48 Best Affiliate Programs for New Bloggers (2024)

  • Updated December 30, 2023

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which can provide compensation to us at no cost to you. 

48 Best Affiliate Programs for New Bloggers

If you are serious about blogging like a startup and start monetizing your blog early in the process, affiliate marketing is the best way to make money with your blog by promoting affiliate products or services you have an interest in.

What are the Best Affiliate Marketing Programs?

Let’s dive into the best affiliate programs for new bloggers and affiliate marketers within the most popular and profitable niches and verticals: Travel, Fashion, CBD, Beauty, Sports, Email Marketing, Online Courses, Website, Web Hosting, Finance and Retail & Consumer, and Fitness.

Best Travel Affiliate Programs

If you are a travel blogger or if you blog about hotel recommendations travel tours, airline programs, or car rental recommendations, check out these top travel affiliate programs to promote in 2024.

Travel programs have high commission payouts perfect for affiliate marketers and bloggers in this niche to help you generate stable monthly affiliate revenues.

Booking.com

Booking.com Affiliate Partner Program is one of the most popular travel affiliate programs that offer high commission payouts on any online accommodation bookings. This includes Stays, Flights, Car Rentals, attractions, etc. Booking.com has a selection of over 2.5MM properties you can earn a commission based on the number of monthly reservations. Booking.com works with an extensive network of over 12,500+ Affiliates. The program offers its affiliates with many marketing tools to help travel bloggers and affiliate marketers influence bookings such as search box widget features to inspire readers, review score widgets, creative banners, deals finder, and many other assets to help you promote their offers. 

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site with over 1.4MM of places to stay. You can earn high commission payouts with access to rich affiliate content and offers to use. The plus is that you can get paid when users click out to their hotel booking partners, regardless of whether or not they book. The amount earned per click-out depends on factors like the given booking partner, hotel, seasonality, and length of stay.

Expedia

Expedia is one of the biggest travel and accommodation platforms for vacation home bookings, hotels, flights, and car rental services. Expedia is part of the leading travel group that also includes vacation rental brands such as  Hotels.com, Vrbo, Stayz, Abritel, and FeWo-direkt. Expedia offers its customers access to +3M properties including,220K of unique activities, 500 airlines, 1000s of car rentals, and Dozens of cruise lines. The affiliate program provides many tools for bloggers and affiliate marketers to promote the brands on your blog, including search widgets, banners, and deep links capabilities.

  • Expedia Affiliate program 
  • Network: CJ, Partnerize
  • Commission: up to 6% on qualifying bookings
  • Cookie Duration: 7 to 30 days vary by country and by brands of the group

Agoda 

Agoda Affiliate Program is the leading hotel affiliate program worldwide. The online accommodation company gives its travelers access to 925,000 properties worldwide. offers a tiered commission payout model based on average booking value. The more bookings, the higher the commission. Agoda provides its partners with great best-in-class marketing tools to help boost conversions. These tools include Hotel Dats File, text links, Seach Box, and affiliate banners to create a seamless user experience. 

Best Fashion Affiliate Programs 

If you are into fashion, you run a trending fashion blog or if you are an affiliate marketer looking to promote that, you should definitely check out these beauty and fashion programs from top online stores: 

Nordstrom

Nordstrom is one of the leading fashion department stores and retailers in the US. If you are a fashion blogger or curate content from top fashion categories, Nordstrom has a robust affiliate program to join. The retailer has a large catalog of high-end luxury products that you can promote on your blog or social media and their affiliate program provides easy access to engaging creative assets and promotions. You will also have 24-hour online access to traffic and sales statistics through the Rakuten platform network to monitor performance:

Ray-Ban

Ray-Ban is one of the leading lifestyle sunglasses and eye protection in the market. It is also one of my favorite brands and fashion program as I literally love their fashionable “aviator” collection.

The affiliate program has high conversion rates, quality customer service, and top account management, and the brand offer free shipping as an extra incentive to boost conversions.

Zappos

Zappos is one of the top leading online shoe and clothing retailers. Zappos has a great selection of over 1,500+ brands in women, men, and kids’ shoes, clothing, and accessories products you can start promoting on your fashion blog. Zappos Associates has great conversion rates and high payouts and everyday offers such as Fast, free shipping, Free and easy returns, a 365-day return policy, and a top Reward program.

