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11 Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners to Make Money (Plus One Bonus!)

So, you’ve decided to set sail into the profitable world of affiliate marketing. Great for you!

If you are just getting started, you may be wondering which types of affiliate marketing programs you could utilize to make some serious money.

Perhaps you want to diversify income for a content site that generates revenue through display advertising, or you are looking for ways to monetize your blogging content. Chances are, no matter which industry or niche you happen to set out for, there is an affiliate platform that will fit your needs.

To join thousands of other affiliate marketers buying and selling online businesses on our marketplace, register for a free account here.

Here Is a Quick Recap of What Affiliate Marketing Actually Is

If you are still in the process of learning what affiliate marketing actually is, it is best that we start at the beginning. Put into simple terms, affiliate marketing is where you sign up with a company or a network (a network being a company that houses multiple offers from different businesses) to sell their products or services. You then typically make a commission every time someone either buys something or executes a desired action.

These desired actions could include someone clicking on a link in your blog to purchase a product on Amazon or completing an offer from one of the affiliate networks we will cover in this guide. You are then paid a commission when traffic that you generated to the retailers’ offer completes a desired action. This money is generally part of the company or affiliate program’s online marketing budget.

Some of today’s most popular business models for these programs include Amazon affiliate and AdSense. Before you get carried away with choosing the best affiliate model for you, it’s best to know the exact niche you want to steer towards. Knowing what you will specialize in will give you a course to follow when choosing the program that will offer you the most return on investment (ROI) based on your business goals.

Before you set out into unknown waters for the first time, it would be wise to see if other affiliate marketers and bloggers have already found potential in the same niche. Research whether other WordPress and starter SEO sites within your niche are promoting affiliate products to gauge market demand. It is usually a good sign if there are other affiliates because you know they wouldn’t bother if there wasn’t potential to grow revenue. You can also collect their affiliate partner offers into a spreadsheet to use later when you start ranking your own site.

How to Decide the Best Affiliate Marketing Program for Beginners

There are a few factors that you need to take into consideration when choosing the best affiliate program to start with. You need to look into each program’s offers, the niches it covers, and the quality of both digital products and the physical products they provide. You need to think about whether these products are something that you are going to want to put time and effort into promoting on your website and social media.

Another thing to look for when deciding the best affiliate program for those just getting started is the ease of use. Read reviews on how other affiliates like the programs’ dashboards, how much support they offer their affiliates, and what software as a service (SaaS) tools they provide for those who might not have a background in tech or web development.

If you are not familiar with building a WordPress website, email marketing, how to build leadpages, or even how to use plugins, you may want to find a solution that can handle this for you. Only consider programs that make joining their network beneficial to both them and you. If you see affiliates complaining about the lack of real-time support or how difficult it was to join from the start, you may want to consider another program.

The affiliate marketing program you decide on should also have a clearly written, detailed payout structure for its affiliates. If you see reviews about affiliate commissions not getting paid on time, payouts not being processed, issues with paypal payments or anything related to this, you will likely have better luck going with a network that actually pays you for your hard work.

How many merchants an affiliate network or program currently has should also be a consideration when deciding on the best fit. If there are hardly any successful affiliates promoting and selling the offer, it may be best to look for something that is at least generating revenue for others. After all, why would you spend time and money promoting something when it clearly has limited revenue potential?

Now that you have a better understanding of what to look for based on your personal and business goals, we should cover the differences between the different affiliate business models.

Difference Between In-House Affiliate Programs and Affiliate Networks

There are two different types of affiliate models you could use in your business when first starting out: in-house affiliate programs and affiliate networks.

In-House Affiliate Programs

This includes Amazon’s affiliate program, as it manages everything within its own partner program. There are a few other in-house affiliate programs, but Amazon is one of the most popular. The network (Amazon in this case) runs its own affiliate software (either custom built or an off shelf one) and pays its affiliates referral commissions through a dashboard they set up.

Affiliate Network

In this model, you are bringing traffic directly to the network’s offer, whether that be a landing page or a form submission. The network will advise you on how you can promote the affiliate offer (usually within a detailed marketing policy), and some even offer marketing content that your business can use to help with conversions and to build trust.

