Here’s the Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Starting Out in 2023 (Top 5)

Affiliate marketing programs have become integral outreach tools for many businesses. The United States alone is expected to spend over $8 billion in 2023 on affiliate marketing. However, developing an affiliate marketing strategy can often be challenging for beginners.

Fortunately, various affiliate marketing programs are available to help you earn passive income and grow your audience. Moreover, this beginner-friendly marketing approach has minimal risk with low start-up and ongoing costs.

In this post, we’ll discuss 5 of the top affiliate marketing programs for beginners. Let’s get started!

1. Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates is one of the largest affiliate marketing programs in the world. As an affiliate with Amazon, you can earn passive income through successful conversions of Amazon's products and services:

Customers must add a product to their cart within 24 hours of clicking on an affiliate link for you to earn a commission. Your payment then happens approximately 60 days after the last day of the month.

Amazon's commission rates vary based on product categories. However, they tend to be pretty modest compared to other affiliate marketing programs for beginners.

For example, you'll earn a 3 percent commission on qualifying purchases of Lawn & Garden products:

Anyone with an active online platform can become an Amazon Associate. This includes bloggers, influencers, publishers, and YouTube creators. As long as you can share a link, you can sign up for the program.

2. ClickBank

ClickBank is an international affiliate and ecommerce growth marketing platform that's free to join. You can choose from over 4,000 marketplace products to promote:

Additionally, ClickBank provides industry-leading support and education to help beginners create a successful affiliate marketing program. Spark by Clickbank is an educational platform that offers courses and tools to help you learn affiliate best practices:

You can earn up to 90 percent commissions via ClickBank. This is because most products are digital downloads and courses.

However, high commission rates often attract scammers and low-integrity creators. Therefore, you'll likely have to sort through many bad products to find high-quality ones to promote.

Furthermore, ClickBank allows you to choose between Cost Per Action (CPA) and revenue sharing as your preferred payment method. You'll receive a specific dollar amount per sale with the CPA plan. On the other hand, revenue sharing pays you a percentage of each sale.

By default, ClickBank distributes payments bi-weekly, as long as you meet the payment threshold. The default threshold is $100, but you can adjust it from $10 to $1,000,000. You can also opt for a weekly payment schedule for direct deposit payments.

3. Nordstrom

Nordstrom's Affiliate Network enables online marketers to earn commissions for promoting fashion and beauty products. Moreover, the company has partnered with Rakuten to manage the entire program and create a user-friendly experience:

All Nordstrom products are eligible for commissions through the affiliate network. Therefore, this program is ideal for lifestyle and fashion bloggers looking to make passive income on products they love.

You can earn up to 5 percent commission on each qualifying conversion, which is paid approximately 45 days after the last day of each month. However, the funds will roll over to the next month if you don't have at least $50 in your account. Plus, these commission payouts are relatively low compared to other programs.

Anyone with an online platform can apply to become a Nordstrom affiliate. Nevertheless, the company reserves the right to reject any affiliate who does not align with its brand.

4. Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor's affiliate marketing program lets you partner with the largest international travel site and help your audience plan vacations. Moreover, the program's flexible design enables you to earn passive income with no purchase required:

This program is unique because users don't need to complete a purchase. You earn a commission when a reader clicks on a link to a hotel booking partner after navigating to Tripadvisor via your affiliate URL.

Overall, you'll make a commission whether the user books a trip or not. However, these payouts are currently only applicable to hotels.

Additionally, Tripadvisor's multi-touch attribution model includes a 14-day referral window. This means your readers have 14 days to complete a successful conversion. What's more, they can return to Tripadvisor through any link and on any device. As long as the user converts within two weeks, you'll earn the commission.

You'll need to create an account with a Tripadvisor network partner before applying for the program. For instance, CJ Affiliate is a free, global affiliate network that allows you to apply for a variety of marketing programs:

You'll need to search for Tripadvisor and apply for the affiliate program once your CJ Affiliates account is created. You can then use CJ Affiliates to make your links and view various reports.

Tripadvisor pays 50 percent of its commissions to you. However, the amount you will earn depends on several factors, such as the booking partner, hotel, booking season, and length of stay. CJ Affiliate will distribute your funds within 20 days from the end of the month.

Anyone with a travel-related online platform can apply to become a Tripadvisor affiliate. However, the company reserves the right to reject any applicant.

5. Fiverr

Fiverr is one of the leading marketplaces for freelance services. With its affiliate marketing program, you can get paid to drive traffic to any of Fiverr's products and services.

Fiverr Affiliate is ideal for freelancers in every niche, including writing, design, and photography. What's more, anyone is eligible to be a Fiverr affiliate. You don't even need a website to sign up for this program:

You can choose from two Fiverr commission plans: Fiverr CPA and Fiverr Hybrid. The Fiverr CPA plan pays a fixed commission rate from $15-150 on First Time Buyer (FTB) purchases. This setup could be ideal for sending your audience to particular Fiverr products.

On the other hand, the Fiverr Hybrid program combines CPA and revenue sharing. This program pays a fixed commission of $10 for each FTB purchase and 10 percent of every subsequent purchase made by the customer for 12 months. Therefore, this setup could be handy to promote several Fiverr products over a longer period.

Commissions are distributed on the first business day of the following month. However, you must have at least $100 in your account to receive payment.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing has become a central strategy among marketing professionals. However, it can be challenging to choose the ideal affiliate marketing program for your website.

Fortunately, countless affiliate programs are available that can suit your needs. For instance, if you’re a fashion and beauty blogger, you can become a Nordstrom affiliate. You can also join Amazon Associates or ClickBank to access a reputable marketplace of products and services.

Do you need help with your affiliate marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments section below!

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