Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through a link and make a purchase, it will earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you! See our disclaimer for details.

So you’re a new blogger and ready to monetize your blog! You’ve come to the best place to learn about affiliate programs!

I’m so glad you stopped by to learn about how I was able to earn thousands as a new blogger! Let’s dive right in!

Before getting started, bookmark these other helpful articles!

• Blogging 101: Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Your First Blog 
• How Much It Actually Costs to Own a Small Blog

What are Affiliates?

In short, being an affiliate means you get paid a small percentage or set amount for sending customers (“leads”) to a business or company.

For example, you could write a review article over your favorite clothing store, and let’s say you had previously been approved to be an affiliate for that company through a service like ShareASale or FlexOffers. You add some links to the article and let’s say some of your readers click on the links you provide in your article. The readers then go and purchase from that company or sign up for a service. Depending on the affiliate agreement, you may earn from each reader you send, or each reader that purchases, using your link on your blog.

Why Affiliates?

1. Start Monetizing Your Website Quickly!

The most honest reason to why almost all new bloggers start off with affiliates are because it is the easiest way to start making money with blogging.

Now, it is important to know that all because you become an affiliate to a business or company, does not automatically mean you’ll start earning tons of cash.

I learned that real quick.

But, really. All it means is that you have the opportunity to earn money, as long as you put effort in to writing compelling articles!

One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing other bloggers be dishonest about products or companies, just because the affiliate payout is large. I’ve seen articles loaded with dozens of affiliates links without providing a solution to someone’s problem.

Please, do not lie to your audience about products/services you promote. It leads to your pages and blog looking spammy and you may loose viewership if you don’t provide your audience with honest and helpful information!

Going back to the main point…affiliates are an awesome way to start monetizing, and can take very little effort on your part! Some bloggers earn a few dollars a month, while others like Create and Go earn hundreds of thousands each month from blogging! 

It’s all about choosing the right affiliates, getting experience, learning from your mistakes, and staying determined!

2. Easy to Join

The affiliates mentioned in this article don’t even take time for your profiles to be approved- you just type in your info and you’re good to start promoting!

Now, there are plenty of affiliate programs out there that don’t allow beginner bloggers to join. There are tons of companies that only want well-established websites, that drive hundreds of thousands of readers each month, to promote their products.

And, honestly, that’s okay! It gives you an opportunity to make goals to promote those products one day, once you start getting the readership you need to apply to those programs.

3. Beginner-Friendly

Being an affiliate is the easiest way to monetize, as mentioned above, but it is also the most beginner-friendly.

There are plenty of ways that you may have researched, to earn from blogging.

Other ways to make money blogging:

• Create a course on a platform like Udemy or Teachable
• Create and sell an ebook
• Create and sell product, whether physical or digital

The problem here is that these alternative methods take a ton of time to create, and if you don’t have many visitors to your blog, or don’t have an established subscriber base via emails, making money will be very difficult!

That’s why we have found that earning through affiliates is the best option for beginner bloggers to start monetizing. It can literally take seconds to sign up, and all you need is an article to plug links into!

If you have suggestions for more detailed information regarding monetizing or affiliates, we’d love to get that information to you! The quicker you can get to earning passive income, the better, right!? The comment section is down below-we’d love to hear from you!

The 6 best affiliate programs for bloggers in 2020 include:

1. BlueHost
2. FlexOffers
3. Grammarly
4. ShareASale
5. Tailwind
6. Amazon

High paying honorary mentions:

• Create and Go

Interested in skyrocketing your blog’s success? Want to become a six-figure blogger? Their courses come with an affiliate link, earning you anywhere from $70 to over $300 per referral! 

Sign up to be a Create and Go affiliate here!

• Elegant Themes

Have a blog? That means you need a theme. I use Divi from Elegant Themes and this comes with an amazing affiliate opportunity! You can earn 50% per sale (which is unheard of!) and is around $50-100 per referral!

Sign up to be an Elegant Themes affiliate here!

1. BlueHost

Why BlueHost?

This affiliate is one of my favorites, due to numerous reasons. But, first, let’s briefly explain what this company even is!

