How do affiliate links work?
When you sign up with an affiliate program, you gain access to a unique link made just for you. With this link, you can refer your readers, followers, etc. to products on the website using your affiliate link.
When they buy products on the website through your affiliate link, you get a percentage of the profits. It does not cost your readers anything at all. Just like in sales, you can make a commission when you sell a product for your company. The same rules apply here.
For example, if you’re talking about vitamins on your blog, you can refer them to your affiliate link for Ritual Vitamins and earn 75% per sale!
*Disclaimer* You must always disclose to your audience when you are using an affiliate link. Not only is being honest with your readers important, but it’s one of the most important rules of affiliate marketing. You can find our disclaimer at the beginning of most of our blog posts! You also need to put disclaimers on social media.
Don’t skip this important step. There’s no reason to hide it from your audience, and if you feel like you should educate them on it once a month for a while then do so.
Where should I share affiliate links?
We highly recommend that you create a strategy for your affiliate links, just like you would for your blog posts. Don’t just share affiliate links in one place. Learn how your audience works on different platforms, and share accordingly. Check out how to start a solid money-making affiliate strategy with Bree and Lani on the podcast.
An example of this could be sharing a list of your favorite kitchen gadgets in a blog post, then, on Facebook, sharing the most popular kitchen products that your audience bought that week.
You can do this while simultaneously showing how you baked cinnamon rolls using your KitchenAid on Instagram stories and doing a swipe up to a KitchenAid mixer you saw on sale. See why it’s important to develop a strategy?
How much money can you make with affiliate links?
The limit does not exist. We’ve seen bloggers with less than 20k pageviews and less than 10k followers on Instagram bring in over $2,000 a month from affiliate sales.
Upwards of that, we know that bloggers with even larger followings are pulling in high 6 figure salaries (even more!) each year, from affiliate link sales. Did those numbers catch your attention? They should because this could be you!
There are two main types of affiliate earnings:
- PPC (Pay Per Click)
Pay per click means that every time someone clicks your affiliate link, you earn a small commission.
- PPA (Pay Per Acquisition)
Pay per acquisition means that every time someone makes a purchase, you earn a commission.
Each affiliate program is different with their payouts, so do some research before you decide which affiliate programs you want to join.
Which affiliate programs should I join? Here’s a list of some of the best blogger affiliate programs we’ve compiled for you:
General
- Amazon
- Savings.com
- ShareASale.com
- Within ShareASale you can search for more brands that have affiliate programs, sort them by category and by commission rate!
- Tailwind
- Allbirds (15% per sale!)
- Cricut
- Spanx
- Ritual Vitamins (75%! Per sale! Woah!)
- Jane
- Lulu’s
- Janie & Jack
- Minted (20% per sale!)
- Daily Harvest ($10 per sale)
- ShopStyle (share requirements)
- Like to Know It (share requirements)
- Rakuten
If you’re not seeing a company within one of the above programs, or you’re not yet qualifying for Shop Style or LiketoKnowIt, head directly to the brand’s websites. Here are a few examples:
- Erin Condren
- Simplified by Emily Ley
- FabFitFun
- Yoga Club
- Fabletics
- Decocrated
- Booking.com (25% commission!)
Digital Products
Other Entrepreneurs & Bloggers
There are lots of entrepreneurs and bloggers out there who have affiliate programs for their digital products and courses. Do some research to see who you can help lift up and also increase your revenue!
One last thing! We’ve created a resources page on our blog that lists all the different tools we use for Thrive. We get asked about different products all the time so we compiled a list to make it easier for everyone. And yes, this page contains affiliate links! So if you are asked consistently about certain products, this is another idea to consider for your website!
2 Comments on Mega List of the Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers
Hi there, I have been extremely impressed with your community. I’ve watched close to a dozen videos and sifted through some of the content. I like what I’m hearing and seeing. Everyone is so genuine in helping out the next person. Also, Bree is priceless in her approach to authentication to her followers. My question is, can a male make it in this industry? Your site seems to be addressed to females only, and all I see at the conferences are females. I would love to be able to be a part of the community, but just didn’t know if males are allowed.
I have a website listed below on the form. I’m currently designing a wordpress blog to help sell my outfits. Without coming across to my readers too salesy, I was thinking of blogging about each outfit and what I absolutely love about it. My only issue is, how would I actually be solving my readers problem? Just needed some advice on if my approach seems like a problem solver and not just a sales pitch, especially after I implement my shop widgets. I’m really good at what I do, when it comes to creating outfits, but I just think a blog would take my business to the next level and give them more of a personal side to me. Thanks!!
Hi Brian!
Thanks so much for reaching out 🙂 Although our website is targeted toward women in the industry, men can absolutely make waves here as well! Your ideas for a website are amazing & we would love to help you make these ideas a reality. Have you taken our free class yet, “how to make money from your blog”? We’re hosting it live on April 13, 2021 at 11am CST & we would love to see you there!
You can email me directly at info@thrivecreativeevents.com for more information on the class — and for more info on what to do next if you have already taken it!
-Natalie at Thrive 🙂