Even though there are a lot of different affiliate marketing affiliate programs out there, you need to be aware that they're not all the same. They're not all created equally as well as they don't all pay well. This is why it is so important to pick only the best affiliate programs. After all, if you're looking for extra income, you want to make sure that you do everything right from the start.

Why Do Companies Have Affiliate Programs?

You may be thinking about why a popular company needs to have an affiliate program in the first place. The truth is that popular companies haven't always been popular, not to mention that even though they're already popular, they still need to continue to grow. For these companies, it's important to keep increasing sales but also create some brand awareness. According to Statista, the affiliate marketing industry was evaluated at $8.2 billion back in 2022.

Why You Should Become an Affiliate Marketer?

As we already mentioned above, one of the main benefits of becoming an affiliate marketer is that you don't need any previous experience. No matter if you want to promote a product or two using your social media accounts, your blog, create a specific website, or any other, you can do it. But you need to pick the best programs. This means looking for easy affiliate marketing programs but also for the top paid affiliate program to get started.

Ultimately, you want to make money online but, at the same time, you need to be careful with some questionable affiliate marketing programs that are available. So, you need to look for the best affiliate offers.

One of the first things that you'll notice when you start reading about this subject is that you can search for the best programs directly on specific networks or you can opt to promote companies and products that have independent affiliate programs.

Even though most people will tell you that you should go with a network, it truly depends on the independent referral partner program and on the company that is running it. As long as the company with affiliate programs is reputable, you shouldn't have any problem promoting its products or services.

But What Is An Affiliate Program?

Simply put, an affiliate program is a deal or partnership made between a company and the affiliate marketer. The company accepts to pay the affiliate marketer a commission for sales or referrals.

As you can easily understand, both parties win with this deal: while the company can make more business, the affiliate marketer can make a commission on each sale or referral he makes.

How Can You Make Money?

Notice that joining an affiliate marketing program is always free. You don't need to pay anything. This means that if a company wants you to pay to start promoting them, you should see this as a red flag and move on to the next company on your list.

When you join an affiliate marketing program, you'll have access to your link that you can use to promote the products or services to your network. In most cases, companies will have many different materials you can use to promote their products and services. From emails to messages, banners, images, and many other materials you may use to earn your commissions. But how can you actually earn money?

Ultimately, there are 4 different ways you can make money as an affiliate marketer:

• Pay per sale: This is the most common type of commission. You will get a percentage of any sale you make for the company. Notice that this percentage may be for selling a product or for a recurring subscription, for example.

• Pay per lead: Some companies are more interested in getting interested, targeted leads than in making more sales. In this case, you will be paid for any lead that signs up with the company. It may be signing up for a newsletter, asking for more information, a landing page submission, or anything similar.

• Tiered commissions: More and more companies are opting for this type of commission. Ultimately, your earnings will increase as you refer more customers. This is a way companies have to make sure their affiliates continue to bring more customers to them.

• Pay per click: This is the least common way you have to make money as an affiliate marketer. Simply put, all you need to do is to make sure that you get people to click on your affiliate link to earn your commission. Even though you don't make any sales or the person doesn't sign up for anything, you'll still get your commission.

How to Find Affiliate Programs

One of the main difficulties you have when you're starting as an affiliate marketer is determining the best companies to do affiliate marketing for. After all, there are many different online affiliate marketing programs not to mention they all have different paying schemes and are from different industries and niches.

If you already read about affiliate marketing, you know some people advocate you should only promote products or services that you use or like. Others say that as long as you are ok with the commissions and the terms of the program, you can go ahead and promote. Another question you may have is whether you should promote only one company or several.

Overall speaking, and trying to answer all these questions, it depends on you and your goals. It depends on how you're going to promote the companies, the time you have available, and your strategies. Although, there are some key points you should keep in mind:

• You should only look for free affiliate marketing programs; if someone wants you to pay a fee upfront or a deposit just to start promoting a product or service, you should move on to the next company on your list.

• Not only the highest commission affiliate programs are good. There are some affiliate products and affiliate services that may not be so attractive due to their low commission but they're nearly risk-free. So, you should evaluate the risk-reward of promoting a specific product and service.

• There's no such thing as the best affiliate product; there are many great affiliate products. You just need to find the right ones for your network.

• Affiliate network programs are no better or no worse than independent website affiliate programs. It all depends on the companies you're looking at.

To make sure that you can start making money using affiliate programs, and if you're wondering where to find affiliate programs, we will share with you the best 39 affiliate advertising programs in 2025. You will discover many companies that use affiliate marketing that you had no idea about.

Top 39 Affiliate Marketing Programs in 2025

#1: Lua CRM

Lua CRM's referral partner program is one of the best, especially if you're just starting. With many different materials that you can use, promoting Lua CRM's is extremely easy. After all, you start with a good basis since its online CRM with project management tool is a great product that has lots of positive feedback. Lua CRM also offers tools to manage team collaboration, knowledge sharing, invoicing, financial management, order tracking, dashboard, reporting tools, client portal—all in one single spot.

To join Lua CRM's affiliate program, you just need to sign up to get your referral link. When a user clicks the affiliate link and completes a purchase, the affiliate receives a commission. You can then use this link to promote Lua CRM's business management solution wherever you want. You can put it on your social media accounts, use your blog to promote it, or you can even create a website to promote it. It's completely up to you.

Anyone with a passion for promoting Lua CRM and a desire to earn passive income can join the partner affiliate program. Lua CRM referral partner program offers competitive commission rates, with affiliates earning up to 30% recurring commission on every sale referred for the next 12 months (only monthly plans). You can rest assured that you'll get your commission on all sales you make since the program is supported by the FirstPromoter site.

While there are no strict restrictions, affiliates are encouraged to adhere to ethical marketing practices and comply with Lua CRM's terms and conditions when promoting the product. To learn more details, feel free to reach out to the Lua CRM support team. This is, without any question, one of the best free affiliate programs in 2025.