Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners – A Complete Guide

Home » Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners – A Complete Guide

Even the most successful affiliate marketers started somewhere, likely reading an article like this. Here we explain what affiliate marketing is, what affiliate marketers (you, the content creator, or publisher) do, and what all the terminology means.

The affiliate marketing industry is a link between eCommerce brands, online retailers and service providers, and the billions of online consumers who are increasingly digital-first shoppers. The affiliate promotes and markets the products or services of retailers or brands, and refers customers in return for a payment or commission.

As an $8 billion industry in 2023, according to Statista Research, affiliate marketing has massive earnings potential, so long as you, as an affiliate, are putting the right ads and offers in front of the right audience.

Okay, so let’s explore the concept of affiliate marketing further and what it means to be an affiliate:

What Does Affiliate Marketing Mean?

Affiliate marketing is a distinct sub-category of online marketing. Affiliate marketing is essentially a referral program, where affiliate marketers promote the products of an advertiser (merchant, brand, etc.) in return for a commission payment.

Some brands run their own affiliate marketing program in-house, most famously, Amazon’s Associates. Whereas others may outsource their affiliate programs and management to leading marketing affiliate networks, like Awin, Algo-Affiliates, and Rakuten. Affiliates can work with either or both types, as they basically work the same.

The affiliate marketer or publisher needs to attract an audience and a following using a range of marketing channels and techniques. Key to all of this is content, and this can be videos, reviews, blog posts, articles, and more. Visitors to this content, are presented with ads, such as banners, and when they click on the ads and make a purchase, the affiliate earns a commission.

What Are the Benefits of Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a concept with universal appeal, all you need is a computer and an internet connection. And the benefits are many, including:

  • Affiliate marketing is something that anyone can get involved with.
  • It can be started at a very low cost.
  • It is low-risk, as there is no inventory or major overhead costs.
  • Huge potential to earn very well. Some affiliates earn 7+ figure incomes annually.
  • Ability to scale up by entering into multiple niches.
  • Flexibility in terms of location as an affiliate can work from anywhere, plus it can be done part-time or full-time.
  • Plus, many more benefits…

Many affiliates take something they love, say video games, photography, arts and crafts, or use their business or expert knowledge along with related affiliate offers as a way to earn some income, fund their hobby, or test the affiliate waters with bigger plans in mind.

On the other hand, there are those that treat it as a full-time business endeavor, seeking to leverage high-paying affiliate offers through a range of engaging audience-facing approaches, including:

  • Links in web content (website, blog, social media, etc.)
  • Banner adverts
  • Product landing pages
  • Email newsletters

As the affiliate, you can choose from a range of affiliate offers, build online content around them, and then get a cut of the sale or a referral fee for your efforts.

Rewards for a lead or a sale can range from less than a dollar to hundreds of dollars for holidays, business services, consumer electronics, and health products all the way up to thousands for luxury products and services or finance and investment products.

How Do Affiliate Programs Work?

How Do Affiliate Programs Work?

Typically, the affiliate signs up for an affiliate network or program just as they would for any other online service.

Depending on the affiliate’s content, the network might accept or reject affiliates based on their audience size, type of content, and the number of sales they could generate.

If accepted, the affiliate is presented with a range of offers to promote. A program might have offers from multiple brands or retailers, enabling the affiliate to promote a range of products or services.

The affiliate is then provided with various marketing content to use, such as banners, landing pages, email templates, and even just basic text links. All of these have unique tracking links that are associated with the affiliate and allow for tracking the customers that the affiliate refers.

The affiliate chooses which creatives or links to use within or alongside their content, and when someone clicks on the ad or link, they are directed to the product website and hopefully, they will make a purchase, or fulfill any other requirement to qualify the affiliate for a commission.

There are various types of earnings models that determine what commission is paid and what the requirements are for a payout. The following are some of the most popular affiliate earnings models:

  • Cost per Click (CPC)- Every time a potential customer clicks on your affiliate ad, you get paid for each click. This is the most basic and the lowest paying.
  • Cost per Lead (CPL) – This goes beyond just a click and the referral needs to provide some kind of personal details, from as simple as giving their email address to signing up for a trial or account. With CPL, you get paid irrespective of whether the referral makes a purchase or not.
  • Cost per Action (CPA) – You get paid a fixed amount for every referral that completes a specific action, typically a purchase. The payment is also generally a once-off.
  • Cost per Sale (CPS) – You earn a % of the sale amount. This is also generally a once-off payment but in some instances, it can be on recurring sales for the same customer.
  • Revenue-Share – This earnings model is often used with subscription sales, gambling, finance, and other niches where the customer continues generating revenues for the merchant so long as they remain active customers. You earn an ongoing % of revenues generated, and in some cases, it can be for the lifetime of the customer.

To make affiliate marketing more appealing, many also provide performance incentives like bonuses for meeting sales goals, tiered commissions, and exclusive offers.

All of that data is shown to the affiliate via a dashboard (portal or back office), which is the beating heart of all affiliate efforts. They show links, clicks, sales, trends, and affiliate revenue. This enables the affiliate to see which offers are successful, and which need more promotion or changing for a different one.

Performance marketing is all about the data and numbers, which is why tracking performance is a key part of any serious affiliate effort, spotting trends and knowing when to switch programs, product offerings, funnel optimization, and more.

Can You Really Make Money with Affiliate Marketing?

Can You Really Make Money with Affiliate Marketing?

The short answer is Yes. Every year, billions of dollars in commissions are paid to affiliate marketers. Some affiliates may make a few hundred dollars a year and others make millions. How much you can make will depend on the time, money, and resources you invest, plus the niches and offers you promote.

To make a reasonable income from affiliate marketing, affiliates need to focus on providing the latest affiliate offers, delivering engaging content, and keeping up to date with the trends in whatever area or niche they discuss. This helps to build an audience who are more likely to click on affiliate offers, and who will treat you as a source of knowledge or great deals that they will return to.

What is the Easiest Affiliate Marketing Approach?

Blogging or vlogging is probably some of the easiest entry points with virtually no costs. Many affiliates start by blogging about topics they are interested in or passionate about, and then use affiliate offers to monetize their traffic.

For a minimum-effort approach, sign up with Amazon Associates or an affiliate network and use their smartlinks and smart banners to show the latest offers across your content. This provides you with the latest offers on relevant content pages.

While taking the easiest path to get your feet wet with affiliate marketing is a good starting point, if you want to build a solid affiliate business and income, you will need to consider a multi-channel approach, especially the use of social media.

What is the Hardest Part of Affiliate Marketing?

Generating consistent, targeted traffic that results in positive ROI is probably one of the biggest challenges that affiliate marketers face. There are so many elements and factors that can affect not the volume or traffic but the quality too.

If you plan on using SEO, you are going to need plenty of fresh, high-quality content and backlinks to make sure your site or blog is found by people using search engines. SEO is a whole discipline of its own, and every online marketer should have a good understanding of it.

On the other hand, if you plan to buy traffic, this needs to be managed diligently and regularly optimized to ensure a positive return on investment. Effective campaign management is vital, such as A/B testing, ad optimization, and more.