These networks will actively seek new affiliates to spread the reach of their offer and will often have an affiliate manager who oversees everyone in the program. This is a great opportunity for business owners looking to promote a new product, as these networks will manage the affiliates (you in this case), which leaves the company making the offer free to focus on other parts of the business outside of marketing. Now that you have a better understanding of what affiliate marketing is, are familiar with the different models to choose from, and know which niche you want to set out for, what exactly are the best affiliate programs for those just now getting ready to set sail?

Here’s Our List of the 11 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners

1. Amazon Associates

While you may be just getting started, chances are you have heard of the Amazon Associates program if you’ve done any research on affiliate programs for beginners. The Amazon affiliate program is a flagship when it comes to making money through this monetization method. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of tutorials and courses on how you can utilize this network to make a comfortable living. Based on its popularity, it’s no surprise that the program made it to the top of our list. However, there are some things you need to consider with this program.

Amazon is an e-commerce store, not an affiliate network. Most of the other programs on this list are affiliate networks where the network is simply managing the relationship between you and the actual company with the affiliate offer. Setting the popularity of this program aside, you may be wondering about the benefits of utilizing this affiliate program in your business.

Positives

The fact that this affiliate program is the largest and oldest in the world says a lot. Because Amazon has built such a well-known program for affiliates, you can be assured that you have a great foundation to start off with.

When you read reviews about the Amazon affiliate program, you will surely notice the recent update to the program’s commission structures. While this did punch a few holes in some businesses that relied solely on this income source, those who had diversified their revenue streams were less affected. The great part about this program is that it will always pay you on time (usually 30 days after the purchase).

The ease of use with this program is also worth noting. Because it is one of the easiest programs to navigate and implement into an existing business, it is perfect for those looking to get moving right away. No matter which niche you happen to be interested in, the diversity of products through the Amazon program can’t be beat. With tons of diversity in products, the Amazon affiliate program is definitely a top contender for beginners, and you have the option to change links to higher paying offers later on once you start to rank.

Negatives

One negative about this program (other than uncertain commission updates) is that Amazon has a strict terms of service policy you must follow. Search around Amazon affiliate reviews and you will see cases of affiliates being flagged for unknown reasons for a breach of terms of service. These issues can usually be resolved with a little effort, but it is worth mentioning and something to keep in mind as an added nuance to the program.

Because of its sheer size and number of affiliates, the Amazon affiliate program offers far lower payouts than some of the other programs in this list. With the recent updates to these commission rates for affiliates, you should consider whether this program alone will help you achieve your business goals. Another problem that many affiliates have with the Amazon program is having a much shorter cookie duration (24 hours in most cases), which is the tracking code used to see if someone who clicked on your link had made it all the way to the checkout window.

Another downside to this program is the fact that you won’t have an actual affiliate manager to help you should any issues arise. Many affiliates complain about how difficult it can be to get clear answers from anyone in this program, and problems often take much longer to address before being resolved. For these reasons, we always suggest you diversify your revenue streams as much as possible. You shouldn’t keep all of your eggs in one basket, and if your business relies solely on Amazon affiliate income you may want to consider diversifying more.

Many affiliates that come to our marketplace rely on Amazon too much, and while this program is great for the sheer number of products you could tailor to fit your needs, you should always look to diversify.

2. CJ – Commission Junction

Commission Junction is a huge affiliate network that works with companies and promotes products all over the globe. With over 20 years of experience in doing business within the affiliate space, it has a record of being a great option for those first setting out.

Positives

This affiliate program is really great if you are just starting out, as it has been around for some time and provides a stable foundation to start on. With tons of brands and companies to connect with and start marketing products within your niche, you definitely need to consider this network if it fits your business goals.

The CJ user interface has a mixed bag of reviews, with some saying it is very user friendly and others claiming it to be difficult to adjust to. Here are some of the most common downsides to going with this network when first starting out as a beginner:

Negatives

Every brand and company within the CJ affiliate network has different and very specific requirements to be accepted into their program’s offer. In contrast to Amazon’s program, with CJ you don’t have free reign to promote any and all products as you wish without prior approval.

Some of the merchant brands and companies may grant instant access, while others will take weeks or sometimes months to respond. This can be very frustrating when you first start out, as you may have already invested a good amount of sweat equity just getting your content up to relative niche standards.

