You can monetize your platforms in several ways: sponsored posts, advertising, selling products, or consulting services. However, one of the easiest ways to make money is to use the best affiliate programs.
Let’s highlight the reasons for the popularization of affiliate marketing as a profitable monetization area:
- It is a multi-billion dollar market. In the United States alone, spending on it reached more than $8 billion in 2022, which is three times more than it was ten years ago.
- According to Rakuten, more than 80% of advertisers have affiliate programs.
- This industry is responsible for over 16% of e-commerce orders.
Keep reading to find out which affiliate program to choose.
What are affiliate programs?
Affiliate marketing programs are referral programs through which a publisher (or blogger) earns an affiliate commission by promoting a business’s products.
To get started with affiliate marketing, you:
- Join a program
- Find a product
- Continue to promote it
- Earn a percentage of the profit for each sale you make through a referral
Sales are tracked through affiliate links. Each affiliate program has a slightly different tracking method, but they all provide you with a means of tracking your successful referral.
There are three main participants in an affiliate program:
Advertiser: Also known as a seller, their goal is to make sales by advertising their product.
Publisher: Also known as an affiliate marketer, their goal is to earn revenue.
Consumer: They want to buy the product.
There are different models of affiliate marketing and different ways to pay affiliates (per sale, per click, or lead), but the most common is to get paid per sale.
The most popular platforms for affiliate marketing
Kinsta
Instead of becoming a partner of one of the available affiliate networks, Kinsta built its own. They encourage everyone to sign up, but they selectively accept members into the program. They manually check your partner websites to make sure you are a mutual fit.
Here are a few bonuses for joining the Kinsta affiliate program:
- Real-time tracking capability
- Monthly payments
- Low customer churn rate – we care about our customers, so any sale brings you a stable income.
Commission range: from $50 to $500 for each WordPress registration, depending on the plan type + 10% recurring monthly commissions. For Application Hosting and Database Hosting, we offer 5% recurring monthly commissions for each registration. Check out their commission models as well.
Payment schedule: Within 60 days after you sign up for the plan.
Payouts via: PayPal.
Cookies/tracking: 60-day tracking cookies to make sure you get paid for your sales.
Semrush
Semrush is a high-quality SaaS tool used by professionals for keyword research, content marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO). Its exceptional affiliate program allows affiliates to earn recurring revenue by incentivizing users to sign up for Semrush plans.
Commission Range: Earn up to $200 for a new subscription, $10 for each new trial, and $0.01 for new signups.
Payment schedule: Flexible – set a payday each month or receive automatic payments when you reach a certain threshold.
Payouts via: PayPal or direct bank transfer. The minimum payout amount is $50.
Cookies/tracking: 120 days.
Amazon Associates
Amazon is not only the largest retailer in the world. It’s also one of the first online retailers to offer an affiliate program – back in 1996! Amazon’s affiliate program, Amazon Associates, is one of the best affiliate programs for bloggers because it’s perfect for beginners and offers millions of products.
Commission range: Up to 10%.
Payout schedule: Within 60 days after the customer completes the purchase.
Payouts via: Direct bank transfer, check, or Amazon gift card. The minimum payout amount depends on the chosen payout option. (Amazon gift cards and direct payments have a minimum payout amount of $10, while checks have a minimum payout amount of $100 plus a $15 check fee).
Cookies/tracking: Customers must place an order within 24 hours of visiting Amazon.com through your referral link. If the customer puts the product in the cart within this 24-hour window, you will still receive the referral fee if the customer buys the product before the cart expires (which is usually 90 days).
Conclusion
Affiliate programs allow anyone to use their platforms to generate passive income.
They have low initial costs, do not require special skills, and can work across multiple platforms. Many influencers and content creators use a large number of followers to recommend affiliate products on social media.