As a beginner affiliate, here are some tips:

  • Accept that it will take time for your audience and traffic to grow.
  • Understand your income isn’t going to grow vertically in the first weeks, or possibly even months.
  • Overcome the feeling that you are a tiny fish in a large ocean, and focus on the value that you can deliver to your audience.
  • Track everything and understand the data and analytics. Data is the only truth when it comes to digital marketing and is what you will make decisions based on.
  • To become successful, this takes plenty of testing and trying to find the right mix of marketing, affiliate offers, and programs.
  • Keep learning and growing your knowledge. There are so many different marketing channels and techniques, plus there are also new marketing trends coming out all the time.

Is Affiliate Marketing Legal

Is Affiliate Marketing Legal?

Yes, it is used by global brands around the world from huge retailers to niche boutique vendors looking to boost their sales.

The only times it can stray over the line into illegality is through promoting medical products, substances, or financial services that are restricted or banned in some countries. The other thing to always keep in mind is advertising regulations in different countries. You may for example have to disclose that you earn a commission if someone clicks on your affiliate link and buys.

Take time to read the terms and conditions when you sign up with an affiliate program, and note the small print on every specific affiliate offer to avoid potential issues. Many successful affiliate programs like eVitamins operate firmly on the right side of the law and are happy to work with affiliates that follow the rules.

How do I Start Affiliate Marketing as a Beginner?

As with any business idea, there needs to be a plan. For affiliate marketing, this typically follows this process:

  • Identify a niche or market you want to pursue.
  • Choose a content platform and create some starter content.
  • Find affiliate programs to work with.
  • Choose your first affiliate offers.
  • Build up a content plan that matches them.
  • Grow your audience and traffic using SEO, social media, or email.
  • Analyze performance and make adjustments and optimizations
  • Refresh your offers and keep growing your content.
  • Scale Up.

At each step, you should perform research to identify gaps in the market, and ideal content types, or see what other affiliates have done that looks good and deliver results. Constantly check for good performing or better offers, and set aside regular times to create content.

Many affiliate programs provide advice for starters, and affiliate managers to help discuss your goals. If you are looking for an affiliate program that is happy to help newcomers, at Algo-Affiliates, we are more than happy to grow with you.

How Much Money Can You Make as an Affiliate Marketer

How Much Money Can You Make as an Affiliate Marketer?

The sky is the limit for those willing to take a professional approach to affiliate marketing. According to the “Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report 2022” 57% of affiliates earned under $10,000, while 11% earned over $100,000.

The key is to be realistic in your ambitions, and if you find your affiliate efforts taking off, then focus as much energy as you can to drive more traffic and sales for higher rewards, by using the best affiliate networks that match your ambitions.

How much you can earn will obviously be affected also by whether you focus on low sales volume but high commission products, or high sales volume with lower commission products. Ideally, you want a mix or at least a steady flow of medium sales volume and commission.

As appealing as huge commissions from expensive products may be, there is plenty to be made from everyday purchases, such as the beauty niche demonstrated by Sephora.

What are the Highest-Paying Affiliate Niches?

The business, finance, gambling, and online trading niches typically provide the highest payouts. These are highly competitive industries where brands stand to make substantial revenues, which is why they are prepared to pay top dollar for new clients.

A great example of a highest paying affiliate program in the business services niche is HubSpot

Can I Lose Money with Affiliate Marketing?

Like any business, if you overspend and do not manage your campaigns and business effectively, then there is a good chance of losing money. If you want to be successful at affiliate marketing, you need to approach it with a business mindset, which means building a business and marketing plan, investing capital, and tracking and managing finances accurately.

If you plan on using paid traffic sources, such as PPC, if you don’t have the knowledge and experience of setting up and managing these types of campaigns, your ROI will suffer. However, more important than the financial costs are your time and opportunity costs which cannot be recovered.

What are the Risks of Affiliate Marketing?

The biggest risk is that your early efforts won’t bring in the big money you hoped for, and leave you disheartened. Or, your content might not be strong enough to attract the audience you were hoping for.

In either of these cases, reset your ambitions, and work towards new goals. Remember that affiliate marketing takes time to master the skills and to become a success. You are going to have to put in plenty of effort before you start seeing the fruits of your labour.

Other risks include:

  • Not getting paid if you are working with a sketchy affiliate program, so stick to reputable programs and networks.
  • Financial loss if you don’t manage your finances and business efficiently
  • Losing traffic or followers due to algorithm changes or poor-quality content
  • Fraudulent traffic or bots that may inflate your traffic numbers and affect your decisions.
  • Legal and regulatory issues if you don’t abide by the rules.

Affiliate Programs and Affiliate Networks

To be an affiliate marketer, you would need to join an affiliate program or affiliate network. The difference between an affiliate program and a network is that an ‘affiliate program’ is generally owned or managed by the merchant (it could be a separate company or division), and the program typically only focuses on the products or services offered by the merchant. An affiliate network, on the other hand, is an independent company that works with multiple merchants as an intermediary and can offer many diverse products for affiliates to promote. Essentially with the network approach, the merchant is outsourcing the management of their affiliate program. Irrespective of which business model the merchant chooses the basic flow and how everything works are very similar.

The Affiliate Platform 

The Affiliate Platform 

At the heart of any affiliate program or network is an affiliate management platform. In some cases, it may be referred to as the affiliate portal or back-office. The affiliate platform is software that provides a host of features for both the affiliate and the management of the affiliates. The platform allows for affiliates to sign-up/register for an account. Once logged in, this is where you will find things like your unique tracking links and marketing creatives, such as banners, landing pages, email templates, and more. There is also reporting and analytics, so you can track your performance. Some of the other features include managing your personal information, payment details, and often access to support or your affiliate manager. 

Tracking 

As mentioned, the affiliate platform ensures that every referral you send to the merchant is tracked and associated with your account. In order to track your referrals, you will need your unique tracking links. These links look like a website URL, but they have unique identifiers in them. The links could be basic text links, or in most cases, you will download banners from the portal, and these have unique links associated with them.

When you post a link on your site, or social media, or anywhere that you are promoting, when the user clicks on this link, they get redirected to the relevant page. For the user, this is entirely seamless, and in most cases, they don’t even know they are clicking on an affiliate link. Once the referral is assigned to your account, you can then track things like clicks, signups, sales, or whatever other parameters the platform offers. This tracking is vital, and the accuracy is of the utmost importance. 

The most common form of tracking is via internet cookies. Cookies are small files that the visitor’s web browser accepts, and holds information about the visitor, such as when they first clicked on a link. The cookie usually includes an expiry date, which is very valid for affiliates because often buyers don’t make a purchase immediately, and if they return to the merchant days later, you will still receive compensation for these sales. The expiry can be from as little as the first session up to years and varies from network to network or even the induvial offer. There are other types of tracking, and again this varies for each network and offer. 

Marketing Creative

When it comes time to start promoting an offer, you will want to use some form of marketing materials that entice the visitor to click and be redirected to take up the offer. Banners are one of the most common types of creative and you have surely seen these on websites you have visited.

The banners can be static images, animated gifs, or even videos. Other types of creatives can be a simple text link that redirects to the sales page, data feeds, email templates (for email marketing), SMS templates, videos, landing pages, forms, and more. You will often find variations of the creative for the same offer, and these are intended to help you find what works best with your marketing and audience. If an offer is available in multiple languages, there are usually variations of translated creative to suit the respective market.

One of the most important elements to get visitors to click through is the CTA (call to action), this is things like “buy now”, “click to learn more”, etc. Whatever creative you choose, be sure to check that you have implemented it correctly with your affiliate link, because you don’t want to lose out on commissions. If you’re unsure, reach out to your affiliate manager. 

