Online money making has already become quite a legitimate way of earning a living. The web design world of today offers lots of opportunities for you. The first thing that comes to the mind, when you think about promotion in a web design niche, is an affiliate program. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of affiliate programs for WordPress and the web design niche. But, which one do you join? Today we are going to compare affiliate programs from TemplateMonster, ThemeForest, ElegantThemes, MOJO Themes, CreativeMrket, and Wix.
First, we will provide a general outline image and then summarize the information using a comparison chart. The web development affiliate programs are quite versatile, so to make it easier to compare them we decided to pay attention to the following aspects:
- The range of products the company offers.
- The commission rate.
- Who can become an affiliate?
- Affiliate tools the company provides.
- The payout process.
- Bonuses, if there are any.
TemplateMonster
TemplateMonster marketplace, founded in 2002, is an awesome group of experienced vendors and digital products manufacturers using everything they have learned to help you look online the right way.
Products: WordPress themes, HTML5, Joomla, Drupal, Prestashop, Magento templates. Templates & themes for eCommerce platforms. Also, a lot of other web design related products: PSD templates, PowerPoint presentations, illustrations, corporate identity designs, logo templates, plugins, modules and more.
Main Markets: Worldwide.
Commissions: 10-30% revenue share.
The affiliate commission is dependent on how many sales you can make each month. Starting at 30% (per the first unique customer sale) and 10% (all further sales) it is already a pretty high paying program.
They pay commission on all sales made through the affiliate link/banner or affiliate template section/shop shopping cart within the basic affiliate project. TemplateMonster provides you with all necessary boosting tools: banners, showcases, landing pages, RMS to present it on your web page.
The cookies are active for 60 days, which considerably increases your chances to earn money. The minimum payout is $100. The company supports several payment methods (PayPal, Bank / Wire Transfer, WebMoney), which is really convenient for the affiliates.
Also, web studios and individual web developers have an opportunity to be included in TemplateMonster Web Studio Catalogue and get orders from company clients.
Pros:
- Nice active blog with tips on how to promote their products
- Huge bunch of web design products
- Easy tool for generating a referral link
- Personal affiliate manager
- 3 payment methods
- Long cookie duration
Cons:
- Minimum payout is $100
MOJO Themes
MOJO Themes is a marketplace, selling WordPress, Joomla, eCommerce and Tumblr themes with the overall number of products about 2,000. To become an affiliate of MOJO Themes is really quite simple. Anyone who has an account automatically becomes their affiliate. Your username equals your affiliate ID which you can use in the referral links. Everyone who comes through your affiliate link is tracked. And if the person makes a deposit or a purchase, you will get 30% commission from his initial payment.
The average price of MOJO templates is $35. Performing simple calculations we arrive at $10 for each successful referral. The duration of cookies is 30 days. You can track your earnings in your account and at the end of each month request the payout. However, the payout minimum is $50. So if you don't reach it, keep on working until the end of the next month. Also bear in mind that you must have a PayPal account, as this is the only payment method supported. To enhance your affiliate campaign MOJO Themes provide you with banners, logos and anniversary banner bundles.
ThemeForest
Launched in 2008, ThemeForest is one of the most popular website themes marketplace — pairing web developers with hungry buyers. ThemeForest is part of Envato Markets family (unified in 2014).
Products: WordPress themes, HTML5, Joomla, Drupal, Prestashop, Magento templates. Templates & themes for ecommerce platforms, UI design elements.
Main Markets: Worldwide.
Commissions: 30% revenue share for each new person’s first purchase.
ThemeForest is a big library of themes and designs for WordPress, but they also include themes for sites powered by Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and even just stand-alone HTML sites.
The affiliate commission is dependent on the quantity of your sales. They pay 30% of each new person’s first purchase.
You need to create an Envato account and get an approval. That’s all, after that you can generate your referral link and send traffic to any Envato page. You can use provided banners and logos and use them on your website. If you have necessary skills, use Envato Market API logo. Company’s minimum payout is $50.
You can get your money via PayPal, Moneybookers/Skrill, SWIFT or Payoneer. Cookie Length is 30 days.
Pros:
- Big range of digital assets
- Provide you with performing banners
- Easy tool for generating a referral link
- Several payment methods
Cons:
- Support is provided by independent developers who may or may not be reliable. So you may have bad reviews about the templates that you suggest to your readers
- If the buyer backs out, doesn’t pay, or cancels their order, you don’t earn anything
- You also only earn on the final price; if the buyer uses a discount offer, your 10% comes from the discounted price
- The cookies are active for 30 days
Wix
Wix is a cloud-based web development platform. It allows anyone to create their own HTML5 website online. Wix, like most website builders, functions as a service, more than a product. You sign up for a plan, and then use its browser-based templates and tools to create your website.