Best CBD Affiliate Programs 

CBD is a booming market with a lot of amazing affiliate opportunities. Since 2019, the demand has greatly increased and CBD continues to be legal at a federal level in the US. CBD affiliate marketing programs usually offer high-commission payouts. You can easily scale your affiliate revenue and negotiate higher commission rates with dedicated affiliate managers. Below are my top picks for high-paying CBD affiliate programs to join.

Direct CBD

DirectCBD offers one of the highest quality CBD products ranging from oils, creams, edibles, and more. The online retailer sells CBD products from well-known brands such as CBDFx, Charlotte’s Web, and CBDistillery. Their online affiliate program offers generous commission rates and high conversion rates.

CBDfX 

CBDFx was the first brand to offer an affiliate program in the CBD market. CBDFx site includes a lot of educational content about CBD and strives to provide full transparency on lab test results and product formulation. The affiliate earnings opportunities are extremely high. 

  • CBDFx Affiliate Program 
  • Network: RevOffers
  • Commission: up to 25% on online sales and 10% off coupon to promote on your blog to incentivize your audience and maximize sales
  • Cookie Duration: 90 days

Pure Hemp CBD 

Pure Hemp CBD affiliate program is one of the highest-paying programs and promotions incentives that will help you automate and scale affiliate revenue. They also offer quick payout terms. If your audience is looking for CBD for pets, face masks, oils, capsules, edibles, or protein, PureHemp CBD is definitely a brand to partner with and promote on your network.

Green Roads 

Green Road CBD is one of the largest CBD brands in the US and one of the top affiliate programs for the hemp/CBD industry. The brand offers many CBD products that help consumers find a healthier life balance, support muscles and Joints, and more. Their website has a wealth of CBD knowledge base and content to help their customers explore the best options for their needs. The average order value is $100 and conversions are up to 30%. The brand has an 80+ product catalog with many assets and promotions to choose for.

Best Beauty Affiliate Programs 

The Beauty Industry has blown up to be a $530+ Billion Industry. If you start an affiliate marketing business, there is a high opportunity to make revenues with beauty affiliate blogs. I have found the 5 following beauty programs, very popular and one of the programs which offer the highest payouts.

Sephora

Sephora is by far one of my favorite picks. Founded in France in 1970, the multinational chain offers the largest and most diverse selection of beauty products including makeup, skincare, fragrance, haircare, and beauty tools. Sephora Affiliate Program includes a portfolio of 200+ beauty brands and 13,000+ products to promote, a high commission rate, every day offers such as free shipping and free samples with every order incentives. 

Ulta

Ulta is one of the top beauty and skincare destinations for many women. They carry more than 500 beauty brands and have over 1200 locations across 50 states. Ulta Affiliate program has special offers and coupon codes for affiliates to use and access to promote their every offer such as free shipping, free gifts with purchase, and buy one get one free promotion.

Yves Rocher

Yves Rocher is another top beauty destination, founded in France over 60 years ago. The store carries innovative and plant-based cosmetics and beauty products for all women. Yves Rocher Affiliate Affiliate program offers one of the highest commission payouts and EPC in the beauty niche and is a perfect program if you are a beauty blogger, or influencer looking to monetize your content. 

BH Cosmetics 

BH Cosmetics offers high-quality and affordable makeup and brush products and is a top online destination if your audience is looking for great deals and promotions. BH Cosmetics AOV is $38 and they have a 6% conversion rate. BH Cosmetics Affiliate Program offers many personalized creatives and dedicated in-house affiliate managers. Payment types include direct deposit and wire. This is a great program to join and start scaling affiliate income. 

Best Sports Affiliate Programs 

The sports industry is booming. The industry weighs about $500 billion (2022). Sports fans are more than happy to spend money once you connect them with the right products or services. I worked for 2 years for a Sports Manufacturing company licensing Soccer fans’ gear and accessories to retailers for sports enthusiasts and fans. This is a massive market to tap into, especially if you can find a range of profitable sports affiliate programs to promote. There are 4 Affiliate marketing programs you should take a look at:

Fanatics 

Fanatics is the world’s largest online retailer of licensed sports merchandise. Shoppers can find their favorite team gear from our selection of over 500,000 products from various sports leagues. The Affiliate Program to earn steady affiliate commissions promoting officially licensed Sports Merchandise and Authentic collectibles for Sports Fans.

Under Armour

Under Armour is one of the top sports apparel and footwear companies that is known for its innovative and high-quality athletic wear designed to help athletes perform at their best. The brand carries a wide range of products including, shoes, sports bras, socks, leggings, and more. 

