By publisher type · Websites
Affiliate Programs
for Websites
Choose Per Page, Not Per Site
A site is not one placement. Your comparison pages, your how-tos and your tool results meet readers in completely different states, and you are the only kind of publisher here who can put a different campaign in front of each. That is the whole advantage of owning the pages — this page is how to use it.
- Registration is free
- Deep links to the exact page
- Five sub ID slots per link
- What is reviewed
- The site itself — a reviewer opens it and reads
- What you choose
- A campaign per page type, not one for the site
- What you control
- The destination, the disclosure and the link
- What you measure
- Approved against pending, cut by slot
Start here
Nine kinds of site, and what changes for each
“A website” covers a one-person tool and a fifty-thousand-page directory. Find the row that is yours — three of them have pages of their own, and those pages are better than this one at their own subject.
-
Blogs and editorial sites
Written by one voice for a returning reader. The niche-to-category map and the small-site approval answer live on the bloggers and creators page, not here.
-
Review and comparison sites
Built around a decision the reader is already making. The strongest fit for deep links, because you know the exact page they should land on.
-
Tools, calculators and converters
The result screen is the placement: the reader has just been told an answer and is ready for what comes next. Nothing about the tool has to change.
-
Directories and listing sites
One row per provider, which makes an affiliate link a natural part of the entry. Rows carrying a commercial link have to be marked as such.
-
Forums and communities
Your own posts and templates can carry links; other people's cannot be monetised on their behalf, and signature or sitewide links are a moderation question first.
-
Resource hubs and download sites
A stack of pages solving one problem each. Watch that the download itself is never gated behind a click on a commercial link.
-
Niche news and industry sites
High volume, mixed intent. The commercial pages are usually a small minority of the site, so choosing them deliberately matters more here than anywhere.
-
Local and small-business sites
A real audience in one market, which is exactly the shape a country list likes. The offer has to fit what the business already recommends.
-
Coupon, deal and cashback sites
A rulebook of its own — official codes only, and a model that pays differently. That is the cashback and deals page's subject, not this one's.
Three of those rows hand over rather than compete: writing a blog is bloggers and content creators, which maps a niche to a category; codes and deals are cashback, coupons and deals; and buying traffic to a landing page is media buyers. Everything else on the list is this page's. If you have a channel and no site at all, the mirror of this page is no-website affiliate programs.
The decision
Eight places a link can sit on a page
No rates, no click-through figures and no claim that one slot beats another — nothing here has been measured and this site publishes no performance data. What the last column carries instead is the rule or the brief line that actually governs the slot.
| Where the link sits | What it is for | What governs it |
|---|---|---|
| In the sentence that names the product | The reader is already reading about it, so the link is part of the explanation rather than an interruption. | Disclose the relationship where the link appears. Mark it rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". |
| A comparison table inside the page | Several campaigns side by side on the one page a reader opens to choose between them. | Every column has to be accurate today. Prices and terms move, so date the table and re-check it. |
| A decision block at the end of a section | One clear next step where the page has finished making its point. | The claim in the block is the advertiser's own wording, not a better version of it. |
| A tool or calculator result screen | The moment after an answer, when the reader knows what they need and not yet where to get it. | The result must be complete without the link. Nothing may be withheld until they click. |
| A directory or listing row | One entry per provider, where a commercial link is what the reader expects to find. | Rows carrying a paid relationship are marked, and ordering is not sold as if it were editorial. |
| A resources or tools page | A standing list of what you actually use, which keeps earning long after it is written. | Only things you genuinely use. Re-check the list on a schedule — campaigns end and links die quietly. |
| Sidebar, footer and other sitewide furniture | The same placement on every page, which means it meets every intent your site has and fits none of them exactly. | It still needs a disclosure, and it is the hardest slot to read in a report unless it has its own sub ID. |
| Pop-ups, click-unders and interstitials | Nothing here. This row exists so you do not have to ask. | Banned network-wide, not discouraged — along with cloaked redirects. Conversions from them are invalidated. |
The last row is a network rule rather than a preference: pop-ups, click-unders, interstitials and cloaked redirects are banned across every campaign here, and conversions produced by them are invalidated rather than paid. The full list of what a placement may and may not do is on campaign guidelines, and what a reviewer checks once it is live is on compliance.
The idea the rest of the page runs on
A site is not one placement — it is many intents
Every other publisher type on this network promotes to one audience in one state. A site owner holds several at once, on pages they can edit. Five things follow from that, and the first is the one most people skip.
