What is Affiliate Marketing? A complete reference guide

The Origins of Affiliate Marketing

In the 90’s when the internet was starting to take off and become mainstream, search engines were just starting to emerge and the internet became a massive e-commerce and information machine.

Webmasters as they were called back then were creating valuable content on all kinds of subjects for their website visitors. These same people wanted to be compensated for all the hard work they were putting into content creation.

The concept of revenue sharing is not new and was not created by affiliate marketers. The concept of paying commission for referred business goes way back before affiliate marketing and the Internet. In reality, retailers use this same model except that they usually need to buy their inventory before they can sell it.

The translation of the revenue sharing principles to mainstream e-commerce happened in November 1994, almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web and since then, affiliate marketers have made hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions from referring customers to products of all kinds.

Definition of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is partnering with brands that offer a commission as a reward for your endorsement and referral. Affiliate marketers or resellers generally act as a middleman between customers and products. Affiliate marketers earn a commission by referring web traffic and sales through their own promotional efforts using a coded URL or web address to track each referral.

How Affiliate Marketing works

1. The affiliate marketer creates a relationship with businesses that have products or services to sell.
2. The affiliate marketer advertises the products and services, usually online using various methods.
3. Internet visitors interact with advertisements and marketing.
4. The website gets interested users from the advertisements and marketing.
5. The website visitor turns into a customer and purchases products or services.
6. The affiliate is paid a commission for the referral using a unique code in a web address or ULR.

Do people make money with Affiliate Marketing?

The short answer is yes.

Lot’s of people are making huge money as affiliate marketers.

You may recognize some of these big names that use affiliate marketing to make money online.

• Neil Patel
• Tony Robbins
• Tai Lopez
• Pat Flynn
• Brent Hale
• Amy Porterfield
• Mike Dillard
• Tim Ferriss
• and the list goes on and on…

These are heavy hitters and big online brand names but for every one of these millionaire entrepreneurs, there are thousands of people like you earning some extra spending cash or an income to live on.

It is possible and realistic to make $50,000 to $100,000 per year doing this.

Does everyone that tries affiliate marketing make money?

The unfortunate truth is No.

Most people don’t put in the time and effort needed to stick it out.

Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick scheme.

It takes a lot of work and commitment and should be looked at like any other business.

When done right, your income potential is only limited by your strategies and tactics for promoting products on the global market.

The global market is gigantic.

Something I like to tell new people considering this as an income source is this…

There are 3.2 billion people, or almost half of the world’s population on the internet today.

They want to learn stuff, buy products and use services just like the rest of us.

And if that’s not enough, more people are coming online every day.

Growth in internet users keeps increasing year after year and that only North America and Europe are seeing penetration rates of greater than 75%.

This means that there are new people getting on the internet every single day.

And… they are spending a lot of money too

More than $1.2 million is spent online every 30 seconds.

Think about that number for a second…

One point two million dollars, every 30 seconds.

Let’s break it down even further.

• $684,669 is spent on credit, debit, prepaid and store cards
• $516,504 in alternative payments
• Amazon does almost $100,000 all by itself
• eBay does $74,423 in business
• Apple does $17,803
• Facebook does $5,483
• Pinterest does $4,504
• Twitter does $4,308

All in 30 seconds.

The point I’m trying to make here is that there’s plenty of customers and money going around for people like you to make money as an affiliate marketer for many many years to come.

With that much money & people: Why do so many people fail at Affiliate Marketing?

Yes, the failure rate for affiliate marketers is high. I read recently that;

95% of Internet marketers and affiliate marketers fail to make any money online

That sucks but, don’t let it get you down.

Too many people try and take the easy way, fail and quit because affiliate marketing is not the get rich quick scheme they thought it was.

I guess the 95% failure rate makes sense if you think about the vast number of people who want to “ditch the 9to5 and make money from home“.

The truth is, affiliate marketing works but like Tomas Edison once said;

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

If you are willing to be constantly learning, do the work, and you think you can build an audience around a niche subject or topic then affiliate marketing is probably for you.

A note on Income Expectations

There are many people making millions of dollars both as product creators and affiliate marketers. However, this is not typical.

Most people that try to do affiliate marketing fail. This is not because it doesn’t work, it’s usually because people don’t know how to do it and their expectations of the time it takes to become successful at it is just too short. Too many shortcuts and too little focus.

It is entirely possible to make a 5 figure income and even 6 figure income if you get the right knowledge and skills, focus your time and energy and accept that building an income online with affiliate marketing takes time and perseverance through many challenges and difficulties.

You can do it. Just get started and keep moving forward.

Affiliate Marketing Terms

If you want to succeed with affiliate marketing, knowing the terminology is the key starting point.

If you can’t understand or speak the language then you are going to have a hard time learning what you need to be successful.

Here are the main affiliate marketing terms you should understand before continuing.

Affiliate

An Affiliate or Affiliate Marketer is the publisher or salesperson in an affiliate marketing relationship.

