How to Find Affiliates to Sell Your Products and Promote Your Brand

Affiliate marketing has become a key part of marketing plans for millions of brands today because of its cost-effectiveness and low risk. Businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to enterprises, can start their own affiliate marketing campaigns easily with the help of affiliate tracking software.

However, setting up an affiliate program is just the beginning. The next crucial step is how to find affiliate partners to sell your products or services. In this article, UpPromore will walk you through:

1. Get to know different types of affiliates
2. Things you need to prepare before you find affiliates for your product
3. Tactics and tips on how and where to find affiliates

Excited to learn? Let’s dive in!

Who could be your affiliate marketing partners?

If you’re new to managing affiliates, you might think all affiliates are pretty much the same, mainly influencers who help you sell through their followers. But affiliates can be very different.

They could be:

• Your existing customers: People who already use and love your products.
• Content affiliates: This group includes bloggers, vloggers, and content creators. They promote products through their content.
• Influencers: These are social media public figures. They use their large following to showcase products and services.
• Coupon/deal sites: Websites focusing on sharing deals and coupons.
• Cashback sites: These sites offer rewards or cashback to their users. The rewards come from purchases made through their links.
• PPC publishers: Marketers specializing in pay-per-click advertising for traffic and sales.
• Review sites: Websites that review products and include affiliate links within their evaluations.

Choosing which types of affiliates can vary depending on your business model and goals. So, develop a strategy for finding the best-fit affiliates for your campaigns.

What you need to do before finding affiliates 

Before you search for affiliates, it’s essential to prepare thoroughly. It may take time, but it will help your campaign run smoothly and effectively later.

Make sure to understand your affiliate program’s goals, pinpoint the perfect partners for your brand, and decide on the incentives you will offer. This groundwork is key to forming effective partnerships that yield results.

Here are some things that need to be clear at the start:

Define your ideal affiliates

How to find the right affiliates is key to campaign success. You will want to work with people who match your brand value and target market. Here’s how to go about it:

First, know your audience. Consider factors like their age, location, and interests. Your ideal ambassador should fit this profile.

Seek out individuals with a strong online presence. They are highly active in online communities or have a large following on social media.

Make sure your ambassador aligns with your brand’s values and personality so their promotion of your products feels authentic.

Another important characteristic is the love for your brand. Your affiliates are interested in your products/services and believe in it. Their passion will resonate with their followers.

You will need to put in some effort to discover the best candidates to join your program, but it will be well worth it.

Create an appealing affiliate program

Regardless of affiliate types, all have one thing in common: collaborate with brands to earn commissions for the sales they make. They are drawn to affiliate campaigns that offer attractive deals and enticing benefits.

How to attract affiliates to sign up for your campaigns? Should keep these things in mind:

• Competitive commission rates: Research the standard commission rates in your industry and what your competitors offer. ​​Make sure your rates are high and attractive.
• Fair attribution models: How do you track affiliate performance and calculate commissions to affiliates? Let’s make sure affiliates are properly credited for their contributions.
• Long cookie duration: 5, 10, 20, or 30 days are enough? Consider offering longer cookie durations to give affiliates a better chance to earn commissions.

But not all affiliates are the same, and not all get the same commission rates based on their experience, audience volume, and performance. So, you can consider building multiple affiliate programs to fit different types of partners and reach out to potential ones who are interested in your brands.

Don’t be overwhelmed with creating and managing multiple affiliate campaigns. Connect your Shopify store with UpPromote, we’ll help you simplify all these tasks. You can easily tailor programs to various affiliate groups.

How and where to find affiliates to sell your products: 10 effective ways

Are you looking for affiliates but don’t know where to start? Your search ends here!

From tapping into affiliate marketing networks to leveraging various social media channels, here are 10 simple ways how to find affiliate marketers for your product who’ll help you hit your targets.

Turn your customers into affiliates

Need to find affiliate marketing partners for your products? Leveraging your existing customer base is a great place to start.

No one is better to recommend your product or service than your customers. Having purchased and used it, they can share personal experiences and the benefits they’ve received from your brand. This information builds trust better than ads.

A satisfied customer can promote your brand’s presence via social media or even directly to personal communities. You should know that 92% of people believe in suggestions from friends and family members regarding advertising. This word-of-mouth promotion can help you earn big.

How to turn your delighted customers into promoters automatically?