Reporting 

The only way to know how well your marketing campaigns are performing is through reporting, which is offered on the platform. Reports can include various metrics such as:

  • Impressions – This is the number of times a creative was loaded on a page. It doesn’t necessarily mean the visitor looked at it. 
  • Clicks – This is how many times a visitor actually clicked on a link or banner etc. 
  • Signups / Leads – The number of visitors who completed some kind of action like registering or completing an inquiry form.
  • Sales / Conversions – The number of visitors that went on to complete the required action to be considered a sale or took a particular action to be converted. 

Depending on the network and the offer, there may be many more metrics. Reporting is vital for success because you need to know what is working, what is not, and where you can optimize. In the world of performance marketing, small changes or tweaks can result in massive improvements. Without accurate and detailed reporting, it is near impossible to build successful campaigns. 

Affiliate Commissions

Commissions

In the words of Jerry Maguire: “Show me the money!”. Like any other business, being an affiliate marketer is about making money, and hopefully plenty of it. The amount of commission you can make can vary from a few dollars up to millions and depends on many factors. There are many different commission/earnings models, and it varies from offer to offer and network. 

Some of the most common commissions offered are: 

  • CPL (Cost per Lead) – You earn a fixed fee for every new lead you refer. To qualify as a lead the visitor may need to complete a form or open an account. 
  • CPA (Cost per Action) – Here the lead needs to complete a particular action which could be to spend or deposit a certain amount of money first for you to receive a commission. A CPA commission is generally a fixed flat fee. 
  • CPS (Cost per Sale) – As the name implies, when a sale occurs, you get paid. It can be a flat fee or a percentage of the sale or a hybrid. 
  • Revenue Share – Similar to the CPS, you earn a percentage of the revenue generated by the merchant. With some offers, you may even continue earning a share of the revenues for as long as the customer is spending, which means you could be earning from the same referral years into the future. 

Once you are generating a commission, you will want to receive your money, and depending on the network or program, they may make payments weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. You will usually also have the option to choose how you wish to be paid, for example, check, PayPal, wire transfer, eWallets, cryptocurrencies, and many more options. 

Beginners Affiliate Programs – How to start ?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where a brand pays affiliates for sales or leads generated via their referral efforts. It is effectively a profit-sharing arrangement between sellers and advertisers. Here are the major parties of an affiliate marketing process:

  1. Advertisers – These are the suppliers, creators, or manufacturers of the goods or services to be sold or promoted. They are also referred to as brands or merchants.
  2. Affiliates – These are the promoters or advertisers of the goods and services produced by sellers. They are also known as publishers, and they are compensated for their efforts using a predetermined commission payout structure.
  3. Customers – These are the buyers of the goods or services supplied by the advertiser and promoted by affiliate marketers.
  4. Affiliate Programs/Networks – There are also affiliate networks or programs that serve as the intermediary between the advertiser and the affiliates. They manage the process between all the parties and provide the platform that tracks performance, as well as payments and more.

Affiliate Marketing –  very Effective way to generate a decent income

If you want to make money working online, then affiliate marketing can put you on the right track.

Don’t expect affiliate marketing to make you rich overnight, but if you do it right, it could help you generate a decent income over time.

How to Begin with affiliate Marketing

If you are  a beginner starting as an affiliate, there are several things that you need to know. Every affiliate wants to maximize their income, and this often causes them to look for high ticket affiliate programs. Essentially, high ticket affiliate programs have high value offers with high commissions, usually above $500. 

While such programs sound very interesting, you have to understand that targeting your audience effectively with such programs is much easier said than done.
A general rule of thumb is that the higher the commission, the more difficult the niche and the more difficult it is to achieve conversions.

While this doesn’t mean you should not try high ticket items, when you are first entering the affiliate world, you might do better with easier products till you have a firm grasp of things. That is one of the main reasons why most affiliate marketing programs for beginners don’t usually feature high ticket sales. If you have just taken your first few steps in the world of affiliate marketing, it is important for you to set achievable goals and grow from there. 

Why Join Affiliate Programs for Beginners ?

A lot of people often wonder about the difference between affiliate marketing programs designed for beginners and those which are generally available to experts.

For starters, beginner affiliate programs have very few entry requirements. You don’t need to have a lot of traffic, nor do you need to have a robust social presence. The low barriers to entry make affiliate marketing programs for beginners a good choice. 

However, when you are starting with affiliate marketing, your primary objective should be to learn as much as you can about affiliate marketing as a whole and figure out how you can apply various marketing strategies. There are so many different concepts and techniques used nowadays by affiliate marketers that beginners might find the learning curve steep. While you may be focused on trying to earn as much as you can, as quickly as possible, you need to make sure you can walk before you run. 

For instance, there are plenty of lead generation tips that you can follow in order to get more qualified traffic to your website. Without a comprehensive lead generation strategy, you’ll generally find it quite difficult to get engaging traffic that you can convert over the passage of time. By working with the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners, you will be assisted and supported by your affiliate manager. When you start achieving success and see your first commission payments come in, it is highly rewarding and motivating

Ample Learning Opportunities

One of the reasons why you should choose the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners is because they offer ample learning opportunities to their affiliates. As a beginner affiliate marketer, you are going to need to learn a lot of different concepts very quickly. 

By joining affiliate programs that are geared towards beginners, you will get access to comprehensive knowledge bases and support staff that will be more than willing to answer your queries. This way, it won’t take long before you are able to come up with different strategies and implement them yourself. Learning affiliate marketing for beginners can be a bit confusing, but with the right resources, you will find it much easier to get up to speed.

How to Find the most suitable affiliate program as a Beginner:

How to choose affiliate program for blogger

Starting with a few affiliate marketing programs for beginners is a great idea and you can reap the benefits by joining an affiliate network.  Algo -affiliates is a reputable affiliate network that is ideal for all levels of affiliates, and they have a massive network of merchants from various niches, including dating, lifestyle, gambling, education, and finance. 

Don’t Get Confused form the Abundance of Offers

There are plenty of different affiliate marketing programs for beginners that one can choose when they are just getting started as an affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular marketing models used by companies all around the globe. Affiliate programs enable these organizations to expand their marketing efforts without the additional overhead and because affiliates get paid for performance, they only need to pay for results. The affiliate marketing model is a win-win for everyone involved. In this article, we will explore how to select the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners. 

As you begin to learn more and more about affiliate marketing, you will realize that affiliate marketing is not as simple as some sites will claim it to be. For starters, there’s a considerable amount to learn and to become really successful as an affiliate takes time, effort, and commitment. But, as with most businesses, if you are consistent and do things correctly, there is a considerable amount of money to be made. 

Adapt The right Marketing Strategy

Therefore, as a new affiliate marketer, you need to be willing to learn and adapt your strategy accordingly. Like any other form of marketing online, you need to understand that new elements and marketing concepts are constantly being added to the mix. 

It’s likely that you might find yourself overwhelmed with the sheer number of concepts and ideas that you need to learn to create an affiliate marketing strategy. If you are new, it’s important that you start by finding the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners.

Once you can find programs that are designed for beginners, you can eventually start turning a profit, and then grow your affiliate marketing strategy. Joining a renowned affiliate network like Algo-Affiliates will give you access to a host of different affiliate offers across many niches that are geared towards beginners, plus plenty of support and assistance, which is an excellent way to take your first steps in the world of affiliate marketing.

