How to Start a Successful Affiliate Program for Digital Products (Guide)

Wondering how you can set up an affiliate program for digital products?

By partnering with affiliates, you can tap into the power of word-of-mouth marketing and reach a wider audience that you may not be able to reach on your own.

In this article, I’ll show you how to start a successful affiliate program for your digital products using AffiliateWP. I have also shared some of the most popular affiliate programs for digital products to take inspiration from.

Why Start An Affiliate Program For Digital Products

Starting an affiliate program for your digital products can significantly impact your business’s growth.

Here are some of the top reasons why you must start an affiliate program for your digital products:

Increase in Revenue

By starting an affiliate program, you’ll be able to tap into the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

Affiliates will promote your digital products to their audience, increasing sales and revenue for your business.

With an affiliate program, you can leverage the reach of other businesses and influencers to promote your products.

Wider Audience Reach

Affiliates can help you reach a wider audience that you may not be able to reach on your own. Affiliates have their own audience that trusts and values their recommendations.

By partnering with affiliates, you can get your digital products in front of new potential customers who may not have found you otherwise.

Cost-Effective Marketing

Starting an affiliate program for your digital products is a cost-effective way to market your products compared to traditional marketing methods.

You only pay affiliates a commission when they generate a sale, which means you don’t have to spend money upfront on advertising. This makes affiliate marketing a cost-effective way to drive sales and increase revenue for your business.

Brand Building

By partnering with affiliates, you’ll build relationships with other businesses and influencers in your industry.

This can help you build your brand and establish your business as an authority in your niche.

By working with affiliates who share your values and mission, you can build a network of trusted partners who can help you grow your business.

Now, let’s look at how you can successfully start an affiliate program for digital products.

6 Best Affiliate Programs for Digital Products

You now know why having an affiliate program for your digital products is important. But before I teach you how to create an affiliate program for your digital products business, let’s first look at some of the best examples you can take inspiration from.

1. Envato Market

Niche: Digital Asset Marketplace

Envato runs the world’s largest marketplace for digital assets, including themes, plugins, graphics, and video templates through specialized platforms like ThemeForest and VideoHive.

Their unique multi-marketplace approach lets affiliates tap into various creative niches, from web development to 3D modeling.

The program particularly shines with its three-tier structure: Market (individual assets), Elements (subscription), and Placeit (design tool). Each tier offers different commission structures, letting affiliates choose the best fit for their audience.

Plus, their 90-day cookie duration gives plenty of time for high-value conversions.

Program Features

• Three different commission structures
• Multi-marketplace promotion options
• Ready-to-use promotional materials
• Real-time tracking dashboard
• Regular payment schedule
• Custom banner creation support

Requirements

• Active blog or social media presence
• Content focused on creative professionals
• Professional promotional approach
• Quality traffic sources

2. InkyDeals

Niche: Design Resources and Deals

InkyDeals specializes in premium design resources and exclusive deals for creative professionals. Their marketplace offers everything from graphics and fonts to templates, making it particularly attractive for design-focused audiences.

What makes their program stand out is their affiliate-exclusive discount codes, letting you offer special deals your audience can’t find elsewhere. Combined with their high-converting design bundles, this creates a compelling offer for design enthusiasts.

Program Features

• Affiliate-exclusive discount codes
• High-converting design bundles
• Custom banner options
• Regular promotional deals
• Dedicated affiliate support
• Performance tracking tools

Requirements

• Design/development focused audience
• Active online presence
• Professional promotional methods
• No spam marketing

3. MacPaw

Niche: Mac Software Solutions

MacPaw provides premium software solutions for Mac users, including popular tools like CleanMyMac and Gemini. Their products solve real problems for Mac users, making them easy to promote to tech-savvy audiences.

Their program stands out with its performance-based commission structure – starting at 35% but increasing to 40% when you hit $5,000 in monthly sales. The generous 180-day cookie duration gives your referrals plenty of time to convert.

Program Features

• Tiered commission structure
• Localized landing pages
• Cross-device tracking
• Performance incentives
• Dedicated affiliate managers
• Comprehensive creative assets

Requirements

• Tech-focused audience
• Quality content creation
• Clean promotional methods
• Regular traffic volume

4. ExpressVPN

Niche: VPN Services

ExpressVPN is a leading VPN provider with apps for virtually every platform. Their high-converting product and strong brand recognition make them a reliable choice for affiliates in the tech and privacy space.

The program offers tiered commissions based on subscription length, rewarding affiliates more for longer commitments. Their dedicated affiliate support and specialized landing pages help maximize conversion rates.

Program Features

• Plan-based commission structure
• Specialized landing pages
• Brand creatives library
• Optimization advice
• Dedicated account manager
• Marketing newsletter

Requirements

• Technology/privacy focused content
• Established online presence
• Professional approach
• Quality traffic sources

5. Wondershare

Niche: Creative Software Solutions

Wondershare offers a suite of digital creativity and productivity tools, including popular products like Filmora and PDFelement. Their diverse product range lets affiliates target various audiences, from video editors to business professionals.