Affiliate directory

An affiliate directory is a categorized listing of affiliate programs. There are many out there and you can build one too if you want.

Affiliate fraud

Affiliate Fraud is bogus or fraudulent activity generated by an affiliate in an attempt to generate illegitimate, unearned revenue. This is a very dangerous thing to do if you are an affiliate. If you get banned, your earning potential is over. Don’t do it.

Affiliate Manager

An Affiliate Manager is a person responsible for managing an online affiliate program for an affiliate merchant. Some affiliate programs, especially the good ones, have a manager to help affiliates get started and to create and manage launches and promotions.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate Marketing is revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople,  whereby compensation is based on sales performance, typically in the form of sales, clicks or registrations.

Affiliate merchant

An Affiliate Merchant is the advertiser in an affiliate marketing relationship. This is the person or company that has a product or service to sell and has affiliates doing the selling for them.

Affiliate network

An Affiliate Network is a value-added intermediary providing services, including aggregation, for affiliate merchants and affiliates. JVZoo, Clickbank and Commission Junction are examples of affiliate networks.

Affiliate software

Affiliate Software is software that, at a minimum, provides tracking and reporting of commission-triggering actions (sales, registrations, or clicks) from affiliate links. Many of the networks provide this functionality to merchants or you can use an application like Ambassador.

Cloaking

Cloaking is the tactic of hiding affiliate tracking code in links.  Hiding affiliate tracking in a link is an acceptable and widely used practice.

Contextual Link

A contextual link refers to a text link placed within your website or blog content versus a link that is placed in the sidebar as a more traditional advertisement.

Commission

Commissions are the money you get for referring a customer to a merchant. It is the predefined money or fee a merchant pays an affiliate for generating a desired outcome for the merchant.

Exclusivity

Exclusivity is a contract term in which one party grants another party sole rights with regard to a particular business function.

Payment threshold

A payment threshold is an accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment from an affiliate program. Some merchants don’t have a payment threshold and pay right away while others may use $100, $200 or even more depending on the products

Return days

Return days are the number of days an affiliate can earn commission on a conversion (sale or lead) by a referred visitor.

Super affiliate

A Super Affiliate is a rock start affiliate but is also an affiliate that builds a team of other affiliates. Super Affiliates can also get paid a percentage of the commissions that the affiliates under them generate.

Two-tier affiliate program

A two tier affiliate program structure is where affiliates earn commissions on their conversions as well as conversions of other affiliates they refer to the program. Similar to super affiliates.

JV or Joint Venture

A joint venture involves two or more businesses pooling their resources and expertise to achieve a particular goal

Your mindset & goals

If you want to make more money by working less, then you need the right mindset.

Affiliate marketing takes an entreprenurial mindset.

The entrepreneurial mindset is one of a producer first and a consumer second.

Most of us were conditioned from a young age to be great consumers.

Not long after we begin to talk, we learn to be a consumer.

“I want dat dada!”

They know what they want, and they want it now.

A stuffed animal, the latest Lego set up, whatever it is, they are already excellent consumers at 4 and 5 years old.

When I walk into a mall with my family, it takes 2.5 seconds for me to start hearing; I want this Daddy, I want that Daddy.

Teaching or learning to consume is easy. It’s ingrained in us from a very young age.

The key to creating success online and building a residual income is to work towards becoming an expert producer.

You need to create stuff that has value to a small or large niche group of consumers.

Whether the stuff you create is a blog post that sells a software application or physical products, or music, or art, or whatever…

You need to create things and provide huge value so that other people can consume it and then maybe pay you for it.

When you produce something of value for consumers you are essentially creating an asset for yourself.

That asset can live on for years and years, and pay you over and over again even when the time you put into building it is long passed.

This is the power of being a creator rather than just a consumer.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you write a book on how to build a garden shed and you sell this book for $5 on your blog or website. It takes you say 50 hours to create this book and a few more hours to build a sales funnel to sell it.

You invest that time(60 hours) once and then you sell the book as many times as you can. Since building garden shed is a timeless piece of advice, this book will never go out of style and as long as you set up a system to keep sending people to your website to buy the book, your income opportunity is endless for this one asset.

It’s conceivable that this asset can pay for many years into the future without you having to put any more work in to it.

What separates the rich from the poor?

It’s their mindset. The majority of rich people in this world are producers and the majority of the rest of the working population are consumers.

If you start operating like a producer and be on the right side of this equation, you’re setting yourself up for success.

If you can figure this out and become an expert producer, then the money will follow.

Finding a Profitable Niche

It’s important to like the niche you are in but it’s not essential.

Here is a framework you can follow to help you find a niche area for you to focus on.

1) Identify your interests and passions

Make a list of 10 topical interests and passion areas.

• What do you like to do?
• What are you good at?
• What can you talk about?
• What are you an expert in?

These questions can help you find a niche where you are interested in the subject so that you can spend a lot of time without getting bored or disinterested.

