Best 20 Most Profitable Affiliate Marketing Programs to Join
Being an affiliate marketer is one of the best ways to make money online, especially for bloggers and content creators. By joining affiliate marketing programs, you can start earning passive income without having to build your own brand from scratch or worrying about inventory management.
What are affiliate programs?
Affiliate programs, also called associate programs, offer a third-party platform that allows individuals and brands to find and work with each other.
Both parties sign up for the platform, discuss a collaboration, and start to work together.
But behind the scenes, these affiliate programs are complex behemoths that do much more than help merchants and affiliate companies. They also provide some very essential services to both parties.
What Is an Affiliate Program, and How Does It Work?
Affiliate marketing programs are partnerships that pay commissions for selling a product or service on your websites or social media channels.
Vendors or affiliate networks typically set a certain percentage you will get and track each sale using affiliate links. These links will track the IP of the referred users, as well as validate purchases and conversions.
Affiliate links also use cookies that stay in the users’ web browsers for a set amount of time. As a result, the affiliate marketer will earn a commission if users perform the desired action within this period.
To join an affiliate program, simply look for products or services you like and your target audience may be interested in. Many brands offer in-house affiliate programs, though you can also join an affiliate marketing network that partners with a large variety of vendors.
As affiliate marketing is performance-based, vendors mainly use these three methods to evaluate it:
- Pay-per-sale – payments are based on how many affiliate sales the marketer can generate.
- Pay-per-click – affiliate partners’ commissions depend on how much traffic they can bring to a merchant’s website via an affiliate link.
- Pay-per-lead – commission is paid for each potential customer that takes the desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter or downloading a PDF file.
Best 20 Most Profitable Affiliate Marketing Programs to Join
Affiliate Marketing Programs
1. Hostinger Affiliate Program
As one of the most popular website hosting providers, Hostinger has high conversion potential. Moreover, its affiliate program offers a 60% commission rate, with no limit to how much publishers can earn.
To join the program, you’ll only need to fill out the affiliate form with information such as contact details, the link to your website or social media, and the type of content you provide. The review process may take up to three business days.
Once your account is approved, you can start promoting immediately. Many marketing materials are available for your websites, like seasonal eBooks and professional banner design packages. Plus, you will have a dedicated affiliate manager to help you achieve a successful online business.
However, keep in mind that affiliates can only request a payout once it reaches the minimum amount of $100. The payment is made monthly on the 15th of each month via PayPal or bank transfer. Commissions are only applied for first purchases, which means that renewal costs don’t count.
2. Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates has been one of the top affiliate programs for beginners since 1996. In fact, it was the first online affiliate marketing program in the world.
Since its inception, it’s been helping online marketers make money by advertising to the millions of customers that shop on Amazon each year. When an Amazon affiliate shares a link that leads to a sale, they earn referral fees from the transaction.
And since thousands of businesses are learning how to sell on Amazon each year, the potential for affiliates to grow is seemingly infinite.
To get started as an Amazon affiliate, all you have to do is click the Sign-up button on the Amazon Associates page. Anywhere from 1% to 20%, depending on product type.
3. ClickBank
ClickBank is among the top companies with affiliate programs that appeal to all kinds of marketers. Its affiliate information is completely open to anyone, making it a valuable affiliate platform to consider for your success.
ClickBank started out of a garage in 1998 but quickly grew to become one of the top retailing and affiliate sites in the world. It currently boasts a large number of affiliates who’ve earned billions in commissions promoting ClickBank products.
Because of its success and 20-year history, it’s an excellent option for getting started, no matter your expertise. With tons of products to promote and a wide variety of companies to partner with, it’s hard to pass up.
4. Commission Junction (CJ)
CJ is a 20-year-old affiliate marketing program that has been helping affiliates and merchants since day one.
According to its website, the company works with twice as many Internet Retailer 500 companies than any other affiliate program. CJ also boasts that merchants favor its site twice as much as other affiliate marketing programs.
And when you take a closer look at everything it has to offer, that claim seems to hold up quite nicely. Here’s the vast list of niches you can find on the site, not to mention the all-inclusive “other” category.
