Top Affiliate Marketing Platforms for Beginners: Boost Your Online Income in 2024

In today’s digital world, creating a passive income stream online has become increasingly popular. Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to achieve this, by collaborating with businesses to expand their consumer base. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, about 80% of marketers have an affiliate marketing strategy. By transacting online through affiliate marketing platforms, you can earn a significant profit. Whether you work in any business or niche, you can benefit from affiliate marketing in India by using the right techniques and choosing the right platforms.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the activity of making money from commissions. These are made from products or services sold through affiliate links. It is one of the most trending terms in the digital marketing world today. That’s because not only is it the most accessible source of passive income, but it also requires comparatively less effort.

However, before you start, you must learn about the best platform for affiliate marketing. Moreover, ever since introducing the 4-hour workweek system, making money by doing smart work has become everyone’s goal.

So, do you want to make an easy extra income from it? If yes, then you are in the right place. This blog will help you find out all that you need to know about affiliate marketing. This includes answers to questions like:

• How to start affiliate marketing?
• What are the best affiliate marketing platforms to make money?
• Is affiliate marketing platforms worth it?

How to Start Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing, as opposed to common belief, is not another online salesman job. Of course, you need to pass on links for people to click on and buy products to make money. But that does not offer a guaranteed income if you don’t know how to promote the products correctly.

At the same time, if you own a business or a blog, then affiliate marketing platforms are the best source of adding to your wealth. Therefore, the answer to the question of how to start affiliate marketing in India includes the following factors:

1. For Bloggers

If you have a blog with many followers, then you can generate enough revenue by using Ad links.
However, some important factors that determine your profits are:

• Connection of product links: If you own a fashion blog your followers will be interested in buying things related to that. In this case, you can promote beauty products, clothes, and accessories. This is to increase your chances of people clicking more on these links. It gradually leads to more sales and hence a higher commission.
• Quality of the product: You can try the affiliate product or go through customer reviews before promoting it. You don’t want to mislead your viewers by exposing them to fake companies that sell cheap goods.

Amazon Associates is one of the best platform for affiliate marketing for bloggers. The main reason behind this is the availability of various products. So, there is something for every blog niche.

2. For Business Owners

Businessmen already have some prior marketing knowledge. So, there are many ways in which they can benefit from affiliate marketing. Likewise, whether you are an entrepreneur or a small start-up, affiliate marketing can help to fund your projects without any investment. After all, all you have to do is educate people about the product. Likewise, affiliate marketing platforms can help you produce a great passive income.

Related Article: Affiliate Marketing in India- Best Guide for Beginners

How is affiliate marketing different from influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing and affiliate marketing do naturally overlap, but they are not always the same. To grasp the revenue-generating prospects offered by each, it is essential to understand the differences between the two and how each of them functions.

The term “influencer marketing” refers to a partnership between companies and people who already have a significant following (also known as “influencers”), where the latter is compensated to support or advertise the former’s goods and services. It is a marketing technique that helps companies connect with their target market and attempt to “influence” their purchasing decisions.

With affiliate marketing, businesses pay affiliates a commission for each sale they generate promoting their goods and services online. i.e., if a customer purchases the product via a link (or code) that is specific to the affiliate and posted on their website or channel, the affiliate will receive a commission.

It’s therefore wise to choose an affiliate marketing platform that fits for all of your needs.

3 Step Process to Start Affiliate Marketing

1. Sign up with an affiliate program:

The first step is really simple i.e. Sign up with an affiliate program that aligns with your niche. We have suggested some of the best affiliate programs in the next section of this blog.

2. Create content:

Sharing links is not the only thing in affiliate marketing. You need to write on-point product reviews as well to help the buyer decide better and make purchase from your link. This is what makes some affiliates better sellers than others.

3. Add affiliate links: 

You can either post them on social media websites such as Instagram and Facebook. Or, send direct invitations to potential buyers with the help of email marketing. Additionally, if you own a website, you can add these links there too.