Under Armour’s affiliate program is recognized by industry-leading organizations and communities such as Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards. The program offers in-app tracking and the AOV is $100. 

Sports Memorabilia

Sports Memorabilia.com is the leading source of authentic sports memorabilia and collectibles that offers 600,00+ products from 11 sports categories. The Affiliate program offers similar program highlights and benefits to Fanatics’ program. Once approved, you will have access to your affiliate dashboard to track your performance and optimize your marketing efforts to increase your earnings. 

Go Pro

If you have an audience passionate about technologies, drones, outdoor activities, photography, and sports, GO Pro Affiliate Program is a great program to join. The Go PRO community is growing and already has millions of passionate users. The program features continuous product launches to write about and allows deep linking.

Best Email Marketing Affiliate Programs 

If you are serious about starting a blog and making money, Email Marketing is going to be essential to engage and nurture a loyal base of subscribers and build long-lasting connections to maximize earning potential. Most email marketing affiliate programs offer a recurring commission structure and have longer cookie duration than in other verticals. If you are helping bloggers, business owners, entrepreneurs, digital creators,s or affiliate marketers to better engage with their audience and auto-pilot revenue, check out these programs that can help you drive monthly passive income in no time. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is one of the best-integrated email marketing automation solutions which offers a self-hosted affiliate program that compensates high recurring commissions for referrals who sign up with the platform. You can create personalized recommendations, software reviews, and comparisons between plans and/or walkthrough videos to help your audience make informed decisions and signup with ActiveCampaign. ActiveCampaign is a very powerful tool, especially for businesses that heavily rely on CRM data management

ConvertKit 

ConvertKit is by far one of the best email marketing tools for creators and bloggers. The platform is very intuitive and easy to use and it has never been easier to grow and connect and grow your audience, automate your marketing campaigns, and earn passive income. ConvertKit is an ideal ESP solution to get you started now. ConvertKit’s affiliate program offers a 30% recurring commission that is going to your bank account every month as long as the visitor who signed up with ConvertKit stays with them.

GetResponse

GetResponse is a complete all-in-one marketing platform that helps affiliate partners grow their online business. The self-hosted Affiliate program has two options to choose from when starting affiliate marketing with them. GetResponse offers two affiliate program payout models. The Recurring program with 33% every month in continuous commissions and the Bounty Program offers to pay $100 per sale for new referrals. 

Let’s do a little bit of math here: 

GetResponse offers several plans to their customers ranging from $15 to $99/ month which means that in the recurring model structure, you can earn $4.95  and up to $33 / signup /month as opposed to banking $100/ any signups with the fixed commission model they offer. 

I will always recommend looking for long-term revenue opportunities especially when you join SaaS affiliate programs for which recurring revenue opportunities are high. 

Nevertheless, in the Saas world, customer LTV is high therefore it is easy to offer one-time generous commission rates to hungry affiliates looking for short-term returns while the earnings can actually be much higher in the longer term.

GetResponse gives you the option. It is all about what makes sense to you and what financial targets you are trying to reach with your blog. Another big plus of the GetResponse program is that they offer a 120-day cookie life.

Aweber

Aweber offers excellent email marketing services with great marketing automation tools and it is a complete solution for bloggers actively engaged with their audience or community, and for passionate and driven digital marketers looking to create an additional stream of income. Aweber has the highest potential payout structure in the email marketing industry. Also, if you are using Canva to create beautiful creative assets for your online business, you will love the built-in option Aweber offers to create emails and landing page builders. 

Best Online Course Platform Affiliate Programs 

If you are There are 5 popular online course affiliate marketing programs you should join, especially if you run a blog about online learning or professional and personal development.

Podia

Podia is a complete all-in-one digital storefront for online courses, digital downloads, webinars & workshops, Coaching & Consultation, and email marketing. Perfect for bloggers and digital marketers looking to offer online learning solutions to their audience through an easy-to-use platform. The tool is intuitive and eliminates many technical implementation headaches you could run with a more complex platform to set up.

Teachable

Teachable is another great online course with over 100,000 creators and professional bloggers using the platform. The top feature of the program is its robust campaign reporting capabilities through Impact Radius. Plans pricing is up to $299/month which guarantees you up to $90 per month in recurring revenue opportunities.