For those of you who have not started a blog yet, you really should check BlueHost out! 

Reason being, when you start a blog, no one really tells you that you need both a hosting service and a platform to run the blog on.

For example, my hosting is through BlueHost, and the blog is through WordPress.

BlueHost costs money while WordPress is free, but it is required that you have both to monetize a blog. (You need your own domain. A blog on blogger.com or medium.com for example won’t be sufficient.)

Now, you can always get your hosting from any other service, but I chose BlueHost due to how inexpensive it was considering the amount of security, features, and service I get from it.

$3 a month for hosting is extremely low compared to other options, and I have never looked for any other hosting service!

Check out this article to see a step-by-step tutorial for setting up Bluehost!

Since I use BlueHost hosting, I can use them as affiliates. Once you have them as hosting, you can too!

Pros: The best reason you should promote and earn from BlueHost is because of the high payout!

(Of course you should promote your affiliates because you love the company and want to share it to enhance others’s lives, but you know the real reason here)

For each sign up, you earn $85! 

Additionally, you can be approved in less than a minute. Honestly, this is such an easy affiliate option to get approved through!

Cons: I have yet to find any…but I will update this page if I find any issues with this affiliate!

Where to find it: You can find the link to BlueHost’s affiliate sign up page here!

2. FlexOffers

Why FlexOffers?

For any of you interested in writing about personal finance (which, honestly, can fit within nearly any niche anyway!), then FlexOffers is another awesome affiliate intermediary to be a part of!

However, no matter your niche, FlexOffers has a ton of companies that you can become an affiliate through immediately! 

For those interested in writing any articles in the personal finance niche, my top converting affiliates are:

• Personal Capital – earn $100 per sign up
• Credit Karma – earn $12 per sign up
• Acorns – earn $8 per sign up
• Swagbucks – earn $1.25 per sign up

Pros: There are some great companies you can become an affiliate for through this program! We love it for personal finance blogging, but it has thousands of options! Plus, the tracking, charts, and information it provides to you is clean as well.

Cons: There is no set amount that you earn from specifically referring others to FlexOffers. It varies, and we feel FlexOffers is better for the high-quality companies you find inside, rather than trying to just be an affiliate for them alone.

Where to find it: You can sign up for FlexOffers directly here!

3. Grammarly

Why Grammarly?

This is one of my favorite secrets! No matter the niche that your blog is in, you can promote Grammarly!

Nearly every blogger uses this free software but if you don’t already know, it is essentially an Internet extension that checks your writing for proper spelling, grammar, and good English overall.

But, really, Grammarly is applicable to any niche, and to any audience!

Pros: It made this list of the best for beginners, because you earn per each click!

Now, it is only $0.20 per click, but it quickly adds up since you don’t have to earn per sale!

Think about this: All you need is 10 people a day to click to earn $60/month!

It is satisfying to see your money slowly increase, especially when you are new and want to just see yourself earning something!

Also, Grammarly has insanely high conversion rates (20-40%), AND your links have 90-day cookies attached. Meaning, someone can click on your Grammarly link, learn about it, and then download it two months later, and you still get to earn off it. Pretty neat!

Cons: You can earn quite a bit more if your reader purchases Grammarly’s premium option. But, getting someone to purchase the premium will be a bit difficult. This affiliate is an opportunity to make a bit of “extra cash”, on top of your more higher-earning affiliate programs.

Where to find it: Sign up to immediately be an affiliate through ShareASale here!

4. Tailwind

Why Tailwind?

The biggest question here is, “Why not!?

If you are a blogger, than you probably already use Tailwind!

Now, what is interesting is that Tailwind actually has it’s own affiliate links through your personal account. Yet they also have an affiliate program through ShareASale!

So, what is the difference?

If you refer a person who signs up for Tailwind through a link you post from your actual Tailwind account, you can earn a one-time payment of $15. In fact, it is not really a payment. It is a credit to 1 month free for your blog;s Instagram or Pinterest account. 

If you have not signed up for Tailwind yet, click this link for your free $15 toward a month of Instagram and Pinterest marketing!

