21 Affiliate Marketing Tools for Online Course and Digital Product Creators

 One of the most common and successful approaches for business owners to generate income via the internet is to engage in the sale of digital goods and services. The costs associated with beginning this kind of business are relatively low when compared to the costs associated with beginning a traditional firm, and the potential for profit is significant; some businesses reach seven or eight figures in revenue.

Creators of digital products can broaden their audience by establishing their own affiliate programs and giving others the opportunity to promote their products in exchange for a cut of the profits from such promotions. It is an excellent content booster that, in the process, also brings in additional revenue for you.

I’ve been doing research on 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 examine if you’re thinking about creating your own affiliate program. I hope you find them useful!

What characteristics should an affiliate tool have?

Before I go into the different tools that are available, I want to run through a few things that you need to ask yourself before deciding on an affiliate tool. The questions you ask will be determined by your personal requirements, but the following are some that are worthy of your attention.

1. Does it support multi-tier commissions?

2. What are the financial implications? Does the price include support and upgrades throughout the lifetime of the product?

3. Does it already have an established network of affiliates built in? (this can make it simpler to locate possible affiliates who are willing to promote you)

4. Does it allow affiliates to earn lifetime commissions?

5. Does it only allow commissions on certain products to be paid out?

6. Does it come with an integrated online shopping cart? Or does each component integrate independently?

7. Is it compatible with the software you use for your membership database, shopping cart, and email marketing, and does it connect with those programs?

8. Can you have a certain number of affiliates or is there a cap on the total number?

9. If it has a monthly cost that is ongoing, are you able to extract and move your affiliate information to another platform?

10. If you cancel your recurring monthly membership, what will happen to the data you have stored? Is it possible to deactivate it and then use it again at a later time?

11. Can I use it on just one site or several sites?

12. What is the procedure for making payouts?

13. Is there a dashboard for affiliates to use?

14. Does it support delayed affiliate payouts, such as affiliates being paid after 45 days have passed since a sale has been made?

15. Can it be used on shared hosting, or does a more robust platform need to be employed? Do I need an SSL certificate?

In conclusion, I strongly suggest contacting support through email and asking some pre-sales questions. It’s possible that you’ll be startled to learn how many “companies” out there don’t even bother to respond to pre-sales inquiries when they’re asked.

When it comes to anything like affiliate program software, the absolute minimum that you expect from a firm is for them to respond to any questions or concerns that you have regarding customer care.

1. The pricing for Sam Cart is as follows: $199 a month for the affiliate option

Brian Moran, an Internet marketing professional who previously built a seven-figure business teaching people how to promote on Facebook, is the man behind the creation of Sam Cart. It comes with an integrated shopping cart that supports a variety of e-commerce functions, including as subscriptions, coupons, memberships, one-click upsells, and more. The most affordable plan they provide starts at $19 per month, but if you want to manage your own affiliate network, you’ll need to upgrade to a more expensive plan.

2. The one-time fee of iDev Affiliate is $199 (which includes one year of upgrades), or the monthly cost is $39.

You have the option of paying a one-time price to purchase iDev Affiliate if you wish to install it on your own server, or you may pay a regular monthly fee instead. I sent them an email asking about the one time payment plan, and although it does offer unlimited assistance, you are still need to renew your subscription each year in order to receive software upgrades.

Higher price tiers feature plugins, which can also be purchased singly, and all plans come with limitless traffic and affiliates. Plugins can also be purchased separately. It is compatible with a wide variety of shopping carts, and you can perform a search on the company website to determine whether or not your shopping cart is supported.

3. The cost of a Digital Access Pass begins at a one-time payment of $167 (which includes a year’s worth of upgrades and support) or $39 on a monthly basis.

You can sell digital products or construct a membership site with the help of affiliates by utilizing the Digital Access Pass plugin for WordPress, which is available for free download. File protection for member-only content is one of the available features, along with one-click upsells, one-time offers (OTO), and many email and payment interfaces. It offers affiliate programs with two tiers, and the fixed pricing choices include a year of support and updates.

