6 Of The Best Affiliate Programs For Beauty Bloggers

When you start blogging, making money isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind. I know it wasn’t for me. When I started my blog, making any money from it never even occurred to me. That’s probably because the bloggers I followed at the time didn’t talk about making money, and I didn’t do a ton of research on the world of blogging outside of getting one up and running.

Fast forward about a year, and I found out that I could make some money doing this. How much would depend on me and some other factors, but something is better than nothing.

There are many ways to earn money from blogging. The four most popular are

• Selling your own products or services
• Doing sponsored posts
• Putting display ads on your blog
• Participating in an affiliate program

In this post, I’ll be focusing on six affiliate programs, specifically ones that are a good fit for beauty bloggers.

(This information is not meant to be advice and is just for educational purposes. I am not a financial or content expert. This post includes affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission.)

Before we jump into the affiliate programs, let me break down what an affiliate program is and how it can make you money.

What is affiliate marketing?

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is making money by recommending a product or service. While that sounds simple, it’s not. There is a bit more involved. You don’t need to have a blog to do affiliate marketing. You can also do it on your social media channels.

You don’t need to have a huge following to get your first sale, and you can start using affiliate links from day one of your blog. But from what I’ve seen, the more successful bloggers have a decent-sized following and have built up some level of trust with their followers.

Related read: How To Start A Beauty Blog That Stands Out

Here’s how affiliate marketing works

1. Sign up for an affiliate program - Keep reading this post to see which ones are perfect for beauty bloggers

2. Create content - Those who are successful and make some decent money with affiliate marketing write detailed product reviews that show how the product or service is beneficial or helpful. The key is to not be salsey but to be more like a friend recommending something to a friend.

3. Add your affiliate links - Be strategic about it. An entire post full of affiliate links is a turnoff and looks spammy. Also, make sure you disclose your affiliate links.

4. Reader clicks the link - When a reader clicks on your affiliate link, they get “cookied.” This is how the company knows about this person and can give you credit for the sale. One thing to keep in mind is that the cookies only last for a set amount of time. For some programs, it can last 24 hours, for others it may last days or even weeks. So if the reader makes a purchase before the cookie expires, you get credit for the sale.

Beauty blogger affiliate programs

Now that you know what affiliate marketing is and how it works, here are the seven affiliate programs that beauty bloggers should be using.

Related read: 7 Of The Best Places To Promote A Beauty Blog

1. FlexOffers

FlexOffers is an affiliate network because you can sign up for multiple affiliate programs from multiple brands across multiple categories. The programs may be pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, or pay-per-sale. This means that the commission you can earn from these programs varies because each has its own earning structure.

There are several beauty brands that I signed up for under FlexOffers. Kohl's, Carol's Daughter, and Black Opal are just a few of them, and there are multiple beauty brands that have affiliate programs on FlexOffers.

2. LTK

This is a popular affiliate network for beauty, fashion, and home bloggers because they have relationships with upwards of 1 million brands across more than 100 countries. 

The great thing about LTK is that you sign up for the platform, and you don't have to apply to individual retailers. Once you're accepted to the platform, you can just use their link creator and create an affiliate link to just about any shopping site.

There are a few requirements to be accepted, though. You can apply and find out more about the LTK platform here.

3. Rakuten

Rakuten is a cashback site, so when you shop online or in some stores, you can earn some cash back. This can be helpful for your readers to bring down the cost of their beauty purchases. Plus, with Rakuten, you can earn for every person who signs up using your referral link.

Related read: Getting Started With The LTK App

4. ShopMy

I haven't done much with this yet, but I've been seeing more and more fashion and beauty content creators talking about ShopMy more and more. One of the things that stands out to me is that you can pull posts from your Instagram and TikTok feeds into your ShopMy storefront. You can then organize those posts into what ShopMy calls catalogs. You can create commissionable links to hundreds of brands and add them to your shop. 

You can see more about ShopMy or sign up using my referral link.

5. Walmart

Walmart is a place where so many people shop, so it makes sense for it to be an affiliate program that beauty bloggers join.

To sign up, you’ll need to fill out this application form. Commissions range from 1 to 4% depending on the product purchased. The one thing to note about Walmart is that you don't make any commissions on food, yes, not a beauty item, but lots of people grocery shop at Walmart. That usually ends up being the majority of the sales those in the program claim to see in their reports, and it does depress their overall numbers.

6. Amazon

This is a really popular one. Especially now, as Amazon offers two types of programs, one is Amazon Associates, which is the typical affiliate program where you share links to Amazon products for people to purchase from. You also get a storefront where you can collect the products you want to promote as a hub for your followers to browse and shop from.

The other program is Amazon Influencers. This isn't a traditional affiliate program, but more of a UGC program. Amazon Influencers also have a storefront, but they use it to not only collect items they want to promote but also to house what's called shoppable videos they create, sharing why they like a product, how they use it, and that video may get put up on the video carousels on that page for that product. If someone watches that video and then purchases the product, the Influencer earns a commission.

What affiliate programs do you recommend?