Creating a Marketing Strategy

Create your marketing Strategy

While you can promote virtually all kinds of products or services through your affiliate website, it’s important to understand that some channels might be more effective than others. Ideally, the best affiliate marketers use a mix of channels to promote goods and services and earn the highest commissions.

For instance, if you have joined a few investing affiliate programs and are promoting financial services or investment opportunities, using Instagram as a primary tool of promotion might not be the ideal channel. The reason for that is simple: you probably won’t find much target audience there, as opposed to Facebook for example. 

People who are looking for ways to diversify their income and invest their savings are constantly on the lookout for different opportunities, but they usually look at options on the web. Social media apps like Instagram are hardly the best platform to use if you are promoting goods or services to such an audience. 

When building a promotional strategy after joining the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners, consider some of the tips given below.

  • Know the Product/Service You Are Promoting

A lot of beginner affiliate marketers simply try to make a profit by promoting goods and services that they don’t fully understand themselves. If you haven’t used the product or service you are promoting, how will you convey the message effectively to your audience? This is a very common mistake amongst affiliate marketers, and it’s one of the main reasons why they are unable to increase their profits over time. 

While it might not always be feasible to buy and test every product, you should then at least immerse yourself in information about the product, which means not just reading the marketing content on the merchant’s site but visiting forums and review sites and getting an understanding of the experiences that consumers have personally had with the product or service. Figure out how it helps people, its uses, and its drawbacks. You need to understand every little thing there is to know about the product or service. Having this knowledge may also prevent you from taking on a sub-standard product and wasting your time. 

  • Understand Your Audience

Once you have a comprehensive understanding of the product or service, the next step is to get a better understanding of the people that you will be marketing to. It’s incredibly important for you to make sure that you get more insights into your customers.

Creating a customer persona is of incredible importance and will give you a very detailed insight into the kind of people who buy these goods and services. For example, if you are promoting forex affiliate programs, targeting a younger demographic of teenagers might not be such a good idea.

You need to target an audience that has money to spare and invest, and this is only possible when you have a better understanding of your target market. This may seem quite simple, but it’s actually much more complicated than most people realize.

Creating a buyer persona requires you to gain a detailed understanding of how people interact with your website or your content. In order to understand your audience better, you need to figure out where you can find them.

For instance, if you are promoting cryptocurrency offers, you will probably find your audience on multiple crypto forums. Joining similar forums and engaging with your audience is an excellent way to find out what people like and dislike. It’ll also allow you to promote your offers while giving off a more “human” vibe, something that many brands fail to acknowledge.

Once you have an in-depth understanding of your audience and the product or service that you are promoting, you can then start by creating a content strategy.

Building Your Content Strategy

bloggers guide

What kind of content do you think your audience will want to see regarding the product or service? 

The content you create will be one of the biggest factors that will prove to be the difference between success and failure in most cases. Unfortunately, most people generally focus on creating promotional content that doesn’t even resonate with their audience. You have to create a sales funnel to guide your leads at every step of the way and eventually convert them.

  • Top of the Funnel Content

The first thing that you need to focus on is the top of the funnel content. This content is at the top of your sales funnel, so it’s not designed to sell a product or service. Instead, your primary focus with top-of-the-funnel content is to educate and inform your readers about something important in the niche. 

The purpose of producing such content is to target people during the “awareness” stage. Essentially, this is your chance at making people “aware” of your digital presence or platform. If your ToF content is good, people will return to your blog again and again and read what you have to write. 

  • Middle of the Funnel Content

This leads us to the next step: the middle of the funnel content. At this stage, you slowly introduce your readers to your core product and services. However, instead of boring them with deep details and specific points, your primary objective is to let them know how the product or service you’re promoting can be of value to them. 

This could be done by creating a case study, comparison articles, or even spec sheets. When creating MoF content, you should also add CTAs in order to get signups and eventually build an email list. This will give you a better understanding of people who are willing to receive offers or promotional content from you. 

  • Bottom of the Funnel Content

And finally, there’s the bottom of the funnel content. This type of content is designed to persuade your audience to buy the product. Essentially, you have to go all-out and convince them that the product offers value. By now, your audience will already have built a modicum of trust with your brand, and they just need that final “push” to make the purchase.

Ideally, all bottom of the funnel content should feature a call to action (CTA) button, or a compelling offer designed to get people to convert. This is your chance to close the deal, and you can only do this when you know your audience’s pain points. Always focus on their needs and present a solution to them. You will notice a major uptick in sales. 

 How to find Niches That are Perfect for beginners

Hundreds of thousands of people try their hand at affiliate marketing, but it doesn’t take long for them to give up. One of the biggest reasons for that is because they fail to choose the right profitable niche. If you are not promoting a good product in a profitable niche, you will simply find it impossible to turn a profit over time.

One of the biggest mistakes that many affiliate marketers make is that they do not do their research properly when looking for a decent niche. If you join a popular affiliate network, you will be able to choose from several popular and lucrative niches like finance, dating, gambling, health and wellness, fitness, and many others. 

Promoting a product or service from a profitable niche automatically puts you at a major advantage; it allows you to sell to an audience that is already primed to buy. Many affiliate programs that are designed for beginners usually offer goods or services in profitable and high-demand niches.

Beware of Competitors:

Sure, competition is also quite high in such niches, with everyone trying to get a piece of the profits, but competition also indicates demand, because if no one is selling in a niche then the demand for that item is probably very low. Instead of trying to make as much profit as you can in the early stages, you just need to understand what you are doing, start gaining some confidence, and finding your own style and processes to make your marketing as effective as possible. 

Quick sales will help you get the confidence that you need. Eventually, once you start promoting the products or services properly, you will also begin to understand which promotional methods work best.

Important Terminologies for Beginners

Important Terminologies for Newbies

Here are some important terms that new affiliates should know:

  • Impression: This is when your ad or link is shown to a viewer. An impression does not mean that the viewer interacted with your ad, it merely means that the ad was loaded on the page.
  • Click-Through Rate: This is a measure of the percentage of people that saw your ad and went ahead to click on it. For instance, if your ad was shown to 1000 people and 200 clicked on it, you have a click-through rate of 20%.
  • Conversion Rate: A conversion is an action that you want your audience to perform. For instance, if you show ads to 1000 people and 10 go ahead to perform a purchase, then you have a conversion rate of 1%.
  • Cookie: These are lines of code left in a user’s browser to track if they have visited the website before. They help brands or affiliate networks to attribute a particular sale to a specific affiliate.
  • Cookie Expiration: This is how long a cookie is stored by the visitoBalancer’s browser. For instance, if a brand has a cookie expiration of 30 days, you will only be eligible for affiliate commissions if a visitor purchases a product within those days.

Best Tips to Begin with Affiliate Marketing

Tips to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing as a Beginner

  • 1. Choose the Right Affiliate Network/Program

A beginner-friendly affiliate network/program will have easy-to-understand commission payout structures as well as easy-to-use links and marketing materials. There will also be excellent customer support so that you can reach them whenever you require any assistance.

Other important considerations for affiliate marketing beginners should be merchant and product diversity, reputation, technology, payout methods, and frequency.

