Best High Paying Affiliate Programs (2022): Compared & Reviewed

Introduction

If you are someone from an eCommerce platform, you must have heard or even know about the term “Affiliate marketing”, “Cookie length” or “Affiliate programs”.

The first thing that you need to know is that affiliate programs are closely related to affiliate marketing. Affiliate programs have become extremely powerful in the online marketing industry.

According to Statista, in the US alone, affiliate marketing spending is expected to reach $8.2 billion by 2022. That is triple what it was in 2012.

Affiliate programs are a great way to start affiliate marketing and are pretty popular and help you earn a lot of extra cash if done right. If you are doing this for a long time, it can be your proper income. 

Imagine earning so much from home. Now, you must be wondering what affiliate programs are and how do they work? Are they worth it?

And if that’s the case, then what are the best high paying affiliate programs? We will be covering all of it in this article. 

The Best Affiliate Programs

Now that you are aware of the categories of affiliate programs, here are the 40 best affiliate programs with great cookie lives and offering good commissions. 

Section 1: Email Marketing

1. Sendinblue

2. Get Response

3. Constant Contact

Section 2: Web Hosting

1. Cloudways

2. Bluehost

3. WP Engine

4. Kinsta

5. Flywheel

Section 3: Affiliate Marketing: Recurring Affiliate

1. Pabbly

They also use a cookie period of 30 days and payments are received in about 60 days from the time the account is activated.

With over 1000 customers worldwide, Pabbly is a good affiliate program for affiliate marketing. 

2. Teachable

3. Semrush

4. AWeber

1. Travelpayouts

2. Expedia

3. Tripadvisor

1. H&M

2. BH Cosmetics

1. Shopify

2. Wix

3. BigCommerce

4. Volusion

A complete solution to the needs of an eCommerce business, Volusion also has an attractive affiliate program. 

• There is a 200% commission on the referred customers’ first monthly purchase. The total commission amount depends on the purchase. 
• The cookie life on their affiliate programs is 45 days.

Section 7: VPN Affiliate

1. ExpressVPN

2. Surfshark VPN

1. Sage Financials

2. Invoice Ninja

3. LocalBitcoins.com

4. Capitalists Exploits

1. Singorama

2. Sports Memorabilia

3. Unbounce

The affiliate program run by Unbounce is a recurring affiliate program and therefore it is very lucrative.

With a 20% recurring commission on every customer and a cookie life of 90 days, it is a great choice.

4. Coursera

5. Spocket

6. HubSpot

7. Fiverr

8. Hammacher Schlemmer

9. Amazon Associates

10. Leadpages

Affiliate Programs: What Are They?

Affiliate programs are programs where affiliate marketing takes place.

Affiliate marketing is a business strategy where a brand uses a third-party site, blog, etc. that has its own audience to gain an audience or generate leads for their products. 

Affiliate programs are like sales channels for companies who want to expand an audience for their products.

 They do so by providing links of their products to someone else to promote their products online, and these are called affiliates. Affiliate programs have categories for affiliates to join like:

• Finance affiliate programs.
• Web hosting affiliate programs.
• Beauty affiliate programs.
• Travel affiliate programs.
• VPN affiliate programs. 

And many more which you will be reading about further in this article.

How Do They Work?

It might be confusing as to how this even works because it does seem complicated. So, here’s how affiliate programs work. Let’s take the example of a watch.

A brand wants to gain an audience for its watch. We make an agreement about payments and I encourage users of my blog to buy that particular watch.

If anyone buys it, I gain a little from whatever the price of the purchase was. I didn’t create the watch, I simply promoted it. 

These are affiliate programs and agreements for payments in affiliate marketing. You can sign up on these programs, get a link, and then start to persuade others, advertise and encourage people to visit the link. 

This has to do with anything that can be promoted, and what can’t be promoted?

It is a great business strategy because the affiliates gain income without really having to design or create a product and the brand or business companies gain an audience without losing huge amounts of money to advertise everywhere.

A few affiliates that are well-reputed can do a lot. All of this process works online and thus it has wider reach in terms of engagement.

In addition to that, anything that is online is available to people all over the world. This is why it is growing so much and is such a useful and important business strategy. 

According to the Forrester report, over 80% of the major advertisers devote over 10% of their marketing budgets to affiliate programs. 

Cookie Length

Then comes referral cookie length, which is also a part of affiliate programs. Cookie length or cookie life-time is basically the life of the cookie.

