Are you are a beginner affiliate marketer and wondering what are the best programs to promote? With almost every company out there having an affiliate program nowadays, it can be hard to choose where to invest your time and effort.
When I first started with Affiliate Marketing 5 years ago I was promoted high ticket offers since I figured it would take the same effort and I could make a lot more money.
While that might be true to some extent, not all affiliate programs are the same. Not because an affiliate program has a higher commission means that it will make you more money. There are other thing to consider like the conversion rate, how good they are following up with visitors, etc.
As a new affiliate you are probably learnign a few things at once so you want to choose affiliate programs that are going to be worth your time and make things easier, not the other way around.
In this list, you’ll find what I think are the best affiliate programs for beginners in several niches and why I considered them the best for beginners.
Let’s get it!
What to look for in an affiliate program for beginners?
1. Commissions
This is obviously one of the most important factors to consider on an affiliate program and I am not here to pretend like it is not.
Affiliate program commissions can go from 10 cents to thousands of dollars so it would be logical to choose the ones that pay the most.
However, programs with a higher commission rate most times have stricter requirements and even charge to join so they might not be the best for beginners.
This is why when looking at an affiliate program commissions make sure to also consider the other factors in this list.
2. Conversion Rate
The conversion rate refers to the percentage of users who made a purchase out of all the people who clicked on your affiliate link.
The conversion rate will depend on the merchant’s website, brand reputation, text and user experience among other factor.
For example, a program like Amazon will have a higher conversion rate vs a not-so-famous brand due to its reputation and features like free shipping which is why some affiliates keep on promoting it even when they have super low commission rates and continue to cut them further every year.
3. EPC
EPC stands for “Earnings Per Click” and is a reference of how much affiliates are earning on avergae per every 100 clicks.
To calculate the EPC, you divide the commission generated by the number of clicks. For example, if on average affiliates make a commission of $20 after sending 100 clicks (visitors) to the merchant… Divide $20 by 100 = 0.20. The program’s EPC is 20 cents per click.
Note: this does not mean you are paid per click but it can help you calculate how much you can spend per click if you were to use paid ads.
4. Cookie Duration
Cookies are a small piece of code that is saved on a visitor browser when they click on your affiliate link. The cookie duration refers to how long the cookie will be stored for and you will be credited for a purchase.
For example, if a cookie duration is 30 days, it means that from the time the user clicks on your link until 30 days later, if they make a purchase, you will be credited and recieve a commission.
For most affiliate programs a 30 day cookie period is a standard but some retailer like Amazon have a duration of 24 hours.
5. Follow Up
This refers to the methods the merchant uses to follow up with the visitors you send to their site who didn’t make a purchase on their first visit.
Statistics show that buyers need to ‘hear’ a brand 7 to 8 times before making a purchase so if the merchant’s doesn’t have a follow-up system in place, you and them will be losing a lot of sales.
Some companies will use retargeting ads to follow up with people who visited their site but didn’t buy while others will capture visitors’ email and follow up with an email sequence.
This is especially important for mid and high-ticket offer since the higher the cost the more information and persuasion the buyer will need to make a purchase
6. Interface
Another important element to consider when choosing an affiliate program as a beginner is its platform and interface.
You want the affiliate program to make it easy to track clicks and sales in real-time, create sub-links, and in general be easy to use and navigate.
7. Requirements
As a beginner affiliate marketer, you might not have a website, blog, or social media yet so it is important to consider the requirements of the programs you want to join.
Some programs will require that to have either a working website or a large social media presence while there are others you can join without any of those.
My recommendation is that if you plan to create a blog, website or social media account for your affiliate business, you might as well do it before applying.
Some affiliates wonder how to create the content they don’t know what program will they be able to promote but you can still create some articles consider the product you want to promote and leave the link for after you get approved.
8. Promotional Materials
Some affiliate programs will provide you with materials you can use to promote their programs like banners, email swipes, images, landing pages, and even demographic data on their buyers.
This should not be a decisve factor but as a beginner, it can save you lots of time and give you some idea so definitely consider it if you see it in a program you like.
