How to Choose the Right Affiliate Program

The Internet offers boundless possibilities for making money online. Affiliate marketing is arguably a promising way to earn a full-time income or establish a profitable side hustle, as it is simple and easy to get started. But with a whopping number of brands offering such programs in their marketing arsenal, you might wonder which ones are worth their salt and hold the most value for you. 

This article offers tips that could help narrow your choices down to the most appropriate affiliate programs. 

Understanding how affiliate marketing works

Affiliate marketing is a strategy in which a business pays a commission to an individual (affiliate) based on sales generated through their referrals. The aim is to boost traffic and sales for the business website. Essentially, affiliates find a product they like, promote it to their audience, and earn a piece of the profit for each sale they make. There is no single profile for an affiliate partner. They range from individuals to companies that promote a company’s products in the best way they can to prospective customers.

What is an affiliate program?

An affiliate program is an advertising model by which you earn a financial reward for assisting the sales of a product, service, or brand through your website. It provides an opportunity to monetize your blog or website. This advertising model is prevalent in some niches, and when performed correctly, it can lead to significant financial profits. An affiliate link is all that you need to promote a product or service through a blog post, a video, a story on your social media, or another marketing effort.

If you have a knack for selling and a built-in audience, affiliate programs offer a ton of benefits – you just need to find the right one for your skills and niche.

Example of how an affiliate program works

After you have published a piece of content on your website or another relevant platform, readers arrive, click on the unique affiliate link, and land on the product website that you are promoting. If your reader makes a purchase while navigating the product’s website, they are converted into a buyer. Then, a percentage of the sale made is allocated to you for successfully forwarding your blog’s traffic to the product’s website.

Any sales made within a pre-defined period are commissioned to your blog (or chosen platform), and you earn a reward. The reward varies depending on the industry, the number of conversions achieved, and the type of affiliate program.

Types of affiliate programs 

So, what types of affiliate programs can you join? Let’s take a closer look.

• Content-based programs. This type of affiliate program is heavily based on the creation of content. It includes blogs, news outlets, podcasts, vlogs, and even social media profiles. All these digital assets are committed to creating specific content for a dedicated audience. Some boost sales through paid advertising, and others bring in excellent results organically. Bloggers, influencers, and podcasters fall under this category.
• Review-site programs. These affiliate programs are also quite popular and easy to build. By creating a topic-related website, you embark on publishing reviews about products or services that resonate with your audience and are relevant to your chosen topic/niche/ industry.
• Coupon-site programs. Coupons have always been popular and have always attracted considerable numbers of visitors. It is no wonder that this is a go-to approach for anyone who wants to start with affiliate marketing. This asset usually helps boost a brand’s sales and promotes it organically while also boosting an affiliate’s commission, especially with a dedicated and established audience.

How to find affiliate programs

Google search

Searching for affiliate programs on Google is the most straightforward way to find affiliate programs in your niche. Simply type affiliate marketing programs plus {your niche} or a specific product, and you will find many programs that could fit your topic or product category. Note that certain companies use a different term for their affiliate program. Amazon, for example, calls it an associates program, whereas Shopify calls it a partner program. Also, make sure that the companies you find work with affiliates from different countries.

Check a company’s website

If you want to become an affiliate partner for a specific company, start by visiting their website. Most companies feature their affiliate program at the very bottom of their homepage, namely in the website footer. You will be directed to the affiliate sign-up page after clicking on the link. In addition to the registration form, it should provide potential affiliates with detailed information about the program.

Here is what eBay’s affiliate landing page looks like:

Affiliate directories

Another popular place to find various affiliate programs is affiliate program directories. Many free affiliate directories like Affiliate Program Database, UpPromote, or LinkClicky are essentially databases containing different programs online. You can easily find and compare many different affiliate programs in your niche that you might have otherwise missed through these sites.

How to choose an affiliate program

Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn income online, often the sole motive for taking it up. But just don’t get immediately blown away by a potentially high commission rate before examining other factors. The following tips could help you make a more informed decision before delving into the earning potential of the large pool of affiliate marketing programs out there.

Ensure that the business has a good reputation 

Decide whether you will market prominent brands, lesser-known brands, or both. But independently of brand awareness, partnering with businesses that offer high-quality products will help keep your audience satisfied, which increases the chances of building long-lasting affiliate relationships. Over time, you will earn a good reputation. Along with a solid affiliate strategy, they should boost your marketing efforts and help you better engage your audience. Successfully marketing a poor-quality product could only make it fail faster and should also negatively reflect on your reputation.

