There are tens of thousands of merchants online who have affiliate programs. It can be overwhelming to think about, but also very exciting if you’re an affiliate marketer. While many merchants have them, there are plenty who do not have affiliate programs. For affiliate marketers looking to get started within a niche or just to promote products online in general, we often get the question:
How do I find companies that have affiliate programs?
This is an excellent question and there are many answers. We’re going to cover them today. Here are five great ways to find companies with affiliate programs.
1. Check the Main Affiliate Networks
The most straightforward way to find companies that have affiliate programs is to join an affiliate network, dive down the rabbit hole, and start searching for company’s affiliate programs. The main affiliate networks in the United States are ShareASale (owned now by Awin), CJ Affiliate by Conversant, Rakuten Marketing (also known as LinkShare), Pepperjam, AvantLink, Impact, and LinkConnector.
You can go to any or all of these networks, sign up as an affiliate, login to your new affiliate account and then immediately start viewing the available affiliate programs. Each network is a bit different, but they all allow you to search for company’s programs through basic keyword searches and categories.
For additional exposure, it’s common practice for companies to advertise their affiliate program within the affiliate network. This is another way to discover affiliate programs as these advertised programs tend to be front and center on various searches within the network and in promotional emails from the affiliate network.
2. Check a Company’s Website
The next way to find companies that have affiliate programs is to search the company’s website. This is more for when you’re searching for an affiliate program for a specific company.
The common practice for when a company has an affiliate program is to include a link within their website footer than links to more information about their affiliate program. This link could send you directly to the sign up page for the program on the specific affiliate network they run on or it could send you to a landing page diving into more detail about becoming an affiliate for that merchant. Here is an example of an affiliate program landing page from one of our clients.
Checking the company’s website can also be the best way, and sometimes only way, to find their affiliate program if they happen to run their program in-house and are not part of an affiliate network (you may learn about the different ways to support affiliate programs here).
Amazon.com is famous for this. They not only have one of the largest affiliate programs out there, but they also have one of the largest in-house programs. Their program is called the Amazon Associates program and you cannot promote Amazon through one of the main affiliate networks. You need an Amazon account and you grab all your links through the associates program directly on Amazon.
3. Browse Known Affiliate Websites
A non-traditional, yet effective, way to find companies who have affiliate programs is to see which companies are being promoted on affiliate websites. Sites like RetailMeNot, BradsDeals, Ebates, and SlickDeals make the majority of their revenue though affiliate marketing. By doing quick scans of any of those sites you can see tons of companies that all have affiliate programs and are being promoted on these sites.
Taking a closer look at which companies are being promoted on other affiliate sites can also give you a good idea on which companies have good affiliate programs that convert and pay well. Sites like these are multi million dollar businesses and they wouldn’t be wasting their time promoting company’s affiliate programs that do not do well for them.
4. Use Affiliate Program Directories
Another place online where you can find various affiliate programs are affiliate program directories. There are many sites like HighPayingAffiliatePrograms.com which people have created to attempt and make a database of all the major affiliate programs out there. These sites can be great resources for finding programs in a specific niche that you might otherwise have missed, glossed over, or maybe had yet to hear about.
5. Utilize Facebook Groups and Other Social Media
When looking for a new dentist or for someone to remodel your bathroom, you typically will ask around for referrals in order to give someone a shot. It’s no different with a great affiliate program. Affiliate marketers gather in various Facebook groups, social forums and subreddits throughout the Internet and these places are a wonderful place to find companies with affiliate programs.
The subreddit /r/affiliatemarketing currently has over 18,000 subscribers and people post and comment about various affiliate programs and affiliate marketing strategies all day long.
The Facebook group “Affiliate Café” is smaller and more exclusive. It got formed in 2016, shortly after the dissolution of a legendary affiliate marketing forum ABestWeb. It currently has over 300 members (most of which were active members of the aforementioned forum), and it’s a great example of a community of people on Facebook who frequently discuss affiliate programs and affiliate marketing.
On top of these, there are countless other affiliate marketing forums and places where discussions occur. Any one of them can be your next lead to finding a great affiliate program to join.
All in all, it’s pretty easy to find companies that have affiliate programs. You just need to know where to look. If a company has an affiliate program, they are going to want affiliates to join it so it’s very rare that these programs are hiding.
Feel free to contact us or comment below with any thoughts, notes, or questions.