9. Niche
Last but not least, you want to make sure that the program you want to promote is in line with your niche and audience.
I have seen lots of travel or lifestyle influencers promoting affiliate products on the digital marketing niche. I imagine they use them and think they might as well make some extra money but that is not the type of content or product their audience is there for so it can end up harming their trust and engagement.
Types of Affiliates Programs
Affiliate programs have different types of commission. Here are some differences to consider when you are checking the list of the best affiliate programs for beginners.
CPA / CPL Programs
Cost per Action (CPA) or Cost per Lead (CPL) programs will pay you a fixed commission for every person you refer to them. Sometimes the program requires an email, sometimes is filling up a form or signing up for a free trial.
The commissions are usually lower but it is also easier to get an email than to make a sale.
CPC Programs
Cost Per Click programs are similar to advertise networks like Google AdSense in which they will pay for a number of impressions or clicks.
This type of program requires you to have a website or blog but it’s a really passive way to make an affiliate income if you have significant traffic.
CPS Programs
Cost per Sale (CPS) programs are the most common and popular since they tend to pay the most. In this model, you are paid a commission from every when someone buys a product or service on the advertisers’ website after clicking through your affiliate link.
Affiliate Programs Vs. Affiliate Networks for Beginners
Before I get started with the list of best affiliate opprotunities for beginners, it’s important to make a disctiniton between affiliate porgrams and affiliate networks.
- Affiliate Networks are like a marketplace that hosts many affiliate programs. They act like a middlemen offering safety and assistance to both affiliates and merchants. In most cases, you must apply first to the affiliate network and then you need to apply to the programs they run to be able to promote them.
- Affiliate programs are run by the brands themselves and they have their own affiliate tracking system and platform.
Pro Tip: 87% of companies have an affiliate program but most don’t advertise it. If there is a brand that you would like to promote do a google search for the name + affiliate program and you will find it more often than not.
Best Affiliate Program For Beginners
Below I have made a list of what I considered the best affiliate programs for beginners based on factors like ease of use, commission, and conversion rate among others. I have also split them into programs and networks that work for several niches and those that are directly related to some of the most popular industries.
Best Multi-Niche Affiliate Programs for Beginners
1. Shareasale
Shareasale is an affiliate network with more than 1000 merchants. It has a great reputation among affiliates and advertisers and it offers some of the best opportunities available.
It has offer for every niche you can think of, including both physical and digital products as well as CPA programs.
The interface still looks very similar to how it looked when they first started 20 years ago but regardless of the look, it offers some valuable information such as the average EPC per merchant, their conversion rate, and funds history.
- Cost: Free to join
- Requirements: Website
- Merchant or Network: Network
- Commission: Varies with each advertiser
- Cookie duration: Varies with each advertiser
2. Clickbank
Clickbank is an affiliate network with over 17 years in the market. It is one of the easiest ones to join since they don’t require you to have a website or a big social media following. Probably this is the reason why they are also very popular among beginners.
Since Clickbank also allows merchants to join easily, it has some really great offers but also some that are not so good and a bit click-baity.
Some people stay away from Clickbank for this reason but if you simply put some time to pick and research your offers you can find some really good programs with great commissions, materials and low competitions.
Another factor I like about Clickbank is that they give each merchant a ‘gravity score’ that tells you how how well a product is selling.
- Cost: Free to join
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Network
- Commission: Varies with each advertiser
- Cookie duration: 60 days
If you want to learn more about how to make money with this program make sure to check my full Clickbank Review here
3. MaxBounty
MaxBounty is an affiliate network that claims to be created built specifically for affiliates. It has been on the market since 2004 and they focus exclusively on CPA (Cost Per Action/Acquisition) offers.
They have more than 1,500 active campaigns in different niches including market research, real estate, social games, finance, dating, and diet, but is primarily designed for marketers seeking to acquire new leads.
Some of their offer per pay email, others per form-sign-up, and others per call or credit card input.