If the cookie has a 10-day life then you will get paid if a referral makes a purchase 10 days after clicking on your affiliate link.

If there are no purchases within 10 days of your affiliate link, then you don’t get the commission and the leads will not be able to be tracked. 

Some affiliate programs offer a 1-day cookie length which is useless. There are direct tracking methods that people use to stay immune to cookies dying out or getting cleared.  

Are Affiliate Programs Worth It?

Before starting anything, who doesn’t search it up? Especially if you’re planning to start affiliate marketing, you need to be sure about it.

Knowing the pros and cons of anything you choose to get involved with is a smart choice. If you are planning to choose your affiliate program, you might as well give this a read. 

Here are both the benefits and limitations of affiliate marketing.

Benefits of Affiliate Programs

Here are the 7 advantages of affiliate programs. 

1. Helps with the audience

Affiliates have a great effect on expanding the audience numbers because they are used in every market and product category.

You can always find a website to work with, even if it’s something about bookbinding. Since it’s such a popular marketing strategy, many affiliates have a stronghold on a bunch of audiences already.

So, when you partner with these affiliates, it expands your reach to other markets that you may not know or have the bandwidth to explore.

2. Cost-effective

Since you are paying commissions only when anything sells or the desired results are obtained, you don’t waste a lot of money on the arrangements that might not succeed or have no value.

Recruiting affiliates is way more cost-efficient than creating an entire marketing campaign, where you will have to spend way more.

For this process, you don’t need to have a lot of money to begin with, which is great if you’re just a student or a beginner.

3. No expertise required

Like in many business strategies, you will have to be a pro or at least have an efficient amount of expertise in that field.

But here, you can start without being an affiliate marketing pro and still become successful because affiliate marketing practice is all that matters.

Then, later on, with experience, you gain more insight of this practise gradually. It is completely your choice to choose the campaigns and learning methods you want to test.

You can learn about different affiliate programs and how to manage to work with multiple affiliate programs and to decide which one is best for your business. 

You can try out ways and see where that gets you.  You just require a stable internet connection.

You can also start your own blog to have a platform where you can promote your affiliate products. It is a long-time business strategy that improves your skills through practice and dedication. 

4. Make money while you’re sleeping

This is probably something that will make your life a thousand times easier. You don’t need to dedicate every hour to it. You don’t even have to quit your job and still earn a lot.

This could be a side-line or a side-project to help you see how much money you can make. 

But if you choose to go full time with affiliate programs, and even if you leave your job; it is an amazing way to make money and can be the best way to earn through passive income.

If affiliate marketing is done correctly and smartly, you can make money while you sleep and wake up to a good amount in your account.

Affiliate programs have done wonders for a lot of people and have given great results most of the time. 

5. Boosts reputation

Affiliate marketing has a lot of partnering to do and if you partner with affiliates who have reputed blogs or websites, you can definitely gain the reputation of your brand.

Your efforts have to be honest and diligent and your brand will expand for sure.

Reputed websites, bloggers, etc. usually have a lot of the audience and have a stronghold of them because the audience tends to trust these websites and stay committed. 

The affiliates will know their work and are experts in it. They will define how to solidify and present your product or service.

Also, users usually trust reviews and third-party comments rather than the companies who own the product themselves. 

6. Flexible and convenient

In affiliate programs, you don’t have to worry about the purchases and the customers after the sales are made.

 That is left for the merchant website to handle because it is their product. It is convenient that way and is flexible too. 

Additionally, you can make your schedule and work whenever it is best suited for you. You don’t have to follow a routine and you can work when you want. There is no pressure in general. 

And as a brand, you can even work with multiple affiliate programs.

According to the Forrester report, 71% of US affiliate publishers work with 3 or more than 3 affiliate programs, and only 6% stick with one affiliated program. You can raise your pay this way and help promote products to a larger audience. 

7. Limitless techniques and strategies

There are many endless ways where you can expand and market the affiliate programs. You can:

• You can promote it on your blog.
• Recommend your product through online courses 
• Through social media, since it is used by millions every day.
• Install plugins and generate more traffic. 

Limitations of Affiliate Programs

After knowing the benefits, it’s time to know about the limitations that come along with affiliate marketing. 

1. Might take a while to get recognized

Like in many other platforms, like YouTube or a blog, everything takes time to build particularly when an audience is involved.

