Affiliate marketing

The research was done by AI agents that open web pages. Some sites refuse them; where that happened we say so. The small numbers point to the source list at the end. Where a figure is our own sum or guess, it is marked “our estimate” and the basis is given.

The claim

These are examples of the claim, copied from our collection of 59 tweets on this scheme¹. We use “scheme” for any method of earning money; the word does not mean that the method or anyone quoted is dishonest. View counts are as collected on 6 October 2026. Dates are worked out from each tweet’s ID number. A slash ( / ) marks a line break in the tweet. The page judges the scheme, not the people who tweeted.

“20 year olds make $25K/month with affiliate marketing. / But most people don’t know how. / So I built 191+ Affiliate Marketing ChatGPT prompts to help you make money too.”

@ChrisClickUp, 26 May 2023, 405,432 views¹

“you can literally sell anything, and if you don’t want to create your own product, here’s how you can bank 30-50% by doing affiliate marketing for them”

@maxxmalist, 31 January 2026, 41,190 views¹

Smaller accounts make the same kinds of claim. We do not name or quote accounts with fewer than about 10,000 followers. One says its commissions from Whop come to more than $10,000 a month. Another, in a tweet seen about 90,000 times, describes “CPA” offers that pay one to four dollars each time someone installs an app or signs up for something¹.

Two tweets hold about three quarters of all the views in the collection: 631,153 of 826,095¹. Several tweet texts are cut off in our copy, and we did not view the pictures, videos or threads attached to them. Where this page says a tweet does not give something, it means the text we collected. Nothing on this page says that any of these claims is false. We could not check them.

What the scheme is

An affiliate is someone who recommends another company’s product and is paid when the recommendation leads to a sale. The company gives the affiliate a personal link. When a buyer clicks that link and then buys, the company pays the affiliate a share of the price, called a commission.

The tweets describe several versions, and they pay very differently:

• Physical goods. You link to products in a shop such as Amazon. Amazon’s programme is called Amazon Associates².
• Digital products and memberships. You link to a course, a paid community or software. Whop is a marketplace for these; Expertnaire and Selar are Nigerian ones; Digistore24 and ClickBank are older international ones^813141618.
• Pay per action. You are paid a small fixed sum each time someone installs an app or fills in a form. The tweets call this CPA, “cost per action”¹.
• Pay per view. You post short videos about a product and are paid per 1,000 views. Whop calls this Content Rewards¹¹.
• Referring sellers to a platform. Whop also runs a programme called Whop Partners. It pays “30% Commission on the revenue Whop earns from businesses you refer” and “1% Of ad spend from the businesses you refer”. It has a second level: “10% / 0.5% Of revenue and ad spend from businesses your partners refer”⁶⁵.

One more version matters most on X. In it, the product the newcomer promotes is the affiliate-marketing course they have just bought. Their income comes from the next person who buys it.

The mechanism is real, and large sums move through it. A trade body, the Performance Marketing Association, says US advertisers’ “affiliate marketing spending increased by 49.8% from $9.1 billion in 2021 to $13.62 billion in 2024”²⁹. The question is how much volume the claimed income needs, and who gets there.

The arithmetic

Step 1: the rate

Commission = sales through your link x the rate. So the rate decides everything else.

Amazon pays 1% to 5% on most goods. Its rate table, read today, lists 10% for luxury beauty; 5% for music, handmade goods and digital videos; 4.5% for physical books, kitchen and automotive; 4% for clothing, shoes and Amazon’s own devices; 3% for toys, furniture, home, beauty, sports and tools; 2.5% for PCs; 2% for televisions; 1% for grocery and health; and 0% for gift cards and some other categories. Anything not listed gets the default: “All Other Categories | 4.00%”². Amazon also pays fixed sums for some sign-ups, such as $3 for a Prime free trial and $25 for an Audible Premium Plus annual membership². The table has no date on it².