- 01
The unit of the decision is the page, not the site
A site is a collection of reader states. Somebody on a comparison page has already decided to buy something and is choosing what; somebody on a how-to has a problem and no budget in mind. One campaign cannot be right for both, and you are the only kind of publisher here who does not have to pick.
- 02
One campaign everywhere is the commonest waste
The usual first move is to take the campaign with the best-looking terms and put it in the template, so it appears on every page at once. What that actually does is spend your highest-intent slots on whatever happened to be applied for first.
- 03
A page can be re-pointed and a post cannot
When a campaign ends or its terms move, you edit one page and the fix is live. Publishers on rented surfaces have to leave the old placement standing or delete it. This is the real advantage of owning the site, and it only pays off if you keep a list of where the links are.
- 04
The disclosure is a template job, not a placement job
Write it into the template that renders the page and it is correct on every page that template makes, including the ones you publish next year. That is something no channel publisher can do, and it is the cheapest compliance work available to you.
- 05
A report you cannot cut by slot tells you nothing
Five sub ID slots ride on every tracking link and you fill them yourself. Label the page and the position, not the campaign — the campaign is already in the report. Without that, every placement on your site reports as one number and you cannot tell which page earned.
Approval is per campaign, which is what makes choosing per page possible: you can hold several at once and put each where it belongs. How that review works is on how approval works, and what each payout model pays on is compared on payout models.
What owning the page buys you
Three things you control that a channel publisher does not
These are the levers that make a site worth monetising properly rather than sprinkling links on. Each one is cheap to set up once and expensive to retrofit later.
-
The destination
You choose the page they land on
Deep links, not homepages.
Point the link at the specific pricing page, plan or feature you have just written about. A reader who lands mid-decision and then has to find the thing again is a reader you have handed back to the advertiser's navigation.
Set one destination per slot, not one per site.
-
The disclosure
You write it once, into the template
Correct on pages you have not made yet.
The commercial relationship has to be obvious wherever the link appears. On a site that is a template edit rather than a per-post habit, which is why it is the one compliance task a site owner should never be behind on.
Put it above the first link, not in the footer.
-
The link
You control the markup and the hop
Clean, labelled, and yours to change.
Plain redirects only — cloaking is refused network-wide. Mark commercial links with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", give each slot its own sub ID values, and fire a test click from the published page before you build anything on top of it.
Label the slot, then read the report by it.
Link anatomy, the five sub ID slots and the test conversion are on tracking links. Campaigns ship their own creatives and comparison assets, so a deep link is usually available without asking — what a campaign provides is written on its brief, alongside every other line worth reading.
Traffic fit
Two lists your traffic will meet
A site's audience is mixed in a way a single channel's is not, and both of the lists on a brief bite harder because of it. Neither is a problem once you have read them — both are expensive if you have not.
-
List one
The country list meets an audience you did not choose
Organic traffic arrives from wherever it arrives from. A campaign accepts the markets it names, and a conversion from outside them is rejected rather than paid at a lower rate — so a page that ranks internationally can send a lot of traffic that cannot convert for that campaign at all.
Check your own market mix before you judge a campaign by its approval rate.
-
List two
The source list means every source, not just the site
Most sites are not one source. There is a newsletter, referrals from social, a partner sending links, sometimes a small ad budget. All of them end up on the same tracking links, and the application has to name all of them — a source you did not declare is not covered by the approval you were given.
Declare everything now; adding a source later is a question, not a problem.
Both lists are printed on the brief before you apply, and the rule that a conversion from an unlisted market is rejected rather than repriced is the network's, on affiliate programs, compared. If one of your sources is paid, read PPC and search ads before you spend anything — brand terms are the line people cross first.
How it works
From an existing site to a placement you can read
Four steps, each the version a site owner actually does. The general review, and what a reviewer reads, stays on how approval works.
- 01
Sort your pages by intent
List the templates you actually publish and mark which ones meet a reader who is choosing something. That short list is where campaigns go; the rest of the site is not the target.
- 02
Apply where the fit is real
Registration is free and a person reads the application, usually within a day or two. Name the site and every other source you have, and read the allowed traffic and country list before the rate.
- 03
Place one labelled link per slot
Deep link to the page you wrote about, set the sub IDs to the page and position, add the disclosure and the rel attribute, then click it yourself from the live page to confirm the labels come back unchanged.
- 04
Read approved against pending, by slot
Clicks are not the number. Compare what was approved with what is still pending for each slot, and move or replace the ones that produce traffic the advertiser keeps rejecting.
Conversions clear the same way for every publisher here: pending while the advertiser validates, approved once it holds, then the campaign's hold period before a balance joins a payment run. The states are on payouts and the dates and thresholds on the payment schedule. What is open to applications right now is in the campaign index.
