There are many options other than just depending on Google Adsense or other advertisement platforms. Ad pays you well if you are getting massive traffic, but having a few thousand page views monthly may disappoint you. There is some disadvantage of showing ads too.
Slow-down your site No control over what ads are shown No guaranteed earning
So how do you make more as a blogger? One of the most popular choices is going for affiliate marketing. There are hundreds of affiliate programs you can join in the technology niche. It is something that works for beginners as well as experienced bloggers out there. I believe it works for a few good reasons, including:
You don’t have to create the products yourself You don’t have to take care of deliverability You don’t have to take care of post-sales support
All you do is promote the product and earn a commission for every sale you refer to. However, to start making money as an affiliate marketer, you have to make sure you only get into the right programs and networks. And if you’ve been on the hunt for good affiliate programs, then this article is probably all you need. I’ve listed affiliate programs for bloggers that are legit and pay well. If that sounds interesting, let’s hop into it.
ShareASale
ShareASale is a pretty large affiliate network that accepts even new bloggers, as long as you have relevant and quality content. They’ve been around since 2000. They got more than 40 categories, so choose what works for you.
Computer & electricals Web hosting Career and jobs Marketing SEO related service & products Web services and webmaster tools
Once your account is created, you search and join the respective merchants. Usually, merchants approve your application within a few days. After approval, you’ll have the necessary marketing materials to promote on your blogs. Some of the popular programs you may consider.
StudioPress – if you are covering WordPress related topics WP Engine – if you are including WordPress hosting RocketTheme – for Joomla associated topics SurfEasy – VPN covering blogs FreshBooks – if covering startup, accounting, financial services
They also have a wide range of fashion affiliate programs that you should check out if you’re in that niche. They pay via check or direct deposit.
Impact
Not as old but another great affiliate network that hosts a lot of products. Impact has more than 500 merchants. You get a detailed analytics report about the campaigns.
Daily click Performance by date/month/referring type/referring domain Top campaigns
Some of the relevant programs to join for a tech blogger.
Startup, eCommerce – AppSumo, BigCommerce, Bigstock Computer, Security, Internet – Hotspot Shield VPN, Hostgator, MaxCDN, Namecheap, SUCURI, SecureMAC Learning – Skillshare, Treehouse Design – 99designs, Envato Elements
The payout is monthly and there are multiple ways to cash out your earnings including PayPal and Wire Transfer.
CJ
Formerly known as commission junction is one of popular among bloggers. You can search for thousands of merchants to join. Some of the features are:
Deep-link generator Real-time transaction analytics Easy to find the merchant, getting links, banner
You may join 1&1 hosting, Grammarly, etc. Not the best user-interface but still a brilliant affiliate network to be a part of. Getting approved on the CJ Affiliate network is easy but getting approved for the programs within it is a bit of a task. Most of the programs within it has really strict requirements and might not approve of you until you meet the requirement, for example, audience location.
Rakuten
Provide tutorial? One of the great ways to promote online courses from Udemy, Edureka by joining the Rakuten affiliate network. Been voted the number 1 affiliate network for 8 consecutive years, Rakuten is fabulous when it comes to the range of products. There are a ton of different categories as well.
Awin
With brands like Etsy, Under Armour and HP, Awin is great in terms of product range and commission per sale. However, the only downside is they charge $5 during sign up as a screening fee which might not go down well with everyone. Keep in mind the $5 is refunded back to you once you get approved.
Clickbank
Mostly known for its digital products, Clickbank houses some really detailed courses and ebooks from quality marketers on different niches. Internet marketing, health, fitness, business, investing, weight loss, games, green products, sports, travel, and a lot more products waiting for you to promote.
MaxBounty
MaxBounty works on the CPA model which pays you for every action such as sign up or email submit. They have a variety of offers on different niches.
Domain & Hosting
Writing about WordPress, blogging technical stuff? Promoting the hosting platform and domain-related products would be a good idea.