Their dashboard is pretty intuitive and friendly and they also assign an agent to help you get started and assist with any question. You also need to hop on a call in order to get approved which can scare away some affiliates but the call is super quick and I believe they just want to verify you are an actual person and not a robot.
- Cost: Free to join
- Requirements: Call
- Merchant or Network: Network
- Commission: Varies with each advertiser
- Cookie duration: doesn’t use cookies
4. VigLink
VigLink is an affiliate network design specifically for bloggers and it works great for those who have a lot of traffic and are looking for a hands-off approcach to generate sme extra revene.
VigLink works by inserting affiliate links automatically on your blog posts. The links will change on autopilot to work with merchants that VigLink has determined are offering the highest conversation rates and/or commissions at any given moment.
You can choose between CPC and Cpa offers as well as what merchants you want to work with but you need to apply separately to each of them
VigLink is also a good monetization option for bloggers who have been suspended from programs like Amazon or Google Adsense
- Cost: Free to join
- Requirements: Blog or Website
- Merchant or Network: Network
- Commission: Varies with each advertiser
- Cookie duration: Varies with each advertiser
5. M4trix
M4trix is an affiliate program focused on physical products with a selection of 100% In-house, Exclusive & E-Commerce offers. The program is 100% owned which allows them offer higher payouts.
If you get approved, you get access to promote all of their products and can use the funnels, landing pages, creatives, and copy templates they provide.
It is one of the only programs that has offers available worlwide which allow you to get into untapped and less competitive markets.
As someone who has done dropshipping before, I wish I would have known about them before since their profit margins are higher and you don’t need to deal with any of the fulfillment or customer service.
- Cost: Free to join
- Requirements: Call
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: Fixed commission per products
- Cookie duration: 30 days
The case on Amazon Affiliate Program
The title of this article is “Best Affiliate Programs for beginners that are not Amazon” so I thought I would share why I made that distinction.
While I love and use Amazon daily as a customer, I don’t have the same feelings about their affiliate programs for some of the reasons I will share next.
Amazon was one of the first affiliate programs (like, ever) and affiliates were responsible for part of Amazon’s exponential growth. Back then, everybody with a website or blog was promoting it and it was a good deal for both parts.
However, now that Amazon is the giant we all know, not only has it not improve the program to meet current standards and support affiliates but it has continued to reduce its commissions cutting down the incomes of thousands of people while it continues to make more money.
Above are the latest cuts on affiliate payouts that Amazon announced on April 14, 2020. where most categories had the fee rates reduced by more than 50%.
While this is one of the reasons to never put all your eggs in one basket, the Amazon affiliate program is still one of the most used for beginners who saw their incomes cut down significantly.
Additionally, the program has other drawbacks like not being able to cloak links, track where your sales come from, and having a cookie duration period of only 24 hours.
That being said, it still has some benefits like being easy to join, easy to use and having a high conversion rate since people already know the site and shop there on a daily basis.
My recommendation, do not make Amazon your main source of income. If you have a website or blog, find other programs in your niche and if you want, use Amazon as extra revenue (one that you could do without because we don’t know what they’ll do with the program in the future).
Best Digital Marketing Affiliate Programs for Beginners
Digital Marketing programs such as web hosting, funnel building, and email automation tools are some of the most popular among affiliates due to their high paying commission and in some cases recurring payments.
The best way to promote the tools in this niche is to create some educational content teaching people how to use them and benefit from them.
Even as a beginner if you put some time into learning how to use them you will already know more than your potential customers and you can make some good money sharing your knowledge.
Here are some of the best affiliate programs for beginners in the digital marketing niche.
6. Bluehost
If you are in the web design or blogging niche, a web hosting platform is one of the key tools you can promote to your audience.
Bluehost is one of the best web hosting companies with plans starting at $2.95/month and has one of the best affiliate programs with one-time payouts starting at $65.
When you join the program you will have access to text links and banners as well as widgets where visitors can check their domain availability which are great to drive traffic.
This type of affiliate product works well in blogs or youtube channels since it requires the audience needs to be educated on how it works.