Digital products pay far more, because a copy costs nothing to make. On Whop the seller sets the rate: “The default is 30%, but you can adjust it to any percentage you prefer”⁸. Expertnaire says “you can get as high as 75% commission for each sale you refer”¹⁵. Selar’s 2022 rules required sellers to offer “not less than 20% for high-ticket products (N50,000 and above) and 30% for other products”¹³. (“High-ticket” means expensive. N is the naira, Nigeria’s currency; on 7 October 2026 a US dollar bought about 1,328 naira, so N50,000 is about $38⁶⁶.) One software vendor, Rewardful, reports an average commission rate of 24.16% across 2,847 software affiliate programmes that run on its system²⁴.

Step 2: the sales needed on Amazon

Sales needed each month = income wanted ÷ rate. These are our sums from the rates in Amazon’s table².

The most-viewed tweet says “20 year olds make $25K/month”. The text names no programme, and we did not view what was attached to it¹. If it were Amazon at the default 4%, that would need about $625,000 of purchases through one person’s links every month². At a 30% digital-product rate it would need about $83,000 (our sum: 25,000 ÷ 0.30).

How many clicks is that? We found no representative figure for the share of clicks that become orders, or for the size of a typical order. Our estimate, to show the scale only: if the average order were $40 (our assumption), $250,000 of sales is 6,250 orders a month. One small outdoor site reports that 5.26% of clicks on its product links and 12.30% of clicks on its product boxes ended in a purchase⁷. At those rates, 6,250 orders need roughly 51,000 to 119,000 clicks through to Amazon every month (6,250 ÷ 0.123 and 6,250 ÷ 0.0526). One site’s figures are not a benchmark.

Step 3: what $10,000 a month needs on Whop

Tweets in our collection point to commissions on Whop, and one, from a small account that we do not name or quote, reports more than $10,000 a month¹. The text we have of it is cut off, and we did not view what was attached, so we do not have the product, price, rate or number of customers. We do not know which Whop programme is meant. So we show the sum for both, as an example of the method and not as a check on any person.

(a) As an affiliate for a product. For illustration we use Whop’s default 30%⁸ and a membership costing $50 a month (our assumption). That pays $15 per referred member per month. These are our sums:

• $1,000 a month ÷ $15 = about 67 paying members you referred.
• $10,000 a month ÷ $15 = about 667.
• At a $100 product the numbers halve: about 33 and 333.

Whop lets a seller pay on “Recurring payments (ongoing commissions) or First payment (one-time commission)”⁸. On a first-payment deal, 667 new customers are needed every month. On a recurring deal, the 667 have to stay subscribed. The rate is the seller’s to change. Whop’s terms say: “Commission rates can change or end at any time, and the rate at the time of purchase is what applies.”⁹

(b) As a Whop Partner, referring sellers. Here the 30% is a share of what Whop earns, not of the price⁶⁵. Whop’s fee page lists “2.7% + $0.30 per successful transaction for domestic cards”¹⁰. On a $50 payment that is $1.65, or 3.3%. Our estimate: $10,000 a month ÷ 0.30 = about $33,300 of Whop fees, which at 3.3% is about $1 million of sales a month by the businesses you brought in. The sum leaves out the 1% of advert spending and any other fees Whop earns, so the true figure could be lower. Whop’s two pages also differ on how long this pays: the partner page says “Perpetuity”⁶⁵, while the earnings terms say “for their first 6 months”⁹.

How many visitors does (a) take? The only measured figure we found is for software programmes. Rewardful reports that “8 out of every 1,000 referred visitors become paying customers”²⁴. Our estimate: if that 0.8% held for a Whop membership, 667 customers would take about 83,000 people clicking your link (667 ÷ 0.008).

The money is not final when it arrives. Whop pays affiliate commission after a 30-day wait⁸. And: “If a referred payment enters a dispute, receives a refund, or triggers fraud detection, Whop returns your affiliate commission to the business”⁸. Whop’s terms say: “We do not guarantee you’ll earn any specific amount through the Affiliate Program”⁹.