SiteGround
One of my favorites, Siteground is officially recommended by WordPress.org for blog hosting and they’re highly reliable for your readers. Siteground is known for its shared hosting performance so it would be easy to promote to your audience.
Bluehost
Bluehost is undoubtedly one of the most popular web hosting companies in the world. Almost all the bloggers are dealing with the field of technology mention Bluehost hosting plans. They offer a flat commission of $65 for every customer who purchases your referral. However, if you make more sales, they might even increase your bounty. Bluehost offers promotional resources like banners and ads. You also get a detailed report and analysis of your sales. It has a dedicated affiliate management team to answer any of your questions.
Kinsta
With a 60-day tracking cookie and 10% recurring commissions for a lifetime, Kinsta is a great premium WP managed hosting affiliate program to consider signing up for. You can get $500 when someone signup an enterprise plan with your affiliate tracking URL.
WP Engine
A brilliant affiliate program that lets you create customized funnels for better conversions. WP Engine is a trusted hosting provider that is used by a lot of bloggers. Do you know you can earn as high as $7500 per referral? No reason to not promote this when you are running a WordPress-related blog or tutorial site. Through WP Engine, you can also promote StudioPress which offers quality themes + the Genesis framework.
Namecheap
Similar to GoDaddy, Namecheap too has domains along with hosting services. It takes only a few minutes to set things up and start earning commission for every qualified sale. You can promote their CDN, SSL/TLS certificate, VPN, hosting, and domain services.
Internet/Digital Marketing
If you educating and sharing information about marketing, SEO then the following products would be a good idea to promote.
Long Tail Pro
A super useful long-tail keyword research tool that is used by many marketers. Long Tail Pro is a brilliant product so it wouldn’t be tough to start earning commissions from promoting this.
Samcart
With up 40% and recurring commissions, Samcart would be a good program for your blog. Just so you know, they make selling digital products online a breeze.
NinjaOutreach
A super handy influencer marketing tool, NinjaOutreach pays monthly recurring commissions for every sale referred to.
ConvertKit
Probably one of the best email marketing software out there, ConvertKit has to be on your list to promote. They have some brilliant features that your customers won’t find anywhere else.
Semrush
An all-in-one marketing suite that pays lifetime commissions for referring customers. Semrush is a favorite among marketers too. It does a complete SEO analysis of your website and is trusted by a lot of professional bloggers. Semrush gives access to promo materials, complete and convenient statistics, and excellent customer support. They offer promo content (banners. links, widgets & special offers) in 9 languages- English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. You can also take their 14-days trial to see how Semrush works.
SpyFu
SpyFu is a super helpful competitor spying tool that can be really beneficial for your audience. They pay twice a month to their affiliates and that too recurring commissions. SpyFu got many digital marketing tools such as the following.
Competitor analysis Keyword research Domain comparison Rank tracker PPC research Keyword research AdWords competitor Backlink checker
any many more…
WordPress
Writing about blogging? I am sure you have WordPress related blog posts and what could be better than endorsing WP related products for handsome earning?
OptinMonster
A WordPress pop-up plugin that drastically increases opt-in conversions. OptinMonster pays 20% for every sale and you can promote the affiliate link across different channels including blog and social media sites.
ThemeForest
A huge theme marketplace that your readers will thank you for recommending. Themeforest is part of Envato Market and they pay 30% on every sale.
Elegant Themes
Probably one of the highest paying WordPress theme affiliate programs, Elegant Themes pays a generous 50% on every sale and you get a ton of creatives to start promoting. Have you heard of famous builder called Divi?
WPForms
You can promote WPForms on your blog and as well as on social media sites. A big plus point if you have a large following. There are more than 100 templates and you can promote as contact, payment, survey, registration, newsless, custom forms.
Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder is a light-weight page builder for WordPress. They pay via PayPal whenever you reach at least $100 in total commissions generated. Beaver is trusted by more than a million sites. It doesn’t bloat the site hence webpage load faster.
