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Shopify Affiliate Program Review: Pros, Cons, and Alternatives

Shopify Affiliate Program review
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If you’re looking for a thorough Shopify Affiliate Program review, you’re in the right place.

It’s likely if you’re interested in the Shopify Affiliate Program, you’re familiar with affiliate marketing to some extent. You may be interested in:

  • Dropshipping
  • Teaching courses
  • E-Commerce
  • Showing others how dropshipping or e-commerce works
  • And, making good money with Affiliate Marketing

The cool thing is many of those who have tried the Shopify affiliate program have had similar goals, and some have become very successful. Alternatively, some have joined the program and completely flopped–not making any money.

In this Shopify Affiliate Program review, I will tell you:

  • What it is
  • How it works
  • Pros and Cons
  • What it does well and what it does not
  • What others are saying (good and bad)
  • How to Make Money with the Shopify Affiliate Program
  • My Recommendation
  • And, Alternatives (in case you want to do some comparison shopping)

What is Affiliate Marketing?

First, I don’t want to take for granted that you know what affiliate marketing is, so let me first explain that…

Affiliate marketing is basically a collaboration between three parties: the affiliate, the tracking software, and the merchant. In the collaboration, the affiliate uses tools like internet marketing to find potential customers, warms them up to the idea that the merchant has a solution to their problem, and sends them over to the merchant. The tracking software will track the referral: from the affiliate to the merchant. The merchant will close the deal and deliver the product or service to the customer.

As a result of the collaboration, the customer gets a solution they were looking for or interested in. The affiliate will get paid a commission for the referral. The tracking software usually gets paid a small percentage for tracking the transaction, and the merchant gets revenue from the sale.

What is Shopify?

You remember the traditional retail stores, right? With those, you’d drive your car, park, and physically look thru inventory to find items you want. Shopify offers the digital version of that. They offer an e-commerce solution that helps entrepreneurs to sell their products and services online or by point-of-sale in-person. They make it very user friendly and easy for customers to find what they’re looking for, and as a result, Shopify users have made $100 billion in sales combined!

What is Shopify Affiliate Program? Product Overview

Shopify wants to help more entrepreneurs to sell their products online, and as a part of their plan to get the word out, they pay for referrals–this is called the Shopify Affiliate Program. You have to fill out an application, they approve, then they’ll give you tracking links, banners, and other things to help you attract more potential customers.

If you’re unfamiliar with how to drive traffic online, or how to attract customers, check out my #1 recommended affiliate marketing training where traffic generation is taught very thoroughly.

How Does Shopify Affiliate Program Work?

With the Shopify Affiliate program, you build a relevant audience who might be interested in selling products and services using e-commerce software, and when you send them to Shopify, the tracking software records the click as your referral. Once they’re at Shopify’s website, they can sign up for the free trial and they’re given valuable information along the way.

If they decide that Shopify is a good fit for them, then you would get a commission with the sale. Commissions range from $58 (average sale amount) up to $2000.

How to Make Money with the Shopify Affiliate Program

Making money with Shopify can be broken down into steps:

  1. Build a website, funnel, or landing page
  2. Create relevant content or ads
  3. Attract those who are looking for an e-commerce solution thru your ads or content
  4. Educate them on how Shopify helps to achieve their goals, and why they should take action by clicking your links
  5. Earn revenue

Shopify says their affiliates usually make money by creating relevant content like:

  • Blog posts
  • Online guides or courses
  • Video tutorials
  • Webinars
  • Interviews and Case Studies
  • Commerce platform reviews and comparisons
  • and, Building an email list

How Do I Get Started with Shopify Affiliate Program?

To get started with the Shopify Affiliate Program, you’d have to fill out the application here, and get approved by the affiliate management team.

Who is Shopify Affiliate Program For?

Shopify Affiliate program is best for:

  • Entrepreneurs who will be using Shopify for their e-commerce solution
  • Those who meet people or have an audience that would need a solution like Shopify
  • Or, those looking to build an audience that would need a solution like Shopify

Shopify Affiliate Program Tools & Training

Shopify offers affiliate marketing training. They have a course called Affiliate Marketing Fundamentals you can once you sign up for the affiliate program. They also have an affiliate blog.

Shopify Affiliate Program Support

If you’re serious about being successful in the Shopify affiliate program, they’ll assign you an affiliate manager that will help “show you the ropes”–this is a major perk because this is support most people don’t get.