I have been using and promoting Bluehost for more than years and have always received great support as a customer and affiliate which is why it is one of my favorite programs and I can recommend it blindly to my audience
you still need to launch your affiliate website, click here to get 63% off your Bluehost plan.
- Cost: Free to join
- Requirements: Blog or website
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: From $65+
- Cookie duration: 45 days
- Payout Threshold: $100
7. Fiverr
Fiverr is a popular marketplace where freelancers can sell their services for a wide variety of tasks ranging from graphic design and photography to modeling and web development and many others in between.
The Fiverr affiliate program is one of the easiest to promote and allows you to make a commission for anyone you direct to the platform who hires a service. It is also pretty easy to join and they don’t require you to have a blog or website.
Affiliates earn up to a $150 CPA for every first-time buyer or up to $1,000 per sale with their $10 CPA/10% revshare hybrid model (service prices go up to $10,000).
- Cost: Free to join
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: $10 CPA/10% rev-share
- Payout Threshold: $100
- Cookie duration: 12 months
8. Shopify
Shopify is one of the biggest platforms to build e-commerce stores and will continue to grow as online marketing does. It works as a ‘software as a service’ where users pay a monthly fee while they continue to use the platform.
The average commission rate is $58 per the basic Shopify plan, $598 commission for Referrals who sign up for the standard plan, and $2,000.for the Shopify Plus enterprise plan (the highest tier).
Shopify also has a large store where users can buy third-party apps and themes that work within the overall Shopify framework and the affiliate who referred them also gets a commission for sales of any of these products.
This is another product that works great through educational content so If you can distinguish yourself and build an audience by educating people on how to use Shopify to sell their products online you could potentially big money via the affiliate program.
- Cost: Free to join
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: $58+ (You have to wait two months after a user becomes a paying subscriber before receiving the commission for that sale)
- Payout Threshold: $25
- Cookie duration: 30 days
9. Clickfunnels
Clickfunnels is a funnel building platform designed to make it easy for people without coding or design experience to create sales funnels easily and quickly.
Besides their funnel building software, they have other products like ebooks and online training and challenges which make it easier for affiliates to promote it and get their users to be successful with the software and continue to use it.
The funnel-building software has a monthly cost of $97 in the cheapest plan and one of the great features about the affiliate program is that it pays you recurring commissions every month as longs as the people you refer continue to use it.
Promoting a program like Clickfunnels requires more than using paid ads since you to educate people on how to use it and help them stick with it but I have placed it on this list because they have lots of educational material that will not only help you promote the product but also improve your affiliate game overall.
In order to promote the program, you need to join the 30 Day Challenge called ‘One Funnel Away’ which costs $100. This way, they make sure you are prepared to promote the program and be successful with it while maintaining their reputation.
Additionally, they have an ongoing contest called the ‘Dream Car Award’ where they will give you $500/monthly towards a car payment once you reach 100 active users (on top of your recurring commissions) and $1000/month when you reach 200 active users.
If you want to learn more about it and how to join, make sure to check my Clickfunnels Affiliate Program Review
- Cost: $100 (Cost of the One Funnel Away Challenge)
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: $58+ (You have to wait two months after a user becomes a paying subscriber before receiving the commission for that sale)
- Payout Threshold: $25
- Cookie duration: 30 days
10. Convertkit
Convertkit is an email automation software that is great for people who are just starting out in the digital marketing world.
Every business and entrepreneur out there needs an email software but some of them can be intimidating and hard to learn. Convertkit has a visual automation builder that is one of the easiest to use, which makes it perfect to promote to anyone new to email marketing.
Additionally, they also offer a free plan that includes up to 1,000 email subscribers which makes it easy to promote since there is no entry barrier. You only need to get people to sign up for the free plan and once they reach 1000 subscribers (which means their business is in a good place) they will need to move to a paid plan.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: 30% recurring payments
- Cookie duration: 60 days
Best Finance Affiliate Programs for Beginners
According to data released Nov. 1, 2019, by the American Bankers Association, there were 374 million open credit card accounts in the U.S. as of the middle of 2019.
