Affiliate Program Directory – Find Brand Partners that Fit With Your Blogging Niche
This post may contain affiliate links which means I make a commission if you shop through my links.
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The first thing that people ask me when I tell them that I am a blogger is “how do you make money with that?”.
Typically, we have several income streams. And one of the many ways that bloggers make money is through affiliate marketing.
If you are looking to get started with affiliate marketing, I have compiled a small Affiliate Program Directory to help you find programs in your niche.
Want to Learn More About Affiliate Marketing?
I love the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing blogging course and cannot say enough good things about it. It is the first affiliate marketing course that I took and has helped me grow my business over the years.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
The most common form of affiliate marketing happens when we place special links called affiliate links on our website. When a reader clicks one of those links and goes through to an online store – like Amazon, for instance – and makes a purchase, we get a small commission.
It is a win win situation when you can offer your readers value by connecting them with products and services that fit with the topic that you blog about.
How to Get Started as an Affiliate
To get started with affiliate marketing, you have to first establish an affiliate relationship with different brands.
You do this by applying to their affiliate program, if they offer one.
Some brands manage their own programs but a majority use an affiliate network to manage their program for them.
What is an Affiliate Network?
Managing an affiliate program is a lot of work and many brands don’t have the time or resources to handle that aspect of their business.
So they hire an affiliate network to do all the things associated with running an affiliate program – signing on of new affiliates, providing support and resources to these affiliates, and of course handling the payments.
As a blogger, you can create an account at these companies and browse through the merchants that participate with their service – and then apply to the brands you want to work with directly through your portal on that network.
Popular affiliate networks include:
How to Find the Affiliate Program For the Brand You Want to Work With
So, let’s say that there is a product that you really like and it fits the niche that you write about on your blog.
You want to write a post about that product and are wondering if there is an affiliate program so you can make a commission if someone reads your article and decides to buy the product.
To find out whether that brand offers an affiliate program you may have to do some sleuthing.
Very often, if a brand offers an affiliate program, they will put a link to it in the footer on their website. That is usually the first place that I look.
When you click this link, it will usually take you to their application. If they use one of the affiliate networks to manage their program, the application will take you to the affiliate network site and you can log into your account, if you have one, and submit the application there.
If you can’t find a link to the brands affiliate program, you can do a web search for “XYZ Brand Affiliate Program” and hopefully you will find it that way. Otherwise, they might not have one.
Too Complicated? Here Are Some Other Options
Affiliate networks do make it easier for affiliates to work with lots of brands. However, the process of building affiliate links is still tedious and you have to log in and out of several platforms. This uses precious time that you could be spending on creating new content.
Use An Intermediary Platform
To get around this, you could use sort of an intermediary platform. These companies already have relationships with tons of brands and affiliate networks. All you need to do is sign up with one of these companies and build links through their interface.
One such company is LTK – formerly called RewardStyle.
This is an awesome affiliate network that can save you a ton of time. Instead of applying to a bunch of individual affiliate programs – you can just apply to this one and get affiliate links to hundreds of stores from one central location. This network works best for beauty, fashion, home decor, and lifestyle bloggers.
You do NEED AN INVITATION to be able to apply and there is an approval process. If you are an established blogger or have a large social media following then contact me here for an invitation.
Some ShopLTK alternatives that operate in a similar manner to are:
Stick With Programs That Offer Lots of Products
Another alternative to working with lots of brands is to find a few companies that offer a wide range of products.
The Amazon Associates program is very popular for this reason. No matter what your blogging niche, Amazon probably has a product that fits well with what you are writing about.
Get Help With Managing Your Links
Another issue with that bloggers encounter with affiliate marketing is managing all the affiliate links that they build over time.
Products can become discontinued, brands can go out of business, or even just switch affiliate networks.
When these things happen, all the affiliate links that you built break – and your readers end up clicking through to nonexistent pages. This leads to a bad user experience.
I personally have started using a service called Lasso to build and manage my affiliate links – and it has made the process so much easier.
You use this platform to maintain a database of all your affiliate links, making it easier to insert them into your blog posts where appropriate.
And if you change a link in the database, Lasso changes the link everywhere that it appears on your entire site – so you don’t have to go and find each one individually. It’s a total game changer!
You can even use it to create displays like the following one to draw your reader’s attention to something that you are promoting.
If you use affiliate marketing on your blog - Lasso will make a world of difference in how you manage your affiliate links. This platform will save you time and help you market more efficiently.
Affiliate Programs Directory
As you dive into affiliate marketing you are probably looking for some programs that fit with your niche.
I compiled a short Affiliate Program Directory below that you can use to find new affiliate programs to partner with for your blog.
It is broken down by category, so hopefully you will find it easy to zero in on the programs that you are interested in.
Beauty and Fashion Affiliate Programs
Blogging and Business Related Affiliate Programs
The following programs work well with the blogging niche or business related niches.
- BC Stack Affiliate Program – a discounted bundle of blogging courses
- FreshBooks Affiliate Program
- Grammarly Affiliate Program
- Mouseflow Affiliate Program
- OptinMonster Affiliate Program
- Tailwind Affiliate Program
- WPEngine Affiliate Program
DIY and Craft Affiliate Programs
Financial and Job Related Affiliate Programs
These affiliate programs work well with finance, make money, and work from home type niches. If you blog about budgeting or side hustles, check out some of these:
Food and Beverage Affiliate Programs
General Affiliate Programs
These affiliate programs fit with almost any niche. They include companies that sell products and services across many different product lines – the most famous one being Amazon Associates.
Home Decor and Organization Affiliate Programs
Since my main site is in this niche I have quite a few programs in this niche.
- DreamCloud Mattress Affiliate Program
- EasyClosets Affiliate Program
- EasyGarage Affiliate Program
- Framebridge Affiliate Program
- MixBook Affiliate Program
- SmugMug Affiliate Program
Parenting and Family Related Affiliate Programs
Personal Productivity Affiliate Programs
- Day Timer Affiliate Program
- Erin Condren Affiliate Program
- TextExpander Affiliate Program – I LOVE this productivity tool – see my TextExpander Review here
What are some of your favorite Affiliate Programs?
Do you prefer working with brands directly, working with affiliate networks, or targeting just a few programs that offer a wide variety of products?
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.
Happy Blogging!