Our customer referral feature lets you create a form (widget or landing page) to invite customers or visitors to support your brand. It helps you boost sales with positive word-of-mouth and effortlessly connect to loyal customers.

To enable the feature in UpPromote, navigate to Outreach > Affiliate recruitment > Customer referral > click Set up.

Then, switch on the Active box to activate the Customer referral feature.

​​From here, you can set up the Program name or set it by default. You also choose the type of rewards for your customers: Flat rate per order or Percent of sale. Meanwhile, their friends can get a Discount by Percentage, Fixed amount, or Free shipping.

Now, you can manage and customize the display for your referral program’s sign-up interface to match your brand. You can select between two options:

• Widget: Displayed on your website as a floating button. When customers click on it, a popup will open for them to register and get their referral link.

• Landing page: Displayed as a signup form for customers on any store page, making it easy for you to convert them into affiliates.

When you finish the display setting, a Refer & Earn widget or Landing page will appear on your website. Customers can easily sign up for your referral program by filling out their emails.

Our affiliate tracking software will instantly provide them with a referral link to promote your store.

UpPromote will help you track all the referrals brought by customers.

Go to Referrals > select Customer referrals. You can view it on a separate list from the regular referrals brought by affiliates.

If you want to see the customer list, go to Affiliates > select Customers. The list will be displayed separately from the affiliate account list like this:

UpPromote helps you send email notifications to customers. It also gives real-time analytics to judge the campaign’s efficiency.

Use keywords to look for niche bloggers and websites

Wonder “How to find affiliates to sell my product”? Collaborating with niche blogs and websites with content related to your niche is a great way to promote your brand. These bloggers and websites usually target a specific group of people that are likely to overlap with your brand’s target audience.

The simplest way to explore affiliate niche sites or bloggers is using Goolge search. Typing keywords related to your products into Google. Then, look for niche sites or bloggers that would be interested in partnering with you.

If you’re running a beauty brand, how to get affiliates for your product by using this method? You can search for keywords like these:

• Basic keyword search: Combine specific terms related to your niche with words like “blog,” “blogger,” or “review.” Examples include “beauty blogger” and “beauty review site.”
• Curated lists: Look for compilations of top bloggers in your niche using terms like “top beauty blogs 2024” and “best beauty bloggers.”
• Advanced search operators: Use Google’s advanced search features to refine your results. For instance, use intitle:”beauty blog” to find pages with “beauty blog” in the title.

From here, you can find a list of potential affiliate marketing partners. Gather their information, such as contact details and social media channels. Next, reach out directly to the blog or website owners and ask for collaboration.

Protip: To get the contact information of your favorite bloggers, pay attention to the contact section or link that they show publicly on their websites.

Utilize social media and partner with influencers

Social media is a goldmine for finding potential affiliates. Identify which channels your target audience uses the most to start your recruitment plan. If your products are visually appealing, platforms like Instagram and Pinterest might be ideal. For detailed reviews and tutorials, YouTube is a greater choice.

Finding influencers via social media 

Use the search functions on these platforms to find perfect-fit influencers and affiliates. Look for keywords, hashtags, and phrases related to your brand.

For example, if you’re in the fitness niche, how to get affiliates to promote your product in this way? Search for the keyword “fitness” on Instagram. It will show you numerous accounts with the term “fitness” in their bio, username, or nameplate.

You can also use hashtags to find influencers, like #FitnessBlogger, #WorkoutTips, or #HealthyLiving. To target a particular area, search for location-specific hashtags like #California or #Montana to get better results.

After that, start by engaging with their content. Leave thoughtful comments, like their posts, and share their content if relevant. This helps build a relationship and makes your outreach more genuine when you contact them directly.

Find influencers via Google search

Everybody uses search engines like Google to look for things, and you also take advantage of it to look for the right influencers for your business.

How to find new affiliates with this tool? Before you dive into a hashtag and keyword research, you should have an idea of which hashtags and keywords fit with your brand to begin with. Come up with a list of adjectives that describe your brand and your customer base.

For example, if you’re running a women’s boho clothing brand focusing on both classic and contemporary trends while also employing environmentally friendly materials, here’s the keyword list:

• Bohemian, hippie, whimsical
• Free-spirited, carefree
• 90-inspired, vintage, contemporary
• Fabric-lined, embroidered, feminine
• Environmentally friendly, eco-friendly, green, sustainable
• Trend-leading, innovative

Then you can utilize some of these adjectives as hashtags or keywords when looking for influencers on social media or SERPs. Searching for ‘boho fashion influencers’ will bring back plenty of excellent results.