What Does The Shopify Affiliate Program Do Well

  • They offer you an affiliate manager
  • They have a quality product that’s getting entrepreneurs great results with e-commerce
  • They have a conversion optimized funnel
  • They let potential customers try the software, educate them, and make it easy for them to make the buying decision
  • They pay $58/sale on average which can add up

What Doesn’t Shopify Affiliate Program Do Well

  • They don’t offer recurring commissions which means your income can fluctuate more
  • They don’t have public incentives for high sales volume (like other companies do)

Shopify Affiliate Program Review Roundup

I want you to see what affiliates are saying about the Shopify Affiliate program that’s good and bad, so you can make a decision about whether this would be a good affiliate program for you.

Common Positive Feedback

  • I was paid on time
  • Shopify is popular so it converts very well
  • Great product
  • I’ve referred several happy customers

Common Negative Feedback

  • I was banned unjustly
  • Shopify was very stringent with their rules

Most Helpful Positive Shopify Affiliate Program Review

“The affiliate program that I’ve had most success from is the Shopify Affiliate program. At some points I’ve been making close to $1000/mo using this program.”

Greg Preece

Most Helpful Negative Shopify Affiliate Program Review

Tanner Planes was banned permanently from the Shopify Affiliate program. He claims he earned Shopify 6 or 7 figures in sales, but throughout the duration of his affiliate relationships with them, there was constant warnings.

They didn’t like claims that make it sound like you can earn a certain amount within a set timeframe (even if it’s not explicitly stated). He says he wasn’t trying to imply any income claims, but Shopify had a different perspective. They don’t like videos that show Shopify affiliate earnings producing a lavish lifestyle, or imply using their software or affiliate program will lead to a certain financial outcome.

Shopify Affiliate Program Price

It is 100% free to join the Shopify Affiliate program.

My Final Opinion of Shopify Affiliate Program

The Shopify Affiliate program is trending right now. There are several dropshipping courses and e-commerce courses who are making money thru course sales and Shopify’s affiliate program.

I think it’s a great opportunity if you have an audience that is interested in e-commerce or dropshipping. If you decide to promote Shopify, you have to make sure that your content doesn’t give implied or actual income claims because they’re very strict about banning people like that.

Top Alternatives

If you want to be successful with affiliate marketing, and you’d like to consider some alternative e-commerce or dropshipping solutions, I recommend you try these options:

Option #1: Wealthy Affiliate

If you’d like to make money with affiliate marketing (promoting Shopify and potentially others), I’d recommend you check out Wealthy Affiliate. They teach you how to become a successful affiliate using their proven training, web hosting, a WordPress website builder, market research tools, live training, and a supportive community of over 1 million members. I think it’s the best way to be successful as a Shopify affiliate or elsewhere.

As an alternative to Shopify’s affiliate program, you can also become a WA affiliate and earn 40% lifetime recurring commissions while promoting a hosting solution that can be used to host Woocommerce online stores. Wealthy Affiliate offers cloud hosting and e-commerce training, so those interested in e-commerce can get the training and tools they need to launch in the same place.  See my full Wealthy Affiliate review here or try it out for free here.

Option #2: Kinsta

I personally just switched to Kinsta hosting. They host major e-commerce companies that have millions of monthly customers like Turbotax, Freshbooks, and others. If you want to start an e-commerce business, Kinsta can host it for you, and if you want to refer others, they’ll pay you lifetime recurring commissions. See my full Kinsta review here or try Kinsta for yourself here.

Option #3: InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting offers hosting of most content management systems including e-commerce platforms like Magento. Aside from Shopify and Woocommerce, Magento has a large portion of the e-commerce market share, and you can tell others about how to use them. InMotion hosting takes good care of their affiliates, and has lots of incentives for high sales volume. You can learn more about Inmostion Hosting in my review or you can try them for yourself here.

VERDICT: Recommended

——————————————————-

Shopify Affiliate Program

9

Reliability

9.8/10

Pricing

9.8/10

User Friendly

9.8/10

Support

8.0/10

Features

7.5/10

Pros

  • Great product
  • Good support
  • High demand solution
  • High conversion to sales
  • High ticket sale potential

Cons

  • You can be banned
  • It's not a recurring commission so your income can fluctuate from month to month

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