Another drawback to this affiliate program is the fact that many of the brands and companies looking for affiliates will come and go. Even some of the more well-known brands often disappear from the program without warning, and this can be very problematic. Others have voiced their concern with how difficult it was to get in contact with customer support about issues such as closed accounts with no explanation provided. While there is some great potential within this program, specifically for those who build relationships with the affiliate brands and companies in the network, you should take these negatives into consideration as a beginner.

3. Impact

Leading the way in dashboard functionality and user interface (UI), Impact is another great affiliate program to consider when first setting out in affiliate marketing. With an intuitive interface that offers detailed performance tracking and reporting, this program is great for those wanting more performance metrics to help gear business decisions.

Positives

With over 1,000 brands found in a large array of niches, this affiliate program will definitely have something that suits your desired market. Known for offering one of the best UI and reporting dashboards, it is no wonder why so many affiliates speak very highly of this program.

Impact’s customer service is also known to be great for both beginners and seasoned affiliates because of the support it provides to each and every person within its program. Useful information and detailed “How-to” articles accompany your support requests, making you feel like the program actually cares about your success. Other factors that make Impact stand out from the crowd include the fact that many brands will accept you into their program in little time. This may be due in part to the fact that this program is a bit more difficult to get into at first, so let’s go over some of the anchors that might weigh you down within this program.

Negatives

As mentioned above, the Impact affiliate program is not as user friendly to join as the other options we have covered so far. This can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it. Because many brands will choose to accept you into their program sooner based on the added requirements to apply, you may find this beneficial depending on your longer-term goals. The learning curve to pick up this program is also something that many have complained about based on the added functionality within the dashboard. Because this affiliate network has so much functionality built in, some users have reported a few bugs and other backend issues that you should keep in mind when making your decision.

4. Awin

Awin is your standard online marketplace similar to Amazon and Etsy, with over 13,000 advertisers currently active within its affiliate network. The products and services that this program covers are spread across four different categories:

• Finance and Insurance – these are your traditional loans, personal banking, property, savings and investments, credit cards, and insurance company offers.
• Retail and Shopping – this includes clothing, accessories, electronics, and so on.
• Telecommunications and Services – this category includes offers related to education, training, web hosting, services, and so on.
• Travel – everything from cruises to holidays, trains, hotels and accommodation, car rental, airlines, and general tourism.

The Awin affiliate program offers several digital products and services covering multiple niches, meaning that an affiliate can choose from the categories above to promote. As a marketplace, the platform is great for content creators, site owners, influencers, and technology-based partners who want to advertise their products through building profitable relationships.

Positives

One reason that the Awin affiliate program is a good choice for beginners is the fact that it has over 15,000 active advertisers to choose from and over 200,000 publishers currently within its network. For someone just setting out, this means plenty of offers and products to choose from, and with over $150 million in sales generated since 2019, there is certainly money to be made through this program.

If your business happens to be outside of the US, Canada, and UK markets, you can benefit from Awin’s higher commission rates from an assortment of foreign partners. One great function with the Awin affiliate program is a Chrome extension that allows affiliates to easily generate links across all of its partners. This can be especially useful for Etsy users who like taking a more hands on approach to their affiliate marketing content. The products offered on Awin tend to be more e-commerce heavy, so take this into consideration when comparing Awin to other affiliate programs based on any existing content you have.

Negatives

The first potential downside that comes to mind for the Awin affiliate program is its age. It is a younger network, though it was created from a merger of two older affiliate networks. Some may consider this to be less “stable” and therefore not have the best infrastructure to build your entire business on. Again, be sure to diversify when you can.

Another problem many affiliates have with this network is the user interface in the dashboard once you are accepted. A majority of users have voiced a consistent problem with the UI and dashboard being extremely difficult to navigate. No tech knowledge is required, however, the dashboard itself is not very intuitive.

The approval functionality within this network is also very slow, and response rates can take much longer than some of the other programs we cover here. Some users have also reported “spammy” type sites, so be sure to always be diligent when searching for an affiliate offer to promote.