  • 2.  Select the Right Product or Merchant to Promote:

There are many affiliate marketing merchants and products to promote, but not all of them are ideal for beginners. For instance, website hosting services are a high-paying, high-volume product category. But this lucrative opportunity attracts a vast number of experienced affiliate marketers, making it very difficult for beginner publishers to break into.

There are however other lucrative product categories that can provide beginners with a good entry point into affiliate marketing. After learning the ropes, you can gradually advance further into more challenging, higher rewarding opportunities in affiliate marketing.

  • 3. Choose Your Content Platform:

As a beginner, you will require to choose the correct platform where you will share your affiliate marketing links. There is a common myth that beginners cannot explore affiliate marketing without a website.

Actually, most affiliate marketing beginners usually start on popular free social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube. You can then advance to online stores, blogs, websites, online forums, email newsletters, etc.

  • 4. Reach Your Audience:

After deciding on your preferred platform(s), you must design a strategy to reach your target audience. Many beginners usually start sharing their affiliate marketing links randomly over the internet, which can sometimes seem like spam and hurt conversion rates.

It is therefore important to create quality and engaging contact that will over time build trust with your audience. For instance, if you are a member of an online forum, you could first contribute valuable information without spamming your audience with your affiliate links.

  • 5. Quality Content:

Quality content can help affiliate marketing beginners organically grow their audience. As users interact with your content, they will continuously build trust, and this will help in your conversion rates.

As you grow your affiliate marketing business, you can explore inorganic ways of driving traffic to your content such as paid ads on social media and search engines.

The most important thing to remember in the world of performance marketing is that “content is king”. Whether your content is written, images, videos, vlogs, or any other, don’t cut corners on your content.

Even More Beginners Tips: Important Metrics and KPIs to Track

When you join any affiliate marketing program that’s designed for beginners, you will get access to a dedicated reporting dashboard and a host of tools that you can use to track your performance online. However, a common mistake that many beginners make is that they fail to track the key metrics that indicate the performance of their campaigns.

As an affiliate marketer, you need to be aware of the potential of your traffic and the performance of your affiliate campaigns. Are you putting in more money in your marketing than what you are making? It’s important to understand the major KPIs and metrics that you need to always be conscious of. Here are a few.

  • Conversion Rate

Best conversion rate

This is arguably one of the most important metrics that you need to focus on. The conversion rate isn’t just used by eCommerce store owners, but it also applies to the traffic you send to the merchant. Essentially, the conversion rate indicates just how well your visitors are converting into customers. 

More importantly, it shows that your audience is actually quite interested in the product or service that you are marketing. If your conversion rate is incredibly low, then you need to figure out what you are doing wrong. For instance, if you are regularly pushing out quality content but haven’t added any CTAs or buttons to divert your traffic’s attention to the next step in the sales funnel, you are doing it wrong. 

The conversion rate is the ratio of leads to sales, or if you are being paid for lead generation then you could look at the ratio of clicks to leads. But what is an acceptable conversion rate? This will depend on many factors such as the niche and it could vary from offer to offer within that niche. As a beginner, reach out to your affiliate manager to understand what the average conversion rate is for a particular offer. Knowing this number will give you a good target to aim for. If you are not coming close to the average rate then you need to figure out where things need improvement. On the other hand, if you are way above average, then you are doing really well, and your goal should be to see how you can even further improve your performance. Essentially, having a baseline conversion rate to aim for is vital for success. 

  • Number of Clicks

This might seem like a vague metric, but it’s actually quite important. The number of clicks on your website or any affiliate channel simply indicates how much exposure it has received. For instance, if you run a PPC campaign on a popular keyword, you might get more clicks. 

However, simply getting more clicks is not an indicator of your affiliate marketing success. Sure, you are getting more exposure, but more clicks don’t always translate to more sales. It could mean that you haven’t optimized your affiliate marketing channels for conversions, or it could also indicate poor tracking.

For instance, if you have put up a new landing page that’s getting lots of traffic, but little or no sales, it’s a clear indicator that your landing page needs to be optimized. You may want to look at the design of the page or figure out what you are doing wrong. 

More importantly, it may indicate a disconnect between your audience and the affiliate product or service you are promoting. A/B testing is a good way to figure out what works on your landing page, allowing you to optimize the elements on the page in a more effective manner. 

  • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) / Return on Investment (ROI)

An extremely important metric for use by affiliate marketers is the return on ad spend. This simply indicates the amount of return generated from the amount spent on ads. You can easily calculate your return on ad spend by dividing the affiliate revenue you have generated by the costs incurred on running ads or any other marketing costs. 

However, that’s much easier said than done. In the beginning, it’s important to just try and maintain a bit of profitability, however, it might take you some time to turn your campaign profitable. Also, don’t be despondent if not every campaign is profitable; even super-affiliates sometimes have campaigns that don’t deliver the ROI they want. 

When you join different affiliate marketing programs for beginners, you will want to figure out the average ROI. Some of this data might be available from the affiliate network you join, or the merchant might be able to give you a clue. However, in most cases, you’ll have to figure this out on your own by exploring different marketing channels. 

Algo Affiliates is a fantastic affiliate network with a team of incredibly experienced performance marketers that can help you to determine your ROI and ways to improve it.  They focus on a range of different niches, including dating, gambling, entertainment, health and wellness, and several others. 

  • Cost Per Sale 

This is another very important indicator that could help you figure out which of the marketing channels you are using are performing better. For instance, is Google AdWords more profitable for you or are you getting better profits from running ads on Facebook? 

Essentially, cost per sale is also the cost of consumer acquisition. It’s the amount you are paying for each new customer. Ideally, all of this information is available directly from your affiliate dashboard, provided you have set up proper tracking for all your channels. 

  • Completed Transactions

The amount of completed transactions is an important indicator because it is not directly tied to your sales revenue. Simply put, this shows how quickly you are able to acquire new customers.

  • Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

This is another useful metric that beginner affiliates often ignore. The lifetime value of a customer indicates the amount of revenue generated by the customer for as long as they subscribe to a service or continue buying. It’s important to deduct the initial expenditure of acquiring the customer. 

For instance, if a customer signs up for a subscription through your affiliate link, you are probably going to get a commission for every month they choose to continue with the subscription. Over the passage of time, they will end up generating a considerable amount of revenue for you. It is not always possible to establish this data, especially if you are receiving a CPA commission and not a revenue share. 

  • Rate of Chargebacks 

Most affiliate marketers don’t actually consider the chargeback rate, but you should know that it’s capable of providing you with very insightful information about the quality of your traffic. If more people are filing chargebacks or reversing their sales, you may want to consider the quality of your traffic. It is important that you consider the rate of chargebacks and take steps to bring it down. If you have a very high chargeback rate, you could risk the affiliate program reducing your commissions or blocking you from certain offers. 

How to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing as Beginner ?

Becoming-A-Successful-Affiliate-As-A-Blogger
If you have just joined a few affiliate marketing programs for beginners, you must tailor your strategy for maximizing your profits. However, there are some very common mistakes that new affiliate marketers make, which you may want to avoid.

Don’t do The following mistakes as a Beginner:

  • Signing Up for Too Many Programs from the Start

While there’s nothing wrong with setting up multiple income offers, you should know that joining several affiliate marketing programs for beginners could cause you more problems at the start.