If you are not sure how a business and its products appeal to customers, you can conduct a quick search online and check opinions. You can check review sites, Google reviews, forums, or updates on the business’s official site, along with social media profiles like Facebook. Noticing a high activity on social media and an increased number of active users makes you tend to trust these businesses and their products. Positive ratings and reviews and a low return rate are all good signs that the product or service is of high quality. If feasible, finding existing reviews of previous or current affiliate partners is also a good option.

Pick a product you know or have used before 

Being familiar with the product or service you promote is key to engaging more effectively with your audience and maximizing your earnings. Good product knowledge enables you to effectively communicate information, answer questions about a product or service, and clearly explain the benefits. It also helps you identify whether the product suits the customers’ needs. The more relevant the product is to them, the more likely they will purchase it.

For example, let’s assume you run an accountancy firm and use cloud-based software Xero to simplify several mundane and complicated tasks previously implemented in offline software. You know that invoicing and tracking how much time has been spent on projects is laborious. Thus, you want to communicate through your company blog to other people and businesses working in the field about how Xero can significantly reduce the time spent on these tasks. Your personal experience and the fact that you are the customer yourself of the product you promote could make your recommendations to your followers more trustworthy.

But even if you have not tried a certain product yourself and you come across something you like and fit your profile, learn as much as you can about it. Buying or testing what you promote – whenever feasible – and reading customer testimonials and use cases on the business site or around the web will enlighten you about the product advantages, pain points, and how it helps people. The more you know, the better you sell. Poor knowledge of the promoted brand is a common mistake among affiliate marketers that prevents them from increasing their earnings over time and could sometimes lead them to market sub-standard or fake products. 

Promote products that fit your niche 

Let’s assume your blog revolves around health. It wouldn’t be reasonable to place affiliate links that are not relevant to the ideas in your posts or that do not serve as a logical extension, like, for example, Amazon Prime Video – Amazon’s movie affiliate program – just because almost everyone watches movies. 

Promoting irrelevant stuff could annoy your audience or, in the worst-case scenario, make them think you are trying to sell anything to make a quick buck. Nevertheless, if you fancy a brand that at first glance doesn’t seem to fit your niche, get creative on how to ingrain it as smoothly as possible in a special blog post. 

Search for programs that offer competitive commission rates 

Commissions are the backbone of affiliate marketing programs, acting as a powerful incentive for affiliates to promote a brand. Percentage commissions, just like pay-per-sale, are the most popular type of commissions used in affiliate programs.

• In the pay-per-sale payout model, the merchant rewards the affiliate a percentage of the profit earned from each sale they achieve. The commission rate varies according to the product that affiliates are selling. The average affiliate commission varies between 5% and 30%. 

• Pay-per-action is another payout model that earns affiliates a profit when visitors perform certain actions. Actions may differ: visiting the site, filling out a form, signing up for a demo, purchasing, etc. 

• These are also affiliate programs that promote memberships and subscriptions. What is special about them is that certain ones offer affiliates a recurring commission when a referred user makes or renews a subscription, either for a fixed time or a lifetime. 

For example, the Coupler.io partner program offers affiliates a 25% recurring lifetime commission, meaning you’ll earn each time a customer signs up for any Coupler.io paid plan or renews their monthly or yearly subscription through your affiliate link. The minimum payment threshold, namely the minimum accumulated commission you must earn before you are eligible for payment, is $100.

Find out the cookie lifetime 

A crucial element you need to pay attention to while reviewing affiliate programs is the cookie duration, which determines how long your relationship with the referred users is valid after clicking on the affiliate link. For instance, let’s say a brand sets the cookie duration to 10 days. If the visitor purchases before the cookie expires, you are eligible to get a commission or lose the profit. 

The longer the cookie life, the better for the affiliate. Brands like Adobe and ClickUp support a 30-day cookie life – typical of many programs – while Coupler.io provides a lifetime commission on affiliate links.

Beware of traffic leaks 

Before choosing an affiliate program, you need to go through the company’s or merchant’s landing page to check on possible leaks. Traffic leaks are links on the affiliate program website that prospective customers can click on and redirect to other sites. Although these sites could profit the company/merchant if the referred visitor makes a purchase, they will not reward the affiliate who has completed the action. 

