Out of all the monetization methods that I’ve used in the last 10 years, doing affiliate marketing is still my favorite way to earn passive income from my blog.
You might hear a lot of people saying that affiliate marketing is dead. Personally, I could not have grown my business without doing it, and as far as I’m concerned, affiliate marketing is far from dead.
If you have followed my blogging journey since the beginning, you are awesome, and I thank you. I started with affiliate marketing back in 2010, and I used the money I earned from promoting the products and services I use on my blog to build and grow my web design business.
So the question is, should you be doing affiliate marketing to help boost your blog income and grow your business?
My answer would be a BIG resounding yes, of course you should be.
If you have a blog with a decent amount of valuable content, you can make a successful start with affiliate marketing. As long as your blog gets a decent amount of traffic too.
Another critical ingredient that’s needed is a list of email subscribers.
Now, if you’re thinking that there’s some magic formula or secret for becoming successful with earning affiliate revenue from your blog, then you’ll be glad to know that there isn’t one.
It’s 2020, and yes, there are still scammers about trying to rip people off with their so-called ‘get rich quick’ schemes. Avoid all of them like the plague. I repeat, DO NOT waste your time or money on these schemes or systems; they do not work.
If you want to learn about earning an income from your blog properly, there are plenty of guides and tutorials on the internet that are completely free.
Besides, you can follow plenty of credible bloggers to learn about earning revenue from your blog. Amazon has a ton of books on building a profitable online business from credible authors and expert marketers.
It’s not so much about finding the best affiliate programs but more about finding the right ones.
If you’re in the blogging, online business, or digital marketing realm, you’ll love checking through the list below.
Here you will find my list of 14 amazing affiliate programs and networks to check out in 2021.
I use most of these myself to help monetize my blog. I hope that you can find success with these too.
Word of warning before you sign up to any of these affiliate programs: Be sure to respect the terms set out by each affiliate program or network below, and always use smart and none sales strategies and tactics to promote your affiliate products.
Right then, are you ready? Let’s check each one of them out.
Amazon’s affiliate (associate) program was one of the first I ever signed up to when I started my affiliate blogging journey ten years ago.
As you well know, Amazon is a pretty big company and has over 1 million products to choose from. Their affiliate program is easy to sign up for, and you can begin monetizing your content immediately.
You can earn up to 10% commission on qualifying referral sales. Payouts are made via check at a minimum of $100 or direct bank transfer at a minimum of $10.
The smartest way to boost your Amazon affiliate revenue, as a blogger, and in my experience, is to create useful reviews of all the products you have purchased on Amazon yourself, as long as the products you review are relevant.
For example, I like to review business and self-help books, software, computer hardware, and any other tech that I have purchased to use in my business.
Another great way to increase your revenue earnings with Amazon is to create websites in particular niches. For example – fitness watches, phone cases, beanie hats, etc.
I’ve received some nice affiliate revenue from Amazon by creating niche sites, I highly recommend you try it.
ClickBank is one of the oldest and largest affiliate networks in the business. I started using the platform myself back in 2010.
Now, there’s an ugly side to ClickBank, sadly, and that is the sheer volume of low quality, spammy looking products infesting the marketplace.
This is not to say ClickBank is bad or a complete waste of time. However, you just have to be very cautious about what you choose to purchase, use, and promote on your blog. Research carefully first.
Check out this post I wrote on how to make money with ClickBank.
I want to share the four main products currently hosted on ClickBank that I’m currently promoting. These are products that sit in the blogging and online business niche.
These are just a few, but I’m sure you can find more great products to promote that are more relevant to your niche.
Recommended: ClickBank Review: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Next on my list is CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction) network, another huge affiliate platform with over 900 million monthly customers.
A lot of the top A-list companies will have their affiliate programs set up with CJ. The competition, though, can be super-tough.
I started using CJ back in 2011 myself but actually struggled to create revenue using the platform, even after some intense product research and marketing. Like I said, the competition can be tough for products you want to promote.