  • Teachable Partners
  • Network: Impact
  • Commission: 30% commission 
  • Cookie Duration: 90 days

Thinkific

Thinkific is another top learning course platform perfect for authority bloggers looking to market their expertise and build an engaged community. What I like about Thinkific is the intuitive online course drag-and-drop content builder to help you quickly and smoothly put your course curriculum in place and in no time. Thinkific also offers free online courses and workshops and partner training to help you continue to succeed in building your business empire. The affiliate program will provide you with ready-to-go creative and promotional content to use to highlight all these key features to equip other content creators, business leaders, and entrepreneurs with the best tools.

Udemy

Udemy is an online teaching course platform with global exposure. It is very popular in France and used by professional bloggers, teachers,  and young entrepreneurs. Udemy offers up-to-date courses covering a variety of topics across the business, tech, IT, personal development, and more. Udemy affiliate program offers many promotional assets and tools to help you drive sales, tracking assets and affiliate links to promote their content.

Coursera

If you wish to provide your audience with a great online course platform to find specializations, and degrees in subjects, such as business, computer and data science, social sciences, personal development, and more, then Coursera is the choice to pick. By joining their Affiliate Program, you will have access to generous commission payouts and up to 4,000+ courses and specializations to choose from and multiple categories. 

Best Website Platform Affiliate Programs 

If you are starting a blog about helping your audience with their online business, then you need to look at the top website platform affiliate programs. The following programs offer very generous affiliate commission terms for you to grow your online revenue. These are also the best website platforms and website builders you can recommend to your audience to help them get set up and scale their online business in no time.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is one of the largest SaaS E-commerce Software for mid to large-scale operations and is used worldwide by merchants, e-commerce marketers, and business owners. The opportunities to earn and automate passive income with their affiliate marketing program are limitless. Get access to powerful tracking tools through Impact Radius and to a dedicated account manager to help you finetune your affiliate strategies and promotion plan with your audience.

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is by far my favorite sales funnel tool.. ClickFunnel Affiliate Program is self-hosted and you can earn a very generous monthly recurring commission. Russel Brunson, ClickFunnel‘s founder,  is one of the most inspiring and motivating entrepreneurs of this decade.

The other plus of the program is that in addition to 40% on those front-end offers, you will also receive a $100 commission for sales of other products of the brand and another 20 to 30%monthly commission on ClickFunnels subscriptions that referred buyers sign up for. The Affiliate program is extremely complete and diversified and the earning opportunities are very high.

Wix

Wix is one of the most popular web publishing platforms with over 200 million people worldwide who choose Wix to create stunning websites. The Affiliate program offers all the creative tools and resources needed for you to promote the platform and earn top commissions on premium users you will refer.  A Premium user is a user who did not cancel their upgrade before the 14-day trial period. 

  • Wix Affiliate Program 
  • Network: Self-hosted
  • Commission: 20% or $100 flat fee for every premium customer
  • Cookie Duration:  30 days

Shopify

Shopify is one of the best e-commerce platforms to use for e-commerce gurus, online stores,, and enterprises. This platform is perfect for small to mid-sized catalog product assortment and offers thousands of additional plugins to enhance online customer journeys and e-commerce experiences. 

As opposed to CRM such as Magento, Shopify has a user-friendly interface to help you manage orders, products, and customer data in an easy-to-use dashboard. Shopify Affiliate program is perfect for online bloggers, course educators, and publishers looking to help new e-commerce entrepreneurs succeed. The program offers high-paying commissions and access to exclusive promotions and 

LeadPages

LeadPages website builder enables you to create great online experiences by using a drag-and-drop builder. It offers a library of mobile responsive landing page templates and a solid SMS campaign feature perfect for small businesses and to use to promote their webinars, books, courses, and grow their leads. LeadPages Affiliate program has great benefits such as a world-class dedicated affiliate support team, special promotions, free content to promote, and more. 

Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs 

Web Hosting solutions are by far the first thing to take care of when you start an online business, an e-commerce site, or an affiliate blog. You cannot ‘live’ on the Internet without hosting your domain on a server accessible to the public. Web Hosting Affiliate Marketing Programs offer one of the most generous commissions and provide their affiliates with all the tools and creative assets they need to become successful. Most of the web hosting affiliate programs are in-house affiliate programs. Below is the list of top web hosting programs you should join.

