Affiliate marketing is an ever changing game.
And as affiliate marketers we must constantly evolve alongside it.
How then, do you stay relevant in a space that changes so rapidly?
You must always be searching for knowledge. You must always be curious about the cutting-edge. You must always be seeking the next best affiliate program. You must always be willing to learn from leading influencers within the industry.
There are a ton of general marketing blogs out there (think; social media and content marketing). What we need to learn from are the blogs and publications that offer actionable resources and tactics that drive real results for affiliate marketing professionals.
With that said. Here are 25+ affiliate marketing blogs you should add to your reading list this year.
1. Authority Hacker
Actionable online marketing education - that's the premise behind Mark and Gael's Authority Hacker. On this site, they share everything they've learned from building and running a portfolio of authority sites. Including how they sold an affiliate site for mid 6 figures in only 18 months. An impressive feat that's worth a follow.
Check out: How We Sold An 18-Month-Old Site For Mid 6 Figures
2. Alpha Investors
From affiliate beginners, to veteran investors Alpha Investors is there to help. Covering topics from niche selection and marketing myths, to acquiring and flipping affiliate websites, founder Andrej Ilisin and his team share a refreshingly honest view of affiliate marketing.
Follow along as they look to showcase their skills by growing a site to $150,000 in value in 18 months or less.
3. TheAffiliateMonkey
TheAffiliateMonkey is an affiliate program comparison website helping publishers find the best affiliate program.
The website compares hundreds of affiliate programs across several sectors including, Fashion, Cryptocurrency, Gambling, Travel, and much more. The website has a large directory in which users can skim through affiliate programs and compare headline factors of the programs, including cookie lifespan and CPA. Not only this but their comparison tool allows you to take a deeper dive into the program and analysis factors such as network, creatives, and much more.
4. ShoeMoney
The ShoeMoney blog started as the lifestyle blog of Jeremy Schoemaker and now has numerous contributing writers adding posts on a regular basis. This blog covers most things internet marketing - from Search Engine Optimisation to email marketing.
Check out: Jeremy’s inspiring story on how he ended up as an affiliate marketer.
5. High Paying Affiliate Programs
As the name suggests, this website is a great resource for identifying a bunch of different affiliate programs suitable for further inspection. There is also a blog section which contains some great articles. A key one to look out for is the State of Affiliate Marketing 2017 which gives indepth insight into the affiliate marketing industry, focused on the year ahead.
Check out: In addition to the post above, a great resource provided on this site is a free 7-day program to get started in affiliate marketing. You don’t even have to enter your email address.
6. ZacJohnson.com
1,000 real life, experienced based articles is pretty impressive. That’s what Zac Johnson has accumulated on his blog and what you can access just by visiting his site. His posts have a strong focus on adverts, as well as the sharing of new trends and resources to help grow your own company.
Check out: the infographic on how top bloggers make money. It’s fairly simple but an interesting read nonetheless.
7. Sugar Rae
Although there’s no new posts since July 2016, SugarRae’s blog still has some interesting content in past posts. You’ll find articles covering SEO, blogging, and of course, affiliate marketing.
Check out: their glossary of affiliate marketing terms.
8. Finch Sells
New posts ended in early 2016 with the author stating that he was not going to carry on creating new content. After scanning through this blog we decided it was still worth an honourable mention for some of the posts and resources available. One key feature about this blog is that it was targeted at ‘paid traffic’ affiliates, so is a bit more niche than many of the other ones out there.
Check out: his explanation of the difference between paid and free traffic affiliates - it’s an important distinction you need to understand. This article also gives a very real insight into the potential of affiliate marketing and what you actually need to put in.
9. AM Navigator
From the perspective of an affiliate marketing management company as opposed to affiliate marketers themselves, this blog offers a lot of the same content (trends, stats, product reviews) but from a different angle.
There are often interviews or comments from well know industry managers which can provide you with insight into how they think and where they’re planning to move in the future - which all adds up to your advantage.
