15 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for 2020

Every successful affiliate marketer knows that blogging is no “get rich quick” profession. A lot of hard work goes into creating unique and interesting blog posts, social media marketing, link building and other traffic building activities.

Bloggers have different reasons for venturing into the self-publishing space – to build a brand, archive their thoughts and concepts, provide free information to the public etc. One common denominator of all blogs is to create or boost revenue.

There are lots of revenue generating options for your blog depending on your niche, traffic to your blog, and objective of running the blog. To make money online, some of the available options are:

1. Sell products and/or services
2. Earn from Google Adsense
3. Advertising revenue
4. Receive donations and contributions
5. Affiliate marketing

You can earn revenue from all or some of the above listed sources, however our focus is on affiliate marketing and how we can get you started with earning big from it, or boost whatever income you may have been earning.

Why Choose Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a marketing program that lets you sell products and services belonging to others, while earning commissions for every closed sale. Though signing up as an affiliate marketer is free for most programs, you will need to have a blog or active social media account from which to sell the products to your audience.

Affiliate marketing is less expensive to start because you do not need to hold inventory of products you intend to sell, you are required to direct the referral to the seller’s checkout page. Affiliate marketing is very flexible, it is a job you could run on a full time or part time basis.

Much of the work for getting started with affiliate marketing is building traffic to your blog. Once you have achieved success in this, the rest is history. There are plenty of success stories from affiliate marketers and you too could be one the highly successful earning up to 6 figure income. This guide will help you build a successful career from affiliate marketing.

How to Build Your Affiliate Marketing Business with Free Traffic

15 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for 2020

To help you make the most of affiliate marketing, I have compiled a list of 15 best affiliate marketing programs for 2020.

1. ShareASale – Having been in the business of affiliate marketing for close to 2 decades, ShareASale boasts one of the largest affiliate networks with about 4,000 merchants. The network features a wide range of products that offer affiliate marketers so much to choose from. The company publishes extensive information about its offers which include earnings per click, reversal rates, average commission and other metrics that help in accessing a campaign.

Pros

It has a large partner network of over 4,000 merchants with a thousand of them being exclusive. The payout options are flexible with options of digital and standard payouts. Affiliate marketers signed up on this platform have a wide range of products and services to choose from, and access to metrics for use in evaluating the offers to decide what is best products for you.

Cons

It is a little technical in setting up an account.

2. CJ Affiliate Publishers Program

Formerly Commission Junction, CJ Affiliate has been a player in the marketing industry since 1998, with lots of experience and expertise in affiliate. The company has lots of retailers on their platform and so many products to compare and choose from. There are products in virtually every niche. The affiliate tracking code is very easy to generate and place in your blog, with lots of image formats and sizes.

Pros

• CJ Affiliate is reliable when it comes to payment, you get paid your commission on time every month. They have a great reporting tool for marketers to help evaluate and plan on improving sales performance. Their experience in the game gives you assurance that you are dealing with one of the best affiliate networks.

Cons

• The standard is high and the application process is quite tedious for beginners. It also has a steep learning curve for those new to the reporting suite.

3. MaxBounty

MaxBounty is an exclusively CPA (Cost Per Action/ Acquisition) company founded in 2004 in Ottawa, Canada. The company is focused in the business niche which includes digital products, and markets like finance, dating, real estate, social games and dieting. Commission rate ranges from $2.50 to $85 per CPA. It is a good affiliate network for digital marketers and bloggers who have some experience behind them.

Pros

• It has a very attractive new affiliate bonus of $1,000 for being able to earn $1,000 consecutively for the first 3 months of signing up. Payment is weekly (minimum of $50) with a digital payout option. Easy and intuitive dashboard to work with gives the ability to sort for best offers.

Cons

• Not as established in the industry compared to those who have been there longer. Approval can take quite a while for new marketers.

MaxBounty Affiliate Marketing – The Most Powerful CPA Affiliate Network

4. Shopify Affiliate Program

Shopify is an ecommerce platform which has been experiencing steady growth in customer base and market share. Their referral program pays commissions for all referral purchases of the company’s products with earning potentials of 200% per sale for new customers referred to them. One of the largest providers of ecommerce solutions, Shopify offers hosting options and payment processor. There is also a Shopify store where third-party apps and themes are sold, with affiliate earnings for every referral sale.

Pros

• The company has different available ways to earn from its affiliate program. Customer care is very responsive. Earning potential of $2,400 for new customer referred.

Cons

• The users of Shopify products are not very broad since it includes just those who want to sell their products or services online. So there is a limit on the number of people that their offerings will appeal to. The minimum payout is $25. The wait period before a user becomes a paying subscriber is 2 months when you receive the commission for that sale. No commissions are paid for renewals.

Shopify Affiliate Review

5. ClickBank

It is one of the best affiliate positioned for bloggers, ClickBank (“CB” for short) is an affiliate network with focus on digital products like eBooks and online courses. The company has been in existence far longer than those currently in the affiliate industry, allowing new members to sign up for free with an almost automatic approval process.