BlueHost

Bluehost is one of the largest website hosting providers and powers millions of websites. It is the most convenient service that can get you started in minutes. Bluehost affiliate program is self-hosted. If you join the program you can earn $65 per qualified signup/referral. Maximize your earnings by using your tracking links to segment your referred traffic, monitor how different activity performs and compare campaigns. Then use that knowledge to maximize your commissions.

Hostinger 

Hostinger offers affordable hosting services trusted by millions of users and offering affordable hosting services that your audience will love. Hostinger affiliate program offers instant free signup, access to track your performance and optimize your campaigns, and get brand and marketing materials such as affiliate banners and ebooks to use for your website platforms.

  • Hostinger Affiliate Program 
  • Network: Self-hosted 
  • Commission: 60% from every sale, that is up to $150 per referral sales
  • Cookie Duration:  30 days

HostGator 

HostGator is one of the fastest web hosting services around. Their Affiliate Program has a team of dedicated affiliate specialists to help you with any questions about the program, 100+ creatives, and designs to display on your blog, additional discount and custom promo code to help you incentive your audience, and a flexible tiered commission payout structure; the more the visitors who signup with Hostgator, the more the commission payout you will get. 

SiteGround

SiteGround offers ultrafast hosting solutions perfect for WordPress and WooCommerce Sites. The platform operates on Google Cloud to create a powerful and technically-superior hosting service. The affiliate program offers high affiliate earnings, fast payouts, and, top conversion rates. Their affiliate support is fast and professional. You will get access to many tools to help you succeed such as ready-to-go banners and screenshots, custom creatives detailed tracking, dev tools, and a free hosting trial to test all the great functionalities of the hosting service and make great reviews about it. 

WPEngine

WPEngine is one of the best-managed hosting services in the world. WPEngine exclusively manages WordPress sites and experiences and offers higher-end solutions for all WordPress users. WP Engine’s affiliate program is managed on Shareasale and it offers one of the highest affiliate payouts; there are 2 easy powerful ways to earn and access to à dedicated WP Engine Affiliate manager ready to help. They also offer exclusive affiliate discounts that you can offer to your audience to boost your earnings.

  • WPEngine Affiliate Program 
  • Network: ShareaSale
  • Commission: $200 or 100% of the first-month payment for WP Engine & Genesis Pro sales and 35% of StudioPress Theme sales
  • Cookie Duration: up to 180 days

Best  Accounting Affiliate Programs 

If you run an online business or simply need to organize your finances, you must have come to the path of one of the following finance management tools. As you grow your online business, you will need to stay organized and these solutions are doing the heavy lifting for you. I recommend the following accounting tools to anyone who is serious about blogging as a professional and quickly scaling. You can prepare reviews and comparisons for your audience to guide them to the best accounting and finance tool options.

QuickBooks 

QuickBooks helps you organize and manage your business by offering accounting, payroll, and payment services. QuickBooks is very easy to use and will save you and your audience many headaches. The perfect tool for tracking your online income and expenses, organizing clients’ invoices, and more. QuickBooks Affiliate program gives you access to a resource library of marketing content and templates such as banners, guides, and logos.

Freshbooks 

FreshBooks is also a great accounting software solution used by 30M+ people worldwide that helps organize your financial documents and track expenses, project estimates, payments, and more. The dashboard is very user-friendly and clear. I tested it for 14 days, especially for the productivity tool they offer and I really liked it. If you are an entrepreneur or freelancer working on deadlines, Freshbooks is an excellent option to monetize your traffic and promote robust accounting software to your audience. You will get access to article ideas, social media strategies, and tips, email and newsletter ideas, and performance tracking and insights. 

  • Freshbooks Affiliate Program 
  • Network: ShareaSale
  • Commission: $10 per trial signup and 200 for upgrades to a paid subscription
  • Cookie Duration: 120  days 

Best Fitness Affiliate Programs 

If you are running a blog or online business around fitness and personal coaching, you should check out the best fitness affiliate programs. These programs usually offer high payouts and AOV is usually higher than in other verticals. There are two fitness programs that stand out from the crowd.

TRX Training 

TRX is one the best fitness body-weight suspension training to tone and strengthens your upper body and your core. TRX training Affiliate program is a great way to promote training programs and products that fit your audience’s lifestyle. Get access to a dedicated affiliate support team and many affiliate materials and creatives to use to incentivize sales. The average Order Value is $200. 

