Looking for the best affiliate programs for beginners can be a hassle when you don’t know where to begin and how to go about it.
Sometimes the program is unavailable in your country and sometimes the payment method is not available.
I had to sift through many difficulties to get a good program I wanted to promote.
So it’s important to list down their availability and payment methods before you plan a monetizing strategy for your blog or buy a landing page builder for your affiliate marketing business.
I would recommend joining affiliate networks instead of joining each program in-house.
It’s a lot of hassle to keep tabs on all of your payments and if you join multiple programs, which you will if you own a blog, then it’s simply not worth the effort.
Especially for people living in countries where PayPal is unavailable. Or worse, you are banned to create an account with PayPal. (Don’t know why but is a very common scenario)
Let’s talk about Bluehost for example; It’s a good web hosting provider for beginner bloggers or websites with less traffic and is one of the best high-paying affiliate programs, BUT it only processed affiliate payments through PayPal – In-house before joining Impact.
It sucked big time.
BUT now there is another way to join the program even for those who don’t have a PayPal account, and that is through affiliate networks like Impact or CJ affiliate!
CJ affiliate network provides various forms of payment methods and this is where you luck out.
This is why I always recommend people to join affiliate networks rather than sifting through multiple in-house programs.
In this post, I have listed the best affiliate networks and some other high-paying affiliate programs for beginners to join.
Best High Paying Affiliate Programs for Beginners
First, let’s cover some high-paying affiliate programs;
Fiverr
Fiverr is the best and the most easily marketable program to join. Also, it’s the best digital service provider out there.
You can also outsource a ton of work yourself from Fiverr, which I recommend you do for your business needs.
You can earn $15 to $150 in the Fiverr CPA model and $10+10% RevShare in the hybrid model. It can even translate to $500 or more depending on the gig purchase.
They also provide tons of resources to make your marketing journey easier like providing Fiverr Gig ads to individually promote any gig you like within your blog posts.
Fiverr affiliate program is very easy to join for beginners their approval is almost instant. Also, since Fiverr is so well known, it’s easier to make money with, given you are playing your cards right.
Cookie Duration: 30 days
Commission Rate: Varies
Availability: In-house & CJ Affiliate.
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, etc.)
Bluehost
Bluehost affiliate program is also one of the best programs you can join in the web hosting category. They have a very low-cost barrier and they provide one of the highest paying commissions to their affiliates.
Not to mention, they are great for providing one of the best hosting services for bloggers and website owners. Many bloggers vouch for them and they are very popular among the masses which makes it easier for affiliate marketers and bloggers to make money with them.
You need to earn at least $50 to $100 with their affiliate program before they release your payment. They also provide text links and ad banners to promote them more easily.
As long as you have a plan and you manage to market them to the right audience, it’s very easy to earn high commissions even if you are a beginner blogger.
Cookie Duration: 30 days
Commission Rate: $65+ per sale
Availability: Impact & CJ Affiliate.
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, etc.)
Canva
Canva is a superb graphic designing tool you can shamelessly market because of its usability and high commissions. People use it for many of their graphics designing needs, including me!
They provide top-notch services whether you are an avid user of Canva or are its affiliate marketer.
Most probably, you will be both.
Cookie Duration: 30 days
Commission Rate: Varies (25% – 80%)
Availability: Impact
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, direct deposit, etc.)
Semrush
Semrush is a very popular and powerful SEO tool for searching keywords, conducting competitor analysis, PPC, social media marketing, and much more. It pays $200 for every successful lead.
It is used by 10,000,000 digital marketers worldwide and provides all the web vitals to improve your online presence and traffic.
They also pay $0.1 for every sign-up and $10 for every free trial subscription.
Cookie Duration: 120 days
Commission Rate: $200
Availability: Impact
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, direct deposit, etc.)
GetResponse
Getresponse is an all-in-one digital and email marketing platform. It helps you create email campaigns, landing pages, webinar hosting, and opt-in forms and also offers many other marketing tools to help you scale your business.
It pays a one-time commission of $100 or a recurring commission of 33%.
Cookie Duration: 120 days
Commission Rate: $100 or 33%(recurring)
Availability: CJ Affiliate and In-house
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, direct deposit, etc.)
Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce platform and website builder to help you build your shop and sell your products online. You can create your store, manage shipping and tracking, accept payments, integrate with other e-commerce and automation apps, etc.
It pays x2 for each sale excluding the advanced plan.
For example, Shopify’s basic plan costs $29/month, multiply it by 2, and you get a commission of $58 for every lead signing up for the basic plan.
Cookie Duration: 30 days
Commission Rate: Up to 200%
Availability: In-house, Impact
Payment Methods: PayPal, Bank Transfer, Wire Transfer
NordVPN
NordVPN is a popular VPN provider to secure your online privacy. It provides strong encryption and other security tools to safeguard your online presence.
NordVPN has a one-time commission payment of 30% for each customer.
Cookie Duration: 30 days
Commission Rate: 30%
Availability: CJ Affiliate, Impact
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, direct deposit, etc.)
FreshBooks
Freshbooks is a cloud-based account management software that enables small businesses to send invoices, manage receipts and expenses, accept payments, etc.
It boasts over 30 million users and is used by small businesses and accountants worldwide.
Freshbooks offers a one-time commission payment of up to $200.