There are lots of resources and information to guide usage of the network, and also a paid program called ClickBank University where participants receive training and assistance from the more experienced marketers.

Pros

• It is one of the biggest and most robust affiliate programs with a 60-day refund policy. The products database is relatively easy to navigate through and it makes finding products to sell a simple task.

Cons

• Their refunds policy can eat into your earnings when experienced frequently. Pay outs are in only Check, direct deposit, wire transfers or Payoneer. A maximum of $150 earning per sale irrespective of the product sold.

6. Rakuten

One of the oldest affiliate networks still having unique features that differentiate them from other platforms, Rakuten LinkShare allows for deep linking with merchants’ landing pages. Though a much smaller network than the big players in the industry, the offers are optimized for merchants and marketers to get the best.

Pros

• They give you more flexibility in the way you promote on their platform by letting you choose the page you want to send your traffic to. The company employs the use of ads rotation for optimizing your ads

Cons

• It is a much smaller network in comparison to networks like CJ Affiliate and ShareASale, leading to less choice of products and options for marketers. Also, pay out can is received by their affiliates only after the company has been paid by partners.

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7. Leadpages Partner Program

Leadpages offers a great tool for building landing pages that convert very well. Leadpages partner program is open only to existing customers who refer new customers to the platform.

Pros

• Leadpages offer 30% commission on whatever the referrals spend on their products, and special offers of up to $5,000 for hitting a set target within a given time. Commissions on sale are earned over a lifetime so you can keep earning long after the sale. They offer a wide range of promotional items like banners, social media, images etc.

Cons

• It is too much of a niche for many marketers. It is only open to their existing customers.

8. Bluehost Affiliate Program

Bluehost is one of the most highly recommended web hosting companies for WordPress. Their prices are affordable and flexible, great packages and excellent customer care.

Pros

• It has a very straightforward sign up process for a platform that comes highly recommended by WordPress. Their offerings are dependable and of good quality.

Cons

Their products are for narrow niche since not everyone needs a hosting service. Paypal is the only payment option that is used.

9. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an email services company offering its affiliate program to existing users, and pay 30% commission for referral sales. Its main focus is in the email marketing space.

Pros

• It is fast and easy to join the referral program. Their products are of great quality, especially suited to growing companies, so you can be sure of customer satisfaction from the products.

Cons

• Payouts are only via PayPal. The earnings take a long time to confirm which happens to be a minimum of 30 days.

10. Affiliate Window (AWIN)

Founded originally in Germany as Affiliate Window in in 2000, AWIN has now grown its network to span Europe and growing rapidly in the United States. The company boasts of more than 13,000 advertisers and over 100,000 affiliates. Their products on offer cover a wide range including retail, financial, shopping, beauty, home and garden. They also work with digital and physical products having some big brands as customers.

Pros

• Their dashboard is user-friendly with an array of useful tools to help with your marketing campaigns. There are a lot of tools developed for different platforms that make marketing more effective. They pay out twice every month.

Cons

• There is a $5 fee for sign up which is forfeited if your application isn’t approved.  

11. FlexOffers

FlexOffers connects different types of publishers (bloggers, content creators) with advertisers. Their affiliate programs are organized into different categories and subcategories to make marketing less stressful and more productive for publishers. They also have an affiliate program that allows a publisher to earn commission from another publisher referred to by him.

Pros

• They offer revenue share from someone that you referred to the program. FlexOffers also assigns dedicated Affiliate Manager to help you with your work.

Cons

• The only means of payment is PayPal for those who are based outside the United States.

12. StudioPress Affiliate

StudioPress provides customizable WordPress hosting and themes that help to extend the functionalities of your installation. StudioPress are the authors of Genesis framework which houses themes and SEO tools. The commission rate is 35% on all sales made within 60 days of clicking the affiliate link.

Pros

• The products are great and well attested to by users.

Cons

• Its product is a niche product that is meant for just a segment of users.

13. Sendible

Sendible is a tool used by social media managers to schedule posts and manage multiple social media accounts all at once. They offer 30% commission per sale.

Pros

• It is easy to join and pays 30% commission on referrals for up to 12 months

Cons

• Long waiting time of 60 days before you get paid. Very narrow niche product.

14. Warrior Plus

It is best suited for internet marketers who want to earn from sale of internet marketing products.

Pros

• Quick and easy sign up process with instant payout through PayPal or Stripe

Cons

• Their products contain a high amount of low quality products. You have to make a total of 5 sales before you qualify for your first pay out.

15. Amazon Associates

Amazon Affiliate program earns you commission for referral sales of products on Amazon. The online store covers every niche you can think of.

Pros

• Amazon has a diverse collection of products. Earn commission for your referral link even if the buyer eventually buys a different product.

Cons

• The affiliate cookie only lasts for 24 hours and any purchase outside that time won’t be counted as a sale for you. The payout options are only limited to check, bank transfer and Amazon gift card.

Amazon Affiliate Program Review: the Best Selling Platform for Affiliate Marketers

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a proven means of earning revenue from your blog. A few of the affiliate marketing networks cover a broad range of products while so many are based on some niches. You only have to select those that are best suited for your audience.

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