and websites with the APIs and advanced implementations available to them.
The great thing about Amazon is that there are millions of items available. This gives you and your visitors a wide range of products. Plus, if a visitor goes to Amazon with one of your links, if they buy any item on the site, you get paid.
The slight pitfall of the Amazon affiliate network is the commission structure. Their commissions start out as low as 2.5% and can be as high as 9% on certain items.
Most products on amazon are physical goods. This offers little space for recurring monthly income.
ClickBank is one of the biggest and most robust affiliate programs out there. It primarily markets digital products that are downloadable, especially software products and e-books. ClickBank is very easy to join and is very inexpensive. If you are an affiliate, then you will pay 7% and $1 for each sale.
ClickBank is a strong contender, though it does tend to focus more on digital products which may be of questionable quality. Even though the review process is more professional than in the past, it’s primarily focused on selling digital products, especially “how to make money” courses and the like.
Despite that, they offer some really high-quality products, and few affiliate programs are bigger than ClickBank, especially when it comes to selling (primarily digital) books.
ClickBank is invested in your success with FAQs, walk-throughs, and videos available, the barrier to entry is quite low. They also offer a paid program called ClickBank University with courses and assistance from experienced marketers.
Average commision rates can go up to 75% with a decent cookie duration time. ClickBank is free to join and the approval process is almost automatic, so it’s a great choice for people taking their first steps in the affiliated game.
Payouts are processed weekly, with many different provider options. Initial payments are made by check only – only after a minimum number of sales can you get payouts via wire transfer or PayPal.
Their joint venture program allows you to collaborate with ClickBank partners in a type of second-tier affiliate program. After passing the approval process, you get access to higher commision earnings.
Pitfall is that ClickBank enforces a 60-day, no questions asked money back guarantee on ALL products. Even though their Refund policy improves conversion rates it can eat into your profits.
Free to join, Commission Junction aka CJ acts as a middle-man between publishers (you the webmaster) and the advertisers. Once you register, your website will be verified and if accepted, then you will be granted access to their ads.
CJ has hundreds of advertisers to choose from according to your website’s audience. Get the ads or banners, place them on your site and you’re good to go.
For every action that is done on these ads e.g. a visitor goes to the advertiser’s website, registers there or makes any purchase; all this is recorded by the cj.com.
The revenue is collected from all of your advertisers by the cj.com and is paid to you every month. A good quality website can earn you upwards of 5,000 dollars every month.
Some of their more famous advertisers are e-bay.com, Quick Loans, Backcountry.com, Crucial Technology, Expedia, Zappos.com etc
With bells and whistles like real time reporting, you can monitor activity on your account as it happens.
To ensure the best quality marketers and vendors, if you are inactive for too long on the site (45days) they will automatically close your account. You can rejoin at a later date!
Disclaimer:
Some programs may need to check your website to ensure its authenticity and that it has the capacity to get the right visitors. Once you’re accepted, they will give you access to their product links and banner ads to promote on your website and social channels. The ads will come in two formats, text format or banner. Place them with your content then sit back and reap the rewards.
Conclusion
A good quality niche website or social media channel (youtube, facebook) can bring in a sizeable amount of side income each month. It’s almost impossible to visit a blog post or youtube video that isn’t supported by the authors affiliate links. Ever ask yourself how they find the products they promote?
There are many other networks available on the internet, but the ones mentioned above are some of the most reliable.
Don’t be scared to look around for other affiliate programs that suit your needs.