Wahoo Fitness 

Wahoo specializes in indoor bike trainers, GPS bike computers, cycling sensors & heart rate monitors designed to optimize your cycling training. If you are a sports/ fitness influencer or simply are passionate about cycling or running, the Wahoo Fitness Affiliate program is free and easy to join with access to banner ads and custom URLs to share with your audience or clients if you are a coach running a fitness blog. 

  • Wahoo Fitness Affiliate Program 
  • Network: Refersion
  • Commission: up to 10% on Wahoo non-smart trainer products sold and a 7.5% commission on Wahoo Smart Trainers
  • Cookie Duration: 7 days

Best Consumer and Retail Affiliate Programs

Amazon Associates Program

Amazon Associates affiliate program is one of the largest affiliate programs in the world and it helps publishers, content creators, and bloggers monetize their traffic. You can share products and available programs on Amazon with your audience through customized linking tools and earn money on qualifying purchases and customer actions like signing up for a free trial program. 

Ebay

EBay is one of the largest and most diverse online marketplaces in the world offering global and local brands to their customers through 1.4 Billion listings. EBay connects with millions of buyers and sellers. Partners have built and scaled online revenue with eBay Partner Network. With Deals and promotions specially crafted for affiliates and partners, you will be able to funnel your audience to high-converting landing pages and get rewarded with generous commission payouts. The program gives you access to intuitive tools and comprehensive reports to understand and continue to improve your results. 

Walmart 

Walmart is a great affiliate program; you will have the opportunity to connect your audience to products they love and maximize your affiliate earnings. You get access to weekly newsletters with banners, links, and product information to feature on your blog. In addition, you will discover the Affiliate Member Center, an additional tool to get more marketing materials and generate links and data feeds. 

  • Walmart Affiliates
  • Network: Impact Radius 
  • Commission: up to 4% with three return days
  • Cookie Duration: 3 days

Target 

Target Affiliate program offers quick sign-up, easy tracking links, and one of the highest payouts out there with over 1 million products to promote. You will have access to many affiliate tools and communications such as the program newsletters, promos & deals each week to help you create amazing content whenever you feel inspired.

  • Target Partners
  • Network: Impact Radius  
  • Commission: up to 8% commission
  • Cookie Duration: 7 days

How to Join the best Affiliate Program? 

If I did not cover a vertical in which you currently started your blog, you can find many affiliate marketing programs in your niche by simply going to Google and searching for “your niche + Affiliate Programs” or “your niche + best affiliate program”

For example, if you blog about pets, here’s how you can find top Pets Affiliate Programs. The featured snippet of Google already provides you with a list of affiliate programs to join if you are in this vertical.

Google Search Results - Pet Affiliate Programs

Whether you selected a self-hosted affiliate program or pick a program hosted on an affiliate marketing platform you need to have an active site or blog, with fresh and engaging content and drive enough traffic to start monetizing it.  Paypal is usually the most popular way for merchants to pay their affiliates. You can set up your Paypal account in minutes. 

Security is key

One important thing to consider is to ensure your website is secure (using an SSL certificate). A secure site usually has a padlock icon. If your blog is not secure yet, ensure to get your SSL up and running before signing up for any affiliate programs. 

Don’t forget, it may take several days to get feedback from the affiliate programs. You can also be disapproved of. If this is the case, don’t be frustrated and take action. In order to maximize your chance for a quick approval and start promoting the programs in your blog, I have created an all-in-one solution to help you step-by-step in the process of boosting your affiliate sales and scaling your blog in no time. If you wish to save time and money, this solution will help you.

What are the highest-paying Affiliate Programs?

While there are many other affiliate programs out there to join, Web Hosting and Finance Affiliate programs usually have the highest payout programs because of high-ticket price sales or because they offer recurring payouts as long as customers remain active. SEMRush, Sitegound, Liquid Web, Bluehost, and Kinsta are examples of high-paying programs you can promote on your affiliate site if you are blogging or curating content in the SaaS and Web Hosting niches.

What should Affiliate Marketers look for when selecting an affiliate program Program?

There are 7 factors to look for when selecting a good affiliate program that will help you be successful and scale revenue very quickly: 

Niche – Products or Services 

It goes without saying that you should focus on promoting products/services you have an interest in and you understand. Think of it this way; it will be so much easier to create useful content around products you know, have tested, or love. Giving an honest opinion on products you know will help you increase your conversions and build your online authority and trust with your audience. 

