Our blog is dedicated to helping affiliate marketers. We know that promoting products can be tough, and we want to help you make as much money as possible. On our blog, we’ll post all sorts of articles about making money online through affiliate marketing. We’ve got an array of tips and tricks for getting more views on your content and making more sales. You can also find articles about all the products you can promote through Amazon Associates or other affiliate programs!

Email Marketing Software For Affiliate Marketers Amazon

For those thinking about ditching the 9 to 5 routine and taking the affiliate route, you’ll want to make sure to have the top affiliate marketing tools at your disposal.

If you’re not already familiar, affiliate marketing enables people to earn income by promoting other companies’ products or services. And one of the main challenges of affiliate marketing is managing multiple product offerings at the same time.

In fact, most affiliate marketers prefer to promote no more than 10 products.

So, if you really want to make some money in the affiliate marketing game, you’ll need to have the right software to optimize different offers across multiple platforms.

The 16 best affiliate marketing tools in 2021 have been broken down by their function, which consists of the following:

Best chatbot for affiliate marketing
Affiliate ad tracking tools
Analytics for affiliate network performance
Competitor ad insights
Tools to improve website ad performance
Run affiliate ad campaigns
Affiliate marketing tools for Facebook
Find and buy available domains
Marketplace for affiliates
Build landing pages that convert sales
Link tracking tools for affiliates
Affiliate link cloaking tools
Tools for building a mailing list
Affiliate marketing tools for Instagram and Pinterest
WordPress plugin for Amazon affiliates
Text message marketing tools
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1. Best Chatbot for Affiliate Marketing: MobileMonkey

The best live chat software allows you to proactively engage with customers and prospects in order to grow revenue, generate leads, and offer real-time support across multiple channels. And for affiliate marketers, live chat combined with chatbot automation can be extremely powerful.

In fact, studies have shown that live chat software:

Boosts website engagement rates by 3X
Increases conversions on websites by 45%
Makes consumers 63% more likely to return to a website
Most web chat software is only available to use on a company’s website. However, with OmniChat™ technology by MobileMonkey, you can engage with customers across multiple channels, whether that’s a website, SMS text messages, or other messaging apps.

There are a lot of web chat examples for marketing affiliates to choose from, such as:

Qualify and generate leads
Increase engagement on Instagram
Build a sales chatbot
Get more reviews
Run a Facebook giveaway
Send bulk text messages and Facebook Messenger chat blasts
The ability to use live chat on different marketing channels, all from one unified inbox, is a game-changer for affiliate marketers.

2. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Ad Tracking: Voluum

Voluum is an ad tracking platform that’s designed specifically for affiliate marketers.

You can use Voluum to track all of your advertising campaigns, analyze data for insights, and optimize your ads performance.

Voluum is an affiliate marketing tool that works with most all advertising traffic sources and comes with pre-built templates for the following platforms, and more.

Additionally, Voluum supports all advertising formats, including the following:

Native ads
Search ads
Display banners
Push notification ads
Pop ads
Social media ads
Email advertising
Video ads

3. Network Performance Analytics for Affiliate Marketers: AffJet

AffJet allows you to see your earnings across different affiliate networks all from one dashboard.

This enables affiliates to demote poor performing links, double down on missed opportunities, and boost commissions.

AffJet has a simple setup process where all you have to do is add your affiliate networks and import your data into the dashboard.

From there, you can apply filters to see the data that’s most important to your business from one or across multiple networks, track trends to spot new opportunities, and construct detailed reports to share with others or save for your own reference.

4. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Ad Intelligence: AdPlexity

AdPlexity is one of the best tools for ad intelligence. The platform allows you to keep track of your competitors’ profitable ads across a number of different ad types, including:

Desktop
Mobile
Native
Push
Ecommerce
Enterprise

So, what can AdPlexity do? Let’s take the Mobile ads product as an example.

AdPlexity’s Mobile product keeps track of your competitor’s most profitable ad campaigns on mobile traffic sources. This helps you make better marketing decisions by learning what ads are already successful.

So instead of trying to build everything from scratch, hoping that you’ve created some ads that will have high-performance, you can simply copy what’s already working and make it your own.

