📝 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Bloggers
There are quite a number of ways to make money from your blog. You can, for instance, start an online course and offer it to your readers. You could also write an e-book and promote it through your blog, or even sell PPC ad spots.
The above options, while having great earning potential, usually take time to implement and work best if you have been blogging for a while and have grown an audience. If your blog is fairly new or you are in the process of starting your first blog, one of the income generating opportunities you may want to look into is affiliate marketing. This is certainly not a get rich quick scheme. In fact, affiliate marketing often requires you to be quite strategic in order to see any form of results.
One reason why this blog monetization strategy is ideal for new bloggers is because signing up for affiliate programs requires little to no initial cash investment, and it is easy for almost anyone to implement. All you need is a blog, an audience, and some time to create content in which to promote your affiliate links. So, which affiliate programs should you sign up for as a new blogger? First, let’s talk a little about affiliate marketing.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a commission-based online marketing system that involves promoting products or services being offered by different retailers. You become an affiliate marketer by looking for a product you like and then promoting it in your content, whether that is a blog post, email, social media post, or YouTube video. In any event, you typically would have affiliate links to the product in your content. If someone clicks on that link and then proceeds to make a purchase, you would earn a commission based on a pre-determined payout agreement.
Signing up for an affiliate program is rather easy and generally does not require you to have a huge amount of traffic to begin with. That is why it is one of the most recommended money-making strategies for new bloggers who want to start earning a passive income. However, maximizing your earning potential depends on the affiliate programs you choose, the products you promote, and your ability to influence your audience to take action.
With that said, here are seven affiliate programs you should consider signing up for as a new blogger.
1. Amazon
The Amazon affiliate program is possibly the most popular among internet marketers and one of the easiest way for newbie bloggers to monetize their content. Its seemingly endless list of products includes groceries, electronics, clothing, books, appliances, and much more.
The diversity of the Amazon marketplace makes it possible for Amazon associates to earn from as many merchants as they can handle. However, you have to put in the work and research to find products that people are interested in and that correlate with your brand. In addition, when choosing products to promote, you want to look at the dollar value to see if it makes sense for your personal financial goals, since Amazon’s commission rates don’t get past 10% (some are as low as 1%).
Another thing to keep in mind is that the cookies for the affiliate links expire after 24 hours (unless the item is added to cart after someone clicks the link, which would see the cookie staying around for 90 days).
2. Fiverr
Fiverr is the largest online marketplace for freelancers with services starting at five dollars. Freelance services fall into various categories including business, marketing, programming, design, writing, translation, video, music, and more. Additionally, there are over 150 service subcategories such as logo design, illustration, sales copy, product photography, voiceover, WordPress, and celebrity impersonators.
Fiverr’s affiliate program covers a wide range of services covered by Fiverr, including:
3. Grammarly
As a blogger, writing error-free articles is extremely important. Blog posts that are riddled with errors will get ridiculed by readers. This can lead to your content not being taken seriously, as well as a high bounce rate.
Recently, Grammarly has become a popular tool used by many bloggers to eliminate grammar and spelling errors.
Grammarly is an AI-powered grammar checking and proofreading tool. It can be used to detect various grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes. Including subject-verb mismatch, syntax errors, bad sentence structure, and more. At the same time, the software provides suggestions that may help your sentences sound more grammatically correct and read better.
Grammarly also consists of additional tools for better writing.:
A spell checker that helps to prevent common misspellings.
Plagiarism checker that compares your content to billions of other pieces of writing on the web to prevent duplication.
Writing style checker which helps to improve readability and ensures your writing style is consistent with the type of audience you are writing for.
4. Bluehost
If you are into creating content around tech products, the Bluehost affiliate program is one that you should probably check out. For starters, Bluehost is among the top hosting services, powering in excess of two million websites, and counting. When it comes on to blogging with WordPress, which is the platform of choice for one-third of all websites, Bluehost is the hosting service most often recommended. Furthermore, Bluehost offers an attractive payout per confirmed referral, ranging from $65 – $130, and there is no limit to the number of people you can refer. Like all the programs on this list, becoming a Bluehost affiliate is free, and easy to set up. You are also allowed to promote your affiliate links in a variety of content, including blog posts, emails, and on social media.
5. ClickBank
One of the most well-known and established affiliate programs is ClickBank. This is due to its large product base, including educational, business, and digital products. There are literally millions of products for affiliates to choose from. Choosing the right ones to promote is absolutely necessary for ClickBank’s affiliate program to be beneficial. It requires doing some research to find products that fit well into your niche and which are actually attractive to buyers. Commissions on Clickbank vary but can reach as high as 75%.
6. Rakuten
Known officially as Rakuten Advertising, this is one of the oldest affiliate networks and largest e-commerce companies around. It represents some of the biggest and most recognizable brands across various industries. Names like Lyft, Monster, Macy’s, Microsoft, and Lego are all under the company’s promotional umbrella. As a result, the Rakuten affiliate program is among the most attractive, and definitely one that new bloggers should check out.
7. Share-A-Sale
Share-A-Sale is another well-known advertising network that offers access to thousands of in-demand products and services. Reebok, Warby Parker, Modcloth, and Swag.com are among the many notable brands using the platform. Share-A-Sale’s affiliate program is geared towards bloggers who want to get into affiliate marketing. What’s more, you can access information on best practices and other resources, via the Share-A-Sale website, to help you get started on their affiliate program. In terms of commission, the payouts vary by merchant.
I hope you found this article useful and that, if you haven’t already, you will consider adding affiliate marketing as one of your streams of income as a blogger. Oftentimes, the biggest barrier in affiliate marketing is the actual program application process itself, so sign up for these programs today!
Until next time!
—Casey
So it is possible to make use of affiliate marketing no matter the niche. That is very encouraging. I was thinking about it but was so afraid that it would be impossible for the ideas I have. Now, you made me believe I may actually succeed! This is my second favorite piece of information, right with this one:
https://voluum.com/blog/ranking-best-affiliate-programs-2021/
Great tips! Unfortunately, some people leave out a lot of the how-to when telling these stories.
This list helped me a lot when I was just starting out...even earned my first commission from one of these offers here :)
Check it out. There's no opt-in required to see the best offers to promote:
https://scrnch.link/topmoneymaking