Before and after approval
What is looked at, and what pulls a placement
The first list is what a reviewer opens when your application arrives. The second is what ends a live placement, and it applies to a site exactly as it applies to anything else.
-
A reviewer opens your site and looks for
- A live site with real published content, not a parked domain or a placeholder
- Pages whose subject actually matches the campaigns you applied for
- The traffic sources you named, all of them, each one reachable
- Creatives and claims you have already published elsewhere
- A disclosure a reader can see without hunting for it
- One account per partner — duplicates are merged or closed
-
What pulls a placement
- Pop-ups, click-unders, interstitials and cloaked redirects, on any campaign
- Claims about an offer that are not the advertiser's own wording
- Unofficial or expired discount codes presented as current
- Bidding on an advertiser's brand terms without written permission
- Rewarded or incentivised clicks on a campaign with no incentive tag
- A placement on a source that is not on your application
Nothing is auto-approved and a held application is usually a question about one source rather than a refusal — answering it continues the review. If a live placement does break a rule, the ladder runs in three rungs: the campaign is paused with a notice, the affected conversions are invalidated, and severe or repeated breaches end the account.
Questions
Questions from site owners
Including the two this page answers with a method and a pointer instead of a list — a list of campaigns would be out of date before you finished reading it.
What affiliate programs can I use on my website?
Any campaign whose brief names your site as an accepted traffic source and whose markets cover the readers you actually have. That is settled per campaign rather than per program, and this site publishes no campaign list in its marketing pages — the index is where the current answer is. The useful question to bring is which of your page templates the campaign would sit on.
What are the best affiliate programs for websites?
No ranking is published here, and a ranked list elsewhere is usually the list-maker's own affiliate links. The best campaign for your site is one that matches a page you already publish, accepts your sources, covers your markets and pays on an action your readers are close to taking. A higher rate on a page nobody reaches is worth less than a modest one on your busiest comparison page.
Is there a minimum traffic requirement?
No traffic threshold is published, and access is decided by how your declared sources match each campaign's rules rather than by a number. What a reviewer needs is a site they can open with real published content on it. The full answer for a new or small site is on the bloggers and creators page.
Where should the links go on my site?
On the pages where a reader is choosing something, and inside the part of the page that is already talking about it. The table above sets out eight places a link can sit, what each one is for, and the rule or brief line that governs it. Sidebar and footer placements are allowed but hardest to read in a report unless you give them their own sub ID.
Will affiliate links hurt my site?
The formats that would are banned network-wide rather than merely discouraged: no pop-ups, no click-unders, no interstitials and no cloaked redirects on any campaign here. Use plain redirects, mark commercial links with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", and disclose the relationship where the link appears.
Can I use one link across the whole site?
You can, and it is the fastest way to lose the only reporting you have. Each tracking link carries five sub ID slots you fill yourself, so give every slot its own label — the page and the position — and the report will separate them. Keeping one destination per slot also means you can re-point a single page when a campaign ends.
My site gets traffic from several countries. Does that matter?
Yes, and it is the thing site owners are most often surprised by. A campaign accepts the markets it lists, and a conversion from outside them is rejected rather than repriced. A page that ranks internationally can produce plenty of clicks that cannot convert for that campaign, so read the country list against your own market mix before you judge the terms.
Do I need to declare my newsletter and social accounts too?
Yes. Approval is matched to the sources you declare, and a placement on a source that is not on your application is not covered by it. Declaring a newsletter, a channel or a small ad budget alongside the site costs nothing and avoids a conversation later — adding one afterwards is a question, not a problem.
Can I run affiliate links alongside my other monetisation?
Nothing here requires exclusivity, and the campaigns place no claim on the rest of your site. What does apply everywhere is the format rules: whatever else is on the page, the affiliate placement itself has to be a plain link with a visible disclosure and no interstitial in front of it.
How long until a placement earns something?
There is a conversion, then validation by the advertiser, then the campaign's hold period, and only then does a balance join a payment run once it clears the minimum. The lengths are per campaign and printed on the brief. Plan around approved earnings rather than clicks, because clicks on a site are the number that moves first and means least.
Keep reading
- For publishers The hub: every publisher type and what changes for each
- Bloggers and content creators The sibling: match a writing niche to a category
- No-website programs The mirror: promoting from a channel you do not own
- Affiliate programs, compared What every line of a campaign brief decides
- Tracking links The click ID, the five sub ID slots and the test conversion
- How approval works What a reviewer reads, and what holds an application
Start with the page that is already choosing
Create your publisher account, declare the site and every other source it has, then apply for the campaigns that belong on your highest-intent pages.