2) Identify problems you can solve

Every product out there solves a problem for your target consumer.

Use your list of interests and passions to brainstorm problems in these areas, then determine whether you can actually solve them.

3) Research your competition

Competition isn’t a bad thing, you just need to make sure your niche isn’t saturated where you will spend too much time and money competing for the same audience.

It can, however, show you that you’ve found a profitable niche. Figure out if there’s still an opportunity to stand out in the crowd.

• Can you still rank for your keywords?
• Is there a way to differentiate yourself and create a unique offer?

Research your competition so you know what you are getting into.

4) Determine the profitability of your niche

This is where your affiliate networks come in.

With a niche chosen, you now should look for products that you can promote in the niche you have chosen.

You can find products for this on JV Zoo, CJ.com, Clickbank and Amazon to name a few.

5) Test your niche ideas

Armed with all of the information you need to choose a niche, the only thing left to do is test your idea.

One simple way to do this is to set up a landing page(Use ClickFunnels or Instapages for this) for pre-sales of a product you’re developing.

You can then drive traffic to this page with paid advertising like Facebook Ads or Adwords.

Finding products for your niche

There are products out there for every consivable niche. Finding the right one is sometimes the hardest part.

In the next two sections I provide you with a long list of affiliate marketing networks and a list of SaaS software companies that have reseller programs.
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List of Affiliate Marketing Networks

Affiliate marketing networks can provide you with thousands of product options and ideas.

Here are the most popular affiliate marketing networks.

1) AC Nutryst

Over the last few years, AC Nutryst has created a huge impact in the world of affiliate marketing. It is the ultimate integrated platform for both affiliates and advertisers. The platform enables highly targeted advertisement campaign and enhanced conversion through its proprietary marketing solutions. AC Nutryst also ensures transparency by using its top-notch power of communication to improve marketing service.

The high-performing CPA network mainly focuses on Nutra offers. All kinds of health offers like diet, muscle, blood, weight loss, pressure, brain, male enhancement, and skincare are included in their integrated program.

As a full-service affiliate and advertising platform, AC Nutryst works hard toward its goal of maximizing exposure and sale; while minimizing CPA.

URL: www.acnutryst.com/

2) Adcombo

Adcombo is an exceptional name amidst a crowd of CPA networks. Innovative and new ways of confirming a lead are what make Adcombo an effective affiliate platform. They work directly with advertisers, eliminating any middle man influence, to ensure the highest possible payout for publishers.

Founded in 2014, Adcombo is based in the United Kingdom. The Adcombo team comprises some highly talented people who are experts in their respective fields. Before launching the platform, they spent a whole year testing the network incognito.

URL: https://adcombo.com/

3) Affiliatefuture

Affiliatefuture’s client list includes over 700 businesses, starting from small stores to FTSE 100 companies. A digital marketing company named, Progressive Digital Group, owns the platform listed on the London AIM market. Its parent company is TMN (IBG), which was bought by Progressive Digital Group in 2007.

Since its inception, AffiliateFuture has been able to expand its service at an explosive rate. By the end of 2002 it bagged 60 clients, which ever since kept increasing.

URL: https://www.affiliatefuture.com/

4) Affibank

AffiBank is popular for its wide range of product offers. Most of this offers pay as high as 75% commission. Besides, they have their own integrated affiliate tracking system.

At the moment Affibank boasts a formidable 100,000 active affiliates. They are striving to ensure the best user experience for their affiliates.

URL: http://www.affibank.com/

5) Avantlink

Avantlink works as a connector between marketers and businesses. Marketers can reap the benefits of Avantlink by boosting their brand value with increased profit and sale. It helps merchants reach new spheres, which would otherwise not be possible with traditional marketing tools.

As an affiliate platform dedicated to technology products, Avantlink brings together affiliates and merchants. The technology focused platform is at the moment leading the way in affiliate technology.

URL: http://www.avantlink.com

6) Avangate

Particularly developed for the technology/software industry, Avangate helps to launch new products, increase revenue, and grow market reach. The biggest advantage about this tool is that it offers different modules, enabling users to customize the platform according to their need.

Currently, over 4,000 businesses spread across 180 countries use the platform. Some of Avangate clients include Absolute Software, Kaspersky, Brocade, and Bitdefender.

URL: www.avangate.com/

7) CPAlead

CPAlead is one of the best CPA platforms in the world. Since its launch in 2006, it has paid over 100 million USD to affiliates across the world. At the moment many marketers are making a handsome income using this state-of-the-art network. CPAlead offers 3 revenue models, which are: CPI, CPA, and CPL.

CPAlead is experienced in working with leading marketers and publishers in the industry. Moreover, it is one of the biggest incentive based CPA networks out there.

URL: https://www.cpalead.com/

8) ClickBank

ClickBank is not just another affiliate network. It allows affiliates and product developers to make money without going through rigorous hassles.