MTS
Heard of one of the fastest loading WP theme – Schema? A marketplace that has a ton of great WordPress themes and plugins. MyThemeShop pays a whopping 55% commission per sale.
Elementor
One of the easiest drag and drop page builders, Elementor pays 50% of every sale via PayPal. You have to reach a minimum of $200 to cash out.
ShortPixel
ShortPixel ridiculously improves website speed by compressing images without losing its quality. They’re paying 50% recurring commissions on all sales.
ThirstyAffiliates
A brilliant plugin that cloaks your affiliate links. You can promote ThirstyAffiliates and help your readers hide their ugly-looking affiliate links.
Thrive Themes
With high and recurring commissions, Thrive Themes should definitely be on your list to join. They have some great themes and plugins for WordPress that makes even the toughest tasks easier.
Architect – Page builder Leads – Optin solution Quiz Builder – Create quizzes Ultimatum – Make evergreen campaigns Comments – a beautiful comments system Optimize – A/B testing for landing pages Apprentice – Create eCourses Ovation – Auto-pilot social proof Clever Widgets – Full control on widgets
E-learning
Writing tutorials? You can promote e-learning courses to your audience.
Udemy
A huge marketplace for instructors and students. You can refer students to Udemy’s collection of courses and get paid for every sale.
Coursera
Coursera is an awesome marketplace for e-learning. You can earn up to 45% on every sale generated. You can promote the latest technology courses like deep learning, cloud computing, data science, etc.
Skillshare
Similar to Udemy, but much newer and has shorter-form courses. As an affiliate for Skillshare, you get paid whenever someone signs up for a free trial.
Design
You can promote design-related products and services to your audience.
Canva
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know what Canva is. They’re a brilliant online editor that has recently launched an affiliate program for their PRO version. There are many things you can design with Canva and some of them are the following.
Social media images Flyers Resume Cards Presentation Posters Logos Infographics T-shirts Brouchers Wallpapers Newsletters Coupons Invoices
They got more than 50,000 templates to get it started.
Elements
You can make money off every purchase from Envato Elements by linking to their design elements. Elements got more than 2 million digital assets from various categories.
Stock Video, video templates Music, Sound effects Photos Fonts WordPress CMS and web templates 3D
Miscellaneous
All other stuff I can think of.
Grammarly
A handy tool for checking any writing errors, Grammarly pays you a $25 free bonus for just signing up to their affiliate program + any referrals that you make.
Fiverr
A freelance marketplace for literally getting the work done for as low as $5. You earn whenever your referred customer purchases any gigs from Fiverr.
AppSumo
AppSumo has an affiliate program that believes in spoiling you with increased commissions. Their pay gets higher and higher when your number of sales increases. AppSumo is known for offering hot software deals often used by bloggers, digital marketers, site owners, and startup.
Microsoft
Microsoft is one of the most popular technology company launched its affiliate program in 2016. You can earn commissions by Office 365, Surface, Xbox, PCs, including apps, games, music, movies, and TV shows that are available in the Windows store. Microsoft claims that they offer one of the best commission rates in the industry. The company offers two affiliate program options – Microsoft Private Affiliate Program With its partnership with Tradedoubler, a global affiliate marketing company, Microsoft has made an attempt to promote its products in over 60 countries, including Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, United Arab Emirates, United States. Microsoft Public Affiliate Program To further penetrate their products locally, Microsoft has teamed up with local affiliate marketing network companies. Microsoft offers banners and text links for promotion. Different products have different commission rates, which range from 5% to 10% with 14-day tracking cookies.
Skyrocket your earning
I wish you skyrocket your earnings by joining the above programs. Once you join multiple affiliate programs, you may find it difficult to keep track of earning, and for that, you can use Affluent (Get 25% OFF with coupon code – GEEKFLARE) which aggregates data into a single unified dashboard. There are more affiliate tools to grow your revenue. Next, read more ways to make money through blogging.