Yet, if you sign up to be an affiliate for Tailwind through ShareASale, then you earn a recurring 15% commission each month.

Pros: Can we get a “YAY” for the 90-day cookie!? A big reason why this made the list.

ALSO: You get a recurring 15% commission. Meaning, if a new blogger signs up for a monthly Tailwind plan, you will receive 15% commission every month!

Cons: There is high competition among bloggers, because this affiliate program is so good. You’ll have to really stand out against the crowd to get good money from this one. But, it is totally possible!

Where to find it: Become an affiliate for Tailwind through ShareASale here!

5. ShareASale

Why ShareASale?

ShareASale is a program that offers the opportunity to become an affiliate to other companies, like FlexOffers.

That means that to be an affiliate for certain companies, you have to initially be approved by one of these programs! Then, you apply through ShareASale to become an affiliate for any of their thousands of affiliate options! Over 4500 in fact!

ShareASale, and the numerous other companies like it, is an intermediary between the company you want to promote (the Merchant) and you (the Affiliate).

They do the tracking, the payments, and all that boring administrative stuff.

So, why ShareASale?

It is simple to provide leads to ShareASale, especially because you’ll become passionate about the company quickly! You can earn $1 per person that signs up through ShareASale. Easy!

However, not only is it a great way to earn extra cash, but I regularly earn hundreds a month from my top earning affiliates that I regularly get commission from!:

• SurveyJunkie – earn $1.25 per sale
• Romwe – earn 10% per sale
• Tailwind (see above!)
• Grammarly (see above!)

Pros: If you are approved by ShareASale, you will automatically become an affiliate for them, and you are able to start promoting ShareASale right away. No extra work needed! 

Plus, they offer tons of popular companies that you can be approved from within the day!

Cons: Payout is low, but depending on your niche, this could earn you quite a bit per month!

Where to find it: Sign up right away through this link! 

6. Amazon

Why Amazon?

Being an Amazon affiliate is considered one of the easiest ways to make money, for literally any niche ever.

Have a cooking blog? Promote your favorite utensils, books, and cookware. Have a gardening blog? Promote the best tools, fertilizers, and seeds. Have a car blog? Promote the most effective cleaning materials, lights, tools, etc.

You get the idea.

There are some awesome benefits of this program, and some not so great ones:

First, it is very beginner-friendly! You can get signed up in minutes and be linking products quickly. It is easy to learn and use.

Now, you do have to be careful. They require you put a very specific disclaimer either at the bottom of your page (we have one, for example) or at the top of each post. They will deny your application if you do not have their specific words.

Also, you must make 3 separate sales within 180 days to be accepted. Sounds easy enough, but it can take time if you are absolutely brand new! It is all about the art of writing your articles to make sure you refer your readers to links.

Reason being, the cookie only lasts 24 hours.

Remember how some of the above cookies last 90 days? Yeah. This lasts one day. Meaning, your reader, who clicked on the link, must make a purchase within one day for you to earn from it. But, what is so great is that there are tons of people who earn from Amazon as an affiliate, and it honestly is super easy to do so.

Just make sure you read through their instructions, or else you’ll have to restart your entire application process and redo all the links on your blog! Yikes!

Pros: Beginner-friendly and get started within minutes. It is great for every niche! Amazon is a good option, not as your only way to earn, but as a supplemental means to your blogging income!

Cons: You need to follow their strict rules and it takes awhile to be approved for some new bloggers (3 separate, successful purchases must be made within 180 days)

Where to find it: Check out the Amazon Affiliates link here!

Summary

• Interested in monetizing a blog? You came to the right place! We started out with these affiliates, and have seen many other new bloggers do the same. It never hurts to try; they’re all free to sign up!
• When you sign up for a service like ShareASale or FlexOffers, you can both promote the company itself, and hundreds, to thousands (okay, let’s be honest, that’d be a bit difficult!) of companies. It’s a good place to start getting experience!
• BONUS TIP: I learned how to do affiliate sales from this detailed Create and Go course. Be sure to check it out for an in-depth step-by-step guide to blogging, and you can be quickly on your way to your first $1,000 with your blog!