Affiliate Marketing India (2024): How To Get Started & Make Money Fast

This is my in-depth guide on Affiliate Marketing India.

Affiliate Marketing is one of the fastest-growing online business models, especially blogging in 2024. With some simple setup, possibly you can earn up to a minimum of 1000+ dollars a month.

A lot of people in India (even worldwide) use affiliate marketing techniques to make a HUGE amount of money online, but only very few succeeded and many failed. 

The reason behind the failure is simple those people do not study from the basics and simply fall for quick rich schemes, which won’t work out anymore in 2024.

So, no matter whether you belong to India or, somewhere else, in order to taste success in your affiliate marketing journey, you have to follow the right techniques from the very beginning.

Let’s get started.

Affiliate Marketing India: Free Guide To Becoming An Affiliate Marketer

There are lots of affiliate marketing guides available on the internet. But this blog post is for those who wanted to learn and make money with full-proven affiliate marketing methods right away.

The affiliate marketing India blog post is fully crafted from my whole experience so far and I will be covering A to Z topics which help you become a successful Affiliate Marketer in India. 

The post includes:

• What is Affiliate Marketing India?
• How does the affiliate marketing business model actually work?
• The good and bad sides of affiliate marketing
• Investment required to start affiliate marketing in India
• Super amazing list of the best affiliate programs in India
• Essential steps for becoming a successful affiliate marketer in India?
• How to make money online with affiliate marketing?
• And some interesting FAQs about affiliate marketing India guide

If you are really serious about learning the process from the scratch, ensure to read it with full attention, till the end.

Without further ado, let’s get started with the topics.

What is Affiliate Marketing India?

Img – Affiliate marketing in India

Affiliate Marketing India is an online business model one can make money by referring different products to customers.

Defining the process is easy but getting used to the concept and making money through the business demands your patience, time, hard work, smart work etc.

Meanwhile, you may come across so many sponsored advertisements that affiliate marketing can be started in no time and achieve success overnight.

Is that REALLY true?

Well no, definitely not. You have to put enough effort and learn basic to advanced level techniques (easy and simple methods) to become a successful affiliate marketer in India.

History Of Affiliate Marketing in India

Img – Affiliate marketing history

First, the concept of affiliate marketing came into actual existence in 1989 by William J. Tobin as he introduced the concept for his flower-selling online store. 

After some years passed, the business model started grabbing attraction among people and the flower store received some unimaginable sales numbers by means of affiliate marketing.

Later in 2000, Amazon (one of the best affiliate programs for bloggers in India) came into the game and offered a referral program to influencers and promoters. After that, the business model started growing day by day.

In 2024, the affiliate marketing concept gains massive attention worldwide and especially the number of people increasing every now and then in India to try affiliate marketing and make passive income out of it.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Business Model Actually Work?

Img – How affiliate marketing program works

Instead of selling directly to the buyers, brands that are selling their products with the help of, bloggers, influencers or promoters are actually affiliate marketing.

For instance, let’s take an example of “Hostinger India” which is a brand that sells web hosting services. It let’s Indian bloggers sign up for its affiliate program.

Let’s now assume a person named “Harpreet Kumar” is an affiliate marketer who wants to be a part of brand Hostinger India’s affiliate network and make money.

In this case, he has to sign up for an affiliate account from the brand Hostinger India and start promoting its web hosting services. 

Through the process, “Harpreet Kumar” promotes, “Hostinger India” products and can earn some commission according to the affiliate commission structure.

This is how the affiliate marketing business model works.

In simple terms, if you want to become an affiliate marketer and make money, you have to sign up for your favourite affiliate networks and start promoting the product of your choice from the networks and generating sales as much as you can. 

For each sale you generate from your promotions, you can earn a commission. The commission percentage varies from network to network.

So, all you have to do is, refer customers to buy the products from your affiliate network websites by following many promotional strategies.

Direct Affiliate Partner vs Affiliate Networks

Nowadays most websites directly allow users to sign up for their affiliate programs straight from their official website.

In such cases, web hosting companies play a key role in offering direct affiliate accounts to users.

