39 Pay Per Lead Affiliate Programs That Can Make You Money (2024)

Last updated on June 6th, 2020 at 06:00 am

Does it feel like you’ve been trying to make money with affiliate marketing, but nothing is working? Getting people to pull out their wallet can be a challenge. That’s why I wanted to share some of the best pay per lead affiliate programs that pay you for free sign ups, leads, and trials.

What Are Pay Per Lead Affiliate Programs?

Most affiliate marketers make money through the traditional sales commissions. You only get paid when someone makes a sale. PPL (Pay Per Lead) programs also known as CPA (cost per lead) and PPA (pay per action) make it a lot easier for affiliates to start earning.

Here are some of the actions that a user needs to take for you to earn a commission:

Download or install software
Submit their email address
Create an online account
Register for a webinar or event
Sign up for a free trial
Complete an online quote (example, pet insurance quote or life insurance quote)

This is what makes lead affiliate marketing so attractive. Anyone who’s been trying to monetize with the traditional methods, understands how challenging it can be to get people to buy their recommendations.

Related: 10 Pay Per Signup Affiliate Programs to Make You Money

How Much Do Lead Affiliate Programs Pay?

Most new affiliates get started promoting products that have high commissions in hopes of making a killing. What they don’t understand is that most people are NOT going to spend $1,000 or more on a blogging course.

Yes, it’s okay to promote different products with different commission payouts. But don’t overlook how easy it can be to make some quick money by joining some pay per lead programs.

You won’t make a fortune as a PPL affiliate, unless, you can get into a great niche that gets a ton of traffic and you can tap into it.

My Cost Per Action Website

Back in the day, I had a junk cars site that paid $10.00 per signup. After working on the site for a few years, it was making over $3,000 per month like clockwork.

All of my traffic came from SEO which was nice. The downside is that when Google had an algorithm update, that site got penalized and I lost all my traffic overnight.

That’s a different story, but it’s one of the reasons you need to not only diversify your income, but your traffic sources as well.

Don’t underestimate how much you can make with the pay per signup programs.

Every program is different, and it really depends on on the actual affiliate program. You can see what you can expect to make with the different types of cost per action programs.

Here are some of the most common payouts:

Email Submits: Usually have a $1.00 – $2.50 payout
Online Quotes:
Downloadable Apps: $0.35 – $1.00
Pay Per Free Sign Up: $0.20 – $150 (depending on program)
Sign Up for Free Trial: $10 – $20 (depends on program)

As I mentioned, these payouts will vary from niche to niche. Don’t worry, I will be sharing some of the best programs to get started with below.

Best CPA Affiliate Networks to Get Started With

Now that you’ve seen how much you can make. Let’s take a look at some of the best companies to join. I recommend joining 1-3 of them and finding the right programs that make sense for your content.

In A hurry to start applying? Get started with my top 3 affiliate networks:

ShareASale

Free to get started and has over 300 PPL programs you can get started with.

FlexOffers

Online lead generation and affiliate marketing services perfect for most niches.

AWIN

Easy to use platform with over 100,000 contributing publishers.

PeerFly

ShareASale

FlexOffers

AWIN

Market Health (great for beauty and health bloggers) Offers free trials.

MaxBounty

These are just a few of the companies you can work with. To find more, head to Google and search “CPA networks” or “cost per action companies” to find several more offers.

Don’t forget to put together a huge list of the best affiliate programs to help you get started. It’ll cut down your time of having to search for which programs to get started with.

Now let’s take a look at which programs to join and how much they pay.

39 Pay Per Lead Affiliate Programs That Can Make You Money

I love ShareASale, so most of the programs I share are on that network. If you’re looking for PPL programs for investing, debt, travel, pets, financing, or other niches that have high payouts, check out this post.

You’ll find tons of programs that I’ve put together just for you depending on your niche.

