BEST OVERALL AFFILIATE PROGRAM:

FIVERR.

While I cover a lot of different affiliate niches in this article, there is one affiliate program that covers all the bases and is the easiest to promote.

That affiliate program is Fiverr.

Fiverr is like the Amazon of digital services.

By signing up for the Fiverr affiliate program, you get to promote the world’s biggest marketplace for online services. From logo design and writing to programming, WordPress gigs, and business services, the options are endless.

And after promoting these services, 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).

Overall, with 250+ categories and over 3 million digital services you can promote, Fiverr is my overall #1 choice as the best affiliate program.

Get started as a Fiverr affiliate.

WHAT ARE THE BEST AFFILIATE PROGRAMS?

Web hosting is one of the most popular affiliate marketing categories in the world. Every new website requires a host.

Therefore, most affiliates that write about marketing, starting an online business, or blogging end up joining web hosting affiliate programs first.

The key to recommending a web hosting platform is that you need to be extremely familiar with the tool.

Don’t pick a program just based on commission rates alone. The platform has to be intuitive, feature-rich, and the best recommendation for your audience, without a doubt.

Ultimately, web hosting companies provide some of the best affiliate programs, which is why they are at the top of my list.

Here are my picks for the top 5 high paying affiliate programs.

BLUEHOST

The Bluehost affiliate program is super popular in the web hosting space. With their plans starting at $2.95/month and one-time payouts starting at $65+, the cost barrier is low, and the commissions are high.

Because of this, they are one of the convenient ways for affiliate bloggers looking to make money online. After you sign up for their program, you will get credit for referrals up to 45 days after the first click.

Payments occur between the 16th and the end of each month, and you’ll need at least $100 to release your payment.

By promoting Bluehost, you’ll enjoy high conversion rates and have access to text links and banners to help them quickly.

Their affiliate managers provide excellent customer service, and they are my #1 overall pick and come with my highest recommendation.

If you still need to launch your affiliate website, click my link below to get 63% off your Bluehost plan.

Get Started with Bluehost

HOSTGATOR.

By promoting HostGator, you can earn up to $100 per sign up and get flexible commission structures and your co-branded landing pages and offers.

For example, I have my HostGator landing page where readers can get 60% off HostGator plans.

Plus they have tiered commissions structures – the more affiliates you refer, the more you earn commissions. You can either choose a performance-based or a hybrid commission model that offers recurring payments too.

By joining their program, you get a dedicated affiliate account manager and access to marketing tools like banners, text links, excellent article content, and email templates.

They’re a great web host when starting an affiliate site as well.

Click my link below for 60% off HostGator web hosting.

Get Started with HostGator

Sign Up For Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Marketplaces

(A place to sign up for multiple affiliate programs and manage them in 1 place).

ShareASale (recommended) – WP Engine, StudioPress, WP Rocket, more. Easy to get approved, create links, track stats, with a wide rank of affiliates.
ClickBank – LongTail Pro, SeoPressor, more.
CJ Affiliate – Overstock, GoDaddy, Zappos, Walgreen, Vitamin Shoppe, Verizon Wireless, Under Armour, TurboTax, TJ Maxx, Sears, Samsung, QVC, Priceline, Petco, Old Navy, Office Depot, Office Max, Nike, Newegg, Michael Kors, Intuit, Hotels.com, HelloFresh, Guitar Center, GNC, FedEx Office, AT&T, American Express, Vivid Seats, TeamViewer, Sunglass Hut, Ally Invest, more.
Rakuten Marketing – Udemy, Walmart, Macy’s, StubHub, Hulu, more.
Impact – ADP, Airbnb, AppSumo, Allstate, 1-800 Flowers, Avon, Constant Contact, Credit Karma Tax, Envato Market, ESPN+, Getty Images, Gravity Forms, Grubhub, Houzz, HostGator, InMotion, iQ, iStock, Kind, Kohl’s, Lending Club, Levi’s, LinkedIn Learning, Namecheap, Shutterstock, Southwest, Squarespace, StackPath CDN, Target, Turo, Uber, Uber Eats, Xfinity, more.
FlexOffers – Apple Music, Amore Beds, Mac Cosmetics, Wine Of The Month Club, DirectTV, Sketchers, Barnes & Noble, GameStop, SkyScanner, more.

Popular Online Retailers

Amazon – up to 10% based on category.
Ebay – 40 – 80% based on category (but only 24 hour cookie tracking).
Etsy – 4 – 8%.
Target – 4% on most categories.
Walmart – 4% on most categories.
Aliexpress – 3% for electronics, 7-9% for everything else.
Newegg – 0.5 – 1%.
Overstock – up to 6%.

WordPress Hosting – Sign Up For Affiliate Programs

SiteGround – $50 – $100+/sale (tier program).
WP Engine – $200/sale + bonuses + $50 two-tier program.
Kinsta – $50 – $500/sale + 10% recurring.
Cloudways – $50 – $125/sale (tiered) or recurring revenues with lower initial commission – they were also #1 in many Facebook polls, have a very strong following, and I will be recommending them soon for managed cloud hosting

WordPress Themes

StudioPress – 35% (usually on a $100 sale).
Elegant Themes – 50% on plans ranging from $89 – $250.

Email Marketing

AWeber – 30% recurring (on $19 – $149+ per sale).
Constant Contact – $105 per sale and $5 per lead (signs up for free trial).