If you don’t think the search results are up to par. You can use Google search operators to narrow your search and increase the probability of finding the desired results.

For example, search this query on Google‌: site:instagram.com sustainable fashion.

Then, Google will filter Instagram profiles that are dedicated to sustainable fashion.

However, if you want to limit your search to influencers with a specific number of social media followers, you can search this query: site:instagram.com ‘k followers’ sustainable fashion.

Google will screen Instagram profiles with more than 1000 followers in this way.

You can change ‘k followers’ to ‘100k followers’ when looking for those who have more than 100.000 followers.

Next, you can reach out to your ideal influencers through direct messages or their emails. Personalize your message. Mention special things you liked about their content. Explain why you think they would be a great fit for your affiliate program. Highlight the benefits they would receive by partnering with your brand.

Even if you want to work with different types of influencers across multiple social media platforms, from TikTok and Facebook to Instagram, that’s perfectly fine. Don’t worry about managing these collabs. UpPromote’s influencer marketing solution will handle all your tasks. We help you classify, manage, communicate, and pay your partners in one place.

Join affiliate networks or affiliate marketplace

Are you curious about where to find affiliate marketers? Participating in an affiliate network or marketplace is a good choice.

Affiliate networks are platforms where merchants and affiliates meet, collaborate, and manage their marketing relationships. Joining these networks can help you find relevant affiliates more quickly.

Each network has its own strengths and caters to different types of products and markets. Some popular networks are ShareASale, Clickbank, CJ Affiliate, and Impact.

However, joining an affiliate network can increase your expenses. Affiliate networks often charge fees for their services. The fees may be recurring, one-time setup, or commissions on sales made through affiliates. Consider your budget carefully and research to find the network that best suits your brand.

Another effective way to recruit affiliate partners is through a marketplace. This option will not break the bank if it’s available in your affiliate marketing tracking tool.

Take TréSkin, a popular USA organic beauty and health brand, as an example. They really made this strategy work.

In early 2022, TréSkin worked with UpPromote, a top-recommended affiliate solution, to launch and scale its affiliate programs. The brand also tapped into the UpPromote Marketplace to connect with high-quality affiliates for its products.

In just three months, TréSkin generated over $120,000 in affiliate revenue, increasing its customer base and sales without a huge marketing spend.

Now, over 20.000 affiliates are active in UpPromote’s marketplace, giving you access to a large pool of potential partners. How to find affiliate partners on our marketplace listing? Here’re two ways:

The first one is proactively connecting with publishers. For example, if you own a fashion brand on Shopify, start by adding UpPromote to your store. Then, go to UpPromote’s marketplace > Find affiliates > Filter Fashion industry to explore top-notch affiliates.

You will see a wide selection of publishers related to your niche, including their brief bios, industry involvement, language/ location, and social media presence. Select your ideal affiliates from the list and invite them directly to join your program.

➡️Launch your affiliate program with UpPromote in a blink

The second approach is to showcase your affiliate program on our Marketplace. Provide your specific offer, including program name, category, commission structure, and payment methods. You can also add information such as a banner, geology limit, average earning per sale, or a video to best describe your business.

Aff affiliates can filter offers in our Marketplace listing to determine the best one to apply for. So, the more detailed the information, the more likely affiliates are to find and participate in your program.

If you want to public your offer on UpPromote’s marketplace, here’s how you can do it:

Within our dashboard, go to Outreach > Marketplace listing > Edit offer.

From here, select the program you wish to offer, and all relevant information will automatically be displayed. Then, tailor your requirements based on your target audience’s age, gender, location, and preferred promotion channels.

As you proceed, you will encounter the Store Information box. Here, enter your store domain and update your store details and banner. Next, move to the Description section, where you can select the category for your products and write an engaging introduction for your brand.

Lastly, you can add additional information to ensure finding the right affiliates. This not only increases the chances that your offer will be exposed to potential partners but also gives them a clearer idea of what they will be selling.

Once everything is set properly, you can choose to Save changes.

We have some tips for you when joining UpPromote’s marketplace to get affiliates to sell your product:

• Review your offer and compare it with other merchants to figure out the best deal for your potential affiliates.
• Check out affiliate profiles and directly reach out to perfect-fit publishers, asking them to join as your ambassadors.

