Selling digital products and services is one of the most popular ways for entrepreneurs to make money online. The expenses involved in starting this type of business are small compared to a typical business and the profit potential is high, with some businesses reaching 7-8 figures in sales.
One way digital product creators expand their reach is by launching their own affiliate program and allowing other people to promote it in exchange for a commission. It’s a great content amplifier that also earns you more income in the process.
I’ve been researching affiliate marketing tools that I can use to recruit affiliates for a virtual summit that I’m organizing and here are some of the tools that you may want to consider if you are considering launching your own affiliate program.
What to look for in an affiliate tool?
Before I discuss what tools are available, I want to list a few questions that you should ask before selecting an affiliate tool. The questions you ask will depend on your own needs, but here are some worth considering.
- Does it support multi-tier commissions?
- What costs are involved? Does the price include lifetime updates and support?
- Does it come with a built in network of affiliates? (can make it easier to find potential affiliates to promote you)
- Does it support lifetime commissions for affiliates?
- Does it support commissions on specific products only?
- Does it include an e-commerce cart? Or is it integrated separately?
- Is it compatible and does it integrate with your email marketing software, your membership software, and shopping cart?
- Is there a limit on the number of affiliates that you can have?
- If it has recurring monthly fees, can you download and transfer your affiliate info to another platform?
- What happens to your data when you end your monthly membership? Can you de-active and re-activate it later?
- Can I use it on just one site or multiple sites?
- How are payouts handled?
- Is there an affiliate dashboard?
- Does it support delayed affiliate payouts, e.g., affiliates are paid after 45 days after the sale?
- Can it be used on shared hosting or does it require something more powerful? Do I need an SSL certificate?
Finally, I recommend sending an email inquiry to support with some pre-sales questions. You might be surprised at how many “businesses” out there don’t even bother to reply to pre-sales questions.
At the very least, you want a company that will reply to your customer support issues, especially when it comes to something like affiliate program software.
1. Sam Cart
Pricing: $199 / month for affiliate option
Sam Cart was founded by Brian Moran, a veteran Internet marketer that launched a 7-figure business teaching others Facebook marketing. It includes an e-commerce cart that has lots of features including subscriptions, coupons, memberships, 1-click upsells and more. Their lowest priced plan starts at $19 / month, but you need a more expensive plan if you want to run your own affiliate program.
2. iDev Affliate
Pricing: $199 one time cost (includes 1 year updates) or $39 / month
iDev Affiliate can be purchased for a one time cost if you want to install it on your own server or a recurring monthly fee. I emailed them about the one time cost plan and it includes unlimited support, but you still have to renew your subscription each year if you want software updates.
All plans include unlimited traffic and affiliates and higher price tiers include plugins, which can also be purchased individually. It integrates with many shopping carts and you can search on their site to see if your cart is supported.
3. Digital Access Pass
Pricing: Starting at $167 one time cost (includes one year of updates and support) or $39 / month
Digital Access Pass is a WordPress plugin that allows you to sell digital products or create a membership site and use affiliates to promote it. Some features include file protection for member content, 1-click upsells, one time offers (OTO), and various email and payment integrations. It supports 2-tier affiliate programs and fixed price options include one year of support and updates.
4. Clickbank
Pricing: Free
Clickbank is an affiliate marketplace where you can list your digital product and affiliates can find it and promote it. Most items listed here appear to be eBooks, digital downloads and some software items rather than high end courses or membership sites.
5. Affiliate WP
Pricing: Starting at $99 / year
Affiliate WP is a WordPress plugin with various features including affiliate leaderboard, affiliate member area, store credit option, checkout referrals and more. For lifetime commissions, you’ll need at least the pro version, which starts at $249 / year. It also integrates with various WordPress carts and membership plugins.
6. Thrive Cart
Pricing: Not available
Thrive Cart is in beta but offers a shopping cart for digital products and affiliate management for a one time price. I’ve heard good things about Thrive Cart, so it may be something to keep on your radar screen.
7. Simplero
Pricing: Starting at $83 / month plus 2% transaction fee, 30 day free trial
Simplero is designed to give you everything you need to launch your own digital products or membership site with ease, including landing pages and email marketing. Although it’s not advertised on the features page, Simplero does appear to have affiliate management capabilities.
8. Gumroad
Pricing: Starting at $10 / month plus 3.5% + $0.30 per charge
Gumroad allows you to sell digital products, courses, memberships, physical products and more online. Their affiliate program functionality appears to be simple, allowing a 30-day window for referrals to be credited to the affiliate. More info on this page.
9. Paykickstart
Pricing: Starting at $99 / month
Paykickstart offers affiliate program and shopping cart in one, including one click upsells, subscriptions, licensing, custom checkout pages and more. Some affiliate features include delayed affiliate payments, retargeting pixels that affiliates can use, custom destination links, reporting features, affiliate bonuses and more. They also integrate with various email software, membership plugins, and webinar software.