There are so many affiliate blogs that are creating content around programs they are not familiar with or don’t even like or use. Yes, you can still make a business out of it but truth be told, organic and legit opinions always win over fake recommendations. I assume you are starting a blog about a niche you have a bit of passion for and are ready to create value for your audience based on your experience with it.

Commission Structure 

The commission structure is an important factor to consider while selecting affiliate marketing programs you want to promote. The commission base can be a fixed dollar amount per sale of signups,  it can be percentage-based commissions or it can be both. It can also be a fixed percentage for the first sales or conversions followed by a recurring % monthly commission. The higher the commission, the higher your affiliate income opportunities. CPA (Cost Per Action) remains the most used affiliate payout model at this time.

Cookie Duration 

Also called cookie lifetime or cookie length, the cookie duration is the time duration during which the merchant/advertiser will pay you the commission for the sale you referred. Amazon Affiliates has one of the shortest cookie durations of 24 hours, which means that if a visitor clicks on your affiliate link for an Amazon Affiliate product and purchases it 25 hours after clicking your link, you won’t earn the commission. The standard cookie duration can vary from 30-to-60 days. But some companies offer 90, 180, 365 days, and even a full lifetime cookie duration. It all depends on the nature of the products or services being offered.

Earnings Per Click (EPC)

EPC stands for “Earnings Per Click” and depicts the average Affiliate earnings per 100 clicks across all Affiliates in a Merchant’s program. The formula for this is (Commission Earned/Clicks) x 100. This metric helps with analyzing which offer with various payouts performs better. An affiliate can also find high earning offers faster and easier.

Monthly Recurring Revenues (MRR)

If you join a SaaS Affiliate Marketing Program, for example, MRR is going to be one of the best ways to make passive income. Why? Because in any subscription-based business, if you refer a customer, not only will you earn commission on the first sale or sign-up, but for most programs, you will earn recurring monthly revenues every time the customer will get billed for this subscription. 

Example: If you joined an affiliate marketing program offering to pay an affiliate $50 per signup and a recurring $35 for each month the customer stays in business with the company, you will get paid $50 when your visitor signs up for the membership and generate an extra $35 each month, pure.passive.income. Pretty cool huh?

High Average Order Value (AOV)

When looking at top affiliates programs to join, an important metric to look at is the AOV of the customers. The AOV is calculated by dividing the Revenue / Number of Orders. On your side, as an affiliate marketer, if you drive high AOVs on the merchant/ company sites you are promoting products/services for, you will earn more commissions and can put yourself in a good position when it comes to negotiating higher commission structures with affiliate managers.

High Conversion rates 

It is important to mention conversion rates even if it is obvious. When selecting an affiliate marketing program, it is important to ensure the merchant or company has high conversion rates. Low conversion rates will make it more challenging to drive affiliate revenues quickly. High conversion rates can be a good factor to look at before filtering out lower-commission-based programs. 

Where to Find the Best Affiliate Programs? 

You can enroll in self-hosted or in-house affiliate marketing programs or you can join a program hosted in an affiliate marketing network.

Self-hosted programs are usually offered to companies or businesses which have a great infrastructure behind them. You usually fill out a form directly on their website and access your account and performance dashboard on the site itself. 

Usually, popular brands offer self-hosted programs while smaller businesses take advantage of an Affiliate Network in which they can get instant exposure to thousands of potential affiliates (like you). Affiliate Networks usually offer a marketplace functionality to discover top affiliate programs.  

What are the best Affiliate Networks? 

When you start your blog and you join any Affiliate Network, you can benefit from a reliable platform and more advanced performance reports.

Both types of affiliate marketing program hosting solutions have their pros and cons but in either, you will have to go through an approval process, whether automated on the backend or managed by affiliate managers who will manually review your application.

Let’s review the best affiliate networks for most of the affiliate program niches.

Impact Radius 

Impact Radius is the world’s leading partnership automation solution to discover, manage, protect, and optimize all your partnerships in one place. For publishers, the platform can help you connect with 2,500+ partners to accelerate your online revenue in no time. 

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Awin

Awin is a global affiliate marketing network that connects advertisers and publishers to help them maximize their online revenue. With a presence in over 180 countries and partnerships with over 29,000 advertisers, Awin offers a diverse range of affiliate programs across various industries such as fashion, travel, technology, and more. The network provides advanced tools and analytics to help publishers optimize their performance, while advertisers benefit from increased brand exposure and sales. Awin is committed to transparency and fair commission structures, making it a trusted and reliable partner for businesses and publishers alike.

