If you’re like me, when you sign up for affiliate programs, your main goal is to earn commissions by recommending products so that you wake up in the morning with something like this:
Thinkific Affiliate Selling
Get out of bed and check that you have $ 957.60 in your bank account from a single affiliate sale.
If you want to learn how to start a blog and participate in this market that is expected to reach $ 6.8 billion in 2022, read on.
This list includes affiliate programs for participating in standard categories like web hosting, website builders, VPNs, travel, finance, fashion, beauty, and fitness.
Additionally, it includes emerging verticals such as sports, music, video games, cryptocurrencies, and marijuana / CBD oil.
If you don’t have a website to make money with affiliate marketing yet, I highly recommend starting one with WordPress.
You can read my guide on starting a blog or my web hosting reviews to get started with your affiliate site.
Ultimately, you can build a site with Bluehost for just $ 2.95 / month.
So why should I trust the reviews of my affiliate programs?
I’m an affiliate manager turned affiliate marketer so I’ve seen both sides.
Affiliate programs managed for large eCommerce and SaaS brands in recent years. After seeing affiliates making money, I launched this site in January 2019.
And if you check my blog income reports, I’m now making over $ 80,000 a month from this blog.
More than 80% of this income comes from affiliate marketing, coming from more than 100 different affiliate programs.
If you want to make money faster and join the best affiliate programs in any niche, this article is for you.
First, I want to cover my first choice: Fiverr.
# 1 best affiliate program ever: Fiverr.
While this article covers many different affiliate niches, there is an affiliate program that covers all the bases and is the easiest to promote.
That affiliate program is Fiverr.
Fiverr Affiliate Program Banner
Fiverr is like the Amazon of digital services.
By joining the Fiverr affiliate program, you can promote the largest online service market in the world. From logo design and writing to programming, WordPress presentations, and business services, the options are endless.
And after promoting these services, affiliates earn up to $ 150 CPA per first-time buyer or up to $ 1,000 per sale with their $ 10 CPA / 10% hybrid revenue share model. go up to $ 10,000).
Overall, with over 250 categories and over 3 million digital services you can promote, Fiverr is my number one choice for the best affiliate program.
Start as a Fiverr affiliate.
Okay, let’s move on to the full list.
Disclaimer: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links that can provide me with a small commission at no cost to you. However, I have looked at all the programs in this guide and believe they are the best for generating affiliate income. You can read my full affiliation notice in my privacy policy.
What are the best affiliate programs?
First, on the list, web hosting is one of the most popular affiliate marketing categories in the world.
Every new website requires a host.
Therefore, most affiliates who write about marketing, starting an online business, or blogging end up joining a web hosting affiliate program first.
Ultimately, web hosting companies offer some of the best affiliate programs and commissions, which is why they are at the top of my list.
Here are my picks for the highest-paying affiliate programs.
1. Bluehost
Cheap web hosting services from Bluehost
The Bluehost affiliate program is very popular in the web hosting space. With their plans starting at $ 2.95 / month and one-time payments starting at $ 65 +, the cost barrier is low and the fees high.
For this reason, they are one of the convenient ways for affiliate bloggers looking to make money online.
After signing up for their program, you receive referral credit for up to 45 days after the first click. Payments are made between the 16th and the end of each month and you will need at least $ 100 to unlock the payment.
By promoting Bluehost, you will enjoy high conversion rates and have access to text links and banners to help them quickly. Their affiliate managers provide excellent customer service and are my absolute number 1 choice and they come with my highest recommendation.
You can read my full review of the Bluehost affiliate program for more information.
And if you still need to start your own affiliate website, click my link below to get 63% off your Bluehost plan.
Get started with Bluehost
2. Hostinger
Hostinger: the cheapest web hosting platform
Hostinger is another popular web hosting platform that can offer affiliates up to $ 150 per sale in a tiered pricing structure.
Their affiliate program offers a base pay of around $ 60, with a chance to win up to $ 150.
And because their WordPress and small business plans tend to always be 90% off, they have strong conversion rates.
Like many other web servers, they provide banners and promotional tools to help new affiliates get started.
If you still need to start your own affiliate website, click my link below to get 90% off your Hostinger plan.
Get started with Hostinger
3. Elementor
Elementor is a dynamic platform for drag-and-drop website creation. Elementor helps web builders to create impressive and complete WordPress websites, without the need for code.