Products: Website-builder service.
Main Markets: Worldwide.
Commissions: $100
Unlike other affiliate programs mentioned in this article, you don’t get the percent from the sale. They pay you $100 for every premium user you referred who didn’t cancel within 14 days.
But you should remember that free Wix plan is pretty good and offers everything a person may need to start a website. In other words, the conversion might be not as high as you expect. There is a monthly sales target as well. According to it, you need to refer at least 3 conversions per month. The visitor must not cancel their Wix Premium Plan during the first 14-days after upgrading.
A visitor’s conversion to a Wix Premium Plan must occur within 30 days from the moment that visitor clicked on your Affiliate Ad.
You can request a payout at the end of each month and you will be paid for the sales of the previous month. Please note, you need to make at least 3 sales to get your money.
You will need a PayPal account because this is the only way to withdraw the money. You can use banners or invent something on your own for your affiliate campaign.
Pros:
- Great value for money and help features
- High commission rate
Cons:
- First Click Model: Your Affiliate Link must be the first Wix ad a visitor clicks
- Minimum payout is $300
- Cookie duration - 30 days
ElegantThemes
Elegant Themes has been around for a long time designing great premium WordPress themes. They offer a rather cheap membership that grants access to all of their themes.
Products: WordPress themes and plugins.
Main Markets: Worldwide.
Commissions: 50% recurring revenue share.
ElegantThemes have 87 WordPress themes in their collection. The company uses the following unusual scheme: you don’t buy a particular WordPress theme separately, but pay a certain price and get access to all their WordPress themes and plugins at once.
They offers their clients two pricing plans:
- Yearly Access – $89 per year;
- Lifetime Access – $249 once.
You will need to create an account to become an affiliate. Their commission is 50% per sale. In fact it is the highest one on the market. However, keep in mind that after choosing a pricing plan a person is going to pay once and get all the 87 themes. They won’t come back through the same link to buy another template. You will need to work hard to have high conversion rate and have a good profit. The cookies expire within 60 days.
A good bonus is the renewal commissions of the company. What is it? Everything is simple: when customers pay their yearly renewal fees you get your commission from them. ElegantThemes doesn’t provide you with any marketing tools, so you will have to create the banners or widgets yourself.
Pros:
- High commission rate
- The renewal commission
- 24/7 support
- Blog
Cons:
- PayPal is the only payment method
- Doesn’t provide with marketing materials
- Has only WordPress themes and plugins.
CreativeMarket
Creative Market is a platform for handcrafted, mouse-made design content from 29,123 independent creators around the world.
Products: Graphics, fonts, website themes, photos and more web design related products: fonts, brushes, patterns, and other digital assets.
Main Markets: Worldwide.
Commissions: 10%
By joining the Creative Market partner program you will earn 10% of every purchase for an entire year from all new customers you refer to Creative Market.
Their cookies live 365 days. The company supports quite several payment methods (Paypal, ACH/eCheck, Wire).
Creative Market provides you with free affiliate marketing tool like embedded widget to help your business.
Pros:
- Huge bunch of web design products
- Support
- 3 payment methods
- Long cookie duration
Cons:
- Low commission rate - 10%
Now, as we have promised, here is a comparison chart summarizing all the information above.
Here is a comparison table putting together all the information above.
As you can see, there are a lot of ways to earn money from various affiliate programs. However, you’d better consider all essential points before signing up with one of them. To avoid choosing the wrong one, you should consider the following things:
- the commission-average template cost ratio,
- what affiliate tools they offer,
- what's the minimum payout,
- the flexibility and progressiveness of the commission plan,
- payment methods provided.
It’s natural that every company tries to show only the most beneficial sides of their affiliate program. Beware, don’t let yourself be misled. Pay attention to the details, make your own conclusions and take advantage from web design niche.
As you can see, there are lots of opportunities for making money from affiliate programs. However, it would be wrong to regard each particular program superficially. You need to consider lots of details:
- the commission-average template cost ratio;
- the advantages and the tools provided;
- minimum payout and how easy it is to achieve it;
- the flexibility and progressiveness of the commission plan;
- payment methods provided.
And here is why being TemplateMonster affiliate is more beneficial. Let's assume you are a blogger and you deciding which banner to hang. You know that the average conversion rate in web design niche is about 0,25% and you can drive around 10K of traffic.
Moreover, if you are a TemplateMonster Author who also participates in the affiliate program and promotes our items to your audience, you can reach up to 95%.