For any new affiliate marketer it is the ideal platform to get started. Unlike more advanced affiliate networks, it is quite easy to handle. Besides, there is no limit to start selling; you can sell right away without getting 90% approval first.

URL: www.clickbank.com/

9) Clickbooth

Clickbooth is best described as a meeting place for potential affiliates and merchants. Clickbooth offers all necessary tools required by affiliates and merchants to work together.

Clickbooth makes use of contextual, mobile, social, native, email, search, and display mediums to drive high quality traffic on CPA basis. Besides, in Clickbooth you only pay for what you get – that means it is result oriented.

URL: https://www.clickbooth.com/

10) Commission Junction

Many well-known advertisers are on Commission Junction’s list, which regular visitors in your blogs could already be familiar with. This means more clicks and higher earning for you.

Once you are accepted in their network, Commission Junction advertisers are likely to invite you to join their network. That means you would not have to apply to each and every advertising network, separately.

URL: http://www.cj.com/

11) Digital river onenetworkdirect

The network is versatile enough to empower any publishing mechanics, which include email campaign, comparison sites, blog posts, PPC, social, video, or any general content. You can also choose data feed access while customizing your service plan. It means an unlimited number of affiliate links that are also trackable. You can even add every product in your catalog.

URL: onenetworkdirect.com/

12) eBay Partner Network

eBay Partner Network is quite similar to AdSense. However, it is an affiliate program directed at eBay. Since eBay is one of the biggest online marketplaces, eBay Partner Network is a great dedicated program to earn big.

eBay Partner Network will give you the opportunity to use some great tools to promote your blog or whatever advertisement channel you opt for. The program will also allow you to choose from a wide range of colorful graphic ads to use in your blog.

URL: https://partnernetwork.ebay.com/

13) Flexoffers

The Flexoffers network is primarily targeted at attracting high-end merchants, which means you can market a range of interesting products. It is a great tool for merchant and publishers to work on different campaigns with an integrated approach.

Many renowned brands like Hallmark ECards, Kmart, HP, and Macy’s use this exclusive network to grow their business. So, in a way, it works as a bridge between publishers and those valuable brands.

URL: www.flexoffers.com

14) JVZoo

JVZoo is known for its reliability and effectiveness in the “make money online” niche. Mostly, they sell info products like plugins, software, video tutorials, apps, and ebooks.

They pay instant affiliate commission through PayPal. And, there is no cost to become a JVZoo affiliate.

URL: https://www.jvzoo.com/

15) Growsumo

Growsumo makes use of highly customized software to let you build a community, to establish active interaction with businesses. Their specialties are referral programs and customer advocacy.

Growsumo works as a personal brand builder, which shows influencers why they should promote you in the first place. Influencers are rewarded based on their performance, which ensures overall control over ROI and CAC.

URL: https://www.growsumo.com/

16) Linksynergy – Rakuten Marketing

Rakuten LinkShare is one of the oldest affiliate networks out there. It has been working diligently since its beginning in 1996. It has over 1,000 advertisers. The network can be used to compliment display advertising.

It is suitable for business and merchants willing to start an affiliate program without investing too much time or money.

URL: https://rakutenmarketing.com/affiliate.html

17) Linkconnector

Linkconnector offers a unique online application for affiliate marketers and merchants to maximize revenue. The fully automated program has seen rapid growth in the recent years. Its revenue tripled since 2007. Among others, it features creative product offering and proprietary technologies to serve online retailers.

URL: https://www.linkconnector.com/

18) Maxbounty

The journey of MaxBounty began in 2004 with a goal of giving publishers the largest share of money possibly earned from marketing efforts. The minimum payment ceiling for this program is set at no less than $100. Its rich CPA network is robust. Maxbounty has been able to play its role to plug in the gap in the world of affiliate marketing.

URL: https://www.maxbounty.com/

19) Madrivo

Madrivo is one of the most creative ad agencies that helps you make the most out of each dollar spent. They have no less than 100 million customers in their database; all of which are authentic. In the first two quarters of this year their business has grown by 400% – making sure Madrivo remains a market leader.

Madrivo’s client list includes big players like University of Phoenix and AT&T. Necessarily, the list doesn’t stop there.

URL: http://www.madrivo.com/

20) Peerfly

As a unique cost per action affiliate network, PeerFly features more than 1000 offers. Till date, they have served thousands of publishers. The platform is 100% custom built, which is a prerequisite for reliability and flexibility. PeerFly caters to publishers across the world.

PeerFly’s overall network conversion rate revolves around 8-16%, which is followed by above average EPCs.

URL: https://peerfly.com/

21) Pepperjamnetwork

At the moment, Pepperjam Affiliate Marketing Network is one of the largest programs with some costless features. Pepperjam Affiliate Marketing Network works with top brands to get maximum exposure.

Pepperjam Affiliate Marketing Network offers their services on social media and mobile. More importantly, they have offices located in different countries. Pepperjam Affiliate Marketing Network is now working relentlessly to shape the future of affiliate marketing.