In parallel, financial experts affirm that about 80% of Americans have some form of consumer debt and the average
This means there are there are plenty of opportunities to recommend credit card offers. ou and help your audience with their finances and debt issues.
While this a very competitive niche, there are still some great opportunities for new affiliates.
11. Guardian Debt Relief
The Guardian Debt Relief program offers debt relief services, including debt settlement and debt negotiation.
Their affiliate program works on a CPL or cost per lead method in which you get paid for every qualified lead you refer. This means people don’t need to buy anything or even sign up with them for you to get paid.
Leads must only fill up their online form, have $10,000+ in unsecured debt, live in a qualified state and be interested in getting debt relief.
Referrals don’t need to pay any upfront fee since Guardian Debt Relief only gets paid after they’ve successfully helped their clients reduce their debt.
The affiliate program is managed through ShareASale and affiliates can get access to creatives materials such as ads and banners and track their clicks and leads on real time.
You can promote their services on their websites, PPC campaigns, display ads, newsletters, and affiliate directories. You can also send your own creatives for approval.
The personal finance niche is a very competitive one but since this program pays per lead and has a high commission rate, it is easier for beginners to make good money when compared to other Cost per Sale low ticket programs
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: Website (to apply Shareasale first)
- Merchant or Network: Managed by Shareasale Network
- Commission: $32 per lead, $45 pay per call, $325 per closed deal30% recurring payments
- Cookie duration: 45 days
12. BBVA Banks
The BBVA is a bank that has been around since 1964, you might not recognize them because they have changed their names a few times from Central Bank to Compass, then to Compass Bancshares before they became Compass BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) and then finally just BBVA.
Like other banks, they offer loans, credit cards, checking and savings account, and a range of investment solutions.
But what makes them interesting for affiliates is that they offer $85 for every qualified lead you send their way which can really add up fast and even if you only get 2 leads/day you can replace a full-time income easily.
Another great thing that makes this program great for affiliates is that you can promote it to almost any audience which gives you more opportunities to explore and even find an untapped niche.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: Be approved by FlexOffers
- Merchant or Network: Managed by FlexOffers
- Commission: $85 for every qualified lead
- Cookie duration: Session-based cookie duration period.
13. CIT Bank
CIT is a bank based in Southern California most commonly known for its online banking products such as checking, saving, CDs, money markets, and loans.
As an affiliate, you can promote their savings products which offer long-term, high-interest accounts, including no-penalty CDs.
They pay $100 when someone applies to open an account and gets approved, which is extremely generous when compared to most affiliate offers, including other banks.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: Be approved CJAffiliate
- Merchant or Network: Managed by CJ Affiliate
- Commission: $100 for every qualified lead
- Cookie duration: 30 days
14. eToro Partners
eToro Partners is a leading social trading platform that is gaining new users every day.
It has over 5 million registered users from over 140 countries who it allows to connect through their social trading platform, view other users trading statistics, discuss trading strategies, and copy top perming user users’ portfolio automatically.
eToro’s success is not only attributed to their innovative copy trading services, but also to its highly lucrative affiliate program. With over 50,000,000 affiliates $50 million paid in commissions, eToro Partners is one of the most successful financial affiliate programs in the world.
eToro affiliates get support from their experienced affiliate managers on how to get more clients and what marketing tools to use.
When you first join, you start with a 25% revenue share and you can then be upgraded to the CPA model which pays up to $400 per person.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Managed by CJ Affiliate
- Commission: 25% revenue share, $400 per person on Tier2.
- Cookie duration: Lifetime
Best Travel Affiliate Programs for Beginners
If you have ever wondered how travel influencers are able to afford their lifestyle, the answer is that most of them do it through affiliate programs.
The travel industry generates over 700 million dollars/ year and is expected to go back to those levels and continue to grow post-covid.
From hotels, and flights to rentals and insurance. you can get a cut of this profitable industry by simply giving travel recommendations and tips your audience is already looking for. Plus, if you enjoy traveling, this is a fun way to make money while telling everyone about your latest vacation.