Success comes from collaboration: Elementor has 100,000 members in its online community. There, web builders share tips, suggestions, and comments, organize meetings and push each other towards professional growth.
Generally, the Elementor Affiliate Program offers 50% per sale and five pricing packages, ranging from $ 49 to $ 999 per year. This wide range of price points makes it easy for affiliates to strategically market various plans to specific audiences.
With some affiliates earning over $ 10,000 with Elementor, it’s one of the best options for WordPress web hosting and bloggers.
Get started with Elementor
4. Cloudeway
The Cloudways web hosting affiliate program offers high payouts, long recurring fees, and three flexible payment models for its affiliates.
For one-time payments, you can earn up to $ 125 per sale based on your performance level. Plus, you can use their hybrid model and get $ 30 per sale plus a 7% monthly lifetime commission for the customer’s life.
Cloudways provides its own real-time tracking for its affiliates, with a performance dashboard showing clicks, conversions and other insights.
They also have great account managers (whom I know personally) and helpful resources including posting emails, guides, monthly newsletters, reference articles, and blog posts.
You can get started with the Cloudways Affiliate Program with the link below.
Get started with Cloudeway
5. HostGator.
By promoting HostGator, you can earn up to $ 100 per signup and get flexible commission structures and their co-branded landing pages and offers.
For example, I have my HostGator home page where readers can get a 60% discount on HostGator plans.
Plus, they have tiered commission structures – the more affiliates you refer, the more commissions you will earn. You can choose a performance-based or hybrid commission model that also offers recurring payments.
By joining their program, you get a dedicated affiliate account manager and access to marketing tools like banners, text links, great article content, and email templates. I’m also an excellent web host when starting an affiliate site.
Click my link below to get a 60% discount on HostGator web hosting.
Get started with HostGator
6. GreenGeek
If your users are looking for an easy-to-use (and environmentally friendly) web server, they should check out GreenGeeks.
Did you know your website has a carbon footprint?
GreenGeeks is looking to change this by replacing 3 times the amount of energy consumed by the grid in the form of renewable energy credits.
By joining their affiliate program, you can earn up to $ 125 per sale based on performance and traffic levels. GreenGeeks has paid its affiliates over $ 3.5 million over time and offers dedicated account managers and helpful reporting tools to set you up for success.
Get started with GreenGeek
7. WP engine
WP Engine has one of the highest affiliate payouts, starting at $ 200. They are a powerful web hosting platform and a leading web server for bloggers who write on WordPress themes and plugins.
Their program includes incentives and price ranges. If you make five sales, you get an additional $ 100. For ten purchases, you get $ 250. They also offer a two-tier program – you can earn $ 50 for any sub-affiliate you refer to their platform.
WP Engine has an industry-leading 180-day cookie lifespan, which awards sales credit for up to 6 months after visitors click on your affiliate link.
However, the only downside is that their product is more expensive than other web servers, so conversion rates aren’t that high.
I know many people who have run the WP Engine program and I make sure they are committed to the success of their affiliates.
Get started with WP Engine
8. Liquid Web
Liquid Web runs its own affiliate program and pays its affiliates 150% of sales, which can range from $ 150 to $ 7,000 per sale.
They have excellent account managers and offer a two-tier setup. This allows you to get a small credit for sales generated by other affiliates via your two-tier link (like mine in this article).
If you’re looking for a great, high-paying affiliate marketing program, check out Liquid Web.
Get started with Liquid Web
9. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is a platform for growing your marketing and sales with a dedicated CRM, email marketing software, landing page generator, and more.
Your affiliate program pays affiliates for both leads and sales. For example, if you refer a free user to Sendinblue, you receive € 5 and for each paying customer, you receive € 100 more. In my experience with them, payments are made quickly and reliably via PayPal or bank transfer.
They have a cookie life of 90 days and are tracked in real-time via Tapfiliate. As they are a leading and well-known marketing platform, conversion rates are high from click to lead and lead to sales.
In general, if you’re writing to an audience that needs a full set of marketing tools, promoting Sendinblue through your affiliate program is the best option.
Sendinblue affiliate program
VPN Affiliate Programs
Next, let’s move on to VPNs.
Since 2013, nearly 25% of internet users around the world have used a VPN every month, and the market is growing year after year.
Due to the growing popularity of this technology, all different types of affiliate sites can advise their readers to set up a private internet connection.
In fact, I even got on the bandwagon with my Top 19 VPN Service post.
I also use a VPN to secure my internet connection over public Wi-Fi, stream Netflix when I travel overseas, and even do keyword research pretending to be somewhere else.
Since these companies charge a recurring fee to use their online services, affiliates generally receive either a recurring payment or a large one-time payment for users after signing up.
It is one of the most popular affiliate categories and there are many great programs to join.
These are the best VPN affiliate programs:
1. Surfshark VPN
Surfshark VPN is a leading VPN provider and aims to make online privacy easy for everyone. It also lets you access blocked and unavailable content around the world, including blocked streaming services.
By promoting Surfshark, affiliates can earn a 40% revenue share for every subscription sold. As this product offers super competitive pricing and a wide range of features, it converts well in many markets.
2. IPVanish
IPVanish is one of the best VPN services on the market and boasts some of the best payouts in the VPN industry.
1 month package: 100%, then 35% recurring. 3 months package: 40%, then 35% recurring. 1 and 2-year package: 40%, then 30% recurring.
3. ExpressVPN
Founded in 2009, ExpressVPN is one of the most popular options for users looking to protect their online privacy. They offer high one-time payments based on the plan the user subscribes to – 1 month is $ 13, 6 months is $ 22, and 12 months is $ 36.
4. NordVPN
NordVPN’s fees are based on the subscription plan requested by the customer, including 100% for 1 month and 40% for 6 months, 1 year, and 2-year plans. They also have high conversion rates and dedicated account managers to help you boost your sales.
5. Powerful VPN.
StrongVPN has been around since 2006 and has a popular affiliate program. They pay every month and offer up to a 200% payout for generated sales.
6. PureVPN
PureVPN has one of the funniest programs, with contests, a rewards system, and personalized notifications that let you know when you’ve made a sale. Like others on this list, they offer 100% for the first month and 40% for longer plans.
Website Affiliate Programs
After web hosting and VPNs as two of the most popular affiliate categories, website builders like Wix and Squarespace come second.
The first step that bloggers take in creating a website is choosing a web host; The same goes for entrepreneurs who want to create a website.
Additionally, because paying customers can stay between 24 and 36 months and have a high lifetime value (LTV), SaaS companies can afford to pay more than 100% of the monthly sales price.
Here are my picks for the best eCommerce affiliate websites and programs:
1. Wix
Wix is a high-quality website builder with an active 100 million users. They provide their affiliates $ 100 per sale to get started and have many great landing pages to use in multiple languages.
Plus, using Wix is one of the simplest (and cheapest) ways to create a simple website for adding and monetizing affiliate links.
2. Big Commerce.
BigCommerce is a SaaS eCommerce platform with over 60,000 merchants. They are known as the eCommerce platform of choice for growing brands due to their built-in features and advanced features.
Their eCommerce affiliate program offers a generous payout of 200% off the plan price, which means you can earn $ 60, $ 160, $ 250, or $ 1,500 per paying customer. They have a 90-day cookie and provide banners, text links, and a weekly affiliate newsletter with content templates and SEO tips.
I’m also biased because I was their affiliate manager in 2018 and I know how good the program is.
3. Shopify.
Shopify is the most popular eCommerce website builder in the world, with 400,000 merchants and a substantial 200% commission on paid stores. With your name recognition, you get stable conversion rates. Plus, their website offers helpful affiliate FAQs and promotional ideas.
4. Click Meter.
ClickMeter is a website link monitoring service that pays up to 90% commission per sale when promoting your tool. Their program is on Shareasale, they have a dedicated affiliate team, and you can earn up to $ 891 per sale. I added them to the top of this list due to their high commission rate and helpful affiliate team.
5. Major themes.
Superb Themes is a company that offers well-designed WordPress themes and writes a lot of great content on WordPress. If you want to promote WordPress themes to your audience, you can earn up to 60% commission on each sale and even earn recurring commissions annually. They also have a dedicated affiliate manager and a 30-day cookie lifespan.
6. AliDropship.
AliDropship is an e-commerce platform for dropshipping and has two separate solutions: a full online store option and its plugins, plugins, and themes. Their affiliate program offers partners trial access to plugins, a 30-day cookie window, banners, content templates, and commissions of up to 50%, meaning you can get up to $ 869 from a single sale. They make timely payments through PayPal.
7. Weely.
Weebly is a simple website builder with over 40 million users. It’s not the most advanced website builder, but its drag-and-drop interface makes it very easy to create a quick website. They offer a recurring commission of 30% while the customer is active and has a generous 120-day cookie window.
8. ReferralCandy.
ReferralCandy is the best referral software for online stores. For example, their platform allows e-commerce merchants to create offers for their customers, such as “10% off for your friends, 6% off for you”. When you send eCommerce stores to ReferralCandy, you get $ 20 in cash every time.
10. 3d cart.
3dcart is a fast-growing e-commerce platform that hosts its own program and offers a 300% commission for paid conversions. They boast reliable conversion rates and have easy-going affiliate managers who lend a hand.
11. Site 123.
Site123 is another popular website builder that allows you to create mobile-optimized websites with many templates to choose from and a simple user interface. Their affiliate program provides payments of up to $ 182 and you can only withdraw your funds after receiving $ 300 in commissions.
Affiliate networks.
So, let’s stop and move on to affiliate networks.
When you find affiliate programs to join, you can go to a search engine such as Google and search for individual programs, search the Internet for hours, and finally find the ones that match your interests.
However, it is much faster to join an affiliate network where you can see thousands of programs in one place.
By searching your market, you can easily see program fees, cookie lifetimes, average EPCs, and more.
What are Affiliate Networks?
Affiliate networks are intermediaries between the merchants who sell products and the affiliates who promote them.
Affiliate networks allow publishers (affiliates) to search for brands (advertisers) and participate in their programs in one place.
On the other hand, they allow brands to reach a wider audience by using the network to recruit affiliates.
There are other benefits as well. You can compare commissions across different programs, get paid fast, and keep track of all affiliate links on your affiliate platforms.
How do I choose the best affiliate network?
The networks you choose to join ultimately depend on your overall strategy and the types of products you wish to promote.
These are the main aspects to consider when deciding among the best.
1. Many marketers in your niche.
Some networks specialize in specific verticals like fashion, beauty products, and home goods, while others may have multiple B2B brands and merchants. If you are a blogger, make sure the network has a large number of merchants that match your niche.
2. Make sure they are 100% free.
You should NEVER pay to sign up. Networks make money by charging their merchants: setup fees, monthly fees, and sometimes a percentage of affiliate revenue. If you find one that is trying to get you paid to join, quickly walk away.
3. High levels of customer service.
All networks provide some level of support, but are better than others. If you want 24/7 support by phone, email and live chat software, check out the network features and dive into the platform reviews to make the best decision.
4. Merchants who pay a lot.
Once you’ve found an affiliate network with merchants that match your niche, the next step is to make sure you can earn high commissions on your sales.
Remember, average affiliate commissions (based on vertical) range from 5 to 30%. When scanning your merchant list, do some calculations on potential earnings and product prices to maximize your revenue.
What are the best affiliate networks?
Now that you know what to look for when choosing a network, here are my picks for the best affiliate networks.
1. Impact.
Impact is comprehensive partnership relationship management (PRM) software that connects leading brands with publishers.
Affiliates can join the network and apply to join the programs of thousands of leading brands such as Uber, Airbnb, Adidas, Allstate, and others.
Brands looking to create their own affiliate program can use Impact and get access to the best partnership tools.
Impact helps brands and advertisers manage:
- Affiliated Associations
- Influencer Marketing Associations
- Business Development Offers
- Analysis and attribution
- Custom contracts
Optimizing channel partnerships can be challenging, and Impact’s technology simplifies partner programs, all under one roof.
If you are a brand looking to create a partnership program, Impact is the best platform to use.
Start with Impact
2. ShareSale
Shareasale is a huge affiliate network with over 3,900 merchants and over 1 million affiliates. They have been in business for 19 years and are leaders in the industry. Some of your main verticals to promote include Fashion, Home & Garden, Food & Beverage, and B2B. But there are many others.
Plus, they offer great features including affiliate marketing courses, training webinars, merchant advice, and marketing tools to help you increase your revenue.
Their platform is also reliable on the technological front. In particular, the Shareasale platform provides easy access to affiliate links, and reporting tools, and they pride themselves on their transparency, speed, efficiency, and accuracy.
If you’re just starting out and want to get your feet wet in affiliate marketing, I highly recommend joining Shareasale as an affiliate first.
And if you are a merchant looking for affiliates to promote your products, you can register as a merchant.
3. CJ of
CJ of Conversant (formerly Commission Junction) is an affiliate network that has been in the industry for 20 years. They process a staggering $ 15 billion in annual sales through their platform, with $ 1.8 billion paid annually to their affiliates.
If you are looking to partner with some of the biggest brands in the world, becoming a CJ affiliate is a great option. Brands like Overstock, Priceline, GoPro, Lowes, and Office Depot are just some of the merchants you can partner with at CJ.
On the publisher’s side, they collaborate with big brands like CNN, Time, Digg, and Buzzfeed. With this stiff competition, one downside is that it can be difficult for new affiliates to get approved to work with larger merchants. You will need to be creative with your email to work with them.
However, with its free and easy setup, great real-time reporting, and reliable monthly payments, CJ is a great platform to join.
If you are an experienced affiliate and want to work with some of the biggest brands in the world, join CJ by Conversant (formerly Commission Junction).
4. Rakuten LinkShare
Rakuten, formerly LinkShare, has been an affiliate network in business since 1996. While they’ve been in business longer than most, they’re not as big as Conversant’s CJ.
However, they have around 1,000 merchants to choose from, including many well-known brands such as New Balance, Pac Sun, Ray-Ban, and Sephora.
What makes them unique? First, Rakuten has a very intuitive user interface, advanced deep linking tools, and the ability to create rotating banners when you promote your merchants. The configuration is very simple. Plus, they have great transaction reports and video tutorials to help you get started and maximize your revenue.
However, there are some drawbacks. For starters, they don’t have many merchants.
This drawback can limit your ability to sell from a wide range of different brands, and you may need to supplement your revenue by joining another network. Second, they have irregular payment hours, so you may not be earning commissions at the same time every month. These are not decisive factors, but they are worth noting.
Ultimately, if you are an affiliate who has already joined larger platforms and would like to expand your reach, consider joining the Rakuten network.
5. Lemonade
Lemonade is a performance marketing network with over 10,000 businesses that affiliates can promote.
When affiliates sign up and join your platform, they have access to many tools:
- Exclusive CPA offers from trusted brands.
- Smart tools for affiliate links with reports so you can optimize your campaigns in real time.
- Quick payments are made by bank transfer, PayPal, Paxum and ePayments.
- Customer service through various channels.
85% of publishers increase their income during the first 3 months of using Lemonade.
If you are an advertiser looking to join their platform, you also get some great tools:
- Pay-for-performance models, you can choose from CPA, CPS, CPL, and CPI.
- Traffic is monitored from verified sources.
- AI fraud detection.
- Monitoring of results in real-time.
Some other noteworthy mentions are Awin, avangate, VigLink, Pepperjam, and Clickbank. If you find yourself in the B2C consumer products niche, Clickbank offers a marketplace to promote products from a wide range of industries such as food, health, fitness, nutrition, home and garden, and more.
The best recurring affiliate programs
While many of the best affiliate programs offer one-time CPA payments after a sale, others provide a recurring payment every month. A recurring program is when an affiliate earns a commission for selling a site’s product on a recurring (or monthly) basis.
Here are my picks for the best recurring shows
1. Pabbly
With the Pabbly Affiliate Program, you can earn a 30% recurring lifetime commission on every sale. They use a 30-day cookie period and offer payments within 40 days.
2. Buzzsprout.
This popular podcast host offers a 20% recurring payment and also provides new users with a $ 20 Amazon gift card to boost conversion rates. Buzzsprout supports my podcast hosting page and has a great marketing manager who can help with content ideas and promotions.
3. Thinkific.
Thinkific is another popular online course platform and offers 20% recurring resources. I made $ 956 from a single Thinkific sale and (as of April 2022) I am their # 1 affiliate.
4. IPVanish.
IPVanish is also on this recurring list as it is the best VPN service on the market and has some of the best payouts in the VPN industry. They also have an outstanding affiliate manager.
5. Describable.
Wordable is a SaaS tool that helps content creators instantly publish content from Google Docs to their CMS (WordPress, HubSpot, Medium, Shopify, BigCommerce, and more).
They offer a 30% recurring monthly commission on every sale, and the plans go up to $ 1,000 per month for businesses.
6. Active campaign.
ActiveCampaign is my favorite email marketing software and their affiliate program pays on a recurring basis. They offer commission levels based on the amount of sales you generate and go up to 30%.
They have over 6000 affiliate partners, helpful affiliate resources on a partner portal, and a fantastic affiliate manager.
7. Moose.
Moosend is a popular email marketing tool and their affiliate program offers a recurring commission of 30%. They also have a super useful affiliate manager and a 120-day cookie lifespan.
8. Netpeak Software.
Netpeak Software develops tools for search engine marketing professionals: Netpeak Spider and Netpeak Checker. They offer up to a 30% recurring rate and an average income per active member of $ 100 to $ 2000 per month. They also provide dedicated support and shareable coupon codes to help generate leads.
9. amoCRM
amoCRM is a messaging-based customer relationship management (CRM) software. Their program offers a 35% recurring commission upfront (and doesn’t expire). Plus that number increases up to 50% once you hit $ 10k as a partner.
10. Home pages.
Leadpages is a popular landing page builder that helps users create dedicated web pages with forms and calls to action. Their affiliate program provides a repeat rate of 30%.
11. Teachable.
Teachable is an online course platform that allows bloggers and website owners to create their own classes to sell to their students. They offer a repeat payment of 30%.
12. Getresponse.
GetResponse is another email marketing service that offers a 33% recurring commission. They are another excellent email marketing affiliate program.
13. SEMRush.
SEMRush is an influential SEO tool that website owners can use to track keywords, conduct site audits, and view competitor information in their online marketing. Their program is called BeRush and they offer their affiliate partners a 40% commission.
14. Aweber.
Aweber is an ideal email marketing software for businesses and marketing teams thanks to its email templates and design features. They offer a recurring rate of 30%.
15. Conversion kit.
ConvertKit is one of my favorite email marketing tools as it is ideal for bloggers. They have a visual automation generator and can create triggers based on website actions and actions within emails. A friend of mine runs their program and they offer 30% per month.
16. PromoRepubblica.
PromoRepublic is an excellent social media planning and management tool. They offer up to 30% per sale and an average income per active affiliate of $ 40 to $ 1,500 per month. They also provide best bonuses and coupon codes to share to help generate sales.
17. Elegant themes.
Elegant Themes is a WordPress theme library consisting of 87 easy-to-use themes and over 550,000 clients. If you are a blogger and want to recommend topics to your readers, you can send traffic to Elegant Themes and get a 50% recurring payment.
18. NinjaOutreach.
NinjaOutreach is an all-in-one influencer marketing tool. It helps you conduct outreach activities, find influencer email addresses, build email lists, and grow your content promotion efforts. In the past, they offered 50% recurring, but now they offer 20%.
19. SpyFu.
SpyFu is another SEO tool focused on competitive information. You can use their tool to download data on a competitor’s best organic and paid keywords. They have a persistent payout of 40%.
20. Click Funnels.
ClickFunnels is a popular landing page builder and offers a 40% payout on all sales. They have a number of different ads and courses that you can promote and an intuitive dashboard for getting your links.
What does the recurring payment mean?
When the payment is “recurring”, it does not take place once, but repeatedly, as long as the user in charge remains a paying customer. Recurring income programs pay their commissions monthly due to the customer retention rate. Most recurring programs are Software as a Service (SaaS) advertisers whose platforms require a monthly subscription.
Recurring Affiliate ProgramsSource: Datapine.com
With monthly subscriptions, a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) is much higher than the monthly selling price, as they continue to pay each month until they leave.
For this reason, the advertiser can pay in two ways: a one-time fee higher than the monthly price or a lower recurring percentage over the customer’s lifetime.
Affiliates appreciate both one-time and recurring payment models, and each approach has its pros and cons.
Pros and cons of one-time payment:
Benefit: You get a larger payment up front, sometimes up to 500-1,000% of the monthly subscription cost.
Disadvantage: You lack consistency in your affiliate’s income stream, and you may be earning less over the customer’s lifetime.
Pros and cons of recurring fees:
Advantage: You generate a steady income every month and you can better predict how much money you will make. Additionally, you can also earn more over the customer’s lifetime if there are low churn rates and high retention rates.
Disadvantage: You earn a smaller amount upfront and the customer may quit quickly, wiping out your winnings.