5. ShareASale

ShareASale is another popular mention on this list, and it works together with the Awin network. The program provides innovative technology to help both affiliates and merchants find a place to work together on profitable marketing campaigns.

This network’s client services include tools that can help you build and grow your own affiliate business, and it also has a huge number of brands and products to choose from.

Positives

ShareASale has been around for some time now, and it currently has over 1,000 active merchants within its network. It offers everything from e-commerce to software, meaning you will have a much broader selection of offers to choose a good fit.

The application process for ShareASale is also very smooth and straight forward, making it easy for beginners to use this momentum to power their journey. Insightful metrics such as your average sales, conversion rates, and earnings per click (EPC) are displayed but can sometimes be difficult to understand.

Negatives

The portal interface is outdated, making it difficult to navigate through the dashboard to understand the provided metrics, as mentioned above. Because the UI has received a lot of attention for not being user friendly, it can also be difficult to establish relationships with potential partners, which is not something that will help you grow as a beginner.

6. FlexOffers

FlexOffers is an affiliate network that has over 12,000 affiliate programs and over 500 advertisers. Its affiliate program categories range from automotive to business, education, entertainment, legal services, sports, travel, and so many others. Its new publisher platform has received many great reviews, and the affiliate program itself may be one of the largest in the space.

Positives

With such a huge network of merchants to choose from, this is definitely a great program for any niche no matter which type of affiliate content you plan on providing. FlexOffers works a little differently compared to other programs we have already discussed. It offers special sub-affiliate programs should you choose, meaning you sign up as a FlexOffers affiliate using its link and split the commission you earn, making it easier to get into that merchant’s program.

FlexOffers claims to add 50 new advertiser programs daily, meaning if something doesn’t fit your desired niche today, something may show up soon. This is a great opportunity for those first starting out, as you may want to have some fresh offers to add into your business model right from the beginning.

Negatives

FlexOffers has great flow in available offers, as we discussed above, but one drawback is the difficulty some affiliates have in getting paid out. We have seen quite a few reviews about affiliates not being paid on time for one reason or another. Keep this in mind should you have other capital invested and are counting on this revenue to make further improvements to your business.

As mentioned earlier with the sub-affiliate program, the path you take with this network will determine the money you can expect to make. The difficult signup process is another deterrent, as partners are very choosy with who they allow into their programs, which may explain the need for a sub-affiliate scheme in the first place. The fact that you will need a well-designed, professional-looking website as soon as you set sail means this program might not be the best fit for those who still don’t have much experience.

7. VigLink (Sovrn)

VigLink, also known as Sovrn, is an affiliate program that has taken a new approach to traditional affiliate marketing tools. Sovrn acquired VigLink to expand its publisher monetization platform, which was founded in 2009 to help publishers monetize their content by automatically inserting affiliate links.

Positives

One really great feature that this affiliate program offers in automation is that you won’t have to worry about manually generating, tracking, and organizing any of your affiliate links; rather, you simply add the VigLink code to your website’s header/footer and the VigLink automation will do this all for you.

The way it works is VigLink will scan each of your site’s pages, and if there are any domains or URLs that companies could be associated with in the VigLink affiliate network, it will convert that URL, domain, or content into a VigLink affiliate URL. The software also finds special keywords including names, locations, places of interest, and other words that may be linkable to a specific partner’s offer in its network.

This means that your pages will automatically have the affiliate links put on your page without any work on your end required. The biggest decisions you will need to make from here will include whether you will choose between a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) merchant offer. This offers great potential for those looking to monetize user-generated content like on forums and communities hosted by your website.

Negatives

We discussed how the automatic link tools provided by VigLink could be great to help speed up your ship-off date into the waters of affiliate marketing, but this can also be a negative feature as well. Depending on how these links are placed on your website or within your content, it may end up leading to lower conversions than if you had placed a different product than what was automatically chosen for you by the AI.

Your site speed should also be a concern here, in that adding additional code that will need to be scanned each time a user populates your landing page might lead to lower conversions as well. The only way to tell whether the automatic link tool is a good fit is to try it out and see if manually placing links leads to higher conversion rates. As with most automated services, not everything should be trusted to perform accordingly. Be sure to check that any links this affiliate program does provide you are in proper working order.

