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.
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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.
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 Merchant Programs and Affiliate Networks
There are two different types of affiliate models you could use in your business when first starting out: in-house merchant affiliate programs and affiliate networks.
In-House Merchant Affiliate Programs
This includes Amazon’s affiliate program, as it manages everything within its own partner program. There are a few other in-house merchant 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?
Valuation Tool
Here’s Our List of the 5 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 affiliate program
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
Impact affiliate program
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 affiliate program
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.
Awin 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 Awin 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 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 this 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 affiliate program
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.