Traffic leaks largely account for the failure of affiliate programs. They typically consist of third-party banner ads, Google AdSense ads, text links, popups, etc. 

Here is an example of a banner ad on Amazon that advertises a selection of audiobooks and podcasts.

Read the general terms and conditions 

As in any agreement, carefully read the terms and conditions of your collaboration. The requirements and expectations should be formulated in a simple way to ensure that both the company and you are on the same page. Sometimes, you might have a problem with a particular condition that can act as a deal-breaker. For example, certain affiliate programs restrict driving sales through specific traffic channels. Other ones, just like READINGRAPHICS, specify that affiliates won’t earn their commission if the transaction is incomplete or canceled, the product is returned, or a subscription is canceled within a certain period.

Check whether the program offers a system to track sales 

Efficient tracking systems enable businesses to manage affiliate programs, track affiliate partner performance effectively, assign commissions, issue automated cash payouts, and detect fraud. They also enable the introduction of a tiered commission structure that rewards high-performing affiliates with bonuses. Examples of such systems include Everflow.io, LinkTrust, and many others.

The benefits of a great affiliate program are substantial. Affiliates can monitor the performance of their traffic channels, check the total number of paying customers by time period, see the number of times the affiliate links are clicked, etc. Such knowledge can help them redirect their efforts in the right direction for favorable outcomes.

How to choose the best SaaS affiliate program?

There are dozens of profitable industries that offer affiliate programs, so why choose SaaS over the others? Well, if you already have a website that touches upon a SaaS-related topic, it’s a no-brainer.

Let’s explore some of the most popular and lucrative options:

Coupler.io

Businesses rarely use a single SaaS tool in their day-to-day operations. Coupler.io integrates these tools to help businesses collect, organize, and visualize their sales and marketing data in a convenient way.

The selling point is pretty simple and convincing, and so are the terms of the affiliate program. For each subscription purchase the lead makes within 30 days, you get 25% commission. You’ll also receive a 25% revenue share for every subscription renewal thereafter.

On average, this will bring you from $150 to $500 depending on the subscription plan. If the lead you brought in buys the annual subscription for Coupler.io’s most popular plan, you receive around $600 as a commission for the first purchase and will receive 25% once they renew next year.

A recurring lifetime commission is a huge bargain, so if you don’t want to miss out, get an affiliate link and start working on your promotional piece.

Systeme.io

Systeme.io is an all-purpose marketing platform that covers most stages of the sales funnel, from creating a website to doing email marketing. It boasts over $5,000,000 paid out in the affiliate marketing program.

The 60% revenue share with a decent monthly subscription cost is a bargain. Even with the cheapest subscription tier, you’re looking at $130-150 annually per lead. Even taking customer churn into account, if you stick with Systeme.io, you can build a pretty decent income stream over a year or two.

A great benefit of this program is that you don’t have to push for sales. You can start with promoting a free ebook, free subscription, or another initial step of the sales funnel where a lead can leave their contact details. Your affiliate ID is added to the lead’s profile, and you’ll receive a commission even if they make a purchase 12 months after the first contact.

On the flip side, the lead can slip away from you as System.io pays a commission to the last affiliate that directed a particular lead to the platform. So if you focus on the later stages of the sales funnel, you can snatch other affiliates’ leads.

Castos

Castos is an all-in-one podcasting platform for new and veteran podcasters. You can create as many podcasts as you want (either public or private), and publish as many episodes as you’d like, all with unlimited downloads. You also get automatic distribution to the major listing apps, automatic republishing to YouTube, free episode transcriptions, in-depth analytics, and the industry-leading WordPress plugin: Seriously Simple Podcasting.

With the Castos affiliate program, you will receive a 25% commission on all podcast hosting plans and a 10% commission on all production and launch services. There is no limit to the number of referrals you can make. Commissions last for the lifetime of the referral’s account. This is one of the most generous commission structures in the podcasting space. 

Learn more and apply to the Castos affiliate program.

Recruit CRM

Recruit CRM is a comprehensive ATS and CRM solution specifically tailored for recruitment and executive search businesses. As one of the most highly-rated recruitment software, it is trusted by search firms in over 100 countries worldwide. The platform enables users to handle candidates, clients, contacts, emails, calls, job postings, and more, all in one place. 