8. Skimlinks

Similar to VigLink (Sovrn), Skimlinks has also implemented an automatic link creation tool for its affiliates to utilize by simply adding a bit of code to their website. One way that Skimlinks is different is that the platform turns regular links from over 20,000 online merchants into affiliate links without any effort required on your end. For this link creating service, Skimlinks will take 25% off the top. Merchants do not pay you – instead you generate revenue from all merchant commissions through the Skimlinks program.

Positives

One huge benefit similar to VigLink is the fact that you won’t have to manually create and track affiliate links on your own, which means you can focus on more important things. This platform also provides huge potential for those looking to monetize user-generated content like forums and communities hosted by your website.

The Skimlinks affiliate program is huge, with over 24,000 active merchants currently providing offers to affiliates. With such a wide range of niches, you will surely find the perfect product for your affiliate site’s content.

Negatives

For some, the automatic link generator might be more of a burden than a benefit. And as with many other programs we have already covered, another downside to this network is that some affiliates have complained about not receiving their payments. Often users will say that once they reach a certain number in sales, usually above the $1,000 payout mark, they get a notice that their account has been suspended for suspicious activity. Keep this risk in mind when deciding whether or not you plan to scale your affiliate business to this size – and the same goes for any other program we have mentioned already.

9. ClickBank

Another affiliate network giant, ClickBank has been around for more than 20 years and has grown to more than six-million clients worldwide. It is known for offering some of the highest commission rates for its affiliates (some offers up to 75%) and making it easy to join.

Positives

What makes ClickBank one of the best affiliate programs for those still new to this space is that you don’t need prior approval by a merchant to start promoting its offer. Some merchants may require specific things before approval, but this is very rare. Many offers found on this network feature recurring commissions as well for those looking to build an automated system to gain conversions and ultimately revenue.

It is also worth mentioning that the ClickBank affiliate network offers some amazing payouts and has always been known to pay on time. Most of the merchants found on its dashboard will also provide much of the marketing material and page copy you will need, such as presale pages, product images and brand logo designs. All of this promotional material can really help you in presenting your offer in a trustworthy fashion, helping increase your conversions at the same time. ClickBank is obviously one of the top choices for beginners first setting out into affiliate marketing waters, but there are also a few things to keep in mind if you choose this network.

Negatives

The biggest drawback to ClickBank is the fact that it has become so popular over the years, and competition for these products is fierce. With high approval rates and little vetting done on ClickBank’s side in terms of quality control, it may feel like the most “obvious” money-making products might already be oversaturated with other affiliates. Another downside is the fact that return rates for this network are much higher than some of the other programs on this list.

The ClickBank interface has also been seen as outdated and offers less performance tracking metrics than some of the other options already covered. Interlaced with an outdated interface, the offers themselves found on ClickBank’s network also look to be older. The strategy for many of these merchants has been to use high-pressure direct sales copywriting over well-designed imagery content. Because of this, many first-time affiliates might not feel comfortable with this high-pressure sales technique. A majority of this ties back into the fact that so many other affiliates are joining every day and promoting the exact same products within their niche.

10. Rakuten Advertising

Rakuten Advertising (formerly Rakuten Marketing) is an affiliate marketing service provider with more than 150,000 publishers and brands worldwide. The company has claimed the largest pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet, and it offers an amazing program for beginners in the affiliate marketing space.

Positives

Rakuten advertising offers an amazing dashboard for its affiliates that is very easy to use and provides some “out of the box” performance metrics and reports that make promoting the offers within your business model a breeze. The account managers that are included with its subscription plans have been known to be very helpful, and customer support has kept many affiliate business owners afloat while managing their affiliate offers.

Negatives

A few downsides to this affiliate program include more high-level things such as missing report metrics and other performance metrics that are not being tracked. Because not many metrics are shared with you, often you will be guessing which affiliate offers to target within your content.

The approval rates for this network are also not the best for those first getting started. Chances are you will need to be a bigger affiliate rather than a brand new one to get approved for this affiliate program. Putting getting approved aside, the commission rates for this program are also not the best (often around the 20% range), meaning you would need much more traffic to convert on these offers compared to some of the other network options. Additionally, the Rakuten interface itself is very outdated, having the look of dashboards commonly found back in 2005. Outdated interfaces have been a trend for many affiliate programs we have covered in this list, and on that subject, next up is the oldest brand on this list.