Step 4: pay per view and pay per action

These pay a fixed small sum. All rows are our sums.

The $1 and $3 rates are said to be the examples in Whop’s documentation for Content Rewards. We could not open that page, today or earlier; the figures come from a search engine’s short summary of it¹¹.

One tweet, from March 2025, describes programmes that pay $5 per 1,000 views and proposes recruiting 20 posters who run 100 accounts and paying them $2.50 per 1,000 views; it says this should make $500 a day¹. The text is cut off in our copy and we did not view the rest of the thread; the part we have does not say which platform the accounts are on, or which programme pays $5. If the organiser keeps $2.50 per 1,000 views, $500 a day needs 200,000 views a day, about 6 million a month (our sum).

The one to four dollars per action in the tweet described under “The claim” matches offers we saw in search summaries only; we opened no network’s page. We did not view what was attached to that tweet, and we have no figure for how many people must be reached for one completed action¹.

Step 5: the conditions for joining, and the costs

• Amazon wants sales before it reviews you. “After you sign up, our Associates team will check your application once you’ve driven qualified sales (we require at least three within the first 180 days).” The same page says “personal orders do not qualify”⁴. If the sales do not come, Amazon’s help page says: “Your application can be withdrawn if there were not enough qualifying sales for 180 days after your application was submitted.” The account cannot be brought back, but you may apply again⁹⁴.
• Amazon pays late. Payment comes about 60 days after the end of the month in which the sale happened, with a $10 minimum by direct deposit and a $100 minimum by cheque³.
• YouTube Shopping is closed to a new channel and to most countries. The second most-viewed tweet lists “Promote with YouTube Shopping” as a step¹. YouTube’s conditions include “You are in the YouTube Partner Program”, “Your channel meets the subscriber threshold for YPP” and “You are based in the United States, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brazil, Taiwan or Japan”²⁰. The Partner Program page asks for “1,000 subscribers with 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months”, or 1,000 subscribers with 10 million Shorts views in 90 days²⁰. We could not confirm a lower tier. The UK, the rest of Europe and Nigeria are not on the country list²⁰.
• The tool in that tweet has a monthly price. Higgsfield’s price page was read once, by one of our agents: Starter at “$19 per month, billed annually”, Plus at $47 and Ultra at $99, and a free plan with no credits²¹. That is $228 to $1,188 a year (our sum). The page refused later attempts, so these prices are not double-checked.
• Some platforms charge affiliates to join. Expertnaire’s homepage says: “To sign up as an affiliate on Expertnaire, you will have to pay a yearly renewable affiliate fee of N10,000 only.”¹⁴ That is about $7.50⁶⁶. Selar’s blog gave its fee as N3,000 a year (about $2.30) in 2022 and again in 2024¹³. We did not check the current price.
• Then there is the training. A sales page hosted on Expertnaire’s site, by an individual seller and not by Expertnaire, offers an “Affiliate Marketing Jumpstart Kit” for N49,999 (about $38), with the line “Price Increasing to N99,999 Soon!”⁶⁴⁶⁶ Wealthy Affiliate, a large training site, charges $497 or $588 a year for its paid plans, or $41 or $49 a month. It also has a free Starter plan²².
• Some are free. Digistore24 says of joining as an affiliate: “No fees. No credit card required. No catch.”¹⁶

Step 6: how many get there

No platform we looked at (Amazon, Whop, Selar, Expertnaire, Digistore24) publishes how its affiliates’ earnings are spread. The nearest evidence:

• Most people who sign up never send a visitor. Rewardful’s data on 2,847 software programmes: “7.6% affiliates make at least one referral” and “1.28% affiliates generate at least one sale”²⁴. That is about 1 in 13 and 1 in 78 (our division). But signing up is free and most never tried. Of those who did send a visitor: “Among affiliates who refer traffic, 16.8% convert at least one sale”, about 1 in 6²⁴. The report also says “The average payout per commission is $14.10” and “a program’s affiliate revenue is generated by only about 10% of affiliates”²⁴. This is one vendor’s data on software subscriptions, not on affiliate marketing as a whole.
• Network totals spread thinly. PartnerStack, a network for software referrals, says it paid “nearly $25M in partner commissions worldwide” in the first half of 2025 and has “over 115,000 commission-earning partners”²⁷. The page does not say over what period the 115,000 were counted, and it is probably a count over the network’s whole life. So dividing one by the other (about $36 a month, our estimate) understates what an active partner earns. PartnerStack says elsewhere that in 2024 “each active partner” earned “more than $5K”⁷⁰, about $417 a month (our division). That is an average and not a middle value, and PartnerStack defines neither “active” nor “commission-earning”. Awin, with its ShareASale network, says the two “generated $19 billion in revenue for its advertisers and $1.4 billion for its publishers globally in the last financial year”, and lists 1 million publishers²⁸. Our estimate: about $1,400 a year, or $117 a month, per registered account, many of which may be inactive. These divisions do not show what a typical earner makes. They show how thinly the totals spread, and large publishers take much of each.
• One platform’s own numbers. Expertnaire’s homepage states “97,000+ Affiliates”, “400,000+ Products Sold” and “over 3 billion in commissions” paid to affiliates¹⁴. Our estimate, taking the 3 billion to be naira: about N31,000 (about $23) of commission and about four sales per affiliate over the platform’s life, and about N7,500 per sale (3,000,000,000 ÷ 97,000; 400,000 ÷ 97,000; 3,000,000,000 ÷ 400,000). The figures are undated. We do not know how many of the 97,000 are active or how the commissions are spread, so the division cannot show what a typical member earns.
• On Whop, sales are concentrated in a few products. Whop Trends is a third-party site that sells a tracking tool for Whop products; it is not Whop’s own. In February 2026 it tracked 191,654 products and estimated that 87.8% showed no revenue¹². That count includes every listing, 145,450 of them created in 2025, and the site does not say whether free or abandoned listings are left out¹². Among products that earned anything, it puts the middle one at $74 a month. The top 1% of those (about 215 products, roughly 1 in 900 of all tracked) took 56.5% of estimated revenue, and 105 products passed $100,000 a month¹². An affiliate can choose what to promote, so the dead listings matter less than the concentration: affiliates compete to promote the same few hundred products. The site says: “Actual revenue may differ — these are estimates, not verified financial data.”¹²
• A survey of people who call themselves affiliates. In Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2023 report, “57.55%” of respondents made “below $10,000” a year from affiliate income and “3.78%” made more than $150,000²⁵. The bands add up to 90.63%, and the report gives no number of respondents or method²⁵. It leaves out everyone who tried and stopped.

A figure to be careful with. The line “the average affiliate marketer earns $8,038 per month” is widely repeated²⁶. It comes from a survey by Authority Hacker, a company that sold affiliate training, of its own audience, and is pulled up by veterans: the survey is quoted as finding those with more than three years’ experience earn “9.45x more than beginners”²⁶. The original page has gone from the company’s site⁸⁵, but an archived copy can be read⁸⁴. It confirms the picture. The company sent the survey “to our email list with over 100,000 subscribers” and promoted it on its podcast; 2,270 people answered, and “The average respondent had 2.8 years of experience”⁸⁴. The $8,038 is an average of what those people said they earned. The archived page gives no middle figure⁸⁴. Another common line, that 95% of affiliates fail, appears on Digistore24’s blog with no source¹⁷. We do not use it.

What the tweets leave out

In the text we collected, 11 of the 30 most-viewed tweets give any number at all: an income, a rate, or a count of sales¹. In that text, none gives the set needed to check an income: the product’s price together with the commission rate and the number of sales¹. Attached pictures, videos and threads were not viewed, so some of it may be there. The rates quoted match what the programmes publish. The missing piece is the volume.