It also leverages AI-powered features such as resume parsing, candidate matching, email sequencing, and ChatGPT integration to automate the hiring process. With a simple-to-use Kanban view for both sales and recruitment, email triggers, and boolean search capabilities, Recruit CRM stands out as the top choice for agencies.

With their affiliate program, you can earn 20% recurring monthly commissions on every new customer you refer. This commission is applicable for the first 12 months of their subscription, ensuring a steady income stream as long as the referred business remains with Recruit CRM.

Check more and apply to the Recruit CRM affiliate program.

TalkRoute

TalkRoute is a virtual phone system helping businesses manage their calls, text, and video communications. It turns your phone and desktop into a phone system that’s ready for business anywhere: office, home, and on the road. They appeal to businesses of all sizes and industries due to their affordable pricing and advanced features.

Their reliable mobile app allows for on-the-go team members and remote teams to handle calls efficiently with all the features you’d expect from a hard-wired system (without the bulky, expensive hardware). This also allows solopreneurs, small teams, and even large enterprises to scale affordably; users can be added to any TalkRoute plan for just $5/mo. 

The TalkRoute affiliate program offers $100 per sale. It is handled by a dedicated team, which means you’ll get complete support and a variety of marketing materials that will cut down your promotion efforts. There are no joining fees or minimum commitments.

Learn more here about TalkRoute’s affiliate program and apply.

Zonka Feedback

Zonka Feedback is a versatile SaaS platform designed to help businesses gather, analyze, and act on customer feedback. The platform offers a robust survey builder with over 20 question types, multi-channel distribution options, and advanced analytics powered by AI. It is ideal for businesses aiming to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and overall experience through effective feedback management.

The Zonka Feedback affiliate program offers a 25% commission for every paying customer who registers using your affiliate link. This commission is valid for a lifetime, providing affiliates with a substantial income stream as long as their referrals remain customers. Promotional materials and dedicated support are readily available to affiliates. The program also features a 120-day cookie duration, ensuring affiliates get credit for conversions made within this period after a referral clicks their link.

The Zonka Feedback affiliate program is perfect for bloggers, marketers, customer experience professionals, and SaaS enthusiasts. It is especially suited for those with an audience interested in leveraging customer insights to drive business growth and enhance service quality.

Check more info and apply for the Zonka Feedback affiliate program.

LifeLock

NortonLifeLock is a publicly traded company with hundreds of thousands of clients and a solid reputation. However, unless your website is specifically focused on cybersecurity, it may be hard to sell their products. LifeLock offers protection against identity theft, and while it’s a great service, most customers are people who already know how widespread identity theft is.

LifeLock is also pretty cheap, which is a great selling point. But for an affiliate, this means you need a lot more leads to meet your financial goals, especially considering there’s only a single payment for each lead.

Privy

Privy is a marketing plug-in for Shopify that has 18,000 five-star reviews and a 700,000-strong customer base. Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms, so the potential audience size is huge. It’s best if your affiliate website is focused on Shopify specifically, but one that talks about eCommerce, in general, is great too.

The cheapest subscription plan comes in at $24, which grants you a $2.40 per month revenue share. To get even $200 a month from this affiliate, you’ll have to bring in 84 paying customers, which may take a while. Privy also has a free plan, so any conversions made from your affiliate link are going to be diluted by people opting in for the free option.

On the flip side, privy is rather popular, so you may have an easier time with conversions. Combine it with a non-competitor Shopify plug-in or two, and you may reach your financial goals faster.

Capsulink

Capsulink is a custom short-link marketing platform that offers a range of features, including smart links, branded links, and an API URL shortener. The platform helps businesses increase their brand awareness, trust, engagement, and click-through rates by providing a tailored experience for their customers across all devices and channels.

Capsulink offers a 25% recurring commission for up to 12 months, with a 30-day cookie window. The program also has a dedicated manager to provide support, overall transparency, and flexible payout models.

Joining the Capsulink affiliate program can provide significant benefits to affiliate marketers

GoHire

GoHire is a recruitment software purpose-built for SMBs who want to simplify hiring now. The platform offers features such as the ability to post jobs to 15+ job boards from Indeed to LinkedIn, create a careers page, and manage candidates with jobs and pools. GoHire has a free trial and paid plans starting at $83.