Take part in online groups or forums 

Online communities can be other promising places to join when you are wondering how to find affiliates. Here’s what to think about before you start:

Which groups or forums focus on your niche or affiliate marketing? Are these communities active, with engaged members who regularly share information? Explore relevant Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, Reddit, or Quora to find affiliate marketers familiar with your industry.

For example, Organic Harvest, an organic makeup brand, engages in Quora discussions to enhance its online presence. The brand identifies niche-related influencers, such as beauty bloggers, to promote their products.

Don’t forget to do research beforehand. Each forum or community has its own terms and conditions for participating.

Be an active participant in discussions. Build trust and relationships before introducing your affiliate programs. Share insights, answer questions, and offer helpful advice. This enhances your credibility in the niche-specific forums when reaching out to potential affiliates.

Attend industry events 

Networking at industry events can also help you find affiliates to promote your products. These events provide opportunities to meet influencers, bloggers, and other potential partners face-to-face. Then, keep in touch, strengthen the relationship, and invite them to promote your brand with outstanding benefits.

Building strong ties with brand advocates and influencers through events is part of Holbrook Pickleball’s smart affiliate marketing plan.

Besides choosing UpPromote as the main tool to build and manage their ambassador campaigns, they attend pickleball events nationwide. By meeting many ambassadors in person, the brand creates a sense of community and loyalty with its affiliate team.

And the result? They get 173 new ambassadors joined the program.

Implement multi-level marketing to find affiliates

Multi-level marketing (MLM) can be a great strategy for expanding your affiliate network. This method encourages your existing ambassadors to invite others to be their downlines for higher commissions.

In other words, you grow your affiliate team members and enhance your chance of selling more products to the market. At the same time, you can keep your existing affiliates engaged and motivated by doubling their income resources.

The first is from the commission paid for every customer referral order they made. The second one comes from the network commission, which is based on purchases brought by their downline distributors.

To better understand how MLM works, let’s look at an example using UpPromote’s feature. Imagine John becomes an affiliate and invites Victor. Victor then invites Michelle. Next, Michelle recruits David.

If David (Original affiliate) brings a referral order with the total amount of $1000 and the commission percentage set to the affiliate program is 10%, he will get the commission of 10% x $1000 = $100. Other affiliates who are at higher levels will receive network commission as below:

• Commission level 1 (Michelle, who invites David) recieves 5%.
• Commission level 2 (Victor, who invites Michelle) receives 4%.
• Commission level 3 (John, who invites Victor) receives 2%.

You can choose between 2 ways to set the network commission. It can be program commission (commission of the affiliate who directly brought the order) or total sale of the order with the percentage set by the merchant.

Here’s the thing you can consider:

Choose the most suitable commission structure for your goal. It can optimize the commission amount paid to affiliates. Or, it can encourage them to recruit more team members.

To activate UpPromote’s Multi-level marketing, go to Outreach > Affiliate recruitment > Multi-level marketing > select the program and Activate MLM. You can set separate MLM rules for each program.

With UpPromote’s robust Multi-level Marketing system, you can encourage your affiliates by adding an incentive through the Recruitment Bonus option. This bonus is credited as a new referral when the newly recruited affiliate is approved.

Team up with experts in related fields

Industry experts have built trust and credibility in specific fields. They also have a strong fan base, believing in their sharing and recommendations. So inviting them to be your ambassadors is a wonderful way to reach a broader audience.

How to get affiliate marketers by collaborating with industry professionals? Don’t just think about your niche. Go even further into the relevant areas, which can easily complement or promote each other. For instance:

• Health supplements and fitness trainers
• Photography equipment and professional photographers
• Gardening tools and horticulturists/ landscape designers
• Cookware brands and celebrity chefs

Remember to reach out to these experts with a clear proposal for collaboration. Explain how partnering with you can benefit them and their audience. Highlight mutual interests and the value they can gain from the partnership.

To make the partnership more attractive, you can offer exclusive deals or higher commissions. This could include special bonuses or unique promotional opportunities whenever possible.