When you attract traffic to your website, they will be able to gauge your knowledge of the product based on the content you produce. Thus, if you are promoting multiple products, it’s highly likely you won’t know each of them in detail. Also, are you really sure that you will be able to promote all of these products on your website?

Ideally, when starting out, choose one or two products, and test them out thoroughly. Then, you can create content that promotes the use of that product, including case studies. Once you start seeing your traffic move through the sales funnels and eventually converting, you can then start exploring other products. 

  • Not Testing The Products They Promote

Another common mistake that many new affiliates make is that they do not try out the product or service before they start promoting it. This ultimately creates a disconnect between the content they produce and what the audience is actually looking for. 

In order to produce authoritative content, you need to make sure that you try out the product or service yourself. If you have personally tested the product or service, you will automatically be able to write better content. Ultimately, your audience will start trusting your words, so if you decide to promote another product, they will happily buy it.

Many affiliate marketers who have a channel on YouTube often post reviews of products that they promote actively via affiliate links. By showing themselves using the product in normal life situations, they are able to generate a better response from their audience. 

More importantly, because you will have used the product yourself, you will be able to answer the questions posed by your audience in a much better manner. Remember, it’s important that you present all the facts for your audience, as it’s necessary for building a modicum of trust with your prospective customers. 

  • Affiliate Disclosures and Links

Affiliate disclosures must be added on your website if you are promoting affiliate products, as is required by the Federal Trade Commission and in various other markets too. You need to make sure that you add a proper affiliate disclosure on your website and also cloak affiliate links properly. 

Affiliate links are generally quite long and may seem suspicious for your audience when they hover their cursor over the anchor text. This could affect conversions, so it’s important that you cloak your links properly and then weave them in the content. Most new affiliates are unaware of affiliate link cloaking and fail to add disclosures. 

More importantly, you should know that Google also requires affiliate websites to present disclosures and add the “sponsored” tag on affiliate links, so make sure you add those as well!

  • Not Using Different Lead Generation Strategies

If you are just starting out, it might be a wise idea to check out different lead generation tips and start working on building a strategy that best works for you. By generating leads through different sources, you could easily maximize conversions over time and generate higher commissions.

The number one reason why most affiliates give up in the early stages is that they simply fail to understand the numerous traffic sources. Producing quality content is one thing but you also need to know how to market your content. From organic search to different social media channels, it’s important that you understand your traffic sources, and create comprehensive lead generation strategies that are relevant to your approach. 

You can market your content on popular social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and even Twitter. You can also launch a blog to promote your content. 

  • Use Your Head and Not Your Heart – Data is the Truth

In the world of performance marketing and especially when it comes to affiliate marketing programs for beginners, data is the truth. What this means is whatever campaigns you run or channels you choose to use, you must track everything and understand the analytical data. Decisions must be made based on data and not on a gut feel. Data tells you what is working and what is not. 

Beginners FAQ

Beginners FAQs:

  • How can I get started with affiliate marketing?

You can get started with affiliate marketing by signing up for any affiliate program that you wish to be part of. You will be given a unique link that you can share with your audience. You will be paid when anyone that uses your link completes an action such as signing up or making a purchase.

  • How long will it take to be approved as an affiliate?

It depends on the affiliate program or network that you sign up with. Some programs give instant approval, while others can take several days.

  • How long does it take before I start making money?

The first thing to know is that despite so many mentions on the internet that affiliate marketing is a super easy way to make money fast and get rich, this is far from the truth. Like any business venture, you need a clear plan and to invest time, money, and energy to start achieving. Many affiliates who persevere and master the art of performance marketing go on to make 6 and 7-figure incomes. Focus on doing all the right things and the money will come.

  • What is the best niche for affiliate marketing beginners?

There is no single best niche for beginners. The article above covers some of the major profitable niches in affiliate marketing. You can however choose the best niche for you. Start by examining your interests, research the scope of the niche, look at your competition, and define your marketing strategy. This way, you will work out a niche that you can passionately promote.

  • Where should I share my affiliate links?

You can share your affiliate links across diverse channels such as blogs, online forums, as well as social media including Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc. You can also explore other channels such as paid search or digital billboards.

Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners

There are 1000s of affiliate programs all over the internet. But here are some of the best ones for beginners:

1.     Amazon Associates

Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer. Amazon Associates is the company’s affiliate marketing program, and it gives publishers access to promote over 300 million products.

Encouraging your audience to buy from Amazon should not be a daunting task- they already have a solid reputation, and they ship their products to over 100 countries around the world.

You can get started with Amazon Associates if you have a qualifying blog, website, or mobile app easily. Amazon also runs an influencer program that allows users with an established social media following to earn by sharing recommendations with their audience.

Pros of Amazon Associates:

  • Established Brand
  • Free signup and easy to set up links
  • Amazon website is optimized for high conversion rates
  • Numerous products available for promotion
  • You can earn extra commissions on additional products purchased during the cookie duration

Cons of Amazon Associates:

  • 24-hour cookie life is rather short
  • No cloaking of affiliate links
  • You cannot include affiliate links in email newsletters

2.     ShareASale

Home to over 21,000 merchants, ShareASale is one of the few titans of the affiliate marketing networks in the world. The company has helped connect publishers to brands since 2000, and they have an impressive selection of affiliate offers from both small and large businesses.

No matter your chosen niche, you can always find a match at ShareASale. The network itself does not have a specific niche and there is a great diversity of both physical and digital products to promote.

ShareASale is known within the affiliate marketing community as the network for SMEs (as opposed to big brands), and this can really favor affiliate marketing beginners due to less stringent sign-up guidelines. However, there is a great selection of popular brands such as Qatar Airways, Namecheap, and WPengine.

Pros of ShareASale

  • Solid reputation
  • Easy signup process and low payout threshold ($50)
  • Diverse merchant portfolio and affiliate offers
  • Useful marketing creatives

Cons of ShareASale

  • Cluttered interface that could confuse beginners

3.     CJ Affiliate

Formerly Commission Junction, CJ is very much a pioneer in the online affiliate marketing industry. It has connected brands with affiliate marketers even before the turn of the millennium.

Some of its biggest brands include Barnes & Noble and Overstock, while CJ also boasts first-class publishers such as CNN and BuzzFeed. But this should not deter any affiliate marketing beginner with no experience.

If you qualify for the CJ Affiliate program, you will be able to access a plethora of brands and offers that will help take your affiliate business to the next level.

Pros of CJ Affiliate

  • Established brand
  • Wide variety of high-quality merchants
  • Timely and reliable payouts
  • Great marketing materials and blog content

Cons of CJ Affiliate

  • Its filtering system can lock out many affiliate marketing beginners
  • Affiliate marketing beginners may fail to get the desired niche
  • New entrants have chipped away at the traditional dominance of CJ Affiliate

4.     Algo-Affiliates

Algo-Affiliates cut its teeth in the lucrative finance and investment niche, before expanding its offering to equally money-spinning areas such as insurance, loans, health & beauty, dating, and others.

Algo-Affiliates network stands out as one of the best performance marketing networks, offering publishers high commissions as well as the top, self-optimizing technologies to help them achieve their affiliate marketing goals.

Additionally, at Algo-Affiliates, we offer publishers a wide range of multilingual marketing materials to help them execute strategies that can achieve a wide reach across the globe.

Affiliate marketing newbies are allocated a dedicated personal affiliate manager to help them develop their marketing strategies and achieve their goals.