Travel Affiliate Programs
From hotels and travel platforms like Expedia to airlines and vacation packages, people are buying travel packages online more than ever, so why not pay?
Let’s say you’re a travel blogger with a loyal readership.
You can recommend hotels, travel packages, airlines and travel equipment from affiliated travel agencies and get a referral rate for each sale.
There are also many customization options. You can integrate hotel booking sites on your website, choose specific destinations and view the properties that interest you. For example, you could start a specialized affiliate site on “Denver Family Vacations”, write content on the best things to do in Denver, guide you in the local area, and promote specific hotels.
Travel review sites with links to specific vacations and hotels are a fun way to create a unique experience for your readers and offer endless customizable options. Commissions are paid at the time of booking or when a visitor leaves your hotel.
Here are my picks for the best travel affiliate programs:
| Brand Name | Commission Structure | Cookies Duration |
| 1. TripAdvisor | 50% | 14 days |
| 2. Travel Allowance | Up to 80% | 30 days |
| 3. Expedia | 2-6% | 7 Days |
| 4. Marriott | 3-6% | 7 Days |
| 5. Travelocity | 2-4% | 45 Days |
| 6. Price line | 3-5% | 30 Days |
| 7. Hotels.com | 4% | 7 Days |
| 8. Hilton | 4% | 7 Days |
| 9. Warm cable | 2% | 7 Days |
| 10. Booking.com | 4% | When the browser is closed |
1. TripAdvisor.
TripAdvisor is a popular travel site best known for its local reviews on things to do. They also allow you to book hotels, vacation packages, restaurant reservations, and more. They offer an incredible 50% with a decent cookie lifespan of 14 days. Based on their referral rates, they are my number one choice for the best in the travel category.
2. Travel allowance.
Travelpayouts itself is “The ideal travel program to monetize your travel site” calls, and I agree. They cover a wide range of services and integrate other travel platforms such as Booking.com, Airbnb, rentalcars.com, and more. Their travel affiliate marketing platform offers up to 80% commission, but the average is 1.6% for flights and 6% for hotel bookings. The duration of the cookies is 30 days.
3. Expedia.
Expedia is a major global travel brand that is the parent company of others on this list. They allow their affiliates to promote more than 260,000 bookable properties with 150 websites in more than 70 countries. Based on the scope of their website and property network, I’m # 2 on my list.
4. Marriot.
Marriott is another hotel brand that offers a great selection of hotels to promote in their program. They offer 3% for vacation packages and 4-6% for hotels. They provide a cookie lifespan of 7 days.
5. Travelers.
Travelocity is a travel platform known for price match guarantee and affordable pricing. They offer a 2-4% commission and extend a generous 45-day cookie life.
6. Price.
Priceline is known for its cheap deals on hotels, flights, and more. They offer a 3-5% commission and a 30-day cookie lifespan.
7. Hotels.com.
Hotels.com is another way to make money with hotels and offers localized services with 85 websites in 35 languages. They also have over 15 million members in their rewards program. They offer 4% and 7-day cookie life.
8. Hilton.
Hilton is a global hotel brand offering luxury hotel stays and a wide range of hotel properties. They offer a 4% commission and the duration of the cookie is seven days.
9. Warm cable.
Hotwire offers last-minute travel deals and access to cheap flights and hotels. They provide 2% with a 7-day cookie.
10. Booking.com.
Booking.com offers flights, hotels, car rentals, and airport taxis. By signing up, you get access to over 2.2 million properties and they offer 4%, but there is a downside as the cookie expires when a user closes their browser.
Disclaimer: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links that can provide me with a small commission at no cost to you. However, I have looked at all the programs in this guide and believe they are the best for generating affiliate income. You can read our full affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy.
Fitness Affiliate Programs
Whether you’re a bodybuilder, running coach, personal trainer, or Instagram model, fitness companies pay for your fitness tips.
By partnering with a company like Bowflex and recommending their high AOV products, you can earn a high commission on every order.
Fitness is one of the highest-paying affiliate verticals. The high average order value (AOV) of products like treadmills and elliptical trainers offers excellent earnings per click (EPC) for affiliates.
Here are my picks for the best fitness programs:
| Deal | Commission | Cookie Duration |
| 1. Ace Fitness | ||
| 2. Bodybuilding.com | ||
| 3. Arch flexion | ||
| 4. Fit life | ||
| 5. ProForm | ||
| 6. TRX training |