Make money – join the 5 best affiliate programs for creatives

Are you a creative looking to make money on the side?

or

Are you a blogger who finally realized (like yours truly) that your blog is a business and you need to monetize ASAP?

Whatever your reason, let’s dive into some Affiliate Do’s & Dont’s and get into the detail of companies you can work with to start earning passive income:-

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Grab the free Affiliate & Income Tracker!

Before I come to share the name of the affiliate companies with you, you need to be aware of the following:

Affiliate Do’s & Dont’s

• ​Promoting the most appropriate product to your audience is key to being successful with affiliate links.  You don’t want to sell Craft lessons to a Wellness Coach (unless she likes to learn a new skill!).
• Promote only products or service that you use, have used, like and trust.
• If you do a craft post, like ‘How to make your own tag blanket‘, do not overdo the affiliate links! Link to 2/3 products that you have used in the post, max.
• Apart from finding the most appropriate product to promote, remember that most affiliate programs also have referral incentives.  There are different ways to ‘spread’ affiliate links in your blog posts, your social media posts, newsletters and your own downloadable products.
• The affiliate program must be reputable, established in the market and offer a good enough payout. Don’t spend hours promoting an affiliate product with no return on investment (ROI).
• Keep track of the affiliate links you share, where you share it to, how long the link will be valid (cookie) and how much income you generate from the link.
• If a product is not working (not generating any ROI), try another similar product or company.
• If you are not a US citizen, apply for the correct program (world wide or your specific country) or use an affiliate network like Skimlinks, ShareASale or ShopStyle Collective.
• If you can not find an affiliate program for a brand or product, send them a nice email and ask about it.  It may be that they have not considered it yet!  
• Familiarize yourself with the brand’s Terms and Conditions and stick to it.

Disclaimer – I am an affiliate of some of the programs shared in this post and will earn a commission, should you join the program or make any purchase using my referral link.

BEST Affiliate Programs for creatives

1. Amazon

Every blogger wants to start with Amazon Affiliates because it is such a big marketplace. You can do a tutorial post on almost any topic and you will find enough products to link to!

However, though Amazon caters for such a large audience, generating a decent income is not always guaranteed.

With Amazon you will earn according to certain tables and scales:-

TABLE 1 – Fixed Standard Program Fee Rates for Specific Product Categories, varying from 0% – 10% commission

TABLE 2 – Bounty Events and Special Program Fees, earn from 0.50 – $25

TABLE 3 – Special Program Fee Rates for Trade-In Events, earn 4%

The program does not have an affiliate referral program although you can earn some dollars when you refer someone to Amazon Prime and Amazon Student.

Bear in mind that you can also earn commission through the Skimlinks Affiliate Network.  This is especially handy for non-US citizen.

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2. Craftsy now bluprint

The Craftsy affiliate program is managed by ShareASale or Skimlinks.  Their payment structure is as follows:-

• 75% of first-time course purchases from new customers (30-day cookie)
• 15% of existing customer course purchases (5-day cookie)
• 15% of Boundless, Colonial Manor, Cloudborn and Sprightly product purchases (30-day cookie for new customers, 5-day cookie for existing)
• 4% of all other product purchases on Craftsy (5-day cookie)
• $15 for referring a friend who is accepted into the affiliate program & is sale-active within 30 days

Craftsy sells online classes and craft related products.

*If you access your affiliate link through Skimlinks Affiliate Network, you would earn 4% commission on some Craftsy products.

A Bonus with Craftsy is that as a new affiliate, you are eligible to one free course.

3. Creative Live

Also managed by ShareASale, Creative Live offers creative classes, inspiration and tips. 

Over 1,500 Curated Classes by the World’s Top Experts.

• 20 % commission for new customer sales
• 10% for return customer sales
• $1 for every registration sign-up
• $10 for each referred affiliate

Average order sizes are over $100. Earn commission on all purchases by referred customers within 30 days of the original click.​

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4. Etsy

You can apply for the Etsy Affiliate programs on AWIN affiliate network (Previously Affiliate Network and Zanox).  

Affiliates who do not live in one of the specified countries, need to apply to Etsy (ROW) Rest of the World through Zanox.

Join the AWIN Facebook group for more tips.

Get the AWIN Google extension​:

MyAwin is a tool for publishers to simply promote advertisers through Awin’s network:

“MyAwin adds a button to the Chrome toolbar which can be used when a publisher visits any Affiliate Window advertiser site, whether they are joined to the programme or not.Publishers can:• Join programmes• Quickly generate shortened tracker links• ‘One-click’ share links on Twitter, Facebook and Google+• Generate custom URLs• Generate links to specific product pagesIn addition, the extension shows all the latest consumer offers from our system and will highlight the exclusive vouchers available to publishers. For those publishers with multiple accounts, ‘one-click’ account switch functionality has been added for ease of use. The plugin also offers a ‘one click’ deeplink generator.”

5. Leisure Arts

The Leisure Arts affiliate program is managed by ShareASale too and their payment structure is as follows:-

• 10% Commission on all sales
• 60-day cookie (You get credit for any orders within 60 days of the original click placed by the customer)
• Special Promo Codes and Seasonal Promotions
• SAS Data Feed
• Post Leisure Arts links on your web site, blog, or social media pages

Affiliate Networks to join:-

ShareASale

Shareasale.com is giving $150 for each merchant signed up through your links.

Shareasale.com is also giving 1.00 for each qualified affiliate that signs up through your links. This affiliate must sign up with Shareasale.com as an affiliate, and generate at least one click in order for you to receive the 1.00.

Skimlinks

Promote Skimlinks and you will earn a whopping 35% of what they earn for a year for each publisher you refer. No questions asked.

You can promote Skimlinks in any fashion you’d like, via disclosure badges, text, and custom display ads that they’ve created just for you. All you need to ensure is that the person you are referring clicks on your affiliate link before coming to the Skimlinks sign up page.

Ready to rock your affiliate links?

Please care to share this post – you will make my day!

If you know of better affiliate programs for creatives, please share it in the comments below!​

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