Here are a few ways other professionals can promote your brand:

• Collaborate with your brand to organize events or giveaways
• Use their social media platforms to share stories and posts about your products
• Write a blog post or product review on their site
• Produce video tutorials or guides mentioning your company

Utilize your own website to show your affiliate program

After building an affiliate program, you can create a dedicated landing page to promote it. This makes it easier for potential publishers to find more information about your ambassador campaign when they visit your website.

Pure Himalayan Shilajit’s affiliate landing page is a good example of how to display your affiliate program details effectively on the brand’s website.

To ensure easy navigation, Pure Himalayan Shilajit also shows a link to its affiliate program in the website’s footer.

We have some tips for you to promote your affiliate landing page:

• Share it via social media channels
• Put out ads
• Optimize it for search engines
• List your program on the top list of articles on Google. Search for queries like “[your niche] + affiliate program” to find top sites that can endorse it. For example, if you own a supplement store, type “supplement affiliate programs.” You will see many results, but prioritize the top 10 on the SERPs.

On the other hand, if you do not want to create a landing page, you can place the registration form link directly on your store’s website.

For instance, Holbrook Pickleball adopts this method. They utilize UpPromote’s features to create a registration form that meets their needs to publish on the store menu.

Here’s what to keep in mind when creating a registration form:

• Highlight your program’s key benefits for affiliates (commissions, cookies, etc.)
• Ask for info you actually need (name, email, etc.)
• Your brand’s style (colors, logos, etc.)

UpPromote allows you to customize your registration form flexibly, including fonts, backgrounds, sidebars, logos, titles, and more.

Run paid ads

How to find affiliates for your website? Paid advertising is another great tactic. It will help your brand get affiliates to sell your products more quickly.

If you want to place ads online, you can consider the following types:

• Google ads: Turning to search engines like Google to find information is our habit, not except for affiliates. They will type relevant keywords on Google to look for promising affiliate programs. You need to research and bid for such terms, like “best affiliate program for [Niche/Sub Niche].

• Social media ads (Facebook, Instagram): Allow you to target users based on their interests, behaviors, and demographics. You can flexibly use different ad formats, such as carousel ads, video ads, image ads, or collection ads, to find new affiliates.
• Other ads: You can run other advertising types to get in front of potential affiliate marketers. Based on your target audience and your marketing plan, you will choose the most suitable channel, such as email ads, LinkedIn ads, or YouTube ads.

Protips to find the right affiliate marketing marketers 

Finding the right folks to be affiliates for your brand is essential. You want people who truly understand what your brand is and can talk about it in a way that impresses your audience. Of course, you also hope to build long-term relationships with them to promote your products.

Here are some additional tips to help you find affiliate marketing partners:

Clear communication and expectation

It’s crucial to have clear conversations with affiliate marketers for better understanding.

Talk about your goals. Discuss your expectations with these collaborations. When you team up with your partners, what do you want to achieve, like more sales or greater brand awareness?

Highlight all the benefits of your affiliate programs, like commission structure, rewards, discounts, or promotional resources.

You can send affiliates emails or direct messages. If you set up UpPromote, you can utilize the In-app chat feature to connect with your team.

You also can chat and manage conversations with your partners through the chat plugin account. Our affiliate marketing tracking system supports Chat plugins. It provides the script code for integration with Tawk.to, Tidio chat, Chata live chat, and Crisp chat.

Show appreciation and recognition through rewards

Attractive incentives motivate affiliates. They are like rewards for an affiliate’s hard work when hitting or exceeding a set target.

You award them a bonus to increase their satisfaction. In turn, affiliates will drive more sales and invite more new promoters for your brand.

Using UpPromote, you can set up bonus rules with ease to keep your affiliates engaged and motivated. Go to Motivation > Bonuses > Set up > Click on the Create bonus button.

Discover how the UpPromote Affiliate Bonus can help you differentiate your affiliate programs from competitors to get more affiliates.

Last words

81% of brands use affiliate programs to boost brand awareness and drive sales, not except for your competitors. Don’t just launch an affiliate marketing program and wait for potential partners to join. You need to look for new and creative ways to find affiliate marketing partners proactively.

If you are looking for the answers to the question: “How to find affiliates for my product?”, We hope that this article will help you learn how to find the best-fit affiliates for your brand. By defining your ideal affiliates, creating an appealing program, and leveraging multiple channels to find and recruit affiliates, you can foster a strong network of partners to help you sell your products.

UpPromote is always by your side to help you build and manage the affiliate team with no hassle. Best of luck with your recruitment efforts!