You can create your free affiliate account on any web hosting network, start promoting their products and earn some commission. 

In fact, compared to other affiliate programs and networks, web hosting affiliate programs offer a huge commission structure to the promoters. You can earn a maximum of up to 90% commission from the sales you generate.

And then, there are some companies that act as exclusive affiliate networks that offer users the promotion of the products under different categories.

For example, Amazon Associates, ShareASale, Impact Radius, CJ Affiliates, Clickbank etc. are popular companies in the list of the top affiliate networks in India.

Pros & Cons Of Affiliate Marketing: The Good & Bad Sides

No business in the world only give pros or advantages all the time. Every business has its own good and bad or cons side.

Even though the affiliate marketing India business model looks fancy and easier to study and understand, there are some dark shades in the business too.

Let’s have a look at both the good and bad sides of Affiliate Marketing in listicle format so that you can understand better.

Affiliate Marketing Pros

• You can start your affiliate marketing India journey with zero investment. Of course, at some point, you need investment depending on the promotional method you choose. I have explained, the “Investments required to start affiliate marketing India” section.
• There are lots of affiliate marketing programs and networks to join, which confuses what to join and what not.
• NIL joining fees. There is no such joining or registration fee. You can join any number of affiliate programs and networks of your choice without paying money.
• The business model is rapidly growing. Chances are, there will be some exciting bonuses, gifts, offers etc. will be given to affiliates regularly.
• You can make a decent amount of income every month from affiliate marketing India if you understand what works best for you.

Affiliate Marketing Cons

• It does not work out at all if you try to promote each and every product or affiliate program. Ensure to find what you are passionate about, choose the products accordingly and start promoting the products.
• Affiliate networks may change the commission structure and other terms and conditions of their own. So, it may ruin your interest. Sometimes, they may even stop their affiliate programs in some countries like Siteground and Hostgator India did recently.
• Success is not for everyone. As I said, affiliate marketing does not work for all. You need to be more patient initially and work with your full effort. Even, after all, you may fail at some levels.
• Competitions are heavy in the business. So, you must work a lot to stand out from the crowd and succeed.

Investment Required To Start Affiliate Marketing India

The investment factor in affiliate marketing in India actually varies depending on the promotional methods you choose.

There are so many promotional methods that you can follow to generate sales. But, among all only very few are effective.

I will show you the effective promotional methods along with the investment required for the particular method of promotion.

1. Blogging

Out of all promotional methods, blogging is the #1 working method for affiliate marketing success.

Starting a blog in India becomes too easy. You can follow my guide, “how to start a blog” or go through the below tasks.

• Choose a perfect blogging platform
• Getting your domain for a year costs around 8 to 12 USD
• Signing up for a web hosting like Hostinger – starts as low as ₹199 per month.
• Install WordPress CMS on your hosting
• Get a theme for your WordPress blog like Kadence WP (my favourite) or GeneratePress. Both are the best WordPress themes available in free and premium versions.
• Install the mandatory plugins to your new blog (mostly free). If you can spend some extra bucks, I would recommend WP Rocket and Kadence Blocks Pro as one premium plugin worth every penny you spend.
• Create important pages like about us, contact us, privacy policy and importantly affiliate disclaimer page and publish them on your blog.
• Research for some valuable keywords related to your affiliate blog niche and write posts regularly around the niche topic.
• Drive traffic, generate sales and earn money from your blog.

To start a blog to promote affiliate products, you need an investment of a minimum of ₹1500 – ₹2000 at first for domain and web hosting accounts.

If you can spend more, I would suggest you invest in premium WordPress themes and plugins. But, that’s not mandatory at the starting point.

2. Social Media Channels

One of the “no investment required” promotional methods is definitely worth the try for beginners.

You can promote the products directly through your social media accounts and generate sales. 

Having a Facebook page is an added advantage as you can keep on posting different products with your affiliate links to get sales and make passive income.

Apart, you can make good use of social networks such as Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter etc. to promote affiliate products and get sales.

It’s totally free to use social media networks to promote affiliate links. 

