Affiliate Marketing: How Creators Earn Commission by Promoting Brands' Products
You've built an audience. You post, you share, you show up. So here's a fair question: could all that effort turn into actual income without you ever building a product of your own?
Short answer: yes, you can — through affiliate marketing!
US spending on affiliate marketing is projected to reach $13.81 billion this year, so the opportunity is clear. And for creators, it’s one of the most accessible ways to earn from an audience you already have. You recommend stuff you like, people buy it, and you get a cut.
TL;DR
- Affiliate marketing means you earn a commission by promoting someone else's products to your audience; no inventory, no customer service, no returns to process.
- You get paid per sale, per lead, or per click, depending on the affiliate program.
- The best affiliate marketers pick a niche, create genuinely helpful content, and only promote products they actually use.
- You can start with zero upfront cost using your existing social media, blog, or email list.
How Affiliate Marketing Works
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting another company's products or services.
Let’s say a fitness creator genuinely loves a protein powder made by the brand Naked Nutrition. They join Naked Nutrition’s affiliate program and start sharing affiliate links on their Instagram to promote the powder. Every time a follower buys through the link, the creator earns a cut of the sale.
Every affiliate deal needs three parties to work:
- The seller (or brand): This is the company or brand that makes the product and runs an affiliate program. They choose commission rates and provide unique tracking links to affiliates. In the example above, that would be Naked Nutrition.
- The affiliate: Affiliates are creators who promote products and earn a commission on every sale made through their affiliate links.
- The consumer: Finally, there’s the consumer, or the person who buys through your link. They usually don't pay a penny more than they would otherwise; affiliates’ commission comes out of the brand's pocket, not the consumer's.
Show Me the Money: How Affiliates Get Paid
So affiliate marketing sounds great — but how do you actually get paid? Well, there are three main commission models.
1. Per sale
The per-sale payout is the simplest model. Every time someone purchases through your unique link, you earn a percentage of the sale. Rates vary, but they often land between 5% and 20%. On a $100 purchase, you'd typically pocket somewhere between $5 and $20.
2. Per lead
Instead of a sale, you get credited when a lead is accepted — like a signup or a form fill. This one's most common with software companies and financial products with partner programs. You send them a qualified lead, and they send you a payout.
3. Per click
With the per-click model, you get paid every time someone clicks your link, whether they buy something or not. The per-click approach is less common for creators today; most programs reward actual sales or signups. But if you're sending serious traffic somewhere, some networks still reward the clicks themselves.
Okay, but what are affiliates realistically earning?
Now for the real question: Can you make a living off of affiliate income alone? Some people do, but most creators don't…at least not right away.
Earnings vary wildly based on your niche, audience size, and how well you convert.
Typical affiliate earnings by experience level | ||
|---|---|---|
Experience level | Typical monthly income | What it looks like |
Beginner (0 to 12 months) | $0 to $500 | Building an audience, testing programs, learning what converts |
Intermediate (1 to 3 years) | $500 to $7,500 | Consistent content, a proven niche, a few reliable programs |
Advanced (3+ years) | $7,500+ | Multiple income streams, strong SEO, or a large, engaged audience |
Plenty of full-time affiliate marketers report six-figure annual incomes, but they've usually spent years building traffic and trust. If you want the inside scoop from a creator who has built a full-blown affiliate business, check out this episode of “Just Send It” featuring Sal Farzin (@simplysalfinds):
The Best Places to Drop Affiliate Links
As a creator, there are plenty of opportunities to share your affiliate links. Here are the ones that actually work for creators and small businesses.
Your blog or website
If you have a website or a blog, you can feature affiliate products in your content, something that recipe writers, interior designers, and mommy bloggers do often. If you optimize for SEO, you’ll even be able to pull in organic traffic from Google search.
Social media (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc.)
Social media is the go-to for many affiliate creators, especially on Instagram. You can add links to your bio, Stories, or reel/carousel captions. If you’re a TikTok creator, you can apply to become an affiliate through TikTok Shop as well.
You can also automate your DMs so that anyone who comments on your post gets your affiliate link sent straight to their inbox — no manual copy-pasting required.
Real example: Creator Janesha Moore is a part of the Amazon Associates program. She posts reels and carousels of her favorite finds on Instagram and uses Manychat to deliver links to interested followers automatically.
YouTube
If you’re a YouTuber, you can create video reviews and tutorials about different products. This kind of content tends to convert especially well for affiliates, because if someone is spending time watching a video of this nature, they’re likely primed to buy. All you have to do is drop affiliate links in the video description box.
Here’s an example from YouTuber Kelly Strack:
Email and SMS lists
Owned channels like email and SMS tend to outperform algorithm-dependent feeds, especially with email open rates averaging around 20% (while organic social reach often dips below 5%).
When you email or text your audience, there's no algorithm deciding who sees it. You can embed affiliate links with specific, helpful context (like "here's the exact tote I use for gym days"). SMS is worth testing too, since text messages see open rates around 98% compared to email's roughly 20%.
Want to Become an Affiliate? Start Here
Ready to make your first sale? Here's how to start affiliate marketing from scratch — even with a small audience and zero budget.
Pick your niche
When you’re just getting started, it’s best to focus on one affiliate niche. That’s how you become a trusted voice in that space. Over time, your followers will get used to seeing you talk about that topic. So, if you post about gaming, stick to keyboards, mice, and headsets — not random kitchen gadgets.
The best advice is to pick a niche you'd talk about even if nobody paid you, since that's the kind of content you can stay consistent with. A good test: could you write 20 posts about products in this niche without running out of things to say? If yes, you've got room to grow. If not, narrow it further.
Choose your platform
Decide where you'll post your links. Wherever you have the largest, most engaged audience — that’s where you should post. A few things to consider:
- TikTok and Instagram reels typically offer the fastest way to get in front of new people, but links live in bio or comments, so you'll want a link-in-bio or DM automation tool to actually capture clicks.
- YouTube content takes longer to produce, but a single video can sell for years thanks to search traffic.
- Blog content takes the longest to rank, but once it does, it's the closest thing to passive income you'll find.
- Email and SMS aren’t discovery channels, but they’re a great way to reach people directly, and they typically lead to conversions, even if you have a small list.
Most affiliates post short-form content to grow reach, then funnel people into an email list or DM sequence where the actual selling happens.
Apply for affiliate programs
Finally, you need to find and join affiliate programs. There are a lot of popular brand-specific programs out there (like the Target Partner Program and Amazon Associates), as well as more generic platforms like ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, and/or impact.com.
Psst, if you use Manychat, you can apply to join the Manychat Partner Program. And if you don’t use Manychat, what are you waiting for?
Frequently asked questions
No. Pyramid schemes require you to recruit people and buy products to resell. With affiliate marketing, you never purchase inventory or recruit anyone — you're simply earning a commission for promoting products people choose to buy.
You can start for free. Most affiliate programs cost nothing to join, and you can promote products through your existing social media accounts, blog, or email list — no ad budget or website required to begin.
An affiliate marketer promotes other companies' products or services to their audience and earns a commission when someone makes a purchase, signs up, or clicks through their unique referral link.
The biggest affiliate program networks include Amazon Associates (great for beginners and physical products), ShareASale and CJ Affiliate (huge ranges of brands), impact.com (popular with software companies and larger brands), and ClickBank (known for digital products).
It depends heavily on your niche, audience, and consistency. Beginners often earn $0 to $500 a month while building up, while experienced marketers can hit five or six figures a year.
Originally published: Mar 5, 2021, Updated: Aug 10, 2026