Pros of Algo-Affiliates

  • High payouts on lucrative niches (up to 70%)
  • Best technologies to optimize conversions
  • Diverse affiliate offers (+1500)
  • Comprehensive reporting

Cons of Algo-Affiliates

  • High minimum payout ($250)

5.     Rakuten Marketing

Formerly Linkshare, Rakuten Marketing started offering affiliate marketing solutions as early as 1996, making them one of the most established and experienced players in the game.

This comes with a lot of advantages. They understand the needs of publishers better and are capable of making compelling offers available. They also have a truly global reach, processing payments to over 200 countries worldwide.

Rakuten Marketing has an easy signup process and boasts high-quality analytics to help both new affiliate marketers and the more experienced ones to run detailed marketing campaigns that will meet their objectives.

Pros of Rakuten Marketing

  • Simple signup process
  • High-quality brands such as New Balance and Sephora
  • Secure platform with diverse affiliate offers
  • Professional and responsive 24/7 customer support
  • Low payment threshold ($1)

Cons of Rakuten Marketing

  • Archaic interface
  • Minimal payment options (only check and direct deposit)
  • Limited selection compared to other big networks

Best Recurring Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners

Best Recurring Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners

Most affiliate programs will pay you a one-off commission when a customer buys through your affiliate link. But what if you could be paid each time your referred customer purchases again at a later stage?

This is exactly the case with recurring affiliate marketing offers. It can be particularly game-changing for beginners, who can build up a steady passive income to keep growing their affiliate business. Here are some of the best recurring affiliate commission programs for beginners:

6.     Shopify Partner Program

Shopify is one of the leading eCommerce platforms in the world. The company was founded in 2006, and it provides software solutions for individuals and businesses that want to sell their goods and services online.

The Shopify Partner Program is one of the most generous affiliate marketing programs, with publishers able to earn up to $3000 as a one-bounty commission for referring merchants who subscribe to one of the different plans offered by the eCommerce technology company.

Shopify also offers a 20% recurring commission to publishers for their referrals that sign up for a monthly recurring subscription.

Pros of the Shopify Partner Program

  • Shopify is a reputable brand that is easily promoted
  • Shopify has a free trial period that can help with enhancing conversions
  • Lengthy cookie duration (30 days)
  • Diverse plans to cater to different types of customers
  • Generous commissions
  • Low payment threshold ($10) and frequency (bi-weekly)

Cons of the Shopify Partner Program

  • The one-time bounty commission is not as attractive as the recurring commission
  • The monthly plans of the company can be very expensive for customers

7.     Semrush Affiliate Program

Semrush is a comprehensive platform that allows users to improve their online visibility as well as gain vital marketing insights. The tool’s utility includes SEO, content marketing, market research, advertising, and social media metrics.

The company offers monthly subscription plans that range from $120 to $450. The Semrush affiliate program offers publishers a recurring commission of 40% for subscription sales.

Semrush is very beginner-friendly because publishers can earn at every step of a customer’s journey: for sign-up, for free trial activation, and for eventual subscription. Its website and marketing materials are also available in multiple languages so as to expand the potential reach of marketing strategies.

Pros of Semrush

  • High commissions
  • Get paid even for a free trial activation
  • Lengthy cookie duration (120 days)
  • Comprehensive marketing and reporting tools
  • Excellent publisher support

Cons of Semrush

  • Semrush is a high-ticket product that may not be bought instantly by many customers

8.     AWeber Advocate Program

AWeber is an email marketing solution that helps companies to engage effectively with their audience that has subscribed to their email list. The platform also offers additional eCommerce solutions such as sales tracking and purchase tugging.

There is a free version and a paid version, with packages ranging from $16/pm to $146/pm. AWeber advocates (publishers) can earn up to 50% recurring commissions on their referrals that subscribe to a monthly AWeber Pro plan.

Pros of AWeber

  • High commissions
  • Low payout threshold ($30 for US advocates; $50 for non-US advocates)
  • Easy signup process
  • Easy-to-use marketing materials

Cons of AWeber

  • AWeber runs a free version tool that may serve a lot of customers’ needs and thus deny you of earning commissions

9.     ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is an online tool that helps users to create high-converting websites and landing pages. The tool is a comprehensive marketing platform that also includes A/B testing functionality, a powerful site editor, innovative eCommerce stores, CRM, online courses, and membership sites.

ClickFunnels affiliate marketers can earn up to 40% recurring commissions on monthly subscription plans that cost between $127 and $2479. The plans are billed annually, which means that a single conversion can result in a substantial single payout.

There is comprehensive support at ClickFunnels, including a publisher community on social media that shares knowledge and strategies.

Pros of ClickFunnels

  • High commissions
  • Easy signup
  • Comprehensive publisher support
  • Sticky cookies that help publishers to earn over the lifetime of a customer
  • A free trial period to boost conversion for clients

Cons of ClickFunnels

  • There is a high cancellation rate among customers
  • It is a highly competitive affiliate program

Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency – Beginners

Cryptocurrencies in general (and Bitcoin specifically) have witnessed a surge in public interest. This is due to their rapidly moving prices and their underlying technologies that are disrupting traditional finance markets.

This is the classical red hot trending niche, and there are numerous compelling affiliate marketing opportunities to match it. Here are some of them:

10.  Binance

Launched only in 2017, Binance is the largest cryptocurrency trading exchange in the world, averaging daily trading volumes in excess of $2 billion.

The company has a lucrative recurring affiliate program that offers publishers commissions of up to 50% for every qualified trade. Your referrals can conveniently sign up with Binance through your referral link, referral ID, and QR code.

One of the best features of the Binance affiliate program is the instant transfer of commissions to your account whenever a qualifying trade has been completed by your referral.

Binance has a wide global reach, and this expands the marketing options of publishers.

Pros of the Binance Affiliate Program

  • Reputable global crypto brand
  • Instant commissions
  • Lengthy cookie duration (90 days)
  • Lots of bonuses and promotions for new users
  • Loads of educational resources

Cons of the Binance Affiliate Program

  • Binance has a history of randomly changing its affiliate marketing terms and conditions
  • Tough conditions to reach maximum commission payouts

11.  Coinbase

Coinbase is a leading cryptocurrency exchange based in the United States. It was the first ever crypto exchange to be publicly listed in the US, and currently serves customers in over 100 countries.

With this solid reputation, it is easy to promote Coinbase to your audience that is interested in trading or investing in cryptocurrencies. The Coinbase affiliate program pays commissions of up to 50% of your referral’s trading fees.

They also support convenient electronic payment methods to your bank or PayPal account. Its technology is top-notch, supporting campaign testing as well as offering customizable templates for numerous marketing materials.

Pros of the Coinbase Affiliate Program

  • Respectable cryptocurrency brand
  • High recurring commissions
  • Comprehensive marketing materials
  • Excellent publisher support
  • Lengthy cookie period (30 days)

 Cons of the Coinbase Affiliate Program

  • The 50% commissions only last for the first 3 months whereas other companies have programs that last for the customer’s lifetime
  • Some customers are not easily verified to start trading on the platform which impacts conversions and your commissions

12.  LocalBitcoins.com Affiliate Program

LocalBitcoins.com is a local peer-to-peer bitcoin trading site. On the site, users from different countries can exchange Bitcoin with their local fiat currency using convenient local payment methods. There is an escrow facility to ensure the safety of trades between buyers and sellers of BTC.