Cookie Duration: 120 days
Commission Rate: Up to $200
Availability: ShareAsale
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, direct deposit, etc.)
TripAdvisor
Frequent travelers must have come across TripAdvisor at least once. It provides travel information and local reviews to make your travel journey smooth and easy. They also provide you the ability to book hotels, make reservations for restaurants, and much more.
TripAdvisor provides high commissions but their cookie duration should have been 30 days instead of 14 days.
Cookie Duration: 14 days
Commission Rate: 50%
Availability: Impact & Awin
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, direct deposit, etc.)
Wordable
Wordable is a cloud-based SaaS tool that allows you to import your content from Google docs to any of your CMS like WordPress, HubSpot, Medium, etc., making your transfer of information easy and hassle-free.
It’s is a very straightforward tool to save your time on menial and time-consuming tasks.
They offer a recurring commission of 30% on every sale.
Cookie Duration: 30 days
Commission Rate: 30% recurring
Availability: In-house (tapfiliate)
Payment Methods: Various (PayPal, Payoneer, direct deposit, etc.)
The best and highest paying affiliate networks to join
Going through the list, you must have realized by now that joining affiliate networks is the best way to keep all your affiliate links and programs in one place so you can easily manage them from a single dashboard.
These are the affiliate networks I would recommend you to join immediately, no matter where you live or in what niche you belong to:
Other affiliate programs you should also seriously consider:
Here are a few things you should know before signing up for any affiliate program:
Cookie Duration: Best cookie duration would be 30 days and above. It’s enough time to convert a lead into a paying customer.
Commission Rate: Affiliate programs offering a 30% or more commission rate can be considered high-paying affiliate programs. But it can also vastly vary depending on the product’s price and business model.
For example, a 20% commission rate on a $1000 laptop easily translates to $200 per sale!
Payment Methods: Before signing up for any affiliate program, check its payment methods. One of the main reasons why I recommend joining affiliate networks. They allow various methods for payments which saves you a lot of time and trouble.
Recurring vs. One-time commission: It depends on your affiliate program commission rates.
For example, your program pays $1/month in recurring commissions or a $30 one-time payment, I would personally go with the one-time payment on this one. But if it pays 30$ as a recurring commission or $100 as a one-time payment then recurring would be a good choice. It also depends on the program’s T&C as each program has different affiliate rules. So check them out before joining.
Methods of Promotion: You can promote your affiliate links on social media (Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, Reddit, Quora, etc.), Pinterest, or by building a website (the best option). Another option is to promote the programs through Google Ads, BUT here are a few things you need to keep in mind.
- You CAN NOT directly put your affiliate links on the ads. Doing so will get your Google Ads account suspended.
- You NEED a landing page to promote your product.
- You CAN put your affiliate link on the landing page and place your page link on the ads.
Also, many affiliate programs don’t allow you to use or target their brand keywords or names in your PPC or other ads campaign model. If you do so, you are not only ineligible for a commission but you can be blacklisted or get suspended by the program. You also need to have a sizable budget to go down this route.
If you have to, then you need to be strategic and target other indirect keywords. Most programs also don’t allow you to act as their representative or talk on their behalf or talk as if you are a part of their company.
Always read program requirements carefully before joining and always contact them or their affiliate manager in case you can’t understand something. Most of them are very helpful.
It’s always best to play the game with SEO, yes, it takes a while BUT, it’s also more sustainable and long-term.
Company Reputation: Always check their reputation in the market before you try to promote them. Many products for example, on Clickbank (affiliate network), are of extremely poor quality (some are amazing too) but they provide insanely high commission rates.
Now, if you try to promote them, you may get a couple of thousand bucks but, it may severely damage your reputation and credibility.
Sometimes, there are fake or paid reviews on major product review sites and so it takes a little digging to know if it’s worth the promotion.
Fees: There are NO fees to join affiliate programs or networks and, if someone asks for one, immediately dump them. Only merchants are required to pay, not the marketers.
Also read: How To Start A Blog From Scratch (Step By Step Guide)
Conclusion
Programs that offer free trials are the best to promote since the customer can get a feel of the product without paying first. You can also convince them to sign up as there is no pressure to convert them. I personally like them the most.
Wrapping up, these are the best high-paying affiliate programs and networks for beginners to join in affiliate marketing.
Remember to join only those programs that you personally think would benefit your audience and would prove to be useful for them.
Don’t join just because it is a high-paying affiliate program.
The best and most credible way to promote them is by having your own website or, if you are an established influencer or plan to be one, then on social media sites. (Youtube, Instagram, Tiktok, etc.)
When I was first introduced to affiliate marketing, I wanted to cheap out on a website and promote my links without one, BUT I not only failed but also wasted a lot of time and effort. Building your audience and promoting your links is the best way to go.
So for anyone considering affiliate marketing, it’s best to go with a website because you can monetize it in SO many ways than just affiliate links.
For building your website, I recommend you go with Hostinger as they provide the most inexpensive plans for beginners (2.99/month) and also a free domain for 1 year to get started.
Remember many high-paying affiliate programs don’t always sign up on affiliate networks. Instead, you have to join them In-house, so keep an eye out for them too.
Hope this post was helpful for you! Tell me which affiliate program do you like best and why?
*there are some affiliate links in the post. That means if you click through them and purchase something, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you.