The company presents an interesting affiliate program. They offer a 20% commission on all new businesses referred monthly for life. Also, receiving a double commission in the first 30 days is possible. GoHire has a long cookie window of 180 days.

Regarding supporting affiliates, there is a dedicated manager to help you out with the first steps and payouts. The manager also provides you with marketing assets such as screenshots, videos, and copies to use and promote the software.

Join the GoHire affiliate program and offer your audience a seamlessly integrated hiring software

Salesmate.io

Salesmate is a SaaS sales platform that has a non-orthodox affiliate program. It may not be suited for everyone as Salesmate intends their affiliates to be much more involved in the client’s life than simply providing a link to the website. If you want a regular affiliate program that ends at directing traffic and creating a passive income stream, this one may not be for you.

However, if you’re a professional in sales who works with small and medium businesses, Salesmate is a bargain.

To start with, you’re making a 20% commission on the client’s first-year contract with Salesmate. The base price is pretty decent in itself at $39 per month per user for the most popular plan. That’s $39-$195 for an average organization of 1-5 users. On top of that, Salesmate charges for add-ons like messenger, a dedicated IP server, and call credits. That alone can produce a decent revenue stream.

What differentiates Salesmate from most other affiliate programs is that it encourages affiliates to be involved in the lead’s sales process on the platform and charges fees for onboarding and setup.

Involve.me

Involve.me is a customer engagement software that has hundreds of templates from calculator widgets to personality quizzes to get your customer’s interest. The affiliate program spikes interest as well.

Involve.me goes the extra mile to attract affiliates with its offer. You can get a 30% lifetime revenue share for all purchases your leads make. The medium tier subscription sets customers back $59 per month, which gives you $18 per month as commission.

The platform also encourages affiliates to make money in creative ways and doesn’t require you to run a popular blog to be admitted.

The downside is that its product isn’t intuitive to many customers, and it may take some convincing on your part to secure a deal. After all, $59 for a pop quiz tool may seem like a lot unless you know how to use it to engage customers. You can focus your affiliate content on ways of implementing Involve.me to make a profit to spur interest in readers.

Unbounce

Unbounce offers a pretty popular set of marketing tools to customers and a bargain of an affiliate program to affiliate partners. It pays 25-35% of every customer’s payment for up to 12 months after they sign up.

With Unbounce’s cheapest plan at $74 per month, you’re receiving $18.50-25.90 each month for every lead you bring for the first year. Sure, because that’s rather pricey, you may end up having lower conversion figures. But Unbounce is an established business that doesn’t require much introduction, which may help convince the leads to purchase.

Differences between affiliate programs and referral programs

Referral and affiliate programs might sound interchangeable to those who aren’t well-versed in marketing, as they both rely on incentives to drive business growth. However, the underlying strategies are fundamentally different. It’s important to understand them before you settle on an affiliate program and move to the next stage.

A major difference is that a referral program awards existing customers for each person they bring in, whereas affiliate programs mobilize bloggers, influencers, industry experts, etc., to find new customers. As a result, the level of relationship between referrers and businesses differs: in referral programs, the relationship is more intimate, while in affiliate programs, it is often indirect. Let’s review the main differences:

Key Differences	Referral programs	Affiliate programs
Target audience	They typically rely on existing customers for spreading the word about the offered products and services	They typically engage bloggers, influencers, industry experts, etc., to find new customers
Level of reach	Cannot control what types of customers the business attracts. The reach of this program is rather limited to family, friends, and colleagues.	More likely to attract customers interested in the offered products and services. As a result, they can more easily target niche markets.
Industry or niche	Best suited for e-commerce or service companies like Uber or Revolut.	Common among SaaS companies and in industries like health, entertainment, personal development, etc.
Link promotion strategy	Referral links are typically shared between two people.	Affiliate links are publicly shared. They could be text links, banner links, and text boxes.

What a perfect affiliate program should look like

Picking the right affiliate program depends on why you want to become an affiliate and identifying your niche. It might take some time before you find a profitable niche, but once you narrow it down, you can expand your audience reach with little effort on your part. 

There might be no perfect affiliate program for your niche. But what do businesses with successful affiliate programs have in common? They sell proven products, offer recurring commission rates and long cookie lifetimes, prioritize transparent terms and conditions, and efficiently track performance. Seek out these features to ensure the best start to your affiliate career.