Other Affiliates

SEMrush – 40% recurring (on $40 – $160/month).
StackPath CDN – usually $10 – $20 commission per sale.
MyThemeShop – 55% ($48 commission – $244 depending on plan).
ThemeForest – 30% of each new person’s first purchase.
WP Rocket – 20% ($10 – $50/sale).
Freelancer – fee of the project for first 100 days (usually 10% of the project).
Udemy – 20% on any course.
Refer WordPress – 20% for wordpress.com, JetPack, and WooCommerce.
OptiMonster – 20%.
LongTail Pro – 30% (and 30% recurring) on $219/year – $377/year plans.
Elementor – 50% of $49 – $199 depending on plan.
HelloFresh – $25 (maximum) on first sale.

Coupon Codes

A2 Hosting + HostGator – these affiliates let you create custom coupon codes which is a huge bonus if you’re doing YouTube videos.

Tyler’s Moore’s video on how to make a WordPress site has 4.5M+ views and he refers people to HostGator using his coupon code.

This means he gets credited for the sale if they use the code (even if they don’t click his affiliate link).

If you’re doing YouTube videos, coupon codes can result in a lot more sales than dropping links in video descriptions and hoping people click on it. He’s made a fortune.

Learn The Different Types Of Programs

One Tier – get a commission when a sale is generated from your affiliate link.

Two Tier – get a commission when you refer other affiliates and they start making sales (think multilevel marketing).

An example is WP Engine’s program where I tell my readers about their WordPress hosting, they start making sales, and I earn $50/sale from each sale they generate.

Climbing Tiers increased commissions as you make more sales.

Recurring Commissions – usually happens with subscription services… you continuously receive commissions so long as people are signed up. AWeber and SEMrush do this.

Sitewide Commissions – get a commission no matter what people buy on the affiliate’s website. Amazon’s affiliate program does this.

Pay Per Lead – get a commission based on the number of leads (eg. contact form fill-outs) you send to a business. Be sure setup your analytics to track this and have a solid, written agreement with your affiliate. You don’t want to spend tons of time and get burned, like I have.

Cookies – amount of time after people click your affiliate link you will receive a commission if a sale is generated. Usually 30-90 days but shouldn’t be a deal breaker when choosing affiliates.

Individual Affiliate Programs where you sign up through their website.

Affiliate Marketplaces – ShareASale and ClickBank have thousands of merchants to choose from. It’s nice to login to 1 place and check the performance of multiple affiliates without going to each individual portal on each website.

Many programs aren’t part of a marketplace though. I’m a big fan of ShareASale – there are so many companies and industries you can choose from.

Amazon Affiliate Program – Sign Up For Affiliate Programs

The most popular of them all. I don’t participate myself (yet) but the majority of affiliate marketers I know use Amazon because… it’s Amazon.

You can review products you have used or write tutorials (eg. how to connect computer to TV) and drop an affiliate link to an HDMI cable… just a couple examples.

You may want to build relationships with the manufacturers so you can get products before they’re released – giving you time to create a review before the product is launched and capture sales during peak buying times.

Up to 10% commissions
Commission % based on categories
Sitewide commissions (if they buy anything using your link, you get a commission)
Super high conversions
Create a custom affiliate link to any product

WordPress Affiliate Programs – Sign Up For Affiliate Programs

If you’re in the WordPress industry like I am (whether it be design, development, or SEO) I have accumulated quite the list of WordPress affiliate programs.

I excluded those I found unsuccessful or pay too little to make a profit from, specifically ThemeForest, Creative Market, and low quality theme stores like Template Monster.

Hosting pays well and I wrote a tutorial for SiteGround’s affiliate program and StudioPress themes which are my 2 highest paying affiliates.

Those tutorials have tons of screenshots/social proof especially for SiteGround.

SiteGround – my main hosting affiliate with a solid reputation on social media (which I use to my advantage). They pay $50 – 100+/sale and award custom commissions based on your performance and whether you’re selling more expensive hosting plans.
WP Engine – $200/sale with a two-tier affiliate program ($50 for each two-tier sale)
StudioPress – known for being the most quality WordPress themes built in Genesis
Elegant Themes – high quality themes with generous affiliate program (50% of sale)
StackPath – CDN with 31 additional data centers (Cloudflare has 200+ data centers, but more data centers = faster content delivery). I get around $1,000/month by referring people to StackPath in my cache plugin tutorials. StackPath recently bought MaxCDN and their affiliate acceptance rate is much lower (depends on your potential volume) but most cache plugins converted to StackPath as their recommended CDN.
Freelancer – refer people to developers, designers, and other freelancers you’ve worked with and make 100% of Freelancer’s project commission for the first 90 days. I get a lot of people requesting WordPress speed optimization services… so I refer them to my developers with a freelancer affiliate link and make $125/month in passive income. You can’t use affiliate links to link to specific freelancer profiles, so I direct people to the homepage via affiliate link and give people my developer’s usernames.

Run The Numbers

High Commissions, High Conversions, Low Reversal Rates
Of course you want affiliates with high commissions, but they should also have a solid reputation with high conversions and low reversal rates (you get $0 if people cancel after signing up).

If they’re part of an affiliate marketplace like ShareASale or ClickBank you can see some numbers there.

Companies likes Amazon/SiteGround are safe bets, otherwise do your research (or track your affiliate links so you can monitor their performance).

Avoid affiliates offering huge commissions since this probably means they’re struggling to acquire/retain customers naturally. This will hurt your numbers (specifically your conversions/reversal rates).

Why I Didn’t Promote WP Engine For $200/Sale

I could have promoted WP Engine (hosting company) for $200/sale with no tier program to climb – sounds pretty good right?

But when I checked ShareASale I saw their reversal rates were 24%! Just to give you an idea SiteGround’s reversals are less than 10%. WP Engine starts at $29/month while SiteGround’s is $3.95/month, plus SiteGround has a better reputation.

I had to climb a tier program to higher commissions with SiteGround, but it paid off long-term.

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