For more information about affiliate programs and the latest news visit the site.
5. GiddyUp
GiddyUp is suitable for beginners because it offers an affiliate manager and helpful tools to assist you with different aspects of its program.
You can partner with over 150 DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands across a range of verticals, including travel, electronics, health and wellness, and more. GiddyUp’s affiliates get exclusive access to these e-commerce businesses.
The company also provides a creative library to assist your digital marketing campaigns, robust tracking, and real-time data, so you can analyze your performance month over month.
6. Fiverr Affiliates
With the Fiverr Affiliate Program, publishers earn money by sharing links that promote Fiverr’s services. All payments are made through bank transfer, Fiverr Revenue card, or PayPal.
Moreover, Fiverr’s affiliate program has two commission plans to choose from:
- Cost-per-action (CPA) commission. The commission rate ranges from $15 to $150, depending on the service categories. For Instance, eCommerce gigs pay a $50 commission while other services unspecified within the tiers pay a flat $15.
- Hybrid commission. It allows you to get a $10 CPA per purchase and a 10% revenue share for a year.
7. Moment Affiliate Program
If you’re passionate about photography and traveling, consider joining the Moment Squad. Not only will you get payments ranging from a 6% to a 15% rate on all gear recommendations, but you’ll also earn 10% from promoting online courses and $100 for travel.
This affiliate program will also give you access to a community of other creative professionals, from photographers to designers. It’s an excellent opportunity to learn and gain exclusive access to gear.
8. Impact
The Impact is one of the few affiliate marketing programs that connect individuals with top brands like Airbnb, Uber, Adidas, and more. It’s known for its automation tools to help streamline your campaigns and generate more sales.
You can join and manage partnerships with these companies for free—the brands span various categories, including beauty, travel, retail, fitness, and others.
After signing up with Impact, you get access to a marketplace where you find top brands and contact their affiliate managers directly.
9. Awin
Awin is another top affiliate program for beginners. It doesn’t require you to have a website—you can join using any of your social media profiles, like Instagram, Pinterest, or YouTube.
All affiliates applying to Awin undergo a compliance check verifying their details. You must also make a $5 deposit to join the program, which Awin will reimburse once you reach your first payment threshold.
Awin offers access to over 21,200 brands, including leading brands and household names. You can visit the company’s advertiser directory and search for any program you want to join, or contact someone from the brand to discuss a collaboration.
10. Rakuten Affiliate
Last, but not least, is the Rakuten affiliate publisher program. This program has the third-largest market share of affiliate networks, at 7.25%.
Rakuten is connected to over 2,500 different retail brands that sell all kinds of products. Find the item and merchant that suits you best, and then click on the Apply button to proceed.
One of the more unique elements of the Rakuten affiliate program is that most companies are heavily involved in the affiliate screening process. If you’re not a good fit, don’t be surprised if the answer comes back no.
11. FlexOffers
With over ten years of experience, FlexOffers is one of the leading affiliate marketing networks. It offers a wide array of content delivery tools and formats, an easy-to-use dashboard, and a quick signup process.
This affiliate site offers the FlexRev-$hare program that lets publishers earn extra money for every sale made by the sub-affiliate they refer to FlexOffers.
However, this platform is not very suitable for beginners as the training resources are limited. You also need to have a decent following to get accepted. Plus, it doesn’t offer any additional tools to manage campaigns on mobile.
12. Astra
The Astra affiliate program is easy to join and provides very lucrative earning potential in the web niche. As the world’s most popular premium WordPress theme, it already has a huge following and a lot of market presence. That makes it very easy to promote.
The product is genuinely good and has received thousands of five-star reviews. This makes marketing the product simple as it genuinely delivers on its promises and has some big names like Chris Lema and Adam Preiser saying good things about it.
As an Astra affiliate, you could earn up to 50% commission by promoting the Brainstorm Force’s products. That’s up to $375 per individual sale.
13. Canva
Canva is a popular design platform among beginners that allows users to create posters, presentations, and other visual content easily. If you are an experienced graphic designer or a beginner interested in the design niche, the Canva affiliate program might be the right option.