4. The pricing structure of Clickbank is as follows: Clickbank is an affiliate marketplace in which you may list your digital product so that other affiliates can locate it and promote it. Instead of high-end courses or membership sites, the majority of the products offered here appear to be digital downloads, eBooks, and various pieces of software.

5. Pricing for Affiliate WordPress, beginning at $99 per year

Affiliate WP is a plugin for WordPress that includes a variety of features, such as an affiliate leaderboard, an affiliate member area, an opportunity to receive store credit, and checkout referrals, among other things. You are going to require at least the pro version, which starts at $249 per year, in order to receive lifetime commissions. Additionally, it is compatible with a variety of WordPress shopping carts and membership plugins.

6. There is currently no pricing information for the Thrive Cart.

Although it is still in beta, Thrive Cart already provides a shopping cart for managing digital products and affiliates and charges a one-time fee. Because I’ve heard nothing but positive things about Thrive Cart, I think it’s important for you to keep an eye out for it.

7. Pricing for Simplero begins at $83 per month plus a 2% transaction fee, with a free trial period of 30 days

You can easily build your own digital products or membership site with the help of Simplero, which provides you with everything you require to do so, including landing pages and email marketing. Simplero appears to offer capabilities for affiliate management, despite the fact that this capability is not stated anywhere on the features page.

8. Pricing on Gumroad begins at $10 per month, plus 3.5% of each charge and $0.30 per transaction

With Gumroad, you may sell a variety of things online, including digital products, courses, subscriptions, physical products, and more. It appears that the functionality of their affiliate program is straightforward, as it provides a 30-day window during which the affiliate can be credited for referrals.

9. Paykickstart

Pricing starts at $99 per month (minimum)

Paykickstart combines an affiliate marketing scheme and a shopping cart into a single product, including additional features such as one-click upsells, subscriptions, licensing, and customized checkout pages. A few examples of the features available to affiliates are delayed affiliate payouts, retargeting pixels that affiliates are free to use, personalized destination links, options for reporting, affiliate bonuses, and many more. In addition, they are compatible with a wide variety of email programs, membership plugins, and webinar software.

10. Kajabi

Pricing starts at $311 a month for functionality related to the affiliate program, and there is a free trial period of 14 days.

New Kajabi gives you access to everything you require to start your own digital products, including landing pages, email marketing software, video hosting, and your very own website (that you can quickly set up using their templates). The option with the lowest price begins at $103 per month, but in order to manage your own affiliate network, you will need the plan that costs $311 per month.

11. Pricing for Lead Dyno begins at $49 per month (and above)

The cost of using Lead Dyno is calculated according to the monthly traffic that is received by your website. Their website will host the affiliate program, but you are free to add your own branding to the page. It makes social links, banners, links, and email newsletters that automatically have affiliate links produced for your affiliates, and you can also send emails to your affiliates to inform them of upcoming promotions and to let them know about any current promotions they may be participating in.

12. Pricing for Referral Candy starts at $25 per month (starting price)

Create a link for customers or affiliates who send business to your website using Referral Candy, which gives you the ability to do so. They are primarily geared for proprietors of online stores, although they are also capable of being used to run straightforward affiliate programs.

13. OSI Affiliated Organization by Omnistar

Pricing starts at $47 a month, with a free trial period of 15 days.

Another kind of referral marketing software that is geared at e-commerce and housed on their website is OSI Affiliate. Automatic customer enrollment, personalized thank you pages and email templates, as well as automated partnership management are among the available capabilities. Integrates with e-commerce systems (such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, and Big Commerce), email service providers (such as MailChimp, Aweber, and Constant Contact), and membership plugins (such as Wishlist and Memberpress) (including Drip and Active Campaign).