Check out: the Affiliate Program Management section of the blog to get a really good look into the other side of the affiliate marketing world.
10. ClickNewz!
Follows the life of Lynn Terry who’s a professional blogger, super affiliate, and full-time internet marketer, operating for more than 18 years. Her blog is full of marketing ideas, tips, and reviews aimed at helping her readers succeed in their online businesses.
Check out: the Hot Topics section which is packed full of ‘how to’ guides - from becoming a professional blogger, to choosing your niche, and writing product reviews.
11. Affiliate Tip
Shawn Collins, the writer of this blog, is an industry expert and co-founder of one of the leading industry conferences for affiliate marketing - the affiliate summit. His blog has very regular updates and for those who prefer visual content, you can check out his affiliate tip TV channel on youtube.
Check out: the course to Learn Affiliate Marketing where Shawn has laid out 12 chapters for you to work through.
12. MissyWard.com
The other half of the co-founding duo who created Affiliate Summit back in 2003 - now a privately held, multi-million dollar media company that produces conferences, tradeshows, and a bunch of other content (FeedFront magazine and GeekCast.fm.) Missy Ward has a blog that covers a lot of general marketing advice as well as some personal insights.
Check out: her free affiliate marketing materials which include quarterly issues of the affiliate marketing magazine FeedFront as well as all the internet marketing podcasts you could ever need at GeekCast.
13. Adam Reimer Marketing
Providing content suitable for affiliates, bloggers, and SEO professionals in their daily marketing activities is what Adam Reimer’s blog excels at. He is another of the well-known industry figures who regularly speaks at Affiliate Summit, Pubcon, and Think Tank - amongst others. As well as being published in a variety of magazines and news sites.
Check out: the blog for regular reviews on specific new affiliate programs that might suit your niche.
14. FMTC
These guys specialize in “aggregating affiliate content and making it available to affiliates and bloggers through a series of services and tools.” Basically, they compile all of the info you need as an affiliate into one easy to use platform. Their blog offers lists. Lots of lists. From market trends and future predictions, to hundreds of new merchants you can become affiliates for. They started out by creating a software to fix and categorise the coupons and deals for their own site and FMTC grew from there.
Check out: their affiliate tools section - it’s ideal for those who are already established and looking for the next advantage. Newcomers could also gain some value by seeing another type of affiliate strategy/software that’s available.
15. Tricia Meyer
Founder of cashback site SunshineRewards.com, Tricia has been involved in the blogging and affiliate marketing industry for at least a decade and has the awards to prove her expertise. The articles on her site are easy to read and full of useful affiliate marketing information for all levels of reader.
Check out: her recommended resources for further reading.
16. AffiliateXFiles
Targeted at beginners, Ron Cripps site AffiliateXFiles is full of free content to help those starting out find their way around the affiliate marketing world. You can find information on all the basic matters - how to find niche markets and opportunities, how to optimize content, and how to find keywords that will convert.
Check out: the complete set of info for new marketers. It’s in an easy to navigate page by page format.
17. Work in my Pyjamas
Every affiliate marketers end goal, no? A reality for Kim Rowley whose coupon clipping hobby in 1999 became a full time job as companies started to pay her for promoting their products on her site. She now has multiple business websites and started her blog to create a space where she could answer all the questions from other budding affiliate marketers looking to get out of their suits.
Check out: her free shirt Friday series which is a quirky idea to generate extra backlinks to her site whilst slipping a few affiliate links in front of her readers.
18. AffPlan
This all-rounder in the affiliate marketing field offers advice and solutions for merchants, established affiliate marketers, and newbies. There’s plenty of content for those looking at getting started in affiliate marketing.
Check out: the top resources for a list of all the software, platforms and items used by AffPlan. Even more interesting, take note of how each of these items is also an affiliate link, earning AffPlan income whenever someone purchases. Affiliate links really are everywhere!