Top 8 Affiliate Marketing Platforms with Advantages & Disadvantages

Now that you know the basics of affiliate marketing, it is important to have a clear idea about India’s best affiliate marketing websites. The first step is to sign up with a reliable affiliate marketing platform. As soon as you do this, you can create your unique links. Following this, share the links on various affiliate marketing best platform to make an income from it.

Here are India’s most liked affiliate marketing sites:

1. Amazon Associates
2. Flipkart Affiliate
3. VCommission Affiliate
4. Admitad
5. Cuelinks Affiliate
6. DGM
7. Shopify Affiliate Program
8. CJ Affiliate

1. Amazon Associates

Amazon.com is one of the biggest names in the E-Commerce world today. The shopping site that sells almost everything online started in 1995 and originally sold books. Because of the wide variety of all kinds of products available on the site, Amazon’s associates marketing program is one of India’s high-paying affiliate programs. It is one of the top used affiliate marketing platforms for the following reasons:

• There is no registration fee for signing up.
• More than 2 million sellers selling all types of goods are available. This gives you the power to choose the products according to your needs.
• Amazon offers great seasonal bonuses every now and then. So, you get special promotions on occasions like Cyber Monday and Black Friday deals.

Advantages

• Wide range of products.
• All purchases made by customers during the cookie’s validity will be credited to you.
• The biggest brand in e-shopping.
• Low payout threshold.

Disadvantages

• A universal cookie is only valid for 24 hours.
• Some categories have very low commission.
• You need to register separately for different countries.

2. Flipkart Affiliate

When it comes to online shopping, most Indians prefer to shop from Flipkart over Amazon. Henceforth, since the number of people wanting to buy from Flipkart is higher, it gives Flipkart affiliates a lead over other affiliate marketing platforms. Moreover, adding Flipkart ad banners to your website can help you earn a 12% commission every time someone buys from your link. Like Amazon, Flipkart also does not charge any money for signing up.

Advantages

• Easy to join.
• Reputed and trustable
• Tons of products you can promote
• Decent commission rate

Disadvantages

• Poor implementation of the program
• Tight, lengthy rules.

3. VCommission Affiliate

VCommission Affiliate is one of the oldest affiliate marketing platforms, having more than 18,000 affiliates. In India, it has become a major leader because of its CPA offers. CPA refers to Cost per Action. It tells about all the details and requirements that must be met by an affiliate during marketing. Moreover, Vcommission has a large network tied to several well-known E-Commerce names like Myntra and Snapdeal. So, you can promote a great number of marketing and digital solutions.

Advantages

• Traffic coming from India can be easily captured by promoting Indian products.
• Various tools available for advertisers and affiliates brands, so they can ensure that they will get results with vCommission.
• Real-time tracking is the best feature.
• Because of strong morals and values, it always gives what it says.
• Publishers having good traffic can earn really good returns from it.

Disadvantages

• Small publishers can not reach the minimum payment threshold, which is $100 and it would take years for them to reach there.
• The bad thing about this network is that its conversion rates and payment levels are really low.

4. Admitad

If you are looking for a global affiliate marketing platform, then Admitad is the perfect solution. Being connected with some major global brands like Samsung And Tata Cliq, it offers many ways to step into the affiliate marketing industry.

• Contextual Advertising
• Promo Codes
• Banner Advertising
• Coupons

Additionally, it also allows monetization of content to its publishers. This includes the monetization of social media communities and email newsletters. Lastly, to withdraw your earnings, you must use at least one among the following methods:

• Bank Cards
• Payoneer
• PayPal

5. Cuelinks Affiliate

Cuelinks affiliate is one of the easiest-to-use affiliate marketing platforms. Apart from having more than 400 advertisers’, it offers features like:

• Automatic insertion of affiliate links. Suppose you are writing an article about kitchen appliances in India. In this case, it would automatically add an affiliate link to a related product without you having to do anything.
• For the people who use WordPress, you can get free access to the WordPress plugin making the task even simpler.

All in all, it provides a 360 degree view of your content. This way not only you can drive more sales but also traffic to your website. As a result, causing you to make more money.

Also Read: A details guide on How to Use WordPress

6. DGM

DGM is one of India’s most famous digital ad networks. Having established its name 12 years ago in the digital marketing industry, it is no doubt one of the top choices of affiliate marketing platforms all over India.

• You get to choose the affiliate campaigns you want to work in.
• Other than earning a commission, you also get rewarded with bonuses for exceeding profit expectations.

However, you must note that not all advertisers will offer you the same fees. On one hand, some will only pay a small amount from their total earnings. On the other hand, others may agree on a fixed price. But in both cases, you can create a fair income.

Advantages

• Oldest affiliate platform network.
• Tons of products to promote.
• Own tracking platform.

Disadvantages

• Pay-out is not very competitive.

7. Shopify Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing for beginners on Shopify Affiliate Program is just a piece of cake. It is one of the best affiliate marketing platforms, especially if you have no experience in marketing. This is because of:

• Affordability.
• It is quick to start.
• Easy to use.

Again, it has affiliates from all fields including:

• Entrepreneurs.
• Educators.
• Content Creators.
• Top-notch Influencers.

Therefore, because it is an all-in-one affiliate marketplace, it keeps up with its name. Thereby, providing the right Shopify partner support will make things easier. As a result, you can drive more traffic and increase public engagement. And hence, make more affiliate sales. In short, the access to tutorial tools makes Shopify the most versatile among various affiliate marketing platforms in India.

Advantages

• Great product
• Good support
• High demand solution
• High conversion to sales
• High ticket sale potential

Disadvantages

• You can be banned
• It’s not a recurring commission so your income can fluctuate from month to month

8. CJ Affiliate

CJ affiliate is another great option for beginners. Since it has 14 offices worldwide it is one of the top international favorite affiliate marketing platforms of 2021.

Key features of CJ Affiliate:

• Cookie-less tracking enables smooth tracking across all devices and environments.
• Offers a large number of choices. Thus, you can choose the finest digital marketing services to promote on your blog.
• Publishers can maximize the price of affiliate partnerships on CJ.

Besides this, this is one of the affiliate marketing platforms that connect with leading brands such as GoPro and Office Depot. So, you never run out of great deals to offer to your audience.

Advantages

• Trusted by the world’s largest brands for their affiliate needs.
• Extremely robust reporting infrastructure.
• Access to trusted fraud detection software.

Disadvantages

• The onboarding process can be quite long to get up and running.
• This affiliate marketing platform is built for more experienced affiliate marketers.
• An affiliate marketing network is historically built for B2C brands, rather than B2B companies.
  

Is affiliate marketing platforms worth it?

Money is the most important asset and necessity of all time. After all, whether it is food, shelter or fun, you need money for everything. Affiliate marketing platforms, therefore, are a great money-making system. In particular, if you want to get into the digital marketing and business fields, then this can be a great start. Since most of the top business people and entrepreneurs do affiliate marketing on the side, it is no doubt worth giving it a try.

Still, the amount of money you make will largely depend on your advertising and convincing skills. This means that to start, you need to do first to prep up your communication skills. Plus, a good review writing ability is not needed but surely makes you better than your competitors as an affiliate.

Income Status of Affiliate Marketers in India

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of an affiliate marketer in India is almost Rs. 19000 per month. It starts from Rs. 11,000 and goes up to Rs. 26,000. In fact, as you level up your skill and network you can earn even more.

Become an Expert at Chegg

Becoming an expert at Chegg India is a great alternative to earning money online. Being an expert is all about answering questions posted by students on the website. No extra effort or investment is needed to join chegg affiliate program.

The best part is that you get paid for every correct answer that you give. You can work from anywhere, anytime, on a completely flexible schedule. Sign up, choose the subject you want, and get started!

Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

One way to extract maximum money through affiliate links is to research the most trending products and become a part of trusted affiliate marketing platforms. The high demand goods popular amongst your viewers is what will get you the most cash out of them. So, choose the product, get the link and apply the right marketing strategies to win the affiliate marketing game.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here is some useful resources:

• 12 Ways on How to Make Money Online in India
• Start Your Side Hustle Journey | Find Your Passion & Earn Extra Income
• Top 10 Side Hustle Ideas You Can Start In 2023
• How to Sell Products Online and Start an Online Store?