Top 4 Best Affiliate Programs in 2018

Affiliate Programs

Although affiliate marketing has been around for several years now its popularity shows no signs of abating. Quite the reverse. This business model relies on marketers gaining commission for promoting products on behalf of retailers. Since online retailing is expanding all the time there is not going to be any lack of opportunities anytime soon.

To gain a fuller picture of how well affiliate marketing is performing you only have to consider affiliate networks such as topoffers.com. This is an excellent resource of information for marketers and retailers, where information about the range of available affiliate programs can be gleaned, and news can be gleaned about fresh opportunities. Although it would be difficult to place the best of these affiliate programs into any sort of order, here are four of the current programs which are worth looking into.

Commission Factory

Founded in 2011, Commission Factory has over 300 retailers in its network covering various sizes of enterprise, small, medium and large. Located in Australia, they are one of the largest networks in the southern hemisphere, representing around 55% of the total market.

Commission Factory focus on performance-based marketing, with the onus of opening opportunities that are available to a wide base. To that end, they are dedicated to maintaining a cordial relationship between all the players: retailers, marketers, and agencies. This mutually-beneficial business relationship is intended to see affiliate programs continuing to grow across a range of markets, regardless of the size of the advertising company. For a new marketer, this ability to tap into a level playing field is very attractive.

Microsoft

Catering for the niche area of tech, Microsoft, one of the globe’s most-recognized brands, launched an affiliate program in 2016. This allows marketers to get in on the action by earning commission on everything from Xbox games to movies to music. Although this is obviously a hugely-competitive field, opportunities exist for innovative affiliates to make the most of the retail technology giant’s products.

Claiming to offer one of the industry’s top commission rates, Microsoft offer two main affiliate program options:- a private program, operated in conjunction with partners Tradedoubler, which promotes in more than 60 worldwide locations (including Germany, Britain, Japan, India, USA, and the United Arab Emirates); and a public program, supporting local networks, intended to promote products locally.

Offering a range of banners and text links, commission rates are dependent on the items sold but vary between 5% to 10%.

Bluehost

One of the most popular web hosting companies on the planet, Bluehost programs are definitely worth considering if you are interested in hosting websites. They are consistently featured on tech blogs as the ‘go to’ platform for bloggers, and where affiliates are concerned they offer a flat commission rate of $65 for each customer who purchases a hosting package upon your referral. If you show consistently good referral rates you can qualify for a special bounty payment.

Bluehost offers a variety of promotional resources, such as banners and adverts, as well as detailed marketing reports that break down your sales. They also have a dedicated management team for their affiliates who will answer any queries you might have.

SEMRush

SEMRush is a digital market intelligence company founded in 2008, dedicated to search engine optimization and search analysis software. This is a niche area to be explored if you are into blogging, SEO or digital marketing. They offer a particular affiliate program, BeRush, which gives marketers access to a full range of promotional materials, as well as relevant market statistics and an excellent level of customer support. The commission rate is 40%.