The best affiliate commissions cannot be found on sites such as Amazon and eBay. In fact, those two popular partner programs offer the least competitive commissions. Amazon and eBay will pay you between 3% and 11% commissions on sales you generate on the sites. That’s pretty low by industry standards. Although Amazon and eBay are trusted sites with customers, that’s not enough of a reason to promote their products as an affiliate.
You’re far better off promoting digital products which offer higher commissions. Digital products, by comparison with physical products offer much higher rates. Typically digital products will pay out 30%-60% commissions to their affiliates. The best affiliate commissions are to be found by using digital products which pay out large commissions on a range of products.
Best Affiliate Commissions – Product Ranges
Most affiliates will promote a single product to their email list or from a website. Or, they will have one or two products to sell to their subscribers.
With a product range, you can benefit from multiple products which are up-sold automatically. So you really only need to sell the initial product, and the sales funnel does the rest. A good product range which offers the best affiliate commissions will have all of these benefits:
- Digital products not physical products – best rates of commission and ease of delivery globally
- High ticket digital products offer larger commissions on more valuable products. Typically products valued over $1000 with a 40%+ commission
- Recurring commission affiliate programs keep paying for your previous referrals. They are products like software products or membership products.
- Multi-tier commissions – can be made with certain programs. With a multi-tier program, you can earn from sales made by your referrals.
- A good product range has a built in sales team closing sales on your behalf as well as automated up-selling done through the sales funnel
See SFM Digital Business System for more on this system/product range or get started here.
Best Affiliate Commissions – High Ticket Physical Products
High ticket physical products can also offer good rates of commission. Hammacher Schlemmer is a company which offers many products you can promote as an affiliate. Many products are valued at well over $10,000. So even though their affiliate commissions are lower compared to digital products, their high price tag makes up for the lower levels of commission.
Here’s their flying hovercraft priced at $190,000! Even an 8% commission would give you $15,200 on a referral!
The golf cart hovercraft is priced at $58,000 which would give you an affiliate commission of $4,640 if you made a sale of one. Not bad eh?
See also highest paying affiliate programs list for more on this.
Recurring Income Products
The best affiliate commissions can also be found in recurring income products. With recurring income products, you make a sale and keep making commissions; potentially for years to come. The best kinds of products to promote which offer recurring commissions are those used by online businesses. Software products such as autoresponders, SEO tools, website building and analytics tools etc.
These are great for affiliates because they are vital tools which are needed by business owners. Once someone purchases a product which they later come to rely on, they will maintain their memberships for years or even a lifetime.
Here’s a few recurring income affiliate programs:
- The Six Figure Mentors – Digital Online Business Mentorship Program.
- Aweber – For email marketing
- Leadpages- For custom landing pages
- Get Response – Email marketing
- Elegant Themes – WordPress website themes
- Social Pilot – Social Media Tool
- SEM Rush – SEO tool
- Snip.ly – Conversion/opt-in tool
- HostGator – Hosting provider
- Shopify – Online Store Builder
Recurring income affiliate products may not pay as much as a high ticket digital product, but the income is recurring. Even a recurring income of £10 a month soon adds up with a number of sales under your belt. 100 sales means you’ll be making a monthly income of $1000 passively, once you’ve got some solid members.
With many affiliate products and strategies, it can be difficult to get traction. Results are often sporadic and many affiliates drop out because of this. With a recurring commission, it’s easier to build a solid income as an affiliate.
Summary
The best affiliate commissions can be found using digital products or high value physical products. Don’t waste time on low value physical products unless you have a solid strategy. Ideally focus on digital products because they pay out much more in terms of commissions. Physical products tend to pay between 3% and 11% commissions, so you’ll need to sell a lot of products to make it work. But with high ticket products (and/or digital products) you can make more per sale.
Ideally use both digital and high ticket for the best of both worlds. Recurring income products too are a great way to build a solid income online. The SFM digital business system offers the best affiliate commissions overall:
- Digital product range with a built in sales team
- High ticket products within a range (with automated up-sells)
- Recurring commission products built in
- Multi-tier commission available at the partner level (earn from sales made by your referrals).
For more information on The SFM digital business system you can click on the image below and access a free video series.
It’s also worth a note to say that whatever affiliate products you decide to promote, you’ll need to work for some time on your marketing strategy. You can sell a book from Amazon, or a $1000 commission training course, and with the same amount of effort and work. Which one would you rather pursue?
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