What people who tried it report

We found no study that follows everyone who starts. Our tools could not open Reddit, so no forum threads were read. What exists is regulator files, one piece of journalism, and individual accounts, most of them self-reported.

Regulators have alleged what course buyers got. These cases are about businesses that sold training or memberships, not about affiliate marketing as such. What follows is what the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged. The Lurn and MOBE cases were settled or ended in court orders without a trial. We did not read how the Digital Altitude and Digital Income System cases ended; for the second we read only the refund release⁵². These cases concern the companies named in them only. We found no regulator action against any account quoted or named on this page, and we do not suggest any connection.

• Lurn. The FTC’s complaint alleges that “From 2019 through May 2022, Defendants took approximately $65,000,000 from consumers using deceptive earnings claims”⁴⁶. Among the examples it lists, “Defendants offer to teach consumers how to make six to seven figures a year through email-based affiliate marketing”⁴⁶. One course, Email Startup Incubator, cost $1,995 and covered “e-mail advertising and affiliate marketing”⁴⁶. The complaint says “Defendants do not track their customers’ earnings and do not know what those earnings amount to”⁴⁶. It quotes a Lurn marketing employee writing in the company’s internal chat in February 2021: “typical results will suck for all programs. Typically, people don’t do anything, and get no results.”⁴⁶ The defendants agreed to court orders and a $2.5 million payment, and the FTC later sent more than $2.4 million to 1,922 people⁴⁷.
• MOBE sold business coaching. The FTC said its “‘proven system’ for making money is for consumers to sell the same memberships to others in the hopes of earning commissions on those sales”⁴⁸. It charged the defendants with taking more than $125 million and said “Most people who buy into the program and pay for the expensive memberships are unable to recoup their costs, and many experience crippling losses or mounting debts, including some who have lost more than $20,000.”⁴⁸ A court entered a temporary order stopping the business in June 2018⁴⁸. In 2022 the FTC returned more than $23 million to more than 37,000 people⁴⁹. The FTC’s 2018 release calls MOBE a “fraudulent business education program”⁴⁸.
• Digital Altitude promised “six figures in 90 days or less”. According to the FTC’s complaint, “most of defendants’ customers never earn substantial income, including some people who were charged more than $50,000”⁵¹. A court granted a temporary order⁵¹.
• Digital Income System sold memberships with commissions promised on each sale. “According to the FTC’s complaint, though, the vast majority of consumers who paid the defendants never earned substantial income, and in fact, many consumers earned nothing.”⁵² The FTC later sent more than $542,000 in refunds to buyers⁵².

The FTC also alleged that a few sellers earned a lot. In 2020 it said: “According to complaints filed by the FTC, the defendants made millions of dollars in commissions by enticing thousands of consumers to pay as much as $60,000 for MOBE ‘mentoring’ services”⁵⁰. These MOBE affiliate marketers settled for more than $4 million in total and were banned from selling “any business coaching program or money-making method”⁵⁰. So a large commission claim can be true. In that case the alleged income came from bringing buyers into the programme.

One news report followed buyers. NBC News in March 2024 interviewed three buyers of a $7 course from Legendary Marketer, which led on to a $2,500 course that paid a $1,000 commission per sale⁴³. One “didn’t make any money at all and quit after a few months”, one made a single sale, and one earned several thousand dollars and stopped⁴³. Three people is not a rate. NBC reported that the company’s chief executive, Dave Sharpe, declined an interview but said in a statement that he takes “all feedback seriously”, that the $7 course provides value, and that he was working with affiliates to “ensure proper compliance”⁴³. Niall Doherty, who ranks such courses on his site eBiz Facts and earns commissions on those he recommends, told NBC: “If you work hard at building up an affiliate marketing business for a year, not just a side hustle, the best-case scenario is that you’d be earning $1,000 a month after 12 months.”⁴³ That is an opinion, not data. The company’s homepage today shows only: “Thank You For 9 Unforgettable Years! Be Legendary!”⁴⁴ It does not say whether the business closed or why. Legendary Marketer is not one of the FTC cases described above.