19. Amazon Associates
Probably the oldest online affiliate program around, Amazon Associates kicked things off way back in 1996. You’ll get the most use out of their blog if you’re already signed up as an affiliate as they share a heap of affiliate discount codes and special product offers. It’s an easy way to stay on top of the latest deals and items you can be sharing with your audience.
Check out: just take a look at their blog to get an idea of what promotions are available when you become an Amazon Associate.
20. Smart Passive Income
More of a lifestyle and online entrepreneur motivation site, Pat Flynns blog is still a great resource for affiliate marketers. Some articles relate specifically to affiliate industry while others serve a more general purpose and might be a nice break from all the marketing content you’re consuming. His Smart Passive Income podcast is a great on the go motivator as well.
Check out: the free ebook Affiliate Marketing - the Smart Way for answers to a bunch of Pats most frequently asked questions.
21. Matthew Woodward
Matthew Woodward tackles the affiliate marketing industry from the blogging perspective and as such, you’ll find plenty of great articles to increase your affiliate activities through blogging. Like most of these blogs, you’ll find a bunch of interesting free resources to help you make tracks in the world of online marketing.
Check out: the roundup of monthly income reports. This is probably the most exciting feature we’ve drawn your attention to across all these blogs. Every month, Matthew does a report on 15-20 different blogs and tracks their monthly revenue with a short write up about what’s been happening. It’s super interesting and covers an extremely broad range - from those losing $60 per month to one making $100,000! It’s incredibly inspiring for anyone interested in earning money online so make sure you really do check this one out.
22. Avant Link
This affiliate marketing network itself has a blog, with a lot of focus on best practice and general industry news. A good alternative to the ‘how to’s’ and free guides put out by all the affiliate marketer blogs.
Check out: their weekly roundup posts which are scattered through the blog. They feature a new merchant every week which could be a good opportunity to learn of a new product to promote.
23. ShareASale
Another of the industry networks, ShareASale’s blog is similar to Avant Link in the sense that the articles are more focused on news and featured merchants. However, these guys also have some interesting post series (i.e. how to start a blog) and tip of the day guest posts.
Check out: the affiliate section specifically so you don’t get confused reading merchant targeted posts!
24. What Does Joe Think?
There are a lot of posts featuring ShareASale so we’re sensing some kind of relationship between the two however, Joe’s posts provide a lot of value nonetheless - with lists, actionable tasks and interesting insights.
Check out: all his affiliate related posts can be found here.
25. Apogee
With content for both affiliates and merchants, Apogee has a blog that covers a broad spectrum. For the affiliates they mostly cover relevant industry news and highlight interesting merchants.
Check out: their affiliate education for posts aimed at improving your online activities.
26. Schaaf-PartnerCentric
This firm offers premium affiliate management services to retail and lead advertisers and have a very comprehensive blog. There are many categories to dig down in but the most interesting for affiliate marketers are the Affiliate Tips and International Affiliate Marketing.
Check out: another section worth perusing is their Deals & Steals which highlights a bunch of great affiliate products to promote every couple of months.
A few more...
We thought: you’ve made it this far, why not throw in some bonus content as well?!
In addition to the affiliate marketing blogs above, you can find a list of our favorite general marketing blogs below.
These cover a range of topics from general purpose, to niche segments like email marketing. Each blog has what we consider it’s ‘speciality’ noted as well as a brief description and of course, our favorite component.
27. Marketing Profs
Here’s a blog that has it all. This is a site created by marketers, for marketers, so unlike a lot of wide reaching sites, their content still holds plenty of niche value on specific topics. And boy do they cover a lot of topics. You can find the latest marketing tools, training, strategies, online seminars and discussion forums.
Our favorite content: There is a 30-minute, weekly podcast where they host all sorts of different experts and conduct an in-depth interview in order to provide their listeners with real, actionable advice.