10. Kajabi
Pricing: Starting at $311 / month for affiliate program functionality, 14 day free trial
New Kajabi offers everything you need to launch your own digital products including landing pages, email marketing software, video hosting, and your own website (that you can quickly set up using their templates). The lowest price option starts at $103 per month, but you need the $311 per month plan to run your own affiliate program.
11. Lead Dyno
Pricing: Starting at $49 / month
Lead Dyno’s pricing is based on how many visitors come to your website each month. The affiliate program is hosted on their site but you can add your logo. It creates social links, banners, links and email newsletters that automatically have affiliate links created for your affiliates and you can also send emails to your affiliates to let them know about upcoming promos.
12. Referral Candy
https://www.referralcandy.com/
Pricing: Starting at $25 / month
Referral Candy allows you to create a link for customers or affiliates that refer business to your website. They are mostly targeted toward e-commerce store owners but can be used to manage a simple affiliate program.
13. OSI Affiliate by Omnistar
Pricing: Starting at $47 / month, 15 day free trial
OSI Affiliate is another referral marketing software that is targeted towards e-commerce and hosted on their site. Some features include automatic customer signup, custom thank you pages, email templates and partnership automation. Integrates with membership plugins (like Wishlist and Memberpress), e-commerce platforms (like Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy and Big Commerce) and email service providers (including Drip and Active Campaign).
14. Memberpress
Pricing: Starting at $119 / year
Memberpress is a WordPress plugin that allows you to sell digital products or create your own membership site. The business and developer editions come with the Affiliate Royale plugin, which allows you to host your own affiliate program. Some other features include protected videos on Amazon web services (AWS) from non-members, export member data, setting trial periods and email software integration.
One downside is that if you don’t renew your subscription, your membership software will stop working. Many reviews also say that it is good for memberships, but not a great option for digital downloads. The 14-day money back guarantee window is also a bit shorter than competitors.
I sent them an email with some questions as this was one of my top options, but never received any response though.
Reviews:
https://surefirewebservices.com/memberpress-review-membership-aches-pains/
15. Affiliate Royale
https://www.affiliateroyale.com
Pricing: Starting at $85 one time cost (includes one year of updates and support)
Affiliate Royale is a WordPress plugin that let’s you run your own affiliate program and creates a personalized affiliate dashboard for each affiliate. It is included for free when you buy Memberpress, but it can also be purchased separately if you already have another membership plugin like Wishlist or 1ShoppingCart.
16. Member Mouse
Pricing: Starting at $19.95 / month for up to 1,000 members
Unlike other WordPress membership plugins, Member Mouse charges a recurring monthly fee, which means it probably works best if your membership site is also charging a recurring fee to your customers. Some features include content dripping, coupons, upsells/downsells and 1-click buying. Member Mouse has its own affiliate functionality built in, but you can also integrate with other affiliate programs like iDevAffiliate if you need something more sophisticated.
17. SendOwl
Pricing: Starting at $15 / month for digital products
SendOwl is a tool that bloggers and marketers can use to sell digital products with ease. You can also sell memberships, although you will have to upgrade to a slightly more expensive plan and you will still need a WordPress plugin like S2 Member, Member Mouse or Wishlist. SendOwl offers affiliate program functionality and is less expensive than other options, so it is worth considering.
18. Post Affiliate Pro
https://www.postaffiliatepro.com/
Pricing: Starting at $97 / month, 14 day free trial or starting at $470 one time fee
Post Affiliate Pro offers traditional cookie based tracking as well as direct link tracking. It also offers some advance features like split commissions, unlimited tiers, and mass reporting. Post Affiliate Pro integrates with most web based platforms.
19. Zaxaa
Pricing: Starting at $47 / month if paid for the full year
Zaxaa is a platform designed to help people sell digital courses and products. It comes with a membership site plugin or also integrates with other membership plugins if you prefer. It has built in affiliate program functionality that allows 2-tier commissions and affiliate contests.
20. WP Affiliate
Pricing: $49.95 one time payment (unlimited upgrades)
WP Affiliate has been around for a long time that offers CSV data export, 2-tier commissions and integrates with various autoresponders and carts. I emailed them with some pre-sales questions and never heard back, but they appear to answer all posts in their customer support forum. Be sure to check compatibility with your email software and membership plugin.
21. Ultimate Affiliate Pro
https://codecanyon.net/item/ultimate-affiliate-pro-wordpress-plugin/16527729
Pricing: $37 one time payment
Ultimate Affiliate Pro is an affiliate plugin that integrates with Ultimate Membership Pro to allow you to run your own affiliate program. Some features include recurring payments, lifetime affiliate commissions, performance bonuses, and multi-tier commissions. I emailed them with some pre-sales questions, but never heard back.
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