URL: https://www.pepperjamnetwork.com/

22) Revenuewire

Revenuewire is an e-commerce platform for people who are interested in earning through the promotion of digital products and software. The e-commerce platform works best for businesses that sell digital products and services online.

The award winning e-commerce service provider specializes in recurring payment in an affiliate network. Its client can receive payments in 33 currencies across 200 countries. It also offers multiple payment opportunity.

URL: https://www.revenuewire.com/

23) ReviMedia

ReviMedia pays highest attention to customized lead generation as a form of marketing tool. Their scalable solutions are the key to success for a vast client base.

ReviMedia uses its proprietary platform, PX to generate valuable and legit calls and leads in sectors like financial services, insurance, and home services. The automated lead routing logic used by ReviMedia delivers a high intent prospect to increase sale.

ReviMedia will also give you access to market leading campaigns based on years of experience.

URL: https://www.revimedia.com/#!#solutions

24) ShareASale

ShareASale’s area of concentration spreads over all mainstream products, which include everything starting from green products to business services. Its stock of affiliate publishers boasts a wide range of product listing, meaning it has the ability to serve different business models.

ShareASale supports regular publishing models like video and regular content. You can also make use of social platforms to promote your products through PPC and email on desktop and mobile.

Since ShareASale only focuses on sale, it exclusively supports cost per sale action models; so predefined features like CPC and CPM are not available.

URL: https://www.shareasale.com/

25) Shareresults

Shareresults offers distinctive service and timely support to both merchants and affiliates. Shareresults also features ease of use, in term of technology used by them. Moreover, their state-of-the-art web based application allows users to implement new technological developments without any hassles, like download or installation.

Shareresults also provides affiliates and merchants with accessible, secure, and reliable tracking information. Last but not least, the network includes a range of CPL, CPA, and revenue sharing models.

URL: https://www.shareresults.com/

26) Tradedoubler

Tradedoubler offers different payment models to choose from; and they are performance-based. The first of which is the Cost per acquisition or sale or CPA.

One great thing about Tradedoubler is that it features the cost per download model which maintains download tracking as successful conversion, and offers payment based on that. For apps marketing schemes and mobile platforms this is a huge opportunity. Lastly, it also offers a cost per call model, which means compensation is available for calls to the call centers upon finalizing sales.

URL: http://www.tradedoubler.com/en/

27) Tradetracker

Tradetracker entered the affiliate network industry in 2004, and, since then, it has been able to spread its business in 19 countries. Currently, it is eyeing the European market. If you join this network, you will get connected with 5000 advertisers.

Tradetracker takes every blog or website owner seriously. Its perspective is based on the theme that each customer is different and, therefore, requires an individualized strategy. Their way of optimizing revenue is in accordance with that is of their clients’.

URL: https://tradetracker.com/

28) Viglink

First of all, Vigilink offers a juicy referral stake of 30%. Vigilink works best when you have a number of posts that motivate people to buy something and to use it following your guidelines. With proper adjustment, it would be possible for you to significantly increase income over time.

URL: http://www.viglink.com/

29) W4

W4 is working toward its goal of improving the industry capacity and reach the optimum level achievable. A prosperous channel which includes renowned publishers and leading advertisers is what makes W4 affiliate network a success. They also offer assurance technology, backed up by continuous support.

W4 primarily focuses on smart channel management and long term campaign efficiency. Their reward program is quite simple and offers 1% cash back of the total revenue generated.

URL: http://w4.com/

30) Webgains

Webgains commenced its journey in 2004. The platform is known for world-class customer support – both online and telephone support. Their in-house technology certainly helps clients to be one step ahead.

Webgains offers technology that helps users to overcome various challenges in the world of affiliate marketing. Making use of technological advancements, Webgains secures guaranteed payments and foolproof network for their clients.

URL: http://www.webgains.com/public/en/

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List of SaaS Affiliate Programs

What are SaaS Affiliate & Reseller Programs and What Are The Benefits?

• SaaS products are in high demand: Every day more entrepreneurs are moving their business to using on demand cloud software.
• Great online business: You don’t need to create a product, choose one that fits the audience you build.
• High Reward, Low-Risk: Becoming an affiliate is fairly easy and usually doesn’t require significant start-up costs.
• No “Selling” Experience Needed: It’s as simple as creating good quality, valuable content for a specific audience.
• Advanced Tracking Tools: Good affiliate programs provide you with the tools to measure your promotion campaign’s effectiveness.
• Not Your Average Job: You can create a steady flow of income by promoting products and services that you don’t have to support.

How to become a SaaS affiliate or reseller?

There are generally two ways people can become SaaS affiliates or partners.

You can join a program through a product owner or company directly or through a network that manages multiple affiliate programs and products.

If you include all of the advertisers on networks like Commission Junction, Link Share, and Avangate, there are literally thousands of affiliate programs out there to choose from. You can promote and become an affiliate of just one or of several depending on your strategy, niche & audience.