While this niche offers many opportunities for mobile and web apps, booking sites, and other types of affiliate websites, you can also make money as a beginner through platforms like Instagram or Pinterest by directing people to already established booking sites with affiliate programs
Here are my picks for the best travel affiliate programs for beginners:
15. Booking.com
Booking.com is perhaps the biggest and most widely recognized platform for booking accommodation online.
Over 1 million rooms get booked every single day through booking all you need to do is get in front of people who are already growing online for hotels and you’ll have high chances of earning big commissions through the Booking.com affiliate program.
The Booking.com affiliate program pays 25% in commissions to its affiliates. Keep in mind that it doesn’t mean 25% of the booking rate but of booking.com’s commission which in most cases is 15 to 20% of the value of someone’s stay.
So, let’s suppose someone pays $200 for a stay at a B&B. Booking.com will get 20%, so they’ll make $40. Out of the $40, you get 25%, which means you’re getting $10.
Consider that people book rooms that are $200 on average for several days, you have a pretty good chance of making enough with Booking.com.
Plus, if you intermediate more than 50 bookings a month, your commission rate becomes 30%. If you do the same for more than 150 a month, your rate’s 35%, while for more than 500 it’s going to be 40%.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: 25% – 40%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
16. World Nomads
As the name implies, WorldNomads is a travel insurance design especially for mid and long-term travel although it will also cover short-term trips.
Frequent travelers know that a travel insurance is not something to spare since it can end up saving you thousands of dollars in case of an accident or a flight cancellation.
If you are an beginner affiliate in the travel niche, a great aspect is that you can promote travel insurance along with other travel programs like hotels and flights since people will be looking for all of those at the same time.
With WorldNomads you can be confident you are recommending a reputable company that will help you build trust with your audience since the last thing you want is for someone to get a bad insurance policy after your recommendation.
WorldNomads pay affiliates 10% and their standard plan starts at $120.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: 10%
- Cookie duration: 60 days
17. Kiwi
Price comparison sites are very popular among travelers since they know they need to do their research to get the best price possible for their flight.
Kiwi is one of those websites that has gotten a lot of attention from frequent travelers for including every possible budget out there that older sites like Skyscanner don’t show.
As an affiliate, they also offer a great a percentage that is above industry standards with a 3% of the total booked value while similar sites offer on average 2%.
If you have a travel blog you can use Kiwi’s search widget around the content where users are more likely to take an action and it will redirect them to the Kiwi site.
But as a beginner, you don’t need a blog or website since Kiwi allows for other traffic methods like paid ads or social media.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: 3%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
18. Surfshark VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) gives users online privacy and anonymity by creating a private network from a public internet connection. VPNs mask your internet protocol (IP) address so your online actions are virtually untraceable.
VPNs can be marketed for many different audiences one of those being the travel niche. Travels can benefit from a VPN to get access to content from their “home” country that might be blocked where they are visiting and get back full access to their favorite apps and websites like Google, Facebook, and Netflix.
Additionally, VPNs help protect users’ privacy when using public networks which can be used to steal personal data like passwords and bank account details.
Surfshark VPN is one of the leading VPN providers and it offers affiliates a 40% revenue share for each subscription sold. Since this product offers super competitive pricing and a wide range of features, it converts well in a lot of markets.
The VPN niche is a competitive one the market is still new so even as a beginner, it is a good opportunity to position yourself as an expert in a growing industry.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: 40%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Best Fashion & Beauty Affiliate Programs for Beginners
Fashion and Beauty influencers are the new trendsetters and have huge followings begging to learn where they got the top or lipstick on their last picture from so naturally once you reach a certain following brands will be reaching out to you and offering hugely profitable partnerships.
But worry not, as a beginner affiliate in the fashion niche there are lots of programs you can promote to monetize your audience no matter its size.
When choosing an affiliate program to promote, you have to consider that it matches your style while choosing a brand that pays well.
Here are my picks for the best fashion and beauty affiliate programs for beginners:
19. Zaful
Zaful is one of the leading online fashion stores known for its edgy products and rewarding affiliate marketing program for influencers and fashion bloggers.
