As you grow, your need to buy new stuff and want higher salary increases. And although you do get that bonus, a little extra cash never hurt anyone. It could fund that trip you have planned, post-pandemic, or that fancy dress you’ve been eyeing. And an easy way to earn a little side cash is through affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing can help you have a passive source of income and it is among the best options available in India. Several affiliate programs in India allow you to earn every time a sale happens through the affiliate link on your website. If you have a pre-existing blog, this is perfect for you! You can make money from your blog by turning traffic into cash. But affiliate marketing is only a viable strategy if you can find quality products that your visitors are interested in. If you already manage a website, all you have to do is sign-up for an affiliate or referral program by creating an account. By signing up for affiliate programs and networks in India, you can de-risk yourself by supplementing your ad revenues.
How Do Affiliate Marketing Programs Work?
To participate in an affiliate marketing program, you’ll need to take these five simple steps:
- Find and join an affiliate program.
- Choose which offers to promote.
- Obtain a unique affiliate link for each offer.
- Share those links on your blog, social media platforms, or website.
- Collect a commission anytime someone uses your links to make a purchase.
The commission rates differ depending on the company and the offer. You can earn from 5% of the sale to 50% based on the contract and offer. There are also affiliate marketing programs that provide a flat rate per sale instead of a percentage.
10 Great Affiliate Marketing Programs In India
1. RDS Social Shopper
The Red Dot Shop is a marketplace for local homegrown brands, with products targeted towards Indian women. The Social Shopper program created by the Red Dot Shop is great for people who prefer to work from home. You get Rs 500 as you sign up and earn up to Rs 3,000 per month with additional testers and goodies. Apart from that, the commission earned on all products is 10%, every time someone uses your code.
Want to be a Social Shopper? Click here.
2. Flipkart Affiliate
Flipkart is among the largest e-commerce players in India. Flipkart’s referral payout for products like books ranges from 6% to 20%, and laptops are a commission of 6%. There are a wide set of products to monetise from at Flipkart Affiliate. You can track the performance of referral links and conversions with real-time reports offered by Flipkart.
3. Amazon Associates
The Amazon Associates Program helps content creators, publishers and bloggers monetize their traffic. With millions of products available on Amazon, associates use easy link-building tools to direct their audience to their recommended products and earn from qualifying purchases and programs. Amazon also allows you to build customized links text links, text and image links, and image-only links to any product of your choice. The commission offered ranges from 0.2% to 10% depending on the category of the product.
4. DGM India
DGM India, India’s leading digital ad network, presents an uncomplicated affiliate program that lets you earn a substantial amount of commission by promoting products and services from leading Indian brands. The commission you earn varies from campaign to campaign. Some advertisers offer you a percentage of sales, whereas others will provide you with fixed fees. Bonuses and incentives are also provided for affiliates who exceed expectations.
5. Shopify Affiliate
Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that allows businesses to sell online. Many brands have launched their business on the platform. Learn more about launching your business on Shopify here. The Shopify affiliate program is free to join and will enable you to monetize your audience and earn commissions from each new Shopify merchant referral. As an affiliate, you can make money for each user who signs up for a paid plan with your unique affiliate link, and for each Shopify Plus referral.
6. Rakuten Marketing
Rakuten Marketing is a leading affiliate marketing service provider. Rakuten is the largest pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network. They have different terms for publishes, agencies and brands. Rakuten allows you to monetize your content using links text, banners including rotating banners, search boxes, customized deep linking, and flex links. The platform provides weekly payments on meeting the minimum threshold set.
7. Hostgator Affiliate
Hostgator is a global provider of web hosting and related services. Hostgator offers a flexible tiered payout, which increases your odds of earning more commission with each sale. With each signup, your pay increases. The commissions can increase up to Rs 3,000 with over 21 signups per month.
8. Yatra Affiliate
Yatra is among India’s online travel companies. Yatra affiliate is for publishers who want to leverage their web properties. The sign-up process is pretty seamless, and you can start immediately after signing up. They also have online reporting and tracking options. Yatra tracks your affiliate link for a 30-day duration and a commission is paid upon bookings.
9. BigRock Affiliate
BigRock is another one of India’s leading domain registration and web hosting companies. The affiliate program tracks sales made on the affiliate URL. The tracking cookie from BigRock is valid for 60 days. The standard commission starts at Rs 30 and can go up to 30% of each sale, depending on the product offered.
10. CJ Affiliate
CJ Affiliate is among the leading affiliate networks and gives publishers the offer to maximize the value of affiliate partnerships. CJ is also cookieless tracking to ensure uninterrupted tracking and commissioning even in the absence of a CJ cookie, across all devices and environments.
Affiliate marketing is not a shortcut to easy money, as understood by most. Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing program, where an external partner is rewarded with a commission for delivering a specific result to a merchant or advertiser. Despite that, affiliate marketing has been plagued with a bad reputation and tagged as a scam. It can be a true winner for those in the program.