AdPlexity provides comprehensive data on profitable campaigns, which include the following capabilities for mobile ads specifically:

See campaigns running in over 75 countries.
Uncover profitable campaigns running on mobile popup traffic sources.
Analyze in-app ads running on thousands of Android apps that AdPlexity monitors.
Download every landing page with page dependencies (images, CSS, javascript, etc.) in a zip file straight off AdPlexity’s user interface.
Uncover hidden campaigns that are running exclusively on mobile carrier traffic (120+ carriers supported).
Get real-time insights into campaigns running on mobile ad exchanges.
Find ads promoting affiliate offers from 100 affiliate networks.
Search by keyword, advertiser, publisher, affiliate network, and more.
If AdPlexity doesn’t have enough firepower for you, take a look at WhatRunsWhere. WhatRunsWhere is another ad spy platform that gives you actionable insights into your digital strategy.

5. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Improving Website Ad Performance: AdThrive

Many affiliate marketers choose to place Google AdSense on their sites which allows you to set up ad blocks that other sites can pay to use.

And although getting additional income from AdSense is fine, it’s hard to build a successful online business when you’re only making a few dollars in ads per 1K website visitors. Which is where AdThrive comes in.

AdThrive works with your team to optimize your ads for improved performance.

How does AdThrive improve your ad performance? They take a deep dive look into your analytics to understand the advertisers who will see the best performance on your site.

As a result, you can expect higher click-through rates on your ads, which will help you to generate more revenue.

6. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Ad Campaigns: Zeropark

If you’re a strong performance marketer yourself and want to manage your own ads, try Zeropark.

Zeropark is an advertising platform that makes it possible to quickly launch ad campaigns in a number of unique formats. This includes:

In-app native ads
Pop-up ads
In-page push ads
Push notification ads
Domain redirects

The Zeropark platform has access to billions of monthly clicks across its different formats which means there will almost always be inventory.

This is a great way to test new product offers to see if they convert before you decide to invest additional resources into them.

One key benefit of Zeropark is its rapid campaign approval process. If you’re familiar with Facebook ads and other ad platforms, then you know it can take time for ads to be approved. Worse yet, they can be denied, which is common in the affiliate marketing space.

Even if an ad is denied, unlike platforms like Facebook that will give you a vague reason as to why and leave you to figure that out on your own, Zeropark has a dedicated team for fast campaign approval, and will provide details on how to get rejected ads approved.

7. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Facebook: MobileMonkey

MobileMonkey has a plethora of digital marketing tools available on its platform built specifically for Facebook Messenger.

In the infographic below, you’ll find ten MobileMonkey marketing use cases of Facebook Messenger for business.

One of the more popular MobileMonkey Facebook marketing tools are Facebook Messenger ads. Messenger ads present a rare opportunity that savvy digital marketers are taking advantage of in 2020.

And that’s because Facebook Messenger ads are different than regular Facebook ads. Most importantly, Messenger ads perform better than normal Facebook ads because they start a more engaging conversation with chatbots.

A couple of types of Facebook Messenger ads exist. There’s an ad viewed on any Facebook property that directs traffic to Messenger. And then there’s sponsored content that’s native in Messenger.

Another cool thing about Facebook Messenger ad experiences is that they can take place across the Facebook family of apps, including the Facebook newsfeed, Instagram newsfeed, Facebook and Instagram Stories, Marketplace, Messenger, and others.

And Facebook Messenger ads differ from your average Facebook ad because they always lead to a conversational experience between your business the prospect.

Here are the top 4 reasons to use Facebook Messenger ads:

Messenger ads outperform other ads by 2X-10X
Instant lead and data capture
More features available for personalization
Automated lead qualification and follow-ups with chatbots
Check out the top 7 Facebook ad hacks of all time to get some more ideas!

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8. Affiliate Marketing Tools to Find Domains: Flippa

One problem affiliate marketers constantly run into is the need to build a new website from scratch for each of their new product offerings. Not only is this time consuming, but it also means you’ll have almost zero SEO power, which takes years to build.

Flippa is a domain marketplace where affiliates can find existing domains for sale that already have a domain authority (DA) score that won’t make it impossible for consumers to find your content.

When you have multiple offerings and you want to get to market fast, check through Flippa to see what’s available and relevant to your next offering.

9. Marketplace for Affiliate Marketers: ClickBank

ClickBank is a leading global retailer with its own affiliate marketplace. If you’re looking for products to sell with a reliable payout history, ClickBank could be a good opportunity.

Its resources include opportunities to sell with the marketplace, discover and shop for innovative products, find top-performing products to promote, and learn how to make money online with courses in performance marketing.

Typically, ClickBank is used by a few different types of affiliates:

Affiliates that are just starting out and looking to learn the ropes of how to sell products online.
People wanting to start a side hustle for supplemental income.
Existing affiliates who are adding to their portfolio of products and can use ClickBank to more or less automate additional sales.
ClickBank has partnered with affiliates around the world to sell to over 200 million customers. Affiliates choose ClickBank because of its evolving inventory of digital and physical goods.