With commission rates of 15% – 30%, Zaful offers one of the highest paying and most popular for fashion affiliates which explains why it was among the fastest fashion influencer programs to reach 1 million users.
The program is easy to join and work with as a beginner. You can apply and create your account in a few minutes and start promoting instantly.
Zaful will also give you their products for free if you have a minimum of 2,000 followers as long as you include it in your posts which you can use at the same time to earn more commissions.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: None
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: 15% – 30%
- Cookie duration: 60 days
19. Sephora
Sephora is a popular beauty retailer with 2,5000 stores in 32 countries. They carry more than 300 brands from drugstore to high-end cosmetics.
As a Sephora affiliate, you get to leverage the popularity of the brand to your favor and make a 5-10% commission from the sales you refer. It might not seem like much but it is a lot compared to the 1% Amazon offers in the Beauty & Health category.
Moreover, the conversion rates are higher than other programs since people are used to buying from ephora all the time and they probably have an account with them already.
The cookie period is only 1 day, but you can still make a lot of sales since there’s a lot of people who love to purchase from Sephora.
This affiliate program is managed by Linkshare. If you are an existing user, then you can apply directly, and once approved, you can start promoting Sephora.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: Website
- Merchant or Network: Linkshare Network
- Commission: 15% – 30%
- Cookie duration: 1 day
Other beauty and fashion affiliate programs for beginners that are worth considering work with networks I have already mentioned suchs as KIKO and Laneige that are managed via VigLink and Rent The Runway that is managed by Shareasale
Best Fitness & Health Affiliate Programs for Beginners
The health & fitness niche is one of the most popular and competitive. But doesn’t mean you can not get in as a beginner. People are constantly looking for ways to feel and look better s this niche is one you cant go wrong with.
We all know how popular and important fitness and staying healthy has become important in our society today. People are looking for several different ways to keep fit. So, the fitness niche can be a pot of gold for affiliate marketers who are ready to do some research. To succeed in this niche, you need to look for the best fitness affiliate programs and create useful content for your audience.
20. LadyBoss
LadyBoss is one of the best affiliate programs I have seen in the fitness niche. Its founder Kaelin Poulin has won multiple Two-Comma-Club Awards and generated more than $10 million in sales.
The program is perfect for beginners because they have high-conveting sales funnels in place where they take care of following up with the visitors, getting them to purchase and contienue to sell them higher ticket products over time.
They have a free 7 day challenge that you can promote and then they take care of selling people into their recurring membership and supplements while you get commissions for everything.
With a 4-9 monthly retention rate, they make a great job at keeping customers engaged which results in passive residual income paid to affiliates every single month.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: Website
- Merchant or Network: Merchants
- Commission: Up to 45% Commission On Digital Products and 30% Commission On Supplements(Including Reoccurring & Upsells)
- Cookie duration: 365 days
21. Aaptiv
Aaptiv is a fitness app that serves as a pocket personal trainer whether someone want to use it to optimize their home workout efforts and/or make they gym training sessions more productive without paying hundreds for a human-size PT.
The app features a series of workout videos and training programs that have been created by professional trainers. Users can set up their goals and the app will show the most appropaite workouts to achieve them.
It has a 7 day free trial period which is an advantage for beginner affiliates. All you need to de is get people to try it out without any commitment and let the app do its job of selling itself
Affiliates are three tiers: $15 per sale with 100 sales or less per month, $20 per sale with 101-500 sales per month, or $25 per sale when you reach 500+ sales per month.
- Cost: Free
- Requirements: No website required
- Merchant or Network: Merchant
- Commission: $15 – $25
- Cookie duration: 45 days
How do I start affiliate marketing as a beginner??
If you are a beginner affiliate marketer choosing the a good program to promote is one if the most important steps to succeed, but is not the only one.
So, what other steps do you need to follow you start making money with affiliate marketing?
Regardless of the many methods and new trick affiliate gurus can come up with, affiliate marketing doesn’t need to be complicated, you just need to understand the basic framework and then you will be able to use it and adjust it to your benefit.