What are SaaS companies?

Software as a Service (SaaS; pronounced /sæs/) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as “on-demand software”. SaaS is typically accessed by users using a thin client via a web browser. Source: Wiki

There are literally thousands SaaS companies out there providing services from web hosting & project management to online accounting, invoicing, marketing software and many others through a browser.

From $5 to over $500 per month.

That’s what customers pay in monthly fees to SaaS companies for their services and you can get a share of that every month.

For this Ultimate list, I wanted to highlight the SaaS Affiliate and Reseller Programs.

I like these types of business affiliate programs because they provide huge value to their target customers.

Simply stated, they are great products and do a great job at solving a real business problem that many people have.

This alone makes it easier for you to promote and create content about them that converts visitors into customers.

They also tend to have great commissions too. Some offer a one-time commissions like Bluehost and others give 20% or more of what you refer on an ongoing monthly basis.

Yes, monthly income as long as the customer continues to use the SaaS application.

Below is the list I created along with a description of what the SaaS application does and a little bit about each program. Some of these I am a part of and some I am in the process of testing out.

I researched and compiled the list over the last few months and will add to it as I find more great SaaS affiliate programs.

ActiveCampaign

Active Campaign is an all in one marketing platform that provides email marketing, automation, sales & CRM. They offer a recurring commission of 10% on sales from $9 to over $350 per month. A 10% commission can work out to $.90 cents a month to $35 per month.

Not the highest commission but ActiveCampaign is a great tool for intelligence-driven marketing and sales.

Learn more about the ActiveCampaign program

Aweber

Aweber makes email marketing easy. It brings together all the tools you need to send emails the right way including automation. Great tool for newsletters, drip campaigns, online email series courses and tons more.

They pay a recurring 30% commission on their plans. Plans cost between $20 per months and go up to %150.

Learn more about the Aweber program

BounceHelp

BounceHelp provides you with everything a business needs to grow your leads and revenue.

They offer a white label solution where you can earn great revenue. You have to sign up and then apply to their affiliate program.

You have to sign up and then apply to their affiliate program.

Bluehost

Bluehost provides professional web hosting. You can setup a WordPress, Drupal, joomla websites, a blogor custom applications. It is one of the lowest priced hosting services that provides a huge amount of value for the price.

They pay out between$65 & $100 per new customer.

Learn more about the Bluehost program

BigCommerce

Bigcommerce is an e-commerce platform for online sales. This product has both small business and large enterprise solutions from $29/ month to $200/ month.

They pay a one-time commission of 200% of the plan value. That’s $60 on the Standard plan and $400 on the Pro plan.

Learn more about the BigCommerce program

Binfer

Binfer is a file transfer and secure communication system. They offer the following compensation

1. 30% commission when a referral makes a purchase.
2. $0.25(25 cents) when a referral installs Binfer and creates an account.
3. Both the affiliate and the referral earn 200 MB free license when the referral installs Binfer and creates an account

Learn more about Binfer affiliate program.

BluePage Pro

Click Funnels

Click Funnels is one of the best affiliate programs out there for SaaS software. Click Funnels Click Funnels Pays above industry average payouts of 40%  monthly Recurring Commissions.

Click Funnels are marketing sales funnels used by bloggers and online marketers. They can replace an entire website for those that are purely focused on converting traffic into income.

They have one of the best affiliate programs with lots of training and support.

They have a very successful Affiliate Bootcamp to help you go from zero to $3000 a month in just 100 Days.

Learn more about the Click Funnels Affiliate Program.

Related post: Getting to $3000 a month with the ClickFunnels Affiliate Bootcamp

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is one of the veterans in the email marketing software space. They were founded in 1995 and been providing and ever evolving platform for email marketing. It’s a great product and they have a great affiliate program.

The pay $5 for every customer who signs up for a free trial and $105 for each new customer who becomes a paying customer.

Learn more about the Constant Contact program

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is small marketing platform that helps you grow your audience and turn your subscribers into customers. The platform allows you to create landing pages, forms & email drip campaigns that help you take a visitor through your sales process and convert them into customers.

Their affiliate program pays out a %20 recurring commision. Their plans range from $29/month to over $2000 so commissions can be big and ongoing as long as your referral remains a customer.

Learn more about the ConvertKit Program

Related Post: Why I switched To Convert Kit for my email marketing

Connect Team

ConnecTeam is a free branded mobile app for desk-less employees to collaborate, execute, and improve. It’s great for retailers, manufacturers, and hospitality and transportation businesses.

It looks like a very useful app for anyone that has a team of people that don’t all work in an office.

They offer three tiers of monthly recurring commissions. Tiers are 20%, 25% & 30% of what the customer spends.

Learn more about Connect Team program

Contactous

Contactous acquires contact data from business cards and physical documents, manually enters it for accurarcy and presents it through a feature-rich enterprise contact manager for analysis and integration. When you refer a new customer, you will receive a US$200 commission. The amount is paid to you as a commission after 2 months of customer payment to avoid billing discrepancies.