Success accounts with numbers. Every one in this list comes from someone who also sells to, or earns commission from, people trying to earn online. “The upside” below adds accounts found later, including one from a person with nothing we found to sell.

• A blogger reports over $1.4 million in total affiliate earnings, $679,985 of it from one software company, with screenshots we did not view. Income was about $10,000 a year for roughly six years first: “Things changed in 2016. Income doubled that year.” Earnings from that one company later fell by about 80% after it changed its terms³⁸.
• Niall Doherty reported average monthly revenue of $19,102 and expenses of $5,042 over six months, and said “About 95% of the revenue comes from affiliate commissions.” His commissions come from courses about earning online³⁷.
• A gift-ideas site started in 2012 is reported to earn “around $1,000 a month consistently” from Amazon, more in the holiday months³⁹.
• A case-study site built in public from September 2018 reported $5,210.27 for one month in 2021. Of that, $2,298.50 was Amazon commission and $2,911.77 was advertising³⁵. It was built by an experienced site builder who also sells courses and tools³⁵. We found no later figures.

Accounts of lost traffic from people with nothing to sell the reader. These concern the website route, where visitors arrive from Google.

• FinMasters, a finance site, reports putting in $477,924 to launch and $289,000 more over 18 months. Affiliate revenue reached about $7,000 a month. Then: “we lost around 30% of the traffic, 2 weeks later, another update came and we lost another 30%”⁴⁰.
• Hardbacon, a Canadian finance site, announced in August 2024 that it would file for bankruptcy, after losing over 90% of its visitors. Its founder said: “Google decided it was the end of affiliate”⁴¹.
• HouseFresh, which tests the air purifiers it reviews, wrote in May 2024: “since October 2023, we’ve gone from welcoming 4,000 people from Google Search each day to just receiving 200”⁴².

A competitor’s study. SiteSell, which sells a rival product, wrote in 2019 of nearly 17,000 Wealthy Affiliate member websites: “87% of Wealthy Affiliate sites are ‘Invisible.’”⁴⁵ By “Invisible” it meant a site with no detectable visitors on the traffic-ranking services of the time⁴⁵. The data is seven years old.

What the rules allow now

Affiliate marketing is legal. The permitted version is narrower than the tweets suggest.

The programme can change the deal. Amazon’s agreement says it “may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or without cause”⁵. It can change rates on short notice⁵, and has: CNBC reported in April 2020 that “the affiliate cut from purchases of furniture and home improvement products has fallen from 8% to 3%”, with about a week’s notice⁶.

Common beginner shortcuts break Amazon’s rules. You may not buy through your own links, and “you will not permit, request or encourage any of your friends, relatives, employees, contractors, or business relations to”³. Every affiliate must show the sentence “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”⁵

You must say you are paid. The FTC’s guidance says: “Consumers might not understand that ‘affiliate link’ means that the person placing the link is getting paid”⁵⁸. Its guide for influencers says “You can’t talk about your experience with a product you haven’t tried.”⁵⁸ In August 2024 the FTC announced a final rule “banning fake reviews and testimonials”; we read the announcement, not the rule text⁵⁹. The UK’s advertising regulator says “both parties are jointly responsible under our rules for the content of ads that include an affiliate link”⁶⁰.

The mass-produced version is what the platforms name. Google’s search rules define “thin affiliation” as “publishing content with product affiliate links where the product descriptions and reviews are copied directly from the original merchant without any original content or added value”, and also list “Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users”⁶². Such pages “may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all”⁶². Pinterest’s rules say: “Don’t create or save content that is repetitive, deceptive, or irrelevant in an attempt to make money” and “Don’t operate multiple accