Affiliate marketing isn’t a niche blog monetization tactic. It’s a 17 billion dollar industry, generating 16% of all e-commerce revenue. That’s a huge market, with immense growth potential for your business.
But how do you know you’re tapping into all of that potential? How do you pick the best affiliate marketing programs for 2023, and beyond?
That’s where our research comes into play. We analyzed dozens of affiliate marketing networks and individual programs to find the ones that can skyrocket your income. Below you’ll find our top 19 picks.
We’ll round up networks and individual programs separately, so you can get an idea of what makes either one stand out
The Best Affiliate Marketing Networks in 2023
We’ll start with networks, as they aggregate thousands of affiliate marketing programs. You’ll most likely find something to promote on Amazon, CJ Affiliate, or ShareASale regardless of your niche.
1. Amazon Associates
- Minimum Payout: $10
- Payment cycle: 60 days
- Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, Amazon gift card
- Products: over 350 million
Amazon Associates is the king of the affiliate marketing industry, and it’s probably the best network for beginners.
Sure, it catches a lot of flak for the chaotic commission rate changes. And the 24-hour cookie is far from ideal. However, any affiliate partner can still earn a decent passive income with Amazon. Nothing beats their great service, product variety, and ease of use.
Whether you promote fishing gear, or you want to advertise the best personal development book, it’s all in here, and more.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – A popular platform that people already trust – Great service, for you and your audience – Large product variety | – Short cookie period (only 24 hours) – Low and fluctuating commissions in some categories |
2. CJ Affiliate
- Minimum Payout: $50
- Payment cycle: 30 days, you get paid on the 15th of each month
- Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, Payoneer
- Programs: Over 4,000
CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction) is another big name in the industry. It’s been around since 2002, and it’s the second biggest affiliate network after Amazon.
It has thousands of great programs, and it works with a lot of top brands from the US like Blue Apron, Barnes & Noble, Office Depot, and J. Crew. Not to mention, it’s easy to get approved for most programs.
CJ has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a reliable affiliate network, including easy link creation, advanced insights, and a robust onboarding process. That’s why most people can hit the ground running with it.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Great data breakdowns – Easy to use – World-renowned brands, especially from the US | – Harder to use than a beginner affiliate marketing platform like Amazon – Some big programs come and go |
3. ShareASale
- Minimum Payout: $50
- Payment cycle: 30 days, every 20th of the month
- Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, Payoneer
- Programs: Over 5,000
ShareASale is not that different from CJ Affiliate. It’s a large affiliate network with a healthy mix of both big brands and smaller affiliate programs that can be super profitable with the right publishers.
Sure, the site’s not perfect. A lot of people dislike ShareASale’s interface. And it could be easier to create links in your dashboard.
But for the most part, it’s a world-class affiliate network we’d eagerly recommend to any affiliate with a tiny bit of experience.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Huge library of programs from 39 categories – Easy to use – WorldA long history of support for affiliate partners-renowned brands, especially from the US | – Some users complain about the interface – Links could be simpler to create |
4. eBay Partner Network
- Minimum Payout: 10 units of your country’s currency
- Payment cycle: 30 days
- Payment methods: Direct deposit, PayPal
- Products: 1.7 billion
Despite what you might think, eBay is not just the internet’s garage sale. As much as 80% of their products are classified as new. So it can be a profitable alternative to Amazon, especially if your business recommends second-hand or refurbished goods (think, an electronics repair shop for example).
The numbers aren’t that impressive. It has a 24-hour cookie, up to 4% commission, and a cap on earnings for each sale.
So Amazon is still an overall better alternative. But eBay can be worth your while in some situations. It has some products you’ll never find on Amazon, and over 70% of its products ship for free.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Global brand – Great variety of both new and second-hand products – Paypal support | – Short cookie period – Low commissions – Caps on earnings |
5. Awin
- Minimum Payout: $20
- Payment cycle: 15 or 30 days, your choice
- Payment methods: International wire transfer, SEPA, BACS, ACH, and more
- Programs: Over 21,000
Awin’s the best network if you want to browse lots of offers. It has the highest amount of programs (over 21,000) and we’re happy to report they’re not all filler. Most of them are actually good products.
Awin offers the usual support for affiliate marketer success: a smooth interface, quick link creation, and advanced sales insights.
Most notably, Awin lets you sign up with just a social media platform. This makes it great for influencers or anyone without an established blog who wants to dip their toes in the affiliate sea.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – No website needed to sign up- Tons of programs – Multiple payment methods – Fast payments | – Can still be overwhelming for beginners – Not that many US programs, at least when compared to EU options |
6. Clickbank
- Minimum Payout: $50
- Payment cycle: 60 days
- Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, Amazon gift card
- Programs: Over 4,000
Founded in 1998, Clickbank conquered the affiliate market with a wide range of digital products. And even if they expanded into physical products since then, digital goods are still an integral focus of the company.
Most programs aren’t picky about who they let join, and you can get commissions as high as 75%. Beginner affiliates can easily join the network and start earning serious money, even if they don’t garner too much attention yet.
Not to mention, with over 4,000 programs, Clickbank has something for everyone. Just be ready to filter through your options, you might find the odd bad product.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – High commissions – Fast acceptance for some programs – Great for digital products | – You need to weed out the bad products – The best products are competitive |
7. Impact
- Minimum Payout: $10
- Payment cycle: 30 days
- Payment methods: Direct deposit, BACS, PayPal
- Programs: Over 2,500
If you want another network with easy approvals, check Impact out. They have a dedicated category of merchants that approve affiliates instantly, so you can start making money even if your platform isn’t fully developed yet.
Its over 2,500 programs span multiple industries and feature big names like Uber, Airbnb, Canva, and plenty more.
Most of them pay based on CPA, and Impact’s automation tools help you optimize your conversion rate to get a better response from your audience. Not to mention, Impact offers advanced analytics, direct linking, and the ability to create promo codes.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Well-designed platform – Easy approvals – Huge brands are a staple on the platform | – Complicated for beginner affiliates, especially when implementing APIs |
8. Rakuten Advertising
- Minimum Payout: $50
- Payment cycle: 30 days
- Payment methods: Direct deposit, check.
- Programs: Over 2,500
Rakuten Advertising is a big name in the affiliate scene. They receive dozens of awards and work with over 2,500 high-value partners.
It’s a well-designed platform with valuable tools that help you convert more. These include multiple types of commissioning, data-driven recommendations for partnerships, automation tools, and advanced analytics.
But it can be intimidating for beginners and it might be hard to get accepted without a big site. If you have an established platform, give it a try. If not, keep it in mind for later.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Award-winning affiliate network – Tons of features that make your job as an affiliate easier – Multiple types of commissioning | – Can be intimidating for a beginner – Can be tough to join |
The Best Individual Affiliate Programs
Affiliate networks are great, but they feature thousands of programs. Which of these stands out? What are the pound-for-pound best affiliate marketing programs of 2023?
We’ve found success with a lot of products, and we’ll mention them throughout the list. But we also researched even more programs to see which ones have the best commission rates, cookie durations, and average earnings. Here’s what we found
9. Convertkit
- Cookie Duration: 60 days
- Commissions: 30% recurring
- Payment cycle: 60 days
- Payment methods: PayPal
Convertkit is probably one of the best affiliate programs for marketers and B2B companies.
They offer 30% for every sign-up you bring, and smaller recurring commissions every month. Couple that with a long cookie duration and you have one of the best programs for any business that’s marketing-adjacent.
Not to mention, Convertkit is a great product too. It’s one of the best marketing automation tools out there.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – High commissions – Recurring payments for all the clients you bring – Great product – Long cookie duration | – Long payment cycle – Can only get paid via PayPal |
10. SEMRush
- Cookie Duration: 120 days
- Commissions: $200 for new subscriptions, $10 for trials, $0,01 for sign-ups.
- Payment cycle: 30 days
- Payment methods: Direct deposit, BACS, PayPal
SEMRush is one of the best all-in-one SEO tools. It also has one of the best affiliate programs.
As an SEMRush affiliate, you get paid for new subscriptions, trials, and even simple sign-ups. No matter what your audience does, if you showcase the benefits of SEMRush well, you’ll get paid.
It also has an insanely high cookie duration: 120 days. The product’s own marketing is solid, so you won’t have to do a lot of work. If all of this sounds good, you can find SEMRush’s affiliate program on Impact.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Very long cookie period (120 days) – Get paid no matter what your audience does – High-quality product with a strong marketing team behind it | – No recurring commissions |
11. Surfer SEO
- Cookie Duration: 60 days
- Commissions: 25% recurring
- Payment cycle: On request
- Payment methods: Direct deposit, PayPal
SurferSEO is an indispensable tool for any serious SEO. It analyzes top-ranking pages for a given keyword and shows you how to optimize your content to beat them. It’s a gem for anyone focused on organic growth, so signing up for their affiliate program is a no-brainer.
They have recurring commissions and a 60-day cookie life. The affiliate program is straightforward and really profitable. For example, if you sell 10 Pro subscriptions, you’re making $300 in revenue each month.
Unfortunately, it has a high minimum payout. You can only withdraw money after you’ve made at least $250. On top of that, there’s no automatic withdrawal. You have to request funds each time you want a payday.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – High-quality SEO content optimization service – High recurring commissions – Long cookie duration | – $250 minimum payout – No automatic withdrawals |
12. Clickfunnel
- Cookie Duration: 45 days
- Commissions: 20%-100% depending on your tier, and the product you sell
- Payment cycle: 15 days
- Payment methods: Direct deposit, check, ACH, PayPal, wire transfers
Clickfunnels is one of the most popular landing page builders. If your audience needs a killer sales page and trusty business development tools, you can make a lot of money with this program.
They separate affiliate marketers into three tiers, depending on how much they sell. The more you progress through the tiers, the more money you can make. Tier 1 affiliates can get paid as little as 20%, while Tier 3 publishers can get 40% or even 100% on select products.
Higher tiers also unlock more products, so it’s worth investing your time in this platform if it fits your audience. They offer high commissions, and a lengthy cookie life, and you get paid twice a month. Not to mention, the site has strong marketing on its own, so you just need to send interested buyers and they’ll do the rest.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Strong landing page builder with solid marketing of its own – High commissions, especially for Tier 3 affiliate marketers – Get paid twice a month | – You don’t get the best deals right off the bat – Need to apply for each tier after proving you can successfully sell – Clickfunnels products |
13. Thrive Themes
- Cookie Duration: 60 days
- Commissions: 35% recurring
- Payment cycle: 30 days
- Payment methods: PayPal
Thrive Themes is a powerful suite of WordPress tools focused on conversion rate optimization. They offer a world-class page builder, form creation tools, and plenty more.
Their affiliate program is also really good. You get high commissions for both new plans and recurring payments. The 60-day cookie is great, and they offer prompt affiliate support to help you grow your online business.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – High commissions – Recurring payments – Long cookie duration (60 days) – A large variety of products, from a page builder to simple marketing plugins | – Only pays via PayPal – Very competitive niche |
14. WPRocket
- Cookie Duration: 30 days
- Commissions: 20%
- Payment cycle: 30 days
- Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, Payoneer
WPRocket is one of the best website speed optimization tools. It’s an affordable service used by most WordPress sites that want to pass the CWV without too much hassle.
And they offer a great affiliate program too. You get a flat 20% commission on all the sales you bring. You sign up on ShareASale, so you’ll get paid every 30 days, and you need to get approval there.
Once you do, it’s easy to sell WPRocket. It’s cheap, effective, and recommended by lots of industry leaders.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Popular and useful site speed plugin – 20% commissions – Affordable product, so it’s easy to sell | – Cookie should last longer than 30 days (in fact, it used to last 45) – Manual approval on ShareASale |
15. FanFuel
- Cookie Duration: 90 days, first click cookie
- Commissions: 40%-50% recurring
- Payment cycle: 7 to 90 days, your choice
- Payment methods: Bank transfer, wire transfer, PayPal, Payoneer
FanFuel is one of the best affiliate programs in the health and fitness niche. It has a massive 50% payout on most sales, a large variety of Nutra products, and a payment method to fit most needs.
Most notably, FanFuel pays you whenever you want. You can request a payment at any time, or set up automatic withdrawals every 7 to 90 days. You also get a 90-day first-click cookie and a huge 40% commission on repeat customers who join through your link. If you’re in the health and fitness niche, there are probably few programs that can top FanFuel.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – High, recurring commissions – 90 days first-click cookie – Get paid whenever you want | – $100 minimum payout |
16. Teachable
- Cookie Duration: 90 days
- Commissions: 30%-50%, recurring
- Payment cycle: 30 days (but can be longer, depending on the subscription type)
- Payment methods: Direct deposit, BACS, PayPal
Teachable is one of the largest online course hosting platforms. Like most of the best affiliate marketing programs for 2023, it’s a popular product. That makes it easy to sell.
Teachable doesn’t skimp on its affiliate rates. The program’s hosted on Impact, and it has high recurring commissions and a 90-day cookie life. If you can promote online course creation to your audience, you should definitely look into it.
Their affiliate program doesn’t have a spotless record, though. Some people complained about not getting paid after 1-2 months when the customers they referred asked for a refund. So Teachable doesn’t necessarily match Impact’s general payment cycle. And it doesn’t offer a lot of support to new affiliate marketers. But if you can overlook the occasional inconvenience, you can make a lot of money with it.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Very long cookie period (90 days) – High, recurring commissions – Easy product to sell | – Can lose out on payments even after 30 days (depending on the subscription) – Not a lot of guidance for new affiliate marketers |
17. Hubspot
- Cookie Duration: 90 days
- Commissions: 100% of the first month, 15% recurring
- Payment cycle: 30 days
- Payment methods: Direct deposit, BACS, PayPal
Hubspot is one of the biggest online tool suites. It has everything SMBs need to level up their marketing, sales, customer support, and plenty more.
Hubspot also has an attractive affiliate program. The service is a bit pricey, so you’ll need to reach a specific audience to find success with it. But you get 100% of the money your audience pays in the first month and 15% of all subsequent payments to Hubspot. That’s a lot for a high-value product, making the average payout for Hubspot affiliates $276.
It’s available on Impact, so you’ll need to sign up there. But if it strikes a chord with your audience, Hubspot is definitely worth your time.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Very popular product – High, recurring commissions – High average payout – Long cookie duration | – Can lose out on payments even after 30 days (depending on the subscription) – Not a lot of guidance for new affiliate marketers |
18. Shutterstock
- Cookie Duration: 30 days
- Commissions: 20%
- Payment cycle: Flexible
- Payment methods: Electronic transfer, PayPal
Shutterstock is one of the biggest providers of stock images, footage, music, and even editing tools. It has an immense library of over 250 million images and 14 million clips. If your audience needs visuals for anything, they probably need a Shutterstock subscription
As an affiliate, you get paid a 20% commission for all sales. We’d like a longer cookie life, but 30 days is probably enough for low-cost sales. Shutterstock is also flexible on the payment method, and cycle, so you can work out a deal that works for your business.
Unfortunately, you get no recurring revenue. This can be especially annoying if someone buys a $49 pack through your link, and then upgrades to the $409 plan. You get nothing for the upgrade.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Immense library of visual content – High commissions – Well-known brand | – Cookie duration could be longer – No recurring revenue – You don’t get paid for upgrades |
19. Grammarly
- Cookie Duration: 90 days
- Commissions: Flat $20 for any plan purchase, $0.20 for an account sign-up
- Payment cycle: 30 days
- Payment methods: Check, bank wire, direct deposit
Grammarly probably needs no introduction at this point. It’s the best writing assistant if you want to improve your grammar, style, tone, and more. It’s very affordable, and it has a good affiliate program.
The 90-day cookie duration is impressive for a product in its price range. The flat $20 can also add up if you make dozens of sales each month. And if you do, you’ll also get extra perks and financial bonuses. You even get paid $0.20 for people who just sign up.
There is room for improvement. For example, we’d like to get some form of recurring revenue. But even if we never will, Grammarly remains a profitable affiliate program for lots of online businesses.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| -Popular product that sells itself – Good flat commission rate – Very long cookie duration (90 days) – Perks for high performers | – No recurring revenue |
20. Astra
- Commissions: 30% on every sale
- Payment cycle: 60 days
- Payment methods: PayPal
Astra is the world’s best-selling third-party WordPress theme with over 2.4 million users. It’s an incredibly popular product that almost sells itself.
The company behind Astra, Brainstorm Force, offers a 30% commission which could be up to $375 per sale. It also has an impressively long cookie life and real-time tracking so you can monitor earnings and predict how much you’ll earn each month.
It’s a great affiliate program for a great product. The company even provides useful swipe files to help you market it!
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| – Generous commissions – Affiliates can also promote other Brainstorm Force products for extra commission – Excellent reputation and global reach – Long cookie duration – Realtime tracking with a dedicated dashboard | – PayPal payment only |
How To Find The Best Affiliate Marketing Program For You
The programs we highlighted above all have really good offers for affiliates. But that doesn’t mean they’re the best for your business. The ideal programs for any business depend on the niche, the audience, and plenty more.
Here’s a good place to start finding the highest-paying affiliate programs: see if the products and services that you already use have a program. You’ll feel right at home recommending products that helped you grow your blog or business.
And if they don’t, hop on the affiliate networks, and browse their programs. Here’s what you should keep in mind when comparing different affiliate offers:
- Commissions. They’re not everything, but commission rates do matter. Anything above 4% is acceptable. Anything above 10% can be very profitable. But don’t get bogged down in the percentage. If you can, try to find out the average order value, which is more insightful than any rate.
- Cookie duration. The higher the value of a product, the higher the cookie duration should be.
- Payments. International tax and money transfer fees can make a substantial dent in your revenue. That’s why it’s important to look into how and when different programs pay their affiliates.
- Affiliate marketer support. One affiliate link in your articles won’t make you a millionaire. You need the proper support to understand the product you’re recommending, deploy the best materials on your platform, and track your campaign. The best affiliate networks and programs make all of this easy for you with a robust onboarding process, pre-made materials, and even a dedicated affiliate manager.
- Product. If your audience isn’t happy with the products you recommend, they’ll stop trusting you. You should ideally recommend products that you have experience with, and that you trust.
These are the criteria we used to round up the best affiliate marketing programs for 2023, and we hope they’ll help you find the best affiliate program for your business.
Conclusion: The Best Affiliate Marketing Platforms In 2023
Another year went by, another year that Amazon persisted at the top of the affiliate food chain. It’s still the biggest affiliate network (by a large margin) and it still tops “best affiliate marketing” lists like this one. It only makes sense: Amazon’s a smart choice for plenty of affiliates.
But it’s not the only choice. If you want to polish your affiliate campaigns, improve your margins, and fine-tune your conversion rate, you should dig deeper. From our research, we found that CJ Affiliate, ShareASale, and even eBay are great alternative networks.
And if you’re looking for the best individual affiliate marketing programs, don’t sleep on Convertkit, Surfer SEO, Hubspot, Teachable, and all the other programs we listed above.
Thank you providing such a very knowledgable blog. It is very helpful for everyone who start to make affiliate marketing in 2023.