Additionally, if you’re looking for reliability, ClickBank claims to have never missed a payment in over 20 years.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for in ClickBank, take a peek at ShareASale. Similar to ClickBank, ShareASale is an affiliate marketing network where affiliates can find products to promote and earn a commission for referrals on those products.

10. Affiliate Marketing Tools to Build Landing Pages: Unbounce

Unbounce is one of the most popular landing page builders for digital marketers because there are no coding skills required, and they have some of the best lead generation tools.

Its ‘Conversion Intelligence’ and ‘Smart Traffic’ features help to set Unbounce apart from the competition.

When you’re running highly-targeted campaigns, such as account-based marketing campaigns, you need your entire funnel to be tailored to its audience. This is why custom-built landing pages are so important.

If you think about it, when you click on an ad that’s promoting (for example) chatbots for affiliate marketers and you landed on a homepage that isn’t specifically about affiliate marketing, the chances of converting that traffic drops.

However, if you were redirected to a landing page that says in big bold letters, “The Best Chatbot Platform For Affiliate Marketers”, you’ve found exactly what you were looking for.

So, when you build your marketing funnels, use a tool like Unbounce to quickly create multiple, campaigns specific landing pages. Conversion rates are guaranteed to go up, and search engines will reward you for it.

With Unbounce, you can duplicate your most successful landing pages to save time and build high converting pages in bulk. Furthermore, you can A/B test variations of landing pages to see which messaging and designs perform best.

11. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Link Tracking: Rebrandly

Rebrandly provides the easiest way to create, measure, and manage short URLs with a custom domain name.

For affiliates, you’ve likely heard of link cloaking, which is what Rebrandly does best. Link cloaking is the process of disguising your affiliate link URL, provided by an affiliate program, to obfuscate your affiliate ID and make the link shorter.

This protects your affiliate commissions by making the affiliate ID less visible and makes the link more visually appealing to visitors.

Think of Bitly, but with superior analytics, more tools, additional customization, and less expensive. It’s a no-brainer to choose Rebrandly over Bitly, in my opinion.

The best part about Rebrandly is being able to tie your brand to your short links, for example, instead of bit.ly/1213546851615464, you can create a link that people will actually want to click, such as mobilemonkey.cool/social-media-tools.

The result of putting your brand on your links is more clicks. According to a study, branded links can increase CTR by up to 34%.

Use Rebrandly to track everything happening with your links around the internet, quickly build UTM parameters with their Chrome Extension, and get deeper insights into the content that’s driving you the best web traffic.

12. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Link Cloaking: ThirstyAffilates

In addition to Rebrandly, there’s a WordPress plugin called ThirstyAffiliates, which is geared specifically towards affiliate marketers, and also has link cloaking as a key feature.

Although ThirstyAffiliates isn’t as powerful or polished as Rebrandly, its WordPress plugin does have some features that make it attractive to affiliate marketers.

So, if you’re using WordPress for your blog as an affiliate marketer, give ThirstyAffiliates a look in addition to Rebrandly.

13. Affiliate Marketing Tools to Build a Mailing List: ThriveLeads

Thrive Leads is a lead generation tool and plugin for WordPress sites.

It combines many different types of opt-in forms into one plugin and gives you a simple drag-and-drop editor to create great designs.

Furthermore, you can get a conversion boost by showing relevant offers to your visitors based on posts, categories, tags, and more.

ThriveLeads is a sophisticated plugin, not your old-school list building plugin. It commonly updates with new conversion tactics and growth hacking strategies that are proven to grow contact lists quickly.

If you’re not using WordPress, consider using a tool such as HelloBar or Leadformly.

14. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Instagram & Pinterest: Tailwind

Most marketers know of social media marketing tools for scheduling and management such as AgoraPulse, Buffer, and Hootsuite.

However, affiliate marketers selling physical retail products online fully understand the power of Pinterest and Instagram.

Tailwind is a social media scheduler and analytics tool built specifically for Pinterest and Instagram.

The focus on visual content makes marketing on Instagram and Pinterest fundamentally different from marketing on Twitter or Facebook, for example.

Tailwind’s Instagram marketing tools consist of the following:

SmartSchedule: Save time by scheduling photos and videos with Auto Post. Let Tailwind pick the post times when your audience is most engaged.
Hashtag Finder: Reach more people with a mix of popular and relevant niche Instagram hashtags to get discovered by the right followers.
Time-Saving Shortcuts: Save top-performing Instagram hashtag lists, tag relevant users and locations, and format your caption all in one place.
Content Plans: Not sure what to post? Content Plans provide ready to use post ideas customized to your business type so you’re always ready to create.
Visual Planning: Drag and drop to preview your 9-grid and guarantee your profile always looks polished.
Free Landing Page: Create a branded landing page for free, then send a stream of traffic from your Instagram bio to your most important content.
Add Clickable Links: Add a link to any Instagram post in a single step. Tailwind will instantly update your custom landing page behind the scenes so everyone can click through to your website, blog post, or product listing.
Additionally, Tailwind provides similar tools for Pinterest, as well as analytics dashboards and reports.

15. Affiliate Marketing Tools for Amazon: AAWP

If you’re an affiliate marketer that sells products on Amazon, and you’re using WordPress, you’ll want to know about AAWP, which stands for “Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin.”

Product prices constantly change on Amazon, which is a nightmare for affiliate marketers.

AAWP provides up-to-date information where affiliate links will be generated and products, prices, as well as discounts will be refreshed automatically.

Many other features are available on AAWP, however, the ability to keep up to date information on your site via marketing automation tools is by far the most valuable.

16. Affiliate Marketing Tools for SMS Text Messages: MobileMonkey

There are a number of ways to sell products online using chatbots.

One of the ways is SMS marketing with MobileMonkey, which is a no-brainer ecommerce marketing tool. And that’s because text message marketing is instant, convenient, and universal.

Even more important, SMS marketing produces results that can’t be ignored.

For example, take a look at these SMS marketing statistics for marketing and sales teams:

Using MobileMonkey SMS marketing tools for ecommerce, you can set yourself apart from the competition by significantly increasing open rates, response rates, and conversion rates.

Text message marketing enables companies to send their audiences bulk SMS messages, as well as personalized text messages at scale.

Additionally, you can use MobileMonkey opt-in tools such as the website chat SMS opt-in widget, web page pop-up forms for desktop and mobile, and SMS keyword opt-in tools.

Here are just a few of the different SMS marketing campaigns you can run with MobileMonkey:

Bulk text messaging
SMS drip campaign automation
Automated responses and proactive messaging
If you’re still skeptical of SMS marketing, check out these 60 SMS marketing statistics that every ecommerce marketing professional should know about.

Want to Become a MobileMonkey Affiliate Partner?
Partner with MobileMonkey as we revolutionize marketing and make some serious money while doing it!

Partnering with MobileMonkey as an affiliate is one of the fastest ways to earn revenue and grow your influence in the chatbot marketing world.

And now with even more channels at your disposal, such as Instagram affiliate marketing tools, it’s simple. This is a cash move for you. When you send signups, you get dollars.

We take your role seriously. You’re a marketer, a shaker, and an influencer. You can reach people in your sphere far more effectively than we ever could.

This is why we reward our affiliates the way we do. For everyone who signs up under your referral, you get a 20% cut of the price they pay.

Earn 20% for every referral, for life with the MobileMonkey affiliate marketing program now!

best affiliate programs 2022

Being your own boss and making money online is the perfect alternative for anyone who is tired of the hustle culture. You can set your own schedule and have all of the flexibility you need. Most importantly, you can earn a passive income that keeps you and your bank account pretty happy.

Now, out of all of the ways to earn money online, joining an affiliate program could just be the best option. Affiliate marketing spending has been growing over the last few years, with estimates that over 80% of all brands have some form of an affiliate program, making your opportunities as an affiliate virtually endless. However, you have to find the right program for you.

Learn more about affiliate programs and explore your best options below.

What is an affiliate program?
In essence, affiliate programs are digital word-of-mouth (or referral) marketing campaigns. A brand that’s trying to generate leads or boost sales can join up with affiliates such as bloggers, influencers, and social media gurus, then have them promote a product or service to their audiences. If they are successful in referring their audiences to the suggested product/service, these affiliates receive a commission expressed as a percentage of the sale that they helped to secure.

Simply put, affiliate programs are an additional sales channel for brands that present lucrative opportunities for those trying to make a living online. So, instead of banging your head against the wall trying to come up with good ideas for starting an online business, you can establish an online reputation, then join an affiliate program to pay your bills.

10 best affiliate programs of 2022
Affiliate marketing can be exceptionally valuable for brands, allowing them to improve lead generation, boost brand awareness, and inspire loyalty. So, it’s no surprise that virtually every company is now offering some form of an affiliate program that you can join.

Below are some of the best affiliate programs and networks of 2022.

Amazon Associates
The most versatile product selection
Awin
The easiest to use
CJ
The longest cookie lifetime
ClickBank
The highest commission rates
FlexOffers
The best for experienced publishers
Impact
The simplest sign-up process
Rakuten Advertising
The best for building relationships with merchants
ShareASale
The best for timely payments
Skimlinks
The best for newcomers
VigLink
The most advanced features
Amazon Associates — The most versatile product selection
amazon associates homepage
Amazon Associates is perhaps the most famous affiliate program there is. Chances are good that you’ve come across hundreds of Amazon affiliates in the last few days alone while browsing the net.

Amazon is a company that’s taken affiliate marketing to a whole new level. You can choose to promote any product that’s available in its eCommerce store – food, clothing, accessories, weird home decor; you name it. Whatever your niche and audience, you’ll easily find excellent products to promote.

The Amazon Associates program is easy to use (you can start right away), making it perfect for all newcomers to affiliate marketing. The pay is slightly lower than what you might expect, but you’ll always be paid in full and on time (typically about 30 days after your follower has made a purchase).

The only drawbacks are the short cookie lifetime and strict terms of service that you have to obey at all costs.

Key features

Versatile product categories – millions of new products are added to Amazon every single day, and you can promote any of them as an Amazon affiliate;
Easy for newcomers to join – as long as you frequently publish original content, have a website, mobile app, or a social media account with at least 500 followers, you can join Amazon Associates;
Fixed commission income – you earn a percentage of the sale, which goes from about 1% on physical video games and gaming consoles to 20% on Amazon games;
Special commission income on select product categories – there are Bounty and Bonus Events that will earn you flat rates when a customer uses your link;
24h cookie lifetime – you will earn a commission if a customer purchases an item through your affiliate link within 24 hours or places it into their Shopping Cart within that time period;
Earn commission on all products purchased – if a customer uses your affiliate link, you will receive a commission on all of the items they’ve purchased during the session, even if you haven’t promoted them.
Visit Amazon Associates for additional information >>
Awin — The easiest to use
awin homepage
Awin is an affiliate network that’s quickly gaining traction. It doesn’t have such a vast product offer as Amazon, but it still has a notable array of categories that most influencers, bloggers, and site owners will find suitable for their audiences. The categories include finance and insurance, retail, telecommunications, and travel.

This platform has over 200,000 publishers and 16,500 affiliate marketers, so you’ll find it easy to fit right in.

One of the most significant benefits is that Awin has a Chrome extension that automatically generates affiliate links immediately ready for use.

Although it’s a younger network, it’s already gained a reputation as a reliable platform for affiliate marketing, so you won’t regret joining it.

Key features

Vast network – with 16,500 brands and 200,000 publishers, you’ll find it easy to locate a company within your niche;
Broad advertiser directory – each of the four main advertiser categories is divided into smaller segments to help you find the best brand for your needs;
User-friendly platform – the intuitive platform is easy to navigate, allowing you to quickly find all of the tools and features you may need;
Deeplink generator – use any product link or image from a brand to create your unique affiliate link; and
Customizable reports – receive insightful performance reports that can help you to supercharge your earnings.
Visit Awin for additional information >>
CJ — The longest cookie lifetime
cj homepage
Commission Junction, or CJ, is one of the oldest affiliate networks in existence, being in the business for over 20 years. It boasts thousands of clients worldwide, so you’ll have no trouble finding a brand that suits your niche.

It’s easy to sign up and start partnering with your favorite brands, even if you’re a complete beginner.

The only issue with CJ’s affiliate program is that each brand has its own unique requirements for marketers. You’ll need to ensure that you meet the requirements of each brand that you want to collaborate with, which can get complicated.

Key features

Partnered with renowned brands – through CJ, you can become an affiliate publisher for brands such as Barnes & Noble, Office Depot, and Priceline, to name but a few;
Long cookie lifetime – cookie duration is different for each brand on CJ, but some have a lifetime of up to 400 days;
Automatic URL conversion – CJ’s deep link generator can create your affiliate links directly from the brand’s site and convert the URLs to trackable links;
Strict applicant requirements – each brand has its own requirements that you’ll need to meet to become an affiliate; and
Suitable for experienced marketers – newcomers might find CJ’s platform confusing since it’s packed with sophisticated tools and features.
Visit CJ for additional information >>
ClickBank — The highest commission rates
clickbank homepage
Another excellent network with years of experience is ClickBank. It boasts over 6 million clients worldwide and is renowned as one of the most generous networks available. Depending on the brand that you partner with, along with your reach and overall performance, you could earn as much as a 90% commission on the sales that you help generate.

You’ll rarely need to get pre-approved by your chosen brand before you can start using their affiliate links. You could immediately gain access to marketing materials, brand logos, pre-sale pages, and more, meaning your job will be significantly easier.

Key features

Earn up to 90% commission – commission rates depend on the brand, but many offer high commissions to their publishers;
Recurring commissions – if you promote subscription-based products/services, you’ll continue earning a commission during the customers’ subscription;
Physical and digital products – regardless of your niche, you’ll find physical or digital products suited to you and your audiences;
Automatic upselling – using the Automatic Upsell feature, you’ll earn a commission if the customer buys the additional products; and
60-day cookie lifetime – you’ll earn a commission if a customer uses your link to make a purchase within 60 days.
Visit ClickBank for additional information >>
FlexOffers — The best for experienced publishers
flexoffers homepage
FlexOffers is a relatively small network, boasting about 12,000 affiliate programs and 500 advertisers, but this company’s only getting started. Some of the brand categories on the platform include education, entertainment, automotive businesses, sports, even legal services, so you can easily find one that suits your niche.

To get started on FlexOffers, you’ll need to have some affiliate experience. You’ll also need a well-designed website with high monthly traffic. Otherwise, you won’t be able to find brands to work with you.

However, you could join FlexOffers’ sub-affiliate program instead – you would use FlexOffers’ affiliate link, then split your commissions with the company.

Key features

Cookieless tracking – cookieless tracking is more efficient and more accurate, ensuring that you earn a commission on every single purchase without a hitch;
Flexlinks – create automatic trackable links with a single click;
Over 650 million products – explore their vast product database to find the best goods to promote to your audience; and
Comparison widget – add comparison widgets to your site to display different stores where a product is sold and include their pricing information.
Visit FlexOffers for additional information >>
Impact — The simplest sign-up process
impact homepage
Impact is often regarded as the best affiliate network for beginners. It has a well-designed user interface that gives you clear insight into your performance and key metrics.

The sign-up process is quick and easy, with most brands accepting your partnership quickly. Impact’s support teams are responsive, and its tutorial articles will tell you everything that you need to know to get started.

Key features

Thousands of brands – through Impact, you can partner with brands such as Uber, Ticketmaster, Walmart, Adidas, Airbnb, and more;
Promo codes – use promo codes to earn a commission even when another site promotes your unique code;
Comprehensive tracking – earn commissions with pay-per-click (PPC), pay-per-lead (PPL), and pay-per-sale (PPS) on retail sales, mobile installs, downloads, and more; and
Easy sign-up – experienced and inexperienced publishers alike can join Impact’s affiliate program with ease.
Visit Impact for additional information >>
Rakuten Advertising — The best for building relationships with merchants
rakuten homepage
Rakuten Advertising works with thousands of brands and marketers around the globe. It has a vast network of businesses you can collaborate with, regardless of your unique niche. It’s beginner-friendly and offers competitive compensation that’s based on your performance.

You’ll receive your own account manager who will help you to get started and offer support any time that you need it.

However, Rakuten’s approval rates leave something to be desired. Even though it’s designed as a beginner-friendly network, it has strict requirements for newcomers, so you’ll need to have a well-established online presence before you can start working with their affiliate program.

Key features

Intuitive interface – all of the advanced tools, such as deep linking tools, are easy to learn and use;
Informative content – you can find guides and tutorial videos that will help you get started with affiliate programs;
Account manager – your account manager will help you to set up and start monetizing your website; and
Variable cookie lifetime – cookie lifetime varies by brand, so you’ll need to check with the advertiser to find out when you’ll receive commissions.
Visit Rakuten Advertising for additional information >>
ShareASale — The best for timely payments
shareasale homepage
ShareASale is part of the Awin network, offering many of the same benefits as its parent company. It has thousands of brands and marketers and offers innovative solutions to connect them with each other.

You’ll enjoy a seamless application process that’s fully beginner-friendly. You’ll get competitive rates, on-time payments, and responsive support that’s always there to help. Most importantly, you’ll have full access to your performance metrics: conversion rates, average performance, and earnings.

Key features

Smaller brand base – ShareASale has about 1,000 merchants to choose from, so it could be more challenging to find the best brand for you;
Detailed metrics – you’ll gain insight into your number of sales and conversions, have an overview of your earnings and other key performance indicators;
20% commission rates – you will see earnings of up to 20% per sale; and
Regular payouts – your payments will always be sent on the 20th of each month.
Visit ShareASale for additional information >>
Skimlinks — The best for newcomers
skimlinks homepage
The Skimlinks affiliate network is among the largest, with more than 24,000 brands using it. You can be as nitpicky about your affiliates as you’d like, choosing only the companies that truly resonate with you.

You’ll receive a link creation tool that automatically generates ready-made affiliate links that you can track. Additionally, you’ll find innovative ways to make use of all of the user-generated content on your site to start monetizing your forums.

Unfortunately, there’s a downfall to Skimlinks. The company charges 25% on your commissions and has some problems with timely payments. Keep this in mind when applying for the program.

Key features

Vast brand network – with over 24,000 brands, you’ll have a chance to find the best brands suited to your niche;
Partnerships with other networks – Skimlinks is partnered with other networks such as Awin, CJ, and Rakuten Advertising, giving you access to more merchants;
Detailed analytics – gain insights into your best-performing content types, revenue sources, and more; and
10% to 15% commission – your earnings will depend on the merchant, but most pay between 10% and 15% of the sale.
Visit Skimlinks for additional information >>
VigLink — The most advanced features
viglink homepage
VigLink (or Sovrn) is a fan-favorite affiliate network. It has intuitive automation tools that enable seamless affiliate link creation. You won’t have to create or organize your affiliate links at all – add the VigLink code to your website, and all will be taken care of for you.

The tool will go through your site looking for names, locations, keywords, and key phrases, then automatically add your unique affiliate link where appropriate.

The network’s easy to join, easy to use, and you’ll easily find your favorite brands, products, and services.

Key features

Automatic link monetization – VigLink’s program assesses your website/blog and converts existing product links into monetized links;
Merchant Explorer – an insightful dashboard that presents all available merchants and their unique offers;
Natural Language Processing (NPL) – NPL works in the background to link your product mentions with the best-paying merchants; and
Trends Explorer – data about the latest industry trends that can help you to improve your content.
Visit VigLink for additional information >>
How to choose the right affiliate program
Choosing your affiliate program can often be easier said than done. There are simply far too many brands that rely on affiliate marketing, and it’s challenging to determine the best fit for you, especially when you’re a newcomer to this field.

To ensure that you choose the right program, you’ll need to consider several factors:

Niche – it cannot be stressed enough how essential it is to find a program that fits your niche. Partner only with brands that make sense for you. Otherwise, your audiences won’t be very eager to use your affiliate links. If you’re a fitness influencer, partner with sports apparel companies, health and nutrition brands, or gyms. Don’t partner with fast-food restaurants. If you’re a tech blogger, go for software providers, apps, even games. Don’t choose vintage clothing retailers. Choose a brand that integrates well with your content and online persona.
User experience – it’s always a good idea to read up on user reviews before joining an affiliate program. You’ll learn more about the ease of use, payment methods, and overall profitability of the program. Don’t just go by the testimonials on the company’s site. Look around the net to discover what users really think.
Commission – naturally, the commission is the most critical factor that you’ll need to consider. Do you earn a percentage of the sale, or is there a flat rate? Does the commission improve with good performance? Are there any bonuses for new affiliates? Do different types of products earn a different commission? Find out as much as you can about how much you can expect to earn before joining a program.
Payout – make sure to confirm in advance when you’ll get paid. Most programs will offer payout on a monthly basis, but that’s not always the case. Some will even require that you pass a certain threshold before you receive a payment (such as $50 or $100).
Cookie lifetime policy – cookie lifetime refers to the length of time during which you can get a commission for a sale. Cookie lifetime starts when your customer first clicks on your affiliate link and ideally lasts until they make a purchase. However, different brands will have different cookie lifetime policies. Some will offer only a 1-day lifetime, while others will last as long as a year. As a general rule of thumb, the longer, the better.
How to find a good affiliate program?
Finding a good affiliate program is a pretty straightforward process. You can start by identifying your niche and then looking up some of the top brands that would fit well with it. Keep in mind that you don’t have to limit yourself to only one specific niche. This means that you don’t have to limit yourself to only clothing and apparel companies if you’re in the fashion blogging sphere or partner only with detox tea companies if you’re a fitness influencer.

Broaden your horizons by joining affiliate networks that can connect you with countless brands across categories.

Many of the affiliate programs we’ve discussed are large networks that work with thousands of brands, delivering millions of unique products and services. Take Amazon Associates, for example. This program connects you with every single brand regardless of the type of products that they sell on Amazon – book publishers, smart home device manufacturers, arts and crafts suppliers, and more.

Awin can connect you with companies such as Aviva Car Insurance, Premier Inn, HP, AliExpress, and Etsy, to name just a few.

Of course, if networks aren’t your thing and you’d prefer to work with individual brands, you’ll still have plenty of options.

Identify the brands that you’d like to cooperate with, then do a quick Google search for brand name + affiliate program. If the company has an affiliate program, you’ll find all of the information you need to get started.

aff program google search
Visit your preferred brand’s page dedicated to affiliate marketing, and learn how you can earn money by promoting their products/services.

Every brand with an affiliate program will have clear instructions about what you need to do to become a marketer for them. Keep in mind that some will have criteria that you’ll need to meet before joining the program (such as a certain number of followers on social media or a certain number of monthly visitors to your blog).

If you meet their criteria, you’ll receive your unique affiliate link, and you can start using it to earn money.

How affiliate programs work
Although affiliate partnerships are a relatively simple concept – you recommend your affiliate’s product to a reader on your blog, for example, they buy it, you get paid – there’s still a bit more to it than meets the eye.

Once you partner with a brand, you receive a unique affiliate link that leads to one of their pages (it can be the brand’s homepage, landing page, product page, or anything in between). You’ll recognize the link because of the “ref=” embedded in the URL (“ref=” meaning referrer).

This link is critical as it allows the brand (or the affiliate network) to recognize it as yours, and track it. Without it, there’d be no way to see which sales were generated by you, meaning there’d be no way to calculate your earnings. So, always make sure that you’re using the correct link.

You can add the link to any online channel that you have, instructing your audiences to follow it if they want to make a purchase. Once they click on your link, head to the brand’s page, and make a purchase, you receive a part of the profits.

Depending on the affiliate program, you could get paid a percentage of the sale or receive a flat fee for every new customer that a brand gets through your referral.

Different ways that affiliate programs pay
As an affiliate partner, you should be able to accept payments via bank transfers, services like PayPal, and even checks. However, regardless of how they pay you, brands and affiliate networks will use one of the following payment models.

PPL programs
Generating quality leads is often one of the ultimate goals of any company, so it’s not surprising that many are willing to pay a pretty penny for some assistance in this area. Therefore, pay-per-lead (PPL) affiliate programs are the most common ones that you’ll come across.

Instead of trying to sell a product or service, your job as a PPL affiliate marketer would be to get your audiences to perform an action that would help the brand to generate leads. What that “action” is, depends entirely on the company that you’re working with – you might have to get your audience to subscribe to a newsletter, download a file, fill out a contact form, sign up for a free trial, or contact the company for a quote.

You can expect an average compensation of between $2 and $20 per lead that you help to generate. However, if you have large audiences and enjoy an excellent reputation among them, many brands could be willing to pay much more for your services.

PPC programs
Pay-per-click (PPC) programs are the least lucrative of the bunch, but they also require the least effort on your part. Just like any PPC marketing campaign, your goal is simply to engage your audiences and get them to click through to the brand’s site. They don’t have to purchase anything, subscribe to things, or perform a task. They just have to click through.

You’ll receive compensation based on the increase in the brand’s web traffic. However, don’t expect to make millions from this type of affiliate marketing alone. Most companies will pay no more than a few cents per click – unless you’re working with someone in a very niche market.

With PPC, you won’t be able to earn quite as much as if you started an eCommerce business yourself. Still, since all you have to do is add a single link or place a small ad by your post, the PPC affiliate program can be a nice way to supplement your main income.

PPS programs
Pay-per-sale (PPS) programs are the holy grail of affiliate marketing. They can completely overtake your primary income and add quite a few zeroes to your bank account when done correctly.

As the name would suggest, this program pays you money for each sale that you help make. Every time a member of your audience uses your affiliate link to buy something, you’ll earn a profit. In most instances, PPS programs offer you a percentage of the sale (which can be anything from 5% to 60%). You might also encounter programs that offer a flat rate, but they’re not nearly as common.

To maximize your earnings through PPS programs, you’ll first want to develop a relationship with your audience. If they trust you and look to you for product/service recommendations, you should have no problem making money through your affiliate program. If, however, your audience isn’t as trusting as you’d like, you’d be better off joining a PPL or PPC program.

Conclusion
Joining an affiliate program can be a lucrative journey. Keep in mind that you’ll need to perfect your site/blog/social media presence, gather audiences, and build a reputation before you start seeing significant changes in your bank account. However, once you’ve put the time and effort into it, you’ll find affiliate marketing to be a very profitable endeavor.

Conclusion

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