14. Prices for MemberPress start at $119 per year for a basic membership.

It is possible to sell digital products and develop your own membership site with the help of a plugin for WordPress called Memberpress. You are able to run your own affiliate program with the help of the Affiliate Royale plugin, which is included with the business and development editions of the software. Other capabilities include the ability to export member data, arrange trial periods, and integrate email software. Videos can also be password-protected via Amazon Web Services (AWS) so that only members can watch them.

If you do not renew your subscription in time, the membership software that you use will become inoperable. This is one of the drawbacks. According to a number of customer reviews, the service is beneficial for subscriptions but is not an excellent choice for digital downloads. The 14-day window for the money-back guarantee is also a little lower than what is offered by competitors.

I thought it would be a good idea to send them an email with some inquiries being as how this was one of my top choices; however, I never got a response from them.

15. Pricing for Affiliate Royale, beginning with a one-time payment of $85 (includes one year of updates and support)

Affiliate Royale is a plugin for WordPress that not only enables you to manage your own affiliate program but also generates a bespoke affiliate dashboard for each participant in your program. If you already have another membership plugin like Wishlist or 1ShoppingCart, you do not need to buy it separately because it comes free of charge with the purchase of Memberpress. However, you do have the option to buy it individually.

16. Pricing for Member Mouse begins at $19.95 per month for up to 1,000 members.

Member Mouse, in contrast to other WordPress membership plugins, levies a reoccurring monthly price; hence, it is likely to function most effectively if your membership website also levies a reoccurring fee to its members as well. Content dripping, coupons, upsells and downsells, and one-click purchasing are some of the capabilities that are available. Member Mouse comes with its own built-in affiliate functionality; but, if you require something with a higher level of sophistication, you may also combine Member Mouse with other affiliate programs such as iDevAffiliate.

17. SendOwl’s pricing for digital products begins at $15 per month and goes up from there.

SendOwl is a platform that makes it simple for bloggers and online marketers to sell digital products to their audiences. You also have the option to sell memberships; but, in order to do so, you will need to switch to a plan that is a little bit more expensive, and you will also require a WordPress plugin such as S2 Member, Member Mouse, or Wishlist. SendOwl is an alternative that should be considered because it provides capabilities for affiliate programs and is more cost-effective than other choices.

18. The pricing for Post Affiliate Pro begins at $97 per month, with a free trial period of 14 days, or at $470 for a one-time payment.

Both the standard cookie-based monitoring and the more modern direct link tracking are available through Post Affiliate Pro. In addition to that, it provides a number of advanced capabilities, such as the ability to divide commissions, limitless tiers, and mass reporting. Post Affiliate Pro is compatible with the vast majority of web-based applications.

19. Pricing for Zaxaa begins at $47 per month (or $475 total) if paid for the entire year in advance.

Zaxaa is a platform that assists individuals in the process of selling digital products and courses. It interfaces with other membership plugins as well as providing its own membership site plugin, which you can use if you choose. It includes capabilities for an affiliate program that is built right in, which enables 2-tier commissions and affiliate contests.

20. The pricing for WP Affiliate is a one-time payment of $49.95 (unlimited upgrades)

WP Affiliate has been around for a long time, and it is a program that enables CSV data export, commissions on two tiers, and integration with a variety of autoresponders and shopping carts. I emailed them with some pre-sales questions, but I never heard back from them. However, they appear to respond all postings in the forum where they provide customer care. Make sure to ensure that your email program and membership plugin are compatible with one another.

21. The pricing for Ultimate Affiliate Pro is a one-time payment of $37

Ultimate Membership Pro includes an affiliate plugin called Ultimate Affiliate Pro, which enables you to manage your own affiliate network and connects with Ultimate Membership Pro. Recurring payments, lifetime affiliate commissions, performance bonuses, and multi-tier commission structures are some of the features that are available. I sent them an email with some pre-sale inquiries, but I never received a response from them.