When you are just starting out in affiliate marketing, trying to find a program, or a platform to promote can sometimes be difficult. As such, I wanted to investigate some of the best affiliate programs for beginners, taking into account how easy it is to join, how easy it is to promote, if there are any costs and of course what help you get.
Of course, these programs are within the make money online niche, but if people want then I will look at expanding this to other niches (just add a comment below).
As I said, the criteria for these programs includes;
ClickFunnels
As much as ClickFunnels does get a bad rap (even from me) the potential for people who are new to affiliate marketing, is high.
Out of the 50k affiliates that are signed up to promote it, less than 100 really bring in the big commissions or constantly promote ClickFunnels, so there is plenty of room to grow within this space, if you think outside of the box.
This one nearly didn't make it on the list, due to the changes to their affiliate program, but they have so may products it would be criminal not to include it. As most people know, ClickFunnels is a funnel builder, but it also has at least 14 different offers, not including upsells or products found within funnels.
These 14 different products range from seminars, or virtual summits, to books, software and of course training. Which opens up the possibility to promote these to a number of different niches and customers.

Most people will become a ClickFunnels affiliate, to sell ClickFunnels to other affiliates. But offers such as The One Funnel Away challenge can be taken by Dentists, Gym Owners, Care Sales people or even just someone looking to sell their own products. The list is endless.
You can also sign up to become a ClickFunnels Affiliate for free, which gives you access to promote those 14+ products, with most of them giving you 40% commissions across the funnels.
One thing to keep in mind, you won't get access to the raw 14 day trial link until you have generated $1000 commissions within a 30 day period. You will also be given 30% commissions (as apposed to 20%) so there is an obvious reason to start promoting and getting behind their products, especially some of the big ticket products.

As you can see, with earnings of up to $329 per book sale, you would only need 4 sales per month (if someone took everything) to start hitting the numbers required. Plus some of these users will take the ClickFunnels trials and hopefully earn some extra commissions.
ClickFunnels Platforms gets a solid 8/10 for promotion!
MyOnlineStartUp
Something that only really appeared over the last 30 - 40 days (end of April really) and has never been on my radar before, but worth mentioning these days.
MOS is an online course that teaches people what affiliate marketing is, and the different types and styles of affiliate marketing. With over 70,000 members this is a growing community of members.
People will instantly believe that because there are 70k members then you have 70k people who will be promoting this platform or product. That's not the case, as it's the same with ClickFunnels, whereby you only have a handful of people raking in the big money with platforms like this.

One of the plus points for promoting this course is that a lot of the members who you sign up, with usually click through the different offers and products included, this means that even if someone doesn't buy the main product then they will get one of the offers such as Wealthy Affiliate or Bluehost.
From an affiliate point of view, you do have to pay to promote this product, with a charge of $197 cost, which again reduces the number of people who will go onto promote the product itself.
The other point is that the course shows you how to pick multiple niches and different niches, so a large proportion of those 70k members will have branched out to other niches and again not be a direct competitor.
The best reason for promoting this, is the fact they give you a free course to give away, email swipes, images and some training on how to promote it. That and the 50 different ID's that you can put into the back end of the course.
MyOnlineStartup gets 8/10
ClickBank
It was always going to make this list, mainly due to how popular the platform is.
ClickBank, if you are not familiar is an affiliate marketplace, covering a huge number of niches and categories. This makes it really useful if you are just starting out as you can find a variety of products to product.
I would say it's quick and easy to sign up for, with some restrictions on countries, which can throw a spanner in the works if you happen to be in those countries.
One thing you will find with ClickBank is the same you find with ClickFunnels, there are ALOT of affiliates, but there are hundreds of different products, so it's not that surprising. As with ClickFunnels it's probably not that surprising that there are only a small number of affiliates making the big mullah.

It's worth going through the site, finding a product that you like, and focusing on it. Understanding what the product does, what issues it solves and how it can help your chosen target market. Yes, there are products that solve so many different problems on this site, you will be surprised.
Hosting - Site Ground / Blue Host / Whoever Your Host Is
If you have chosen to go down the SEO route (I recommend it because it really can be done on a budget) then this method can be something that is very passive.
It doesn't have to be a in your face, going out there and promoting it, because as people start to find your articles and your site, you can proudly say who hosts your site.
I admit, I don't have a badge or image that my website is on SiteGround, mainly because I love having a clean website, but I may change that in the future if more people ask me the question.
One of the reasons hosting is great to promote is that they usually offer decent commissions, anywhere from $50 - $150 per sign up (as long as they stay for a few months) and have a low refund or chargeback rate.