Learn more about the Contactus program

Ecwid

Building an online store with Ecwid is easy and fast. Once an Ecwid store is built, it can be added anywhere. Whether on a website, blog, social page, or wherever else, Ecwid allows you to easily add the same store to multiple places.  

Ecwid pays 20% recurrent commission on their plans. Plans start at $15/month and go to $99/month.

Learn more about the Ecwid program

Freshbooks

FreshBooks is an easy to use cloud based accounting program. Send invoices, track time and capture expenses in minutes. 

The Freshbooks affiliate program pays not only for customers ($100 per sale), but also for the trial accounts ($5 per trial).

Learn more about the Freshbooks program

FreshDesk

Freshdesk is everything you need to support your customers. Support tickets, self help all in a collaborative cloud applications.  

Their affiliate program pays 20% recurring commission for up to 12 months. Plans start at $16/agent/month and go up to $70/agent/month.

Learn more about the FreshDesk program

Growsumo

GrowSumo is a network for SaaS companies. Their marketplace and partner dashboard makes it easy to discover and partner with multiple SaaS companies. They’re adding new SaaS companies all the time and you can view their list of partner programs here.

HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch is a solution for web and mobile businesses. The software provides email marketing, In-App messenger, simple CRM and automation.

They pay a 30% recurring commission for each payment during each customers lifetime. Plans start at $27 per month to over $450 per month

Learn more about the Helpcrunch program

HubSpot

HubSpot is an inbound marketing & sales platform to attract visitors, convert leads, & close customers.  Hubspot offers a partnership program that shares 20% of the revenue. The partnership program requires an investment but the 20% commissions are recurring monthly.

Learn more about the HubSpot partner program

HubStaff

HubStaff is a time tracking software with screenshots, activity levels, and in-depth reports that integrates with almost any of your favorite cloud based productivity tools.

They pay a 30% recurring commission for each payment during each customers lifetime. Plans start at $5 per month to over $499 per month

Learn more about the HubStaff program

Instapage

More than just a landing page creator, Instapage  is a powerful solution that gives users access to a fully customizable drag-and-drop builder, an extensive integration system, a publishing platform, analytics and optimization, client and team management capabilities, and more.

Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft is a sales and marketing automation platform. They have a tiered plans and pay a $500 bonus on new clients plus a recurring commission as well.

Learn more about the Infusionsoft partner program

Instazood

Instazood is the one bots that I’ve been using for my personal account and it ,worked really good and my followers increased really fast.

This service automatically follows, likes, and comments base on targets that you specify.

Instazood Automation Features

• Hashtag and Account Targeting1
• Scheduled Posts
• Multi Account
• Statistic
• The success rate of Targets
• Post from Dashboard
• Many Options for following, like, comment, unfollow
• 3 free days.

They have a decent affiliate program that pays less that 20%.

Learn more about the INstazood Affiliate Program

LiveChat

Affiliate / Reseller Program offers a 20% recurrent commission for the lifetime of the account.

Learn more about the LiveChat program

LivePerson

LivePerson Affiliate Program for Small Business recently launched an affiliate program on Impact Radius. Great payout! LivePerson is a robust chat and customer interaction software product.

Learn more about the LivePerson program

InstaBug

InstaBug provides in-App Feedback and Bug Reporting for Mobile Apps. This includes beta testing, user engagement, and crash reporting functionality. You can gather feedback from your beta testers and have live conversations with your users.

Features include:

• • Screenshot Annotations

• • Screen Recording

• • User Profiles

• • 3rd Party Integrations

• • User Steps

• • Network Logging

• View Hierarchy

The InstaBug Affiliate program provides 30% in recurring commissions for every paying user. They wrote a great blog post Introducing their Affiliate program too.

Learn more about the InstaBug Affiliate program

Mangools

Mangools provides SEO tools like keyword research, SERP analysis, and rank tracking. They offer 3 products,  SERPWatcher a keyword tracker, SERPchecker, a tool to analyze your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses and KWfinder, a keyword research tool.

Their affiliate program pays out recurring 30% commissions.

Learn More about the Mangools affiliate program

Mojito Sites

A new lucrative affiliate program for a SaaS Company can be found here at Become an affiliate and earn cash with Mojito Sites .   You earn 50% of all monthly revenue!  (thats a minimum of $19 a month, per user that signs up.)

Learn more about the Mojito Sites program

Mspy

MSpy allows you to remotely track and control activity on smartphones & computers. This app can help keep an eye on your kids when you are not around and has a very wide audience. If your audience is parents, MSpy is a great partner program.

Recurring commissions range from 40% to 60% of the sale depending on the amount of clients you refer.

Learn more about the mSpy affiliate program 

Plan.io Project Management

Planio is a Project Management application that has issue tracking, version control, help desk, wikis
and chat all integrated and built into one tool.

Planio pays out a one time commision based on the plan the customer chooses.

The one time payments are outlined here.

Enterprise	Platinum	Diamond	Gold	Silver
€150.00 (165USD)	€75.00	€45.00	€22.50	€7.50

Learn more about the Plan.io program (You will need to create an account to see details.)

Presspad

Prespad builds mobile apps for magazines. If your audience is magazine publishers or anyone in the magazine, reselling this application can be a big revenue stream on it’s own. You can offer your clients mobile magazine apps containing various type of PDF content: magazines, journals, comics, corporate leaflets etc

Their partner program works like this. You refer new clients, they build mobile magazine apps for your clients for free, you manage the tool and split the revenue generated by the app 50/50 with Presspad. There is no investment on your side and you gain a new capability to make money from.

Learn more about the Presspad program

SamCart

SamCart is the shopping cart for marketers, made by marketers. If you sell ebooks, videos, software or courses, SamCart is one of the best shopping carts for you.

They also provide an awesome affiliate program that pays great commissions for the life of the users you have referred.

Learn more about the SamCart Affiliate program

ScreenFlow

ScreenFlow is an awesome screencasting and video editing software for Mac. If you are creating demos or other videos, ScreenFlow is great.

Learn more about the ScreenFlow program

Serpstat

Serpstat is an all-in-One SEO platform for professionals. Their affiliate program offers 30% of the sale from your referrals.

Learn more about the Serpsta program

Sellsy

Sellsy is an online sales management application. They offer every tool you need to control your business. From CRM and project management to inventory management, marketing, POS and more.

With a $750 average annual subscription, each Sellsy referral brings you around $150 annually. As long as you subscribe new referrals, there is no limit to how many you can have and how much you can earn.

Learn more about the Sellsy partner program

Snip.ly

Sniply’s a powerful marketing app that makes all the curated content you share on social media 1000 times more powerful by allowing you to attach a call-to-action to every link you share on social media. It makes it easy to use someone else’s content while also driving traffic back to your own.

Their affiliate program pays out a recurring commission of 20% on plans that range from $29/month to over $149/month..

Learn more

SEO Profiler

SEO Profiler is a powerful tool with unlimited link building, ranking and page optimization reports.

Learn more about the SEO Profiler affiliate program

Sprout Social

Sprout Social provides social media management software to help business of all sizes with managing their social relationships.

Sprout Social uses the Commission’s Junction’s affiliate network to give affiliates instant access to referral links & banners. When you refer a visitor and they sign up for a free Sprout trial and upgrades to a paid plan within 60 days of the trial, you will receive a 200% commission on the first month’s subscription fees.

Plan pricing ranges from $59 to %500 so commissions are very good if you can refer enough clients.

Sprout Social’s affiliate program also provides  access to exclusive webinars, the latest Sprout product update news and recommendations on how best to position Sprout to their audience.

Learn more about Sprout Social’s affiliate program

Shopify

I’ve been a Shopify Partner for a few years a love this product. It’s one of the easiest and most robust online and offline stores you can buy.

Shopify gives you everything you need to build a successful online business and now they have a fully integrated Point of Sale system for small and medium businesses.

As for the partner program, they have 3 ways partners can earn money.

1. Refer a client to Shopify – Earn 20% monthly revenue share. Top partners earn over $6,000 every month from referrals.
2. Sell an e-commerce theme – Build an e-commerce theme for the Shopify platform, and earn up to 70% for each sale you make on the Shopify Theme Store. Average theme revenue is $11,000 monthly per partner.
3. Sell an app in the marketplace – Use the API to build an integration or add a product feature. Earn 80% for each app that you sell on the Shopify App Store. Average app revenue is $2,000 monthly per app.

Learn more about Shopify and it’s partner program. Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for the “Affiliate Program” link.

TeamLab

TeamLab Office, PM&Doc management system has launched the affiliate program recently –

Learn more at affiliates.teamlab.com

TimeCamp

Earn 30% Commision With TimeCamp Affiliate Program!

Time Doctor

Timedoctor.com is a time tracking software for increasing productivity of individuals and remote teams just launched an affiliate program.

You can earn 30% commission if you help spread the word about the benefits of Time Doctor.

You can check the full details here Learn more

Veeqo

Veeqo provides all your e-commerce orders, inventory, and shipping in one place.

Learn more about the Veeqo affiliate program. Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for the “Affiliate Program” link.

Wrike

Wrike Affiliate Program complicated their program with 20% commission from annual payments and upgrades and 10%  from monthly payments. Learn more

X-Cart

X-cart was the first e-commerce store I built in 1999 for a health supplements store. They were a leader back then and still are today. Their e-commerce platform supports over 40,000 online stores. It’s written in PHP and is very fast and well tested.

X-cart pays a recurring 15% commission for lifetime licenses. Their plans start at $495 and go to $3,995

Learn more about X-Carts partner program.

To get started, you will need is a live account at Click Here

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