28. Marketing Land
Like a news site, but for the marketing world. And on steroids. Marketing Land offers readers with articles and news stories covering every aspect of digital marketing on a daily basis with regular guest post from experts in the field.
Our favorite content: There is a huge library of whitepaper documents covering the entire digital marketing world. From their site you can also find webcasts and research reports.
29. Business Insider
Ranked the largest business news website in the US Business Insider covers an array of topics including financial, media, and tech stories. Their advertising section has numerous daily updates with interesting articles to keep you on top of what’s happening in the marketing world.
Our favorite content: This is Business Insider's research branch where they produce an array of research into various topics. Findings are presented in a multitude of reports and newsletters to members of this premium service.
30. Kissmetrics
If you’ve got lots of data and don’t know what to do with it then Kissmetrics is here to help. They are focussed on optimizing your marketing by testing, tracking, and analyzing your digital marketing. With lots of in depth blog posts, you’ll be stuck there for a few hours.
Our favorite content: Marketing Guides
These free guides provide beautiful and easy to read eBooks, infographics, and PDFs on general, email and social media marketing topics.
31. Hubspot
Hubspot provide an inbound marketing and sales service to it’s clients. In addition, they have an interesting marketing blog full of lists, calculators, and infographics. Inbound marketing is about bringing potential clients to you rather than beating them over the head with your messages (cold calling, email spam) and this idea is the content we love most from Hubspot.
Our favorite content: Inbound Marketing Overview
This is a super clear explanation of what inbound marketing is and how it differs from the more traditional approaches. If you want to go further, they also offer a certification course which really teaches you the ropes.
32. Impact
Digital marketing presence is the focus of those over at Impact, where they want to help you optimize your online profile. As a partner of Hubspot, they use the same methodology but with new ideas and through processes.
Our favorite content: Free Marketing Resources
Another large collection of visually appealing guides, books, and PDFs available to all.
33. Ogilvy & Mather
Heard of them? You should have. Ogilvy has been around since 1948 and is one of the eight largest advertising networks in the world.
Our favorite content: The Red Papers
They describe it best so we’ll quote from the site: “The Red Papers is an ongoing series of books on the trends driving the future of marketing, authored by Ogilvy & Mather thought leaders from around the world.”
34. Influence & Co
The Knowledge Bank, by Influence & Co, is a resource focused on helping companies create and distribute content that focuses on growing and educating a niche audience. Their blog covers a range of topics including thought leadership, content marketing, and social media.
Our favorite content: Resource Library
Free guides and templates for download from writing better content to getting published.
35. Seth Godin
Unique insights on just about everything can be found from Seth’s blog. A lot of it relates to marketing directly but even just reading any of his articles will help you write better content.
Our favorite content: For Seth, it’s straight up. His blog is super interesting. If you look around his site he also has a bunch of free resources, books, and a couple of training courses.
36. Moz
Conducting SEO research for over ten years would understandably make someone worth listening to. When looking to get a grip on your search ratings be sure to check out some of the resources offered on this blog.
Our favorite content: Whiteboard Friday's
Co-founder Rand Fishkin (sporting a fantastic moustache) presents weekly videos on SEO marketing related content. Always fun and educational, these are worth checking out.
37. Vero
If you’re after an event driven email marketing platform then Vero is where you should be looking. They offer everything you need from an email platform - automation, reporting, drip campaigns, split tests, and tracking event conversions.
Our favorite content: ‘How To’ guides
Vero have a handy ‘how to’ section of their blog dedicated to teaching readers ways of improving their email open rates and conversions. Great if you’ve realised writing an email and hitting send is not the end of the email marketing process!
38. HootSuite
When you’re trying to scale your business through social media, making three posts per day to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram soon becomes a time consuming task. Enter HootSuite. With a platform allowing you to manage all your social media content in one place, they really can help you do more with your time.
Our favorite content: Innovation Blog
This is the place to find ideas and technology that could transform how we do business through social media.
