Anytime you join an affiliate program, your objective is to make a high commission by recommending products. Even though affiliate programs are not an instant get-rich scheme, they sure can make you ample money, even while you sleep.
Would it not be great if you woke up in the morning only to find out that you have made over $500 via a single affiliate sale? Well, it sure would be. However, to be safe and successful in the long run, you must not only choose one of the highest paying affiliate programs but one that has some specific features that we talk about later in this article.
What are Affiliate Marketing Programs?
An affiliate marketing program is an arrangement via which the online website or the merchant will pay the affiliate website a commission to direct traffic to their website. The affiliate marketer’s websites will include a link to the merchant’s products, services, or website, and their affiliate marketing program will determine the amount of commission they receive for this.
Typically, the amount is decided according to the affiliate website’s degree of traffic to the merchant site and the number of people sent who actually buy something from the website.
Which are The 25 Highest Paying Affiliate Programs?
Learning how to do affiliate marketing is one thing and making actual money with it another. Now, we will discuss the top twenty-five high commission affiliate programs from different categories, such as finance, travel, VPNs, website builders, fitness, and beauty.
In addition, there are also some emerging verticals included in the list. So, if you wish to make some passive income or supplement your existing income, here are some of the top paying affiliate programs for you. Let us get started and address them one by one.
SEMRush
It is one of the best digital programs with one of the high commission affiliate programs. With SEMRush, you get a comprehensive marketing tool kit, which is incredibly beneficial for digital marketing professionals.
From marketing efforts, SEO, social media, content, and paid traffic, SEMRush has just everything needed for digital marketing professionals. It is pretty easy if you wish to register for their affiliate program.
They have a cookie duration of 120 days, there is no registration fee, and the commission is quite high. You can earn approximately forty percent recurring commission on subsequent sales every month.
HubSpot
HubSpot provides you with a comprehensive network of apps to help you with sales, marketing, CMS, service, and operations. Each HubSpot app comes with an array of reporting or analytics and features for businesses, regardless of their size.
In addition, they have a commission rate of up to 100 percent and a cookie duration of ninety days. It is indeed one of the top paying affiliate programs.
Shopify
Shopify is one of the most prevalent eCommerce website builders. They have over 40000 merchants, primarily because of their high commission rate of 200 percent on the paid stores. However, the payout is as high as 300 percent in some countries. As a result, Shopify has stable conversion rates.
Moreover, their promotion ideas and helpful affiliate FAQs make it easier for the users to get adjusted to the platform. Shopify has a cookie duration of thirty days. Unfortunately, the platform does have deep linking, but it is not very well organized.
Amazon
Amazon also has one of the top paying affiliate programs. You can sell literally any product on this e-commerce website. However, if you are an affiliate marketer from the US, you will need a blog or a website for approval. You can earn up to ten percent commission on more than a million of their available products.
An additional benefit with Amazon is that you will receive a credit for every product the user buys in the session when you link a product with the affiliate link. More so, if a potential buyer adds a product to their cart and it remains there for three months, you will even earn credit for it.
ShareASale
Another one of the high commission affiliate programs, ShareAsale, has an extensive network comprising more than 15000 merchants. In addition, they have over 200000 publishers associated with them.
Further, with more than 250 new programs being launched every month, you can find every kind of merchant with them. Via their marketing calendar and the filters, you can easily identify the relevant programs.
Fiverr
Fiverr, too, has a couple of services that you may be interested in promoting on your blog or website, such as Fiverr, Fiverr Learn, and the Fiverr Pro. This can be an exciting program choice for the marketers who work with clients seeking to hire a freelancer for tech skills, design, or marketing.
Further, if you are a blog writer for entrepreneurs and wish to promote Fiverr Learn, you can consider partnering with the platform. The cookie duration is 30 days, and they have a reasonable commission rate, which varies between 15 to 50 USD.
Flipkart
There is not much difference between the Flipkart affiliate and the Amazon affiliate program. Broadly, both of them are the same.
However, people regard the Amazon affiliate as better because, as of 2021, you cannot join the Flipkart affiliate directly. You will have to fill in the form on the affiliate page of Flipkart to get started.
After you receive the approach, you will be eligible for the affiliate program. Sadly, only one to two percent of beginners receive this approval. If you fail to get approval, you can join the affiliate’s affiliate program via third-party platforms, such as vCommission, Admitad, EarnKaro, Zingoy, etc.
These will not need any approval, and you can promote and make a profit for any product of your choice. You have two available withdrawal options with their program – the bank deposit and gift card.
Wix
Another one of the highest paying affiliate programs on our list is Wix. It is an excessively prevalent website builder tool that provides hosting solutions and a myriad of templates for the users to build their website. In addition, they have a cookie duration of 30 days, and there is a high-paying commission-based program.
Astra
If you are a beginner, who needs one of the top paying affiliate programs, Astra can be a good pick. It is a lightweight WordPress theme with over 1.6 million installations and approximately 5000 5-star reviews.
In addition, Astra has some 180 professionally-designed starter templates. With Astra, you can get a plethora of templates and tools. If you opt for the premium version, you will access additional support and features. As part of their affiliate program, you can expect a thirty percent commission on every sale.
There is no upper cap on the earning with high commission affiliate programs. So, Astra also provides you with a dedicated affiliate dashboard, which can be utilized to keep a tab on your earnings via PayPal. They have a cookie duration of 60 days.
ClickFunnels
It is a highly prevalent landing page builder, which provides a payout of 40 percent on all sales. In addition, the platform has a myriad of courses and ads that you can promote for a commission. Using the intuitive dashboard, you can conveniently grab the links.
Bluehost
Whenever someone mentions the top Web hosting companies, Bluehost is a mandatory inclusion. It jointly hosts more than two million domains, together with its sister companies, including FastDomain, Page, and HostGator.
In addition, they have one of the highest paying affiliate programs. For starters, you will be paid 65 USD per sale. However, this amount can go up to 130 USD per sale, depending on the referred sales volume. In addition, they have a cookie duration of 60 days.
WP Engine
It has one of the high commission affiliate programs with a commission rate of 200 USD. WP Engine offers managed WordPress hosting for websites globally. It ensures optimized solutions and robust support for WordPress. They have a cookie duration of 180 days.
ConvertKit
As one of the trendiest email marketing providers, ConvertKit provides you with automation capabilities designed exquisitely for bloggers and the creative professions. They have a subscription-based service, which focuses on the small businesses, bloggers, and podcasters who need to streamline the marketing process.
They have a cookie duration of 60 days, and their commission rate is 30 percent for the lifetime of every customer referred.
Liquid Web
Liquid Web also provides some of the top paying affiliate programs. It has two different partner programs. Beyond their affiliate program, they also have a refer-a-friend program suitable for Liquid Web customers. They also have one of the highest paying affiliate programs.
Affiliates will also access promotions, sales, and free giveaways, which marketers can give to their audience. So, as a beginner, the incentives can surely help you get referrals.
As part of their affiliate program, you can earn 150 percent of the monthly hosting cost with a lower limit of $150. In addition, their pre-paid plans have a 50 percent bonus. There is a cookie duration of 90 days.
Unbounce
Unbounce is a prevalent landing page platform used by top brands, such as Zola and Campaign Monitor, which assists the users in designing top-converting landing pages for eCommerce sites, SaaS businesses, and agencies.
More so, they also have one of the highest paying affiliate programs. You can earn a twenty percent commission as recurring revenue for every customer referred. In addition, there is a cookie duration of 90 days.
More so, the platform provides you with an array of tools to find success in the Affiliate program, such as a custom dashboard to keep a tab on the progress, Partner coach, and promotional and training materials to ensure that you are promoting the business well.
HostGator
HostGator also has one of the highest paying affiliate programs. You can enroll in their affiliate programs and earn about 65 USD for 1-5 signup and 125 USD for 21+ sign ups.
In addition, HostGator also has a very flexible commission structure. You will also get co-branded offers and landing pages. In addition, HostGator also has a tiered commission structure. So, the more commissions you refer to, the greater will be the money earned. You can opt between the hybrid commission model or a performance-based model.
Cloudways
A managed hosting platform, Cloudways is dedicated to providing you with top-notch services to help small businesses and teams grow. They have one of the top paying affiliate programs, which gives you two lucrative commission structures, which enable the affiliates to tailor the payouts according to your personal preferences.
You can select from the fixed one-time, larger commission, which starts at 50 USD per sale up to 150 USD, decided according to the hybrid option and sales volume. This includes a 30 USD commission for a sale over the lifetime commission of seven percent. In addition, there is a cookie duration of 90 days.
Weebly
The highest paying affiliate programs of Weebly is quite similar to WP Engine. It is hosted by ShareASale and provides continuous opportunities for affiliates to earn a bonus. Their affiliate program is open for all and is free to join for affiliates from different corners of the world. However, the downside is that you must have a minimum of 50 USD in commission in your account before receiving a payout.
Weebly helps you earn a thirty percent commission, and their payments are made via direct deposit, check, or Payoneer. Payouts are made only once a month. There is a cookie duration of 120 days.
Get Response
For small businesses, marketing software is beneficial as they offer a vital boost as needed. It is one of the best marketing automation tools, ideal for small businesses. Using the tool, it will be easy to reach out to a big audience.
With Get Response, you can enroll in their two of the highest paying affiliate programs. First is their long-term sustainable program, which provides you with a recurring commission of thirty-three percent.
Second is their bounty program, where you can get a generous commission of $100 for every account. Also, there is a cookie duration of 120 days. You can pick from any of their affiliate payment modes.
eBay
eBay has been around for a while and is one of the best platforms for affiliate marketers. They have an extensive selection of products, and you can find everything that the buyer is probably interested in. A good thing about eBay is that they have a high conversion rate, given their high brand popularity.
eBay also has one of the top paying affiliate programs, wherein you can expect 50-70 percent of the revenue share. Reactivated or new eBay users will earn twice the commission rate. There is a cookie duration of 24 hours.
Etsy
Etsy is an online marketplace for thrifters, makers, artisans, and crafters. The provider has been around since 2012, and they have over two million active sellers and over a million products listed.
They also have one of the highest paying affiliate programs, which can help bloggers can use to earn extra income. The commission rates are between 4-8 percent of the qualifying sales. In addition, there is a cookie duration of 30 days.
Skimlinks
If you wish to monetize the content with minimum effort, Skimlinks can be your go-to platform. On Skimlinks, the affiliate links can be automatically inserted on the blog via additional scrip placed on Google Tag Manager or the WordPress plugin.
If you wish to monetize the content crafted without your involvement, this can be a good option. As of today, Skimlinks has over 24000 merchants in their niche markets.
Hostinger
Hostinger also has one of the high commission affiliate programs, which offers the affiliates a base payout of about $60 and an opportunity to make about $150 per sale on their tiered pricing structure.
This web hosting platform almost always has a 90 percent discount, which results in a strong conversion rate. Like several other web hosts, they offer promotional tools and banners to help the new affiliates kick-start.
Active Campaign
It is a cloud software platform for businesses, which provides them with a comprehensive set of digital marketing tools. Affiliate marketers can earn up to 30 percent of the recurring commission with the generous plans of Active Campaigns. In addition, there is a cookie duration of 60 days.
Leadpages
Lastly, we have a renowned landing page builder, enabling users to develop dedicated web pages with CTAs and webpages. Leadpages also has one of the highest paying affiliate programs, offering marketers a recurring thirty percent commission.
What to Look For in Highest Paying Affiliate Programs?
Not every affiliate marketing program is the same. Even though some are extremely rewarding, there will also be others, which suck the life out of you, but barely bring in any commission. Therefore, you must discern the good programs from the bad ones to make money. This section will address some characteristics of top paying affiliate programs. These include:
1. Earnings per click
As is clear from the name, EPC implies the amount of money the affiliate program will produce for every click. For instance, a merchant receives 1000 unique clicks and yields a sale worth $100. The EPC, in this case, will be $0.1. In simple terms, EPC is the amount the marketer will make for every click.
2. Conversion rate
It can be understood as the rate at which the said lead can be converted into a customer. The higher the better it is. Let us understand this with an example.
There is a website, which has a traffic of 2000. Of these, every two customers make a purchase. Hence, the conversion rate of the website is 1 percent. If the conversion rate is over 0.5 percent, it is regarded as good.
3. Cookie duration
It is unfair to give marketers only a day or two for conversion. So, the cookie duration of 30 days is regarded as the most reasonable. However, a minimum of a three-month cookie duration period is adequate for all.
4. Commission rate
Typically, a good affiliate program should have a commission rate of twenty percent or more.
5. Payments
Payments include how and when you will receive the commission amount. As for now, the common options that you pick from are cheque, PayPal, bank, and alike.
On the other hand, when the payment will be made is determined by the payment threshold. Typically, the platforms have a threshold of $50, but anything between $0-100 is reasonable. So naturally, the programs with a low threshold are exciting for the marketers.
6. Company status
Reputation is everything. It is safe to promote companies with a good reputation and excellent reviews.
7. Free plans and trials
Naturally, the merchants who provide you with free trials and plans are more preferable. It makes it easier for the customers to experience products and services, sans any barrier.
8. Marketing materials
Material advertising, too, can amplify conversion rate and brand conversion. Marketers must provide marketing materials that are beneficial, appealing, and have been proven via split testing.
9. Terms and policies
You also need to consider the terms and policies of even the top paying affiliate programs to ensure that they are in line with your marketing activities, goals, and ideas.
Related read: Challenges of Affiliate Marketing, Best Affiliate Marketing Books