I still use Commission Junction today, but my efforts, to be honest, hasn’t been as good as I’ve put into using other programs.
The minimum payout is $50. However, you can increase this limit should you wish in the settings.
Shareasale is one of my favorite affiliate network programs for bloggers that I’ve used since 2011. The site has plenty of reputable companies offering high-end products and services with their own commission levels.
The minimum payout at Shareasale is $50; however, you can increase this minimum upwards to $1,000.
Here is a list of affiliate programs currently hosted on Shareasale I use and would recommend for bloggers –
To date, I’ve managed to earn a total of $5,000+ commission from Shareasale.
Bluehost is a well-established web hosting company that’s been around for a very long time. Love them or hate them, they offer good value for money when launching your first blog. Their affiliate program is quite generous too, you can earn $65 per qualified signup.
Even if you manage a few sign ups per month, that is still a nice additional income to have, don’t you think? Bluehost will hold payments for 45 days before making a payment; that’s one of their terms. However, from my experience, this can be longer.
SiteGround is yet another reliable and popular web hosting company. Especially amongst bloggers and WordPress users.
Their affiliate program is simple and can be very generous. The more sales you refer, the more you can earn. At the lowest level, you can earn $50 per qualified sale. If you can generate more than 21 sales each month, you can earn $100 per sale.
From my experience with SiteGround’s affiliate program, at least 1 in every five successful sales end up being either refunded or voided. SiteGround will hold payments for up to 90 days before making a payment.
Competition for promoting SiteGround can be very tough, as there are countless blogs and websites all fighting for top spot rankings for hosting reviews.
Now, we get to one of my all-time favorite affiliate programs for bloggers, offered by none other than Thrive Themes.
If you use any of the Thrive Themes products in your business, then you’ll know just how wonderful their tools actually are.
Their affiliate program is one of the best in the business, with high conversion rates and reliable monthly payments. The minimum payout is $20, and you can earn a 50% commission per qualified sale.
Thrive Themes hold payments for 30-days before making a monthly payment.
To date, I have generated a nice $21,181 by promoting Thrive Themes products on my blog.
Template Monster is an e-commerce website that offers premium quality website templates for sale.
The site currently has over 25,000 website templates to choose from, and as you can imagine, they also have a lucrative affiliate program bloggers can sign up to.
Their commission rate is simple, you get 30% for each new sale and 10% for any additional sales from the same customer. Affiliates also have the opportunity to progressively scale up their commission rate up to 50% per sale.
Next, we get to the Envato Marketplace, a huge one-stop-shop for website owners, web designers, and developers.
Envato offers many extension services and products, and with each one, you have the opportunity to earn a commission on referral sales using their dedicated affiliate program provided through Impact.
Their commission rate is 30% per sale, and their affiliate platform is very easy to use.
Payhip is an awesome eCommerce platform for selling digital downloads and memberships. I use Payhip to sell all of my eBooks.
Also, their partner program is one of the most rewarding in the business. You can earn a 50% recurring commission on sales transaction fees. The more signups you can convert into customers, the more chance you’ll have to increase your daily revenue.
Of course, there are many other popular programs you can sign up for and start making money from. I’ve highlighted some of my favorite ones above, but here’s a quick list of other programs you might be interested in.
Well, there you have it, the 14 best affiliate programs and networks for you to sign up to and boost your blog earnings potential.
If you’re not using any of these, then get on the case and start signing up for a few of them.
If you are using any of these affiliate programs to monetize your blog, please share your thoughts, comments, and experiences with me in the comment section below.
If the comments are closed, share this post with your friends on social media and leave your comments below the post. You can also tag me using @vanmarciano 🙂
Enjoy.
Affiliate Disclaimer: Please note that this post contains affiliate links to products and services that I use in my business. If you decide to purchase using any of the affiliate links in this blog post, I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks in advance!