Remember, there are some affiliate networks and programs that do not allow you to promote the direct links on social media sites.

So, ensure to read the conditions of the networks before you proceed with social media shares. Either way, you can also try link cloaking.

3. YouTube

If you are better at creating videos than writing blog content, be a YouTuber, create promotional videos around your affiliate product topics and upload it on your YouTube channel.

When people started viewing the videos on your YouTube channel, probably you can probably make affiliate sales from your videos.

Creating a YouTube channel is free. If you want, you can invest in the best video editing software and stuff such as Mic, Tripod, Lenses, Cameras etc. for shooting professional videos.

Depending on the choice, the investment varies. You may either use YouTube promotions totally free of cost or you can even invest some money for the above-said stuff.

Apart from the three popular methods, there are even a few more like email outreach, sponsored advertisements, Google Ads etc. that you can try to promote affiliate products.

If you ask me personally I would recommend you start a blog for affiliate product promotions. This is the best method among all and worth the try.

List Of The Best Affiliate Programs In India

Img – best affiliate programs in India

In this section, I am listing out a few best affiliate programs in India that you can try at your beginner level of the affiliate marketing journey.

Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates is one of the best affiliate networks to join and to earn some extra income., which has tons of advantages for affiliates.

As you know, Amazon is undoubtedly the world’s leading eCommerce platform and has millions of products on its website.

So, you will have a hell lot of product choices to promote under thousands of different categories, even to Indian customers.

Amazon associates affiliate program offers a flat rate commission structure whether it’s a sale from a new customer or an existing one.

Img – Amazon associates commission structure

The fixed advertising rates start from 0.2% to 9%. It varies depending on the category of products you choose to promote. Check out the entire commission structure here.

For Indian Amazon associate affiliate programs, the minimum payout threshold is 1000 INR, and there are no joining fees.

Hostinger India

As you have heard already, Hostinger is a company that sells domain and web hosting services. It is one of the most trusted and authorized hosting companies that serve 180+ countries.

If you are searching for a web hosting affiliate program that highly values your partnership, go and join Hostinger India affiliate program, even I primarily promote this host for setting up a professional blog in 2024.

The commission structure is just huge as you can earn a massive 60% commission for every new sale you generate to Hostinger via your affiliate link.

Hostinger dashboard for affiliates is very user-friendly and also, you will be provided with so many attractive promotional banners which would definitely gain you sales when you add those to your blogs.

Bluehost India

If you are not fond of promoting the general kind of products that Amazon and Flipkart sell, and looking for the best affiliate programs in India to promote Web hosting products, try Bluehost.

This is India’s one of the best hosting affiliate programs, where you can earn a maximum of a flat 5000 INR per sale. The minimum required payout is 50 USD. You can join for free on Impact Radius marketplace.

If you plan to start your WordPress blog in a hosting niche or already own one and the same, Bluehost affiliate program India is the best choice for you to promote hosting products through your blog posts.

ClickBank

Another world’s leading affiliate marketplace exclusively runs as an affiliate network for users all around the world to join for free and promote products under different categories.

One of the oldest platforms on the list as ClickBank was founded in 1999. At ClickBank, you can find 4000+ marketplace products to promote under 100+ different categories.

No matter what niche you start, ClickBank offers products in almost all niches – home and garden, E-Business, Sports, Health and Fitness etc. are some of the popular yet most selling categories.

ClickBank cookie duration is 60 days which means, that when a user clicks on your ClickBank affiliate link and makes a purchase somewhere within 60 days, you can earn your commission.

The minimum payment threshold starts from $10, which is almost 800 INR in India.

Best Affiliate Programs In 2024 For Travel Bloggers

If you are a travel blogger or vlogger and looking to make money from your blog or YouTube, or Instagram accounts, you can make an account from travel websites that are offering affiliate programs in India.

You can promote their several travel products like ticket bookings, hotel stay bookings, activity bookings etc. on your blog and generate sales to them to earn an affiliate commission.

In the lineup, Booking.com, MakeMyTrip, TripAdvisor, and Agoda, are some best affiliate programs in India for travel bloggers.