Their program offers one of the highest commission rates in the software industry, scaling up to 50% based on performance. Combined with their 30-day cookie window and global reach, this creates significant earning potential.

Program Features

• High scaling commission rates
• Multiple product promotions
• Custom creative materials
• Global audience reach
• Student offers and bundles
• Performance tracking dashboard

Requirements

• Content creation experience
• Active online presence
• Professional promotion methods
• Regular traffic flow

6. Shopify

Niche: E-commerce Platform

Shopify powers millions of online stores worldwide, making it a trusted name in e-commerce. Their platform is particularly attractive to promote because it appeals to both beginners and established businesses.

Their program offers substantial fixed bounties per referral, with commissions varying by location. The short but effective 14-day cookie window encourages quick conversions, supported by their three-day free trial offer.

Program Features

• Location-based bounties
• Free trial offer
• Ready-made lead magnets
• Detailed analytics
• Marketing resources
• Custom dashboard

Requirements

• Established website audience
• E-commerce experience
• Original content creation
• Professional approach

7 Steps to Set Up An Affiliate Program for Digital Downloads

Setting up an affiliate program with AffiliateWP is a simple process that can be done in just a few steps.

Let us walk you through the steps you’ll need to follow:

See, you are only 7 steps away from creating a successful affiliate program to launch your digital products.

Step 1: Install AffiliateWP

Installing AffiliateWP is the first step in setting up your affiliate program for digital downloads.

The best part is that AffiliateWP is very easy to set up. It lets you set up an affiliate program for WordPress in less than 10 minutes and gives you powerful tools to help you grow your business.

With the easy-to-use setup wizard, you can easily connect your products and make sure you have everything you need to automate your affiliate program with just one click.

Once you’ve installed AffiliateWP, affiliates can use a URL generator to make affiliate links to your digital products.

This allows your affiliates to promote your digital products to their audiences, knowing that they’ll get commissions for any sales they bring in.

In addition, AffiliateWP allows you to track your affiliate links and offers the necessary tools for managing your affiliates. It’s a cost-effective approach to promoting products and boosting your revenue without the need for expensive marketing software or plugins.

To get started, just go to the pricing page for AffiliateWP and pick the plan that works best for you. Once you’ve completed your purchase, you can download it from your account and install it by following AffiliateWP’s simple instructions.

Step 2: Integrate Your Digital Products

AffiliateWP makes it easy to use WooCommerce, PayPal, Stripe, and Easy Digital Downloads to set up affiliate marketing for your digital products.

These integrations make it much easier to start selling your digital products on platforms you’re already familiar with.

With AffiliateWP, you have the flexibility to choose the platform that works best for your business needs.

Start by going to your AffiliateWP Settings and click the Launch Setup Wizard button at the bottom of the page.

Then, you’ll be asked to enter your license key, which you can find on the page for your Account. Just copy and paste the key, then click the Continue button.

Next, choose your preferred eCommerce plugin from the list of integrations and choose your commission structure, including your preferred currency, rate type (fixed rate or percentage of order value), and referral amount.

Don’t forget that you can always change these settings in the future.

Next you’ll be prompted to set your payout settings, commission settings, and more.

Don’t worry, all of these settings can be changed later in your AffiliateWP settings.

Finally, click Finish Setup and Exit Wizard to make your affiliate program live and ready to start making money for your digital products.

Step 3: Customize Your Affiliate Registration Form

As soon as you complete the setup wizard in AffiliateWP, you will automatically get an Affiliate Area created for you.

This Affiliate Area is where your affiliates can sign up and approved affiliates can log in to their dashboards. You can customize the registration form to match your brand, giving you complete control.

To edit your Affiliate Area page, simply go to Pages and search for “affiliate area” in the search bar. You can then edit it just like any other WordPress page using WordPress blocks.

If you want to take things to the next level, you can use our WPForms integration to boost conversions on your affiliate signup forms.

Affiliate registration forms are important because they play a crucial role in attracting the right affiliates and setting the tone for your business relationship with them.

When you run your affiliate program, you have the freedom to design a registration form that is tailored to your business and brand.

To help you create a customized registration form, AffiliateWP also offer addons for Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms that can be easily integrated with your affiliate program.

Step 4: Customize the Affiliate Dashboard

Your affiliate dashboard is an important part of your website and branding, and with AffiliateWP, it’s automatically synced to your website’s theme.

But did you know that you can also customize your affiliate dashboard even further with Affiliate Area Tabs? This is a great way to add additional pages to your affiliate dashboard, such as a welcome page or an affiliate onboarding guide.

To add tabs to your affiliate dashboard, download and install the Affiliate Area Tabs add-on, which can be installed in one click.

Once you’ve installed the addon, you’ll see a new Affiliate Area Tabs tab in your AffiliateWP settings where you can customize your tabs by reordering, hiding, and adding new tabs.

Creating a new tab is as easy as clicking the Add New Tab button, giving it a title, and selecting the content from a dropdown menu.