No one’s channel or blog skyrockets overnight. It takes time and how much time do you ask? It all depends on the business strategy and the way you run it.

Talking about the average time, it takes about 2-3 years in earning a proper income from affiliate marketing.

 You have to at least try and rank on the search engines, gain a great audience, find a proper affiliate partnership, and visit your site every day constantly doing something on it.

It shouldn’t be a problem if you have the patience and don’t have an extremely busy life. 

2. Adjust a lot

The truth is that you can’t control the affiliate marketing program and you have to keep adjusting to the merchant websites rules and go along with their conditions.

Even if their products won’t be able to attract that many consumers or will simply just not be competitive enough, you can't make changes.

In fact, you won’t be able to do much about it except having to accept it and adjust according to the merchant’s website.

The best thing you can do is communicate and try and discuss applying for discounts or anything else. This won’t be that big of an issue if you explore other affiliate programs and work with them. 

3. Bad partnerships

Sometimes you may run into bad partners who may not pay you well or just disappear without discussion.

A bad partnership can also bring actual loss to your efforts and in such case, just discontinue the affiliate program. 

Because you don’t have much control over the product and the least you can do is communicate, it might put you in a bad place. This is why you should do as much research as possible and hope for the best. 

So, these were the advantages and limitations of affiliate programs. Hopefully, you made up your mind about them.

Even though it seems that the advantages of affiliate programs are more than the limitations, what’s best for you is for you to decide. 

Types Of Affiliate Programs

Before you choose an affiliate program, you need to consider what your audience likes and where they spend more of their time. 

Here are the 8 types of affiliate programs. 

1. Recurring Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs have massive potential in the field of passive income.

While affiliate programs can generate enough income, the problem is that this income is generated only once, and you have to jump on to the next company or program to keep your income running. 

Recurring affiliate programs are a solution to this problem.

Unlike other affiliate programs that offer one-time commissions; recurring programs offer lifetime commissions as long substantial traffic is being generated through your efforts. 

The most important difference between normal affiliate programs and recurring affiliate programs is that ‘truly passive income’ can be generated for many years.

This makes these programs more attractive and lucrative than other programs. 

It is a great way to generate consistent revenue after doing the work only once. With recurring affiliate programs, it is easier to predict the earnings you’ll make.

This makes planning your finances easier. Also, low churn rates and high retention rates create a possibility of a lifetime earning.

There is a possibility that the customer could churn quickly though which leaves you with low chances of making consistent money. If the amount earned up-front is low, then the profit might even be negative.

2. VPN affiliate programs

VPNs are virtual private networks and they keep a user anonymous while surfing the internet, going through emails, etc.

VPNs help keep the internet safe and secure. You can sign up for a month by paying a certain amount and have your IP address hidden from websites and emails.

Or you can just activate and deactivate the VPN whenever you find a website being blocked. 

The first and the most important is that an IP address can just give away your address from where you are accessing the Internet.

Businesses track their audience or users visiting their site using such techniques. Then hackers also take over devices through IP addresses. So, it’s better to keep it safe. 

Being a VPN affiliate, you get a chance to promote it to other people and help secure the internet better, plus they pay well.

Since signing up isn’t that cheap, the moment revenue is made, you get a fair share of it.

It is a very well-known source to protect the identity when scrolling through the web, so it is more likely that an audience will make a purchase. Overall, it’s easier, as a lot of affiliates would recommend it to their audience. 

3. Web hosting affiliate programs

Having a presence on the internet is of paramount importance now. With everything turning digital, the traditional ways of making yourself known are not going to work.

A human being spends over 6 hours a day online. This means a quarter of his life is spent surfing through the web. While this may be a social disaster, it is an important statistic for companies trying to gain customers’ attention. 

A presence on the web requires a hosting platform that is provided by companies like HostGator, Bluehost, and many more.

Web hosting affiliate programs are generally high paying due to the continuous demand for web hosting. While everyone is looking for a hosting provider, the competition is stiff and promotions are needed to survive.

A web hosting platform should not be chosen based on the commission rates themselves. Decoding all the features to understand the best recommendation for your audience is necessary.

Its popularity offers many options, to begin with, for both affiliates and merchants. 

4. Gaming affiliate programs

The gaming industry has increased in great numbers and seems to keep increasing.

This means that the gaming business has a lot of options and plenty of promotions that can get some good cash coming.

Gaming is something you can talk about on your blog and keep the audience engaged because everyone including 60-year-olds play games.