Join Awin.com

Refersion 

Refersion is one of the most trusted affiliate networks in the market and is easy to use for beginner affiliate marketers. The intuitive platform allows us to establish a direct relationship with brands and high-paying affiliate marketing programs, eliminate tracking errors and generate affiliate links to promote in no time. Refersion can be a great alternative to Amazon Associates for publishers used to promote Amazon listings. Merchants are ready to 2-3X the commission payouts and with an average 14-day cookie duration.

Join Refersion

ShareASale

ShareASale is one of the best and oldest Affiliate Networks to join. The affiliate network counts over 4,500 programs joined in 40 different niches and verticals. While it is not the easiest-to-use platform and its backend needs some enhancements,  it is still a good option to start sourcing great affiliate programs and managing your links in one place. ShareaSale affiliate network also partnered with merchants with high potential for growth, which means that you can select less popular programs with huge opportunities and place yourself as a top affiliate partner, and eventually unlock higher commissions more quickly. 

Join ShareASale

Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate) 

CJ Affiliate network is one of the largest and most established networks. You can join a network of world-class brands to start promoting on your own blog and benefit from cutting-edge technology and advanced cross-device tracking. Barnes and Noble, Priceline, GoPro, and thousands more are already trusting the affiliate network and creating amazing relationships with their affiliates. Very Network-based, you should definitely check it out. 

ClickBank

ClickBank is one of the fast-paced affiliate networks giving opportunities to smaller retailers and merchants to advertise their affiliate programs. You will find 270+ different verticals and categories to look for affiliate marketing programs. This is the best network for bloggers who wish to promote digital products. 

Rakuten

Rakuten is mostly known for its amazing CashBack Program, up to 40% in partnerships with thousands of shops and Marketplaces such as eBay Kohl’s, Groupon, and Nike. Rakuten works with more than 10 different verticals as Sports & Outdoors, Electronics, Health & Beauty Etc. This commission-shared model is perfect if you are looking to promote products and drive your audience to amazing deals, 

Partnering with Rakuten is a great option to start with. Rakuten offers an intuitive user interface and an advanced reporting system to track performance. 

You can start looking at each of these affiliate networks and look for great affiliate programs to start promoting. We are going over the top affiliate programs per verticals and you will notice that a majority of these programs are hosted on these networks. 

Wrapping up 

Affiliate marketing is a profitable way to start making money with your blog. You can join affiliate marketing programs in many industries and verticals such as Beauty, Fashion, Sports, Consumer and Retail, CBD, and many more. Keep in mind to look at the program details such as the commission structure, the cookie duration time, the AOV, or even the monthly recurring revenue opportunity. You need to choose what makes the most sense for your blog and for your target goals. 

Podia, Thinkinfic, or Teachable are great high-paying affiliate programs if you sell courses online while promoting Shopify or any other digital marketing tools are great if you target e-commerce businesses looking for the best e-commerce platform solutions. 

Most Affiliate programs are managed by a dedicated affiliate manager you can contact to discuss program details, new promotions, and or negotiate higher commission rates.

You can join many other high-paying affiliate programs but if you are just starting out, I recommend you to focus on around 5-8 programs as a start. Many programs are hosted on Networks where it will be simpler for you to keep track of performance and find even more new programs to join for affiliate marketing beginners. 

Now that you know a bit more about some of the top affiliate programs for beginners and for serious bloggers, take some time to explore them for yourself.

Don’t forget to check your blog before joining any affiliate programs. If you just launch your blog, craft and publish engaging and useful content and ensure your site is secure and the design is clear for your audience. Your blog is your business card. How would you feel if you received a torn card with illegible words from someone you have never met? 

Don’t hesitate to drop a comment if you’d like to see more affiliate programs added to this list. 

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Audrey Durand

Audrey Durand

is an entrepreneur and business executive at Accenture, leading global services and consulting company. Seasoned professional with creative flair and expertise in strategy, consulting, digital, and partnerships for DTC,B2B, and SaaS companies, she is also a trusted resource for entrepreneurs and content creators serious about scaling their digital business and personal brand. With thegoodstrategy.com, she focuses on SEO, blogging, and affiliate marketing solutions to equip her online readership with the right toolset and knowledge to accelerate their online growth.
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which can provide compensation to us at no cost to you. Read more.
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