4 Things You Must Know Before Joining Any Affiliate Program

Forrest Pykes Apr 21, 2025

There are many ways to join an affiliate program. You can use your own affiliate program or join through an affiliate marketplace like ShareASale , Amazon Associates , CJ, or ImpactRadius (to name a few).

See Also: Top Affiliate Networks to Find Affiliate Programs [Mega List]

But users like you and me who join these affiliate programs need to ensure one important thing:

  • Pay on time!

Although joining an affiliate program is free, promoting your products requires a lot of effort and resources.

There’s always a risk that you might not get paid for your efforts, and to avoid that (and the hassle), you should make sure to check the following things before you start promoting any products.

Read: What is affiliate marketing?

Checklist: Things to check before promoting affiliate products

1. Payment Methods

Imagine that you are promoting a product, earning over a thousand dollars, but are unable to receive payment because there is no accepted payment method in your country. This situation is not new and has happened to many affiliates before.

Be sure to check the payment methods supported by the affiliate network or program. If you don't see a payment method available for your country, contact your affiliate manager or use the program contact form to see if they can help you.

Here are some of the most popular ways to get paid in affiliate marketing:

Read: How to Get Paid in Affiliate Marketing?

2. Minimum payout

This is one of the most common reasons why beginner affiliate marketers give up.

Unlike traditional ad networks, most affiliate programs will pay you once you reach a minimum payout threshold of $50. While there are exceptions, the minimum payout threshold for most affiliate networks is roughly $50.

If you fall below that threshold, you don’t get paid. If marketers have been working hard and can’t hit that threshold, they feel like they’re being ripped off because they’re not getting paid for the promotions they’re doing.

The truth is, it’s the marketer’s fault because they never checked the minimum payouts of the affiliate programs they signed up for.

Always check the payment threshold.

3. Product/network reputation

If you ask several people what they think about affiliate marketing, you will get a lot of different answers. The reason is that some people make millions while others get scammed. So, it would be a mistake if we don’t check the credibility of an affiliate network/program before joining it.

Most new independent affiliate programs will offer high commissions, but in the end they won’t pay you. Since these companies/individuals have nothing to lose, they don’t mind receiving a few bad reviews.

If you want to play it safe, it’s best to join an affiliate program of a reputable company or go through a well-known affiliate marketplace.

Here are some reputable affiliate marketplaces from around the world that you can apply to right away:

  1. shareasale
  2. CJ
  3. ClickBank
  4. impact
  5. Amazon Associates
  6. partnerstack
  7. Rakuten
  8. vCommission

4. Cookie length

One of the reasons I like affiliate marketing so much is the freedom it offers. I just need to bring in some traffic and then let the company do the “sales”. But sometimes, the “sales” take days.

All I had to do was drive traffic to the site, and if the user made a purchase a few days later, I would still get a commission.

How cool is that?!

Well, it is possible because of the longer length of the cookie. But every affiliate is different.

The standard practice is to receive a commission within 30-90 days after a user clicks on an affiliate link. The beauty of this type of program is that if a user purchases other products on the company's website (in addition to the product you recommended), you will also receive a commission.

However, some affiliate programs take advantage of the naivety of newbies in affiliate marketing. They don’t offer:

  • Standard cookie length (30-60 days).
  • Other product sales commissions.

Before you sign up, be sure to check** the following two points. As I said above, most reputable networks employ this standard affiliate marketing practice and you won’t have any problems.**

Things to note in the affiliate program

Well, there are a lot of things that affiliate marketers need to check before joining any new affiliate program. However, the four points listed above will ensure that you don’t get scammed by affiliate companies and make sure that you receive your payments on time.

What other things do you usually check when joining an affiliate program or marketplace? Have you ever been scammed by an affiliate company? Which company? Let us know in the comments.

This will help other affiliate marketers avoid being scammed.

What is the age requirement to get started with affiliate marketing? There is no minimum or maximum age requirement, you can join an affiliate network even if you are 15 or 60 years old. However, some affiliate networks do not allow users under 18 years old to join, in this case, users can join using their parents’ ID card (with parental permission).

How many affiliate programs can you join? There is no upper or lower limit. You can join as many affiliate programs as you want.

How to join affiliate programs The easiest way is to join an affiliate network like ShareASale, Impact, and then join the affiliate program.

Can I use more than one affiliate program? Yes, you can join and use more than one affiliate program on one website. Even on one page, you can promote multiple affiliate offers, even from competitors.

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Disclosure: Some of the links in this article contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click through to visit us, at no extra cost to you. See how SidelinePlay is funded, why it’s important, and how you can support us.

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