Plus, there is a never ending supply of people looking for hosting providers.
You can also promote them on sites such as YouTube, with tutorial videos and reviews, these companies can form the beginning of the video.
Another reason that makes host's some of the Best Affiliate Programs For Beginners is that they are free to join, have tons of resources and content for you to leverage and of course have a high trust rate. With high trust rates, comes much better conversion rates. With mine sitting at around 8% (though I don't actively promote my hosts, aside from a review).
Auto Responders (GetResponse)
Everyone needs an autoresponder, be it someone making YouTube videos, running ads, doing social media outreach or even blogging, building a list is an amazing way to make side hustle money.
Building that list of engaged and interested users is going to be something everyone wants to do,and auto responders help do that.
The fact they are also free to join should put them near the top of the list of products to promote if you are a beginner. Also due to the huge market and number of potential clients, the monthly payouts and the time being stay with these platforms
There are no shortage of responders for you to choose from, with some focusing on certain areas, such as eCom or Affiliate Marketing. Most of them will also come with resources to help you promote them or give you ideas on how to promote them.
The commissions from these will different per auto responder. Most will pay you for everymonth that
Wealthy Affiliate
Another good platform if you are just beginning, and one that may be more aligned with those who might be blogging or potentially using YouTube or forums to drive traffic, Wealthy Affiliate can sometimes be a decent platform to promote.
It comes with a free course, designed to take people through around 10 videos on how to start their own affiliate marketing website or blog. This course has a semi decent signup rate to the premium membership, with WA claiming around a 30% conversion rate. So if you send 100 people, 30 of them will go on to pay $40 per month for their premium membership.
WA have two separate memberships (and they determine your commission from these).

If you don't actually need to use WA, then you can simply sign up for a free account here and grab your own affiliate links. Staying as a 'free' member means you will only earn $11 per month your users are active. If you want to get $23 per month per user, you are going to have to upgrade yourself (clever right).
Worth knowing that once you are signed up, that's it. You can't go back to a normal level, which means a lot of people will stay inside of WA just to ensure they keep the higher payout.
From a 'is it good for beginners to market?' the answer is yes and no. WA has a lot of affiliates, and a lot of them doing the same thing, creating blogs in the make money online niche and then just promoting WA (usually using negative marketing to basically say WA is the best).
This means you may have a lot of competition. It will mean you have to find the specific target market that may benefit from using WA's services or products.
Legendary Marketer
One of the final ones on this list of some of the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners, is Legendary Marketer, because their funnels are amazing.
If you are unsure about what LM is, it's a platform, with courses and eBooks that cover everything from creating funnels and utilising ads, to creating your own course, or becoming a coach. With a variety of price points, from$1 - $15,000.
One of the reasons I love promoting and telling people about Legendary Marketer, is that you get a lot of resources, such as ready made funnels, emails, videos, images, and even to some extent target audience.

Plus, LM can be used by a huge variety of people. It's popular 15 Day Business Builder Challenge is designed to show people how to set up and create a funnel and set up an ad to get traffic to that funnel. Any business could use that skill, not just affiliate marketers.
Which means the number of people who can benefit from Legendary Marketer grows, this is also true for the other products that Legendary sell, such as the Business Blueprints. The skills learnt within these courses can be put towards selling cat toys, running a coaching business or for creating your own course on how to do tasty vegetarian cookery.
I would note, you do need to have at least done the 15 Day Business Builder to be able to apply to become an affiliate. It costs $7 to do the challenge, and it means everyone applying to be an affiliate has had the same training and baseline to start.
If you are accepted (reach out if you want someone to vouch for you) then you get access to their ready made funnels and other resources. You also get the ability to promote their products. The higher ticket $1000+ don't have direct checkouts, but much like the ClickFunnels book funnel, leads and then members are slowly shown products or service they may want to take, all with your ID.
There is an optional $30 a month 'affiliate membership', which basically doubles your commissions from 10 - 20 to at least 40 - 50% across their products. I would say it's worth getting it, especially if someone takes the $1000 product and you make $250 rather than $500, or $250 rather than $1000 on some of the other products.
Conclusion - Is This It For The Best Affiliate Programs For Beginners?
I am going to try and keep this up to date, dropping new programs and courses or platforms as they appear.
The original version of this article didn't have MOS, as it didn't exist then, and I also included Warrior+ but I took it out because for the most part, the products are rehashes of something else, or quite literally the same product, with a new skin because someone purchased the resell rights.
One of the beauties of affiliate marketing, is that it changes and grows, meaning that new stuff appears fairly often.
Once you understand your chosen market, and what problem you want to fix, you can start to pick and choose platforms and programs that suit. Focus and understand these solutions and become a bit of a know-it-all, you will get a lot futher doing this.
Can you think of any others that could be added to this list? Have I missed any glaring obvious ones, then let me know below.

I started this blog around 2017, after realising that I wanted to let people know about all the different ways someone could make money online. From DropShipping, Affiliate Marketing, Network Marketing and more.
This blog has now grown to review and explain a variety of different tools and platforms, in the bid to help you.
This blog contains affiliate links, and I will get a commission for purchases made through these links. It doesn’t change anything for you and will on occasion save you money! Enjoy, James.