The LocalBitcoins affiliate program is beginner-friendly, with anyone able to join and refer his/her audience to the site. The company offers a recurring commission of up to 20% on the trading fees of your referrals, with payments made daily in BTC on qualified trades.

Pros of LocalBitcoins affiliate program

  • Easy signup process
  • High commissions
  • Quick daily payouts
  • Lengthy cookie duration (90 days)

Cons of LocalBitcoins affiliate program

  • Recurring commissions only last 12 months
  • com only supports Bitcoin trades, thus limiting the pool of potential cryptocurrency customers

13.  Paxful.com Bitcoin Affiliate Program

Paxful.com is also a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading site that allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using convenient local payment methods. The platform offers a lucrative affiliate marketing program that pays out up to tier-2 affiliates.

You are a Tier-1 affiliate and are paid for your customer referrals. Tier-2 affiliates are affiliates that you referred to the affiliate program, and you earn a smaller commission from their referred customers.  Essentially a 2-tier program lets you earn from referring customers and other affiliates.

It is easy to sign up for the Paxful.com Bitcoin affiliate program, and you will earn 50% commissions on the escrow fees of your customers when they buy cryptocurrency, as well as an additional 10% commission on your tier-2 affiliate referrals.

Pros of Paxful.com Affiliate Program

  • Easy signup process
  • Well-known crypto brand
  • Instant payments and low payout threshold ($100)
  • Lengthy cookie duration (90 days)

Cons of Paxful.com Affiliate Program

  • Lack of detailed reporting
  • No double commissions when two of your affiliates interact on a trade

Fashion Affiliate Programs for Beginners

Fashion is an evergreen niche, with customers always looking to keep up with changing trends. This is a hot niche for new affiliate marketers who can recommend both local and luxury products to their audiences via multiple channels such as social media and blogs. Here are some of the best fashion affiliate programs for beginners:

14.  Zappos Affiliate Program

Zappos is a well-known fashion brand, and in addition to shoes, it now also has a full wardrobe offering that includes clothing, eyewear, jackets, athletic wear, handbags, and watches.

With over 1000 brand names on offer, affiliate marketing beginners can easily find a specific fashion sub-niche that they wish to recommend to their audience. Zappos also has an Influencer program that provides a chance for content creators to be rewarded by recommending products to their social media audiences.

Zappos’ products are regarded as fast-moving, and the company rewards its publishers with a decent 7% commission.

Pros of the Zappos Affiliate Program

  • Massive brand recognition
  • Wardrobe diversity
  • The company’s return policy and free shipping are a big selling point

Cons of the Zappos Affiliate Program

  • Relatively short cookie duration (14 days)

15.  Nordstrom Affiliate Program

Nordstrom is a leading fashion retailer whose brand has been in existence for more than a century. It offers a diverse selection of wardrobe products for men, women, and children.

Nordstrom is also a NYSE listed company, which means that it has a solid reputation that makes it a good brand to promote for affiliate marketing beginners.

Other good features that may attract customers include interesting retail partnerships, free shipping, mobile shopping, and free returns. They offer 5% commissions and have a cookie duration of 14 days.

Pros of the Nordstrom Affiliate Program

  • Good brand recognition
  • Large diversity of products
  • Low payout threshold ($25)
  • Comprehensive marketing creatives
  • Excellent customer care

Cons of the Nordstrom Affiliate Program

  • Relatively short cookie duration
  • Longer payout frequency (monthly)

Dating Affiliate Programs for Beginners

Humans perpetually need to form relationships. This is why the dating niche for affiliate marketing is very lucrative. They can however be very competitive for new affiliate marketers, but they are worth a try. Here are some of the best dating affiliate programs:

16.  eHarmony Affiliate Program

eHarmony is one of the oldest dating sites around. It has built a trustworthy reputation over the years and has a diversified global offering.

Its affiliate marketing program is free, with an overall ‘open door’ policy that makes it easy for any beginner affiliate to get started. The commissions are very generous: starting with up to $10 per successful l, and 30% for a qualified membership subscription.

They also have a relatively lengthy cookie duration of 45 days. Additionally, there are plenty of ongoing creatives for content creators to boost their marketing efforts.

Pros of the eHarmony Affiliate Program

  • Trusted, successful brand
  • High commissions
  • Comprehensive marketing materials

Cons of the eHarmony Affiliate Program

  • eHarmony prices are relatively high for customers

17.  Match.com Affiliate Program

Match.com is very much the pioneer of online dating. The company serves millions of customers in over 24 countries, especially thanks to its catchy domain name making for an easily recognizable brand.

Match.com is a good brand for both experienced and beginner affiliate marketers to promote. Their paid packages are competitively priced, and Match.com offers publishers 50% commissions per qualified sale. Plus, there is the possibility of earning a 50% bonus.

They also have an impressive catalog of marketing materials for publishers to continuously refresh their marketing campaigns.

Pros of the Match.com Affiliate Program

  • Massive brand recognition
  • High commissions
  • Lengthy cookie duration (120 days)
  • High-converting dating site

Cons of the Match.com Affiliate Program

  • Competitive brand for affiliate marketing beginners

Travel Affiliate Program for Beginners

The travel niche has exploded back into action after the Covid pandemic. Millions of people want to explore the world, and as a beginner affiliate, you have the opportunity to earn from this billion-dollar industry.

18.  TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is a popular travel site where users can access millions of local reviews that will help them discover new experiences and ideas for their trips.

Their affiliate program allows publishers to receive at least 50% of hotel booking commissions paid to TripAdvisor by their partners.

Publishers can access TripAdvisor’s affiliate marketing program via the AWIN and CJ networks.

Pros of the TripAdvisor Affiliate Program

  • Well-known brand
  • Periodic offers to boost conversion rates
  • High commissions

Cons of the TripAdvisor Affiliate Program

  • Short cookie life (14 days)
  • Commissions paid on only hotel bookings. No commissions on flights, car rentals, or other experiences

Start Affiliate Marketing Now

Whether you want to try affiliate marketing as a bit of fun and to bring in some beer money or to start building a full-time business, there is nothing like the feeling of watching the earnings roll in based on your efforts.

But before you get going, keep these key thoughts in mind:

  1. Who is your audience? Think about what they want and how you can attract them to your content and affiliate offers.
  2. Can you be genuine? Affiliate content often works best if it has your personality, love, and passion baked into it. If not then don’t blog about things you have no interest in, but stick to fact-based reporting, or a business-to-business approach.
  3. Use modern designs and marketing technology. A clear website with contextual links is more attractive than a barrage of banner adverts. Whatever your audience, design a site they will like.
  4. Cross your revenue streams. Don’t expect to make a fortune from your first affiliate program, instead mix-and-match them to identify your strongest earnings potential and then focus on the winning strategies.
  5. Be clear with your audience that you do affiliate marketing. Be upfront and honest like hundreds of thousands of other affiliates and your audience should appreciate that.
  6. Keep an eye on the numbers. See what the dashboards say about your affiliate performance, and make changes when things flatten out or tail off. Growing your affiliate performance is the main step in boosting your income.

The best news is, the affiliate marketing world is full of friendly partners who want to work with you and help you deliver the best affiliate offers and experience for your audience. And as your revenue grows, affiliate programs have a vested interest in helping you grow. Your journey to becoming the next super affiliate starts now!