ShareASale Pay Per Lead Programs

I’ve done all the hard work for you and put all the programs I found on the ShareASale Network in one place. Just click on the link to be taken to the signup page. (don’t worry, it’s free to join)

CreativeLive (e-courses)

Commission: $1.00 per lead
Cookie Length: 30 days

Grammarly (proofreading and grammar checker)

Commission: $0.20 per lead
Cookie: 90 days

Appointy (Scheduling Apps)

Commission: $0.01
Cookie: 60 days

WP Engine

Commission: $0.01 per lead
Cookie: 30 days

Freshbooks (business bookkeeping software)

Commission: $5.00 per lead
Cookie: 120 days

Fresh Desk (cloud-based customer support)

Commission: $5.00 per lead
Cookie: 120 days

Rank Pay (SEO services for content marketers)

Commission: $25.00 per lead
Cookie: 60 days

Ginger Software (proofreading software)

Commission: $0.50 per lead
Cookie: 90 days

Merchant Store

Commission: $20.00 per lead
Cookie: 30 days

Desk Moz (lead generation and live chat)

Commission: $0.05 per lead
Cookie: 120 days

Shop to It (PPC, SEO, SEM)

Commission: $0.25 per lead
Cookie: 90 days

Other Niches Besides Blogging

Now let’s take a look at some of these offers that aren’t related to the blogging niche.

Embrace Pet Insurance

Commission: $36.00 per lead
Cookie: 60 days

Jetty

Commission: $5.00 per lead
Cookie: 30 days

Unique Rewards (Rewards program)

Commission: $2.00 per lead
Cookie: 30 days

Visual Visitor

Commission: $0.01 per lead
Cookie: 60 days

TGW Travel Group

Choosing The Right Programs

These are only a few of the programs that I found on the ShareASale network. I have no doubt you could find a lot more on the other networks I mentioned above.

As a new affiliate you’re going to be tempted to sign up with as many as you can. However, that’s NOT going to make you any money.

Instead of signing up for all of these programs on this list, take some time to ask yourself these questions.

Which ones pay lifetime commissions if someone upgrades?

Lifetime and residual programs are great, because you do the work once and get paid over and over without having to do the hard work again.

It takes a lot of work to make money as an affiliate. It’s worth the time to find those that pay residual or lifetime commissions.

What is the conversion rate once someone signs up?

It’s great to make money on the front end when someone signs up as a lead. But it’s a lot better when someone actually upgrades to the paid product and you get bigger commission.

Does the product or service actually benefit my audience?

Only promote products and services that will help our audience. Never promote an affiliate based on commission alone.

If it isn’t beneficial to your audience in some form or fashion, then don’t promote it.

Are there any program competitors available?

Maybe you’re already promoting a specific affiliate program and are having success with it. Take a look around the brand’s competitors to see if they have an affiliate program.

This can be a great way to provide your audience with additional products in a similiar category and possibly even increase your chances for more conversions.

Does it fit your niche?

This may seem obvious, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. Finding products that are related to your blog is essential to your success.

Yes you can think outside of the box and promote products that aren’t directly related to your blog. For example, if you write about gardening, there’s no need to limit yourself to just selling gardening products.

You could also promote lawn furniture, lawn mowers, lawn sprinkler systems, and etc.

How to Get Started

Now that you know about some of the best companies to join and how PPL affiliate marketing works, I wanted to share some tips on how to get started.

After all, you won’t make your first sale if you don’t take action.

Just like anything else, you shouldn’t expect overnight results. It’s going to take a while to get started, but if you follow the steps below, you can create a successful affiliate website.

If you want to follow a proven program that I highly recommend, I suggest you take a look at this.

For those of you who don’t need any assistance, but just want to know how to get started, here’s what you do.

First Step

Set up your blog, I’ve got a step by step tutorial to make it easy to learn how to start a blog. Once you do that, don’t worry about anything but content.

Sit down and write as many high quality articles as you can. I recommend using this keyword tool to help you find those low hanging keywords that you’ll be able to rank for quickly.

Get on Pinterest and start promoting your content while you wait on your SEO traffic to grow.

Whatever you do, don’t give up. If you did everything correctly, in a year or less you should be making some money with your lead generation methods.

Final Take Away

It doesn’t matter what type of website you’re creating. The most important thing to remember is that it takes time to build a passive income website.

You might fail with your first one, but don’t give up. Imagine how different your life will be 2-3 years from now if you start creating your digital assets today.

Get started with the networks on this post and then come back and let me know how your blog is doing in 6 months.

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