Here are the simple steps you need to follow to get started with Affiliate Marketing:
1. Choose your niche
Your niche is the category or industry you will be focusing on. As a beginner it can be tempting to go after the next shiny object and changes niches just because things are not working out immediately or because you see someone succeed in another niche. Don;t do that. You can be successful in any niche so once you pick yours stick with it because that is the key to make it work.
2. Choose your offer
Once you have picked you niche, you can pick the main offer you want to promote. It is best to focus on one main offer at first so you can maximize your efforts and profits. Once you have one offer making money for you, you can go ahead an apply the same process to other programs but not the other way around.
3. Choose your method
Regardless of all the ‘new’, ‘secret’ and ‘untapped’ methods you might have heard about, the strategies to do affiliate marketing can generally be split in two:
- Paid methods: Anything that involves paid traffic such as ppc ads in Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Pinterest, Native Ads etc.
This methods are faster to get started since you can get traffic ‘on-demand’ and only need a landing page and email automation to begin tour afiliate business.
- Free or Organic Methods: These involve creating content related to your niche and offers whether that is a blog, website, or Youtube channel.
They are mostly free and more passive after the initial work but also take more time naturally since you need to produce the content and wait for them to be ranked in Google’s or Youtube results so people can find them.
In this article, you can also learn How to Use your Facebook Profile or Facebook Group for Affiliate Marketing.
4. Learn From The Best
Nowadays there is certainly lots of free information you can find online that you can use to guide yourself in your Affiliate journey and succeed. But because of the nature of the interemet, there is a limit to what an article or Youtube video can cover so the information is scattered and is up to you to put the pieces together.
If you want someone to guide you step-by-step I recommend checking out the Legendary Marketer Challenge, it is a 15 day online course that covers all the basics you need to succeed as an affiliate marketer.
Compared to other courses that offer similar information, this one is only $7 so is the one I recommend for beginners.
Go ahead and check it out here. If you don’t like it they’ll also have a money-back guarantee so you literally have nothing to lose.
Best Affiliate Programs For Beginners FAQ
1. Can you get rich from affiliate marketing?
Yes, Affiliate Marketing is a real business no a get-rich-quick-scheme and if you treat it like that you can make good money without worrying about handling inventory or creating your own digital products.
That being said, the most successful affiliate marketers are the one that put in the time and work to create real value for their audience. and build a relationship with them that will allow them to grow their business in the long term.
2. Do I need a website to be an affiliate marketer?
The short answer is no. You can use many different platforms to promote your affiliate offers without a website. If for some reason you are determined to not create a website a blog you have other options like creating a Youtube channel or promoting your offers throguh paid ads but in most cases you will need at least a landing page.
Check out this article on How to Create a Landing Page For Affiliate Marketing
Takeaway
Have you found an affiliate program you want to promote from this list? Maybe you got some idea on some niche you want to explore?
As a beginner affiliate marketer it can be overwheling to choose one offer and get started but that is the only way you can start to see results.
Here are some steps you can follow next to move forward on your affiliate journey:
Want to start an Affiliate Blogs? Make sure to check out these articles to get you right in tracK:
- Blogging For Beginners: How To Start A Blog TODAY And Succeed
- Bloggers’ Guide To Affiliate Marketing: Easiest Way To Passive Income
- 7 Type Of Blogs That Make Money & How To Find Your Niche
Want to do Affiliate Makreting without a website? Check out the following articles:
- Affiliate Marketing On Facebook: Best Strategies To Make Sales
- Landing Page For Affiliate Marketing In 6 Steps [Free Template]
- Making $1000 A Week Online With Affiliate Marketing (Step By Step)
- Youtube For Affiliate Marketing? Step-By-Step Guide To Explode Your Profits
- How To Build A Profitable Email List For Affiliate Marketing Fast
Do You Want To Create a DIscount Site or other type of affiliate webiste? Then this guide is for your:
Do you have any questions? What is stopping you from starting your affiliate business? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll make sure to reply and offer some help!