11. Ace Hardware

That’s right! One of the largest names in the US for tools and home improvement also has its very own affiliate program and is a great option for those looking to set out promoting content related to this market. This affiliate program is amazing for the wide range of products you have to choose from and for the trust you gain automatically from traffic having a quality brand name most will have heard in this space.

The Ace Hardware affiliate program includes many useful tools for those just getting started in affiliate marketing and offers some great incentives not found in other programs.

Positives

Offering a huge variety of quality products to choose from, the Ace Hardware affiliate program has thousands of options in the home improvement market. If you are accepted, Ace Hardware sends you all of the necessary tools you need to add into your content, making the setup process quick and easy.

Daily reports on impressions, click-throughs, conversion rates, top performing products, and commission reports are clearly displayed on your dashboard and easy to understand. Another added bonus to this affiliate program is that you have a 30-day cookie for traffic that clicks on your offer and does not make a conversion. This is huge for those more expensive items that may require more nurturing before traffic is ready to buy.

Negatives

The biggest anchor weighing down this program is the fact that you need to be in the home improvement niche for this program to make you any serious money. Based on this limitation, the Ace Hardware affiliate program will not suit everyone’s needs. Because the Ace Hardware affiliate program uses the same software as Impact, if you don’t like this Impact, you may not enjoy the functionality of Ace Hardware’s affiliate program either.

With plenty of affiliate programs to choose from, and now having a better idea of how our top choices all compare, the next step is to sign up for one or more of the programs detailed in this list.

Honorable Mention: Best Buy

If you’re in the electronics space and you’re driving a majority of your traffic from the US, Canada, and Mexico, the Best Buy affiliate program should be at the top of your list for potential partnerships.

With the Best Buy affiliate program, you get access to a solid brand with a wide range of electronics that are currently up to date. You’ll also get a large selection of banners, content ideas, and free tools to help make your affiliate marketing efforts successful.

One of the biggest drawbacks to the Best Buy affiliate program isn’t with the program itself. It’s the nature of the niche. While some of the most successful affiliate marketing businesses are in the electronics and equipment niches, these businesses tend to require a little more work as upgrades come out and electronics evolve.

That means you’ll have to keep a careful eye on the Best Buy affiliate program creatives to make sure they’re up to date and that your links are working correctly. You’ll also need to review and revise your content consistently to increase your CTRs.

How to Get Approved for Affiliate Programs

If you’ve found a network or program that fits your niche and your financial goals, you’re probably wondering how to get approved for affiliate programs.

Each network will have different requirements for how to get approved for affiliate programs. Most will require an existing website with high-quality, unique content, and some have minimum traffic requirements.

You can get details about how to get approved for affiliate programs on each individual partner’s page. Unless you’re signing up to individual programs such as Ace Hardware, once you’ve been approved for the network, you’ll have to figure out how to get approved for affiliate programs with each partner.

The process here is usually straightforward. Once you’ve found a potential affiliate partner, you can request to join their network. Each partner will also have different requirements, so it’s worthwhile to request to join a few different ones when you’re starting out in case you don’t currently meet the requirements for one.

The Affiliate Program You Choose Might Give You a Profitable Exit

Depending on which programs best match your business goals and desired niche, you should have a better understanding of how these programs differ from one another and how to get approved for affiliate programs. Many affiliate site owners don’t ever stop to think about how they can diversify their affiliate income outside of the network they are currently involved in.

When you diversify your affiliate offers, you help keep your business afloat should any of your other affiliate income take a hit. Once you have a decent amount of traffic and revenue being generated across multiple affiliate offers, you give interested buyers a more valuable business, which in turn can demand a higher sales price.

If you’ve added one of the high-paying affiliate programs mentioned on this list into your business and are looking to find out how much you could sell it for, head over to our free online business valuation calculator.

There you can find out exactly how much your affiliate business is worth compared to similar businesses currently on the market.

For those who want to skip the startup work that is required to apply, build a website or Shopify store, and gain enough traffic to make consistent income, head over to our marketplace to find an affiliate business already generating income and sailing in the direction you would like to set out for.