Top Individual Website Affiliate Programs

Apart from the exclusive affiliate networks to promote products under the category of your choice and niche of your blog, you can also become an affiliate marketer by joining individual website affiliate programs in India.

Nowadays, you can find affiliate programs for almost every top company. Some companies may directly offer you affiliate accounts and a few work as concepts like “Invite, Refer and Earn“.

Especially all the web hosting companies in India are open for affiliates on their website themselves. Possibly, you can join a hosting affiliate program directly to the company without the help of affiliate networks.

Hostinger India, YouStable, Bigrock and Hostarmada are some popular Indian web hosting companies that offer direct affiliate programs and give a good commission structure to the affiliates.

How To Become An Affiliate Marketer In India?

Img – Become an affiliate marketer in India

Joining any affiliate program in India is an easy process. Most of the affiliate programs will ask you upon registration whether you have your own blog or website or YouTube channel.

An approach without a blog/website or YouTube Channel may lead you to face rejection in the approval process.

So, I would say a blog is mandatory one to become an affiliate marketer in India. 

Starting a blog in 2024 is a much easier process and you can get your blog published on the internet in less than 30 minutes.

Here is the step-by-step procedure of what you have to do after publishing your WordPress blog in the niche of your choice.

• Choose the affiliate network in which you want to create your affiliate account. Make use of the above section “best affiliate programs in India” to understand what works well for your niche.
• Create your free affiliate account in the merchant program or network you have chosen. While creating, you will be asked to fill in some details like your name, address, email address, bank details (to receive payments) etc.
• Also, you are requested to tick the ways you are willing to promote affiliate products. Choose blogging and enter your blog details there. Traffic is not a big deal in the affiliate account approval process.
• Upon the proper filling up of your account details, you will be granted your unique affiliate ID and a dashboard to monitor.
• Log in to your affiliate account, and choose the product you want to promote. Avail your affiliate id for the products. It’s easy to get.
• Start promoting your affiliate link using various promotional methods such as blogging, vlogging, social media promotions etc. to generate sales and make money.
• Enjoy your commission whenever the sales happen from your affiliate links.

Remember, joining is absolutely easy and free. But, to become the most successful affiliate marketer in India, you must work hard and try different strategies to generate affiliate sales.

How To Make Money Online With Affiliate Marketing?

Making money in affiliate marketing in India is all about how consistently you are staying in the whole process.

Among all the promotional methods to make money online with affiliate marketing, I would strongly recommend you to start your affiliate marketing India journey with a blog. 

Blogging is a more powerful method in the long-term run. Create and set up your WordPress blog right away.

The blog posts you create in your blog are going to be your only major source of affiliate income.

So, follow the below advice in your blog posts to make money online from an affiliate marketing business.

• Research for keywords that have high potential value to generate your revenue. You can use SEO tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs to research keywords.
• Always target low competition, low search volume
• and long tail keywords.
• Refer to similar blog posts crafted using your niche keywords that are already on the internet. Analyze the nuances handled in the post using the best SEO tools. Try to understand what is missing in the post and how you can write better copy than a post using the keywords.
• Start writing perfect blog posts around your niche topics including the best keywords. Do not only post affiliate articles. Try publishing both informative and affiliate articles in your niche on a regular basis.
• Promote the blog posts as much as you can on social media websites and create some quality backlinks for the posts.
• Once you have done all these, the post will start getting to appear on search results and of course, you will receive a good amount of traffic.

The more traffic your blog receives, the more chances of sales you can generate from your affiliate links.

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

Final Words On Affiliate Marketing India Guide

Whatever business you start, it gives you income only when you work on it continuously. The same is applicable to affiliate marketing in India.

The business model is undoubtedly the fastest growing and the concept will have a very bright future in the coming years in terms of earning potential.

Wrapping it up, I want you to convey a popular Chinese proverb:

‘“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

So, do not waste your time thinking with so many questions on your mind – just start a blog today, increase your blog traffic, and follow the best practices to earn money via blogging through affiliate marketing in India.