Affiliates in the gaming business can monetize video game subscriptions and sales in programs like the Twitch Affiliate Program. 

Recommending subscription services and generating income from the purchases and sales made by your affiliate link is something most affiliates have been doing.

Besides, there are a lot of gaming affiliate programs like Astro Gaming, Fanatical that offer great options. 

A lot of blogs and articles have been and are being written about gaming and people seem to enjoy them.

So, finding an affiliate to make great promotions is not a big deal, especially when it comes to the gaming industry. 

5. Beauty affiliate programs

Beauty is something everyone is aware of and some people would go to any extremes to get flawless skin or perfectly styled hair.

The beauty industry is everywhere, from YouTube to Instagram and every social media site ever created. 

Starting a skincare related blog, or makeup products related blog is a great way to go because everyone reads about this and you wouldn’t believe the number of women who keep reading about eyebrow hacks or lipsticks tricks.

Plenty of the audience will be hungry for the makeup products review and because of its popularity, many big personas are launching their makeup brands that everyone wants to read about. 

It shouldn’t be hard finding a makeup product to promote but choosing a brand that matches your style is very important.

Payments in this sphere can vary widely with pay-outs ranging from 2-10%. So, getting into it shouldn’t be a problem especially if you are just a beginner. 

6. Fitness affiliate programs

Fitness has become a buzzword in recent years. With the change in outer scenario, either youth are motivated themselves for a good physique or they have some kind of fitness equipment lying around, unused, collecting dust.

While everyone understands the importance of fitness, finding motivation from within is very difficult. Therefore, a lot of people turn to the digital world to find motivation and consistency in their routines. 

Almost every resource in the world is rendered useless when your health gives in.

Companies like Bowflex, cash in on this concept and recommend high average order value (AOV) products where high commissions can be earned on every order.

The importance of fitness makes the fitness affiliate programs one of the highest paying affiliate categories. Fitness products like treadmills, weighing machines, etc. have a high AOV which reflects the high commission return.

Also, as a fitness trainer or bodybuilder, fitness companies can pay high bucks for fitness recommendations that favor their products.

7. Music affiliate programs

The music industry is one of the oldest ones yet, with musicians performing more than a thousand years ago.

 This is something you can start with if you are a beginner in affiliate marketing because all you need is a blog where you talk about music or instruments, gain an audience which is pretty easy to gain as it is a leading industry.

After having done all of that, promoting some musical instruments or online music courses, and get paid that way, isn’t this easy. 

It is especially great if you have been involved in music yourself, for example, if you are a music teacher or a sound engineer or have taken plenty of music classes in your school days, you can review some microphones, guitars, pianos, etc. and recommend them to your audience. 

You’d be surprised to know the number of people who read blogs related to music, so you won’t run short on affiliates either. 

8. Travel affiliate programs

People have always and will probably keep loving to travel. Everyone wants a great hotel to stay in or a great airline to fly in and that’s why people do buy travel packages.

Isn’t it a great affiliate program to join? It is a plus if you have a blog or you are on the internet just to talk about traveling because there are so many places to travel and then there’s so much to talk about in traveling. 

From hotels to airlines and travel packages, there is a lot to recommend and a lot of merchant websites are easily available like Expedia.

Plus, there are plenty of good affiliate websites that are all about traveling and have a great audience build-up. So, the options are endless for both merchants and affiliates. 

Conclusion

Wrapping it up with the important points from all this article that you’ve read. 30+ is still a confusing number to choose from and to break it down, here are the 3 best affiliate programs: Amazon Associates Kinsta, and Cloudways. 

If you are a beginner then Amazon Associates, and ShareASale are perfect affiliate programs to start.

There are also categories under which these programs fall and the most popular ones are fashion, gaming, and web hosting.

Following and choosing the most popular topics will help your affiliate for better brands which in turn will result in a great income. But before anything, start an affiliate website with the help of WordPress. 

As a brand or a company, the three affiliate programs mentioned above are the best to find great affiliates.

Of course, make sure you have read all of the tips and points above to be careful about the bad partners and learn a little more about this business strategy. 

Hopefully, you have gained enough information to understand this business strategy and we hope that you can make your money in the most effective way.

As mentioned before, effort and dedication are necessary to start anything in life followed by practice to gain skill and experience. 

If you have done your research, followed and made a mental note of things needed, you should be good to go. Best of luck!