It pays commissions based on the user plan choice. For example, affiliates can earn an 80% commission for the first two months of their membership and a 25% one-time payment commission for an annual membership.
With a personal dashboard, you can easily find valuable information about Canvas products, contract terms, and an overview of how your affiliate link performs.
Moreover, Canva has a low threshold for commission payment, where affiliate marketers will get paid after earning $10. They will receive payouts once a month via bank transfer or PayPal.
14. Fitbit
Fitbit is one of the leading brands in fitness gadgets, with an over 72% market share in the industry. The commission rate starts as small as 3% but can go up to 12% for highly sought-after products.
To join this affiliate program, ensure your website is active and apply through the CJ Affiliate network. Once your form has been approved, you can start promoting it on your site. Furthermore, Fitbit offers higher commission rates for affiliates that have high-volume transactions.
However, as of now, the Fitbit affiliate network is limited to the U.S. and Canada region. It also features high competition due to its popularity, making it harder to profit in some situations.
15. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a powerful email marketing platform that helps users build an email list and grow their customer base.
If you know why email marketing is important and its benefits, sign up for the ConvertKit affiliate program – one of the best recurring affiliate programs. By joining it, you can earn a lifelong 30% commission for up to 24 months for each sale made via your affiliate link.
After becoming their affiliate marketer, you will have access to the product resources, such as webinars, a dedicated affiliate manager, and video and graphic assets. What’s more, you can undergo training with one of the most popular affiliate marketers, Pat Flynn.
16. Nordstrom
Nordstrom is another excellent brand to work with that is suitable for beauty and fashion influencers or bloggers. It provides tons of premium fashion products that can sell for high profit, especially with the brand’s well-known reputation.
It partners with Rakuten, which provides many affiliate marketing tools at your disposal, from tracking links to commission reports. Nordstrom also has various promotional offers for affiliates to share with their audiences, such as free shipping, free returns, and free personal styling.
As for payment, affiliates can get their monthly commission through a check, PayPal, and American Express. If you earn less than $25, they will hold the payment until it reaches the threshold.
17. Cheapflights
Cheapflights is one of the best travel affiliate programs and offers services for affordable flight tickets, hotel reservations, and other travel bookings. Affiliates will get paid $0.25 for each click-out on desktop and tablet and $0.45 on mobile.
Thanks to the partnership with CJ Affiliate and WebGains, affiliates can access a vast selection of assets and seamless website integrations.
For example, you can use widgets enabling visitors to book directly from your website. Moreover, many of these tools can be white-labeled using your brand.
18. HubSpot
We recommend HubSpot’s affiliate program for anyone looking to earn a high flat commission from promoting digital marketing products. With the flat-rate program, affiliate marketers can receive 100% of the first month’s revenue and 15% of the revenue for annual purchases.
As for the recurring program, affiliates will earn a monthly commission of 15%.
The downside is that selling expensive affiliate products can take a while. Additionally, HubSpot only pays via PayPal.
19. Sephora
Sephora is an ideal program for beauty website owners. There are over 13,000 high-quality products to promote, ranging from luxury cosmetics to niche skincare products.
Besides that, Sephora offers various rewards and promotional campaigns for their customers, which can be beneficial for affiliates to advertise them. Plus, there are no restrictions on which brands to sell.
To join the program, simply sign-up on the website and wait for your site approval. Once you get accepted, you’ll get access to special promotions, member-only newsletters, and many other affiliate marketing assets.
20. Twitch
Unlike the other affiliate programs in this list, with Twitch, your earnings are generated not from links but from viewer-paid subscriptions.
The pricing structures are divided into $4.99, $9.99, and $24.99. Each plan comes with ad-free viewing and custom emotes. Viewers can also opt to subscribe via the Amazon Prime membership for free.
Similarly, Twitch affiliates can earn from tips, and unique currency called Bits, which are special emotes viewers buy to show for their favorite streamer.
To qualify as a Twitch affiliate, you must have at least 50 followers. Plus, a total of 500 minutes of your stream watched by at least three concurrent viewers within a month for seven different days.