While your affiliate dashboard comes with important features like an affiliate link generator and real-time analytics, using affiliate area tabs allows you to tailor your dashboard to your specific needs and preferences.

Step 5: Create Marketing Materials for Affiliates

Marketing materials are essential for your affiliates to promote your products or services effectively.

As an affiliate program manager, it is crucial to provide your affiliates with high-quality creatives to increase engagement and conversions.

Effective creatives can help grab the attention of potential customers and highlight the benefits and features of your products.

Additionally, by providing your affiliates with a range of creatives to choose from, you empower them to create a customized and effective marketing strategy that aligns with their promotional style and audience.

With AffiliateWP, you can easily create and organize marketing materials for your affiliates.

AffiliateWP offers you an amazing feature called Creative Categories. This feature helps you organize your marketing materials in a more efficient way so that your affiliates can easily find and use them.

To get started, go to your AffiliateWP dashboard and navigate to the Creatives admin screen.

Here, you’ll see a new Categories sub-level menu. You can create different categories and add your marketing materials to them.

This will help your affiliates to filter and find the creatives they need easily. Once you’ve created your categories, you can add your existing or new creatives to them.

To do this, click on the Edit button for your existing creatives or hit the Add New button to create a new one.

Then, select the category for the creative from the drop-down menu. You can add a creative to multiple categories or a single one.

Your affiliates can now sort creatives by category directly from the Creatives tab in their Affiliate Area.

This feature helps them find the creatives they need quickly and easily, making it more likely for them to use them in their promotions.

Step 6: Create Affiliate Links

After creating your marketing materials in the creatives tab, the next step is to figure out how your affiliates can create affiliate links and sell your digital products.

But with AffiliateWP, creating affiliate links is incredibly easy.

Once your affiliates are approved for your digital product program, they can easily create affiliate links by logging into their Affiliate Area.

To create an affiliate link, they can navigate to the login page and enter the login details they created during their sign up. Once logged in, they will see a screen that allows them to generate affiliate links.

To generate an affiliate link for a specific page, such as a product page or your homepage, they just need to paste the URL into the box provided and click on the Generate button.

AffiliateWP will automatically track referrals from this link, allowing your affiliate to earn a commission when they drive a sale.

Creating affiliate links for your digital product program is simple and straightforward with AffiliateWP, allowing your affiliates to start promoting your products and earning commissions quickly and easily.

For more details, you can check out this detailed guide on how to create affiliate links in WordPress.

Step 7: Pay Your Affiliates

Once your affiliates start generating sales for your digital downloads, it’s time to reward them with payouts. With AffiliateWP, you have full control over when and how you pay your affiliates.

You can set up your payment schedule to be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or on a customized schedule that suits your business needs.

AffiliateWP offers multiple payment options to make the process as easy and hassle-free as possible.

AffiliateWP seamlessly integrates with your favorite payment options like:

• PayPal
• Stripe
• Credit Cards / Debit Cards
• Store Credits

One of the simplest ways to pay your affiliates is with our integrated payouts service. With this option, you don’t even need to leave your WordPress admin dashboard.

Simply follow the setup wizard and pay your affiliates directly to their bank accounts with just a few clicks.

Alternatively, you can also use PayPal Payouts or Stripe mass payments to transfer funds to your affiliates. These methods allow you to pay your affiliates securely and efficiently.

With AffiliateWP, paying your affiliates is quick and easy, so you can focus on growing your business and building successful partnerships with your affiliates.

Next, Try Our Advanced Growth Tools To Boost Your Sales

You can choose to have a standard affiliate dashboard like many other websites, but if you want to increase your sales and attract more affiliates, you should check out our Affiliate Portal addon.

This addon is available for people with a Professional license, and it’s a special tool that can help take your affiliate program up a notch.

The Affiliate Portal is just as customizable as our regular affiliate area, but it has a better dashboard interface to make things even easier for your affiliates. It’s perfect for affiliates to quickly check their performance, find new products to promote, and access your program on the go.

Want to make your affiliate program even more attractive to potential affiliates? There are a couple of cool addons you can use with AffiliateWP!

The Vanity Coupon Code addon lets affiliates choose a custom name for their coupons, which could be a fun way to personalize their promotions.

And if you want to encourage more people to sign up as affiliates, the Sign Up Bonus addon lets you offer a special bonus to new affiliates.

FAQs: How to Start an Affiliate Program for Digital Products

Get Started with Your Affiliate Program Now

By following the steps we’ve outlined, you can get your program up and running in no time, with the potential to earn passive income through affiliate marketing.

So why wait?

Get started today and see the benefits of having a successful affiliate program for your digital products.

Don’t forget to check these resources too:

• How to Reach Your Target Audience Using Affiliate Marketing
• How to Create a Custom Affiliate Registration Form in WordPress (Guide)
• How To Set up Affiliate Marketing for Your SaaS Business (Guide)
• How to Promote Your Products with Affiliate Coupon Codes
• 17 Best WordPress Plugins for Small Businesses (Compared)

Now there’s just one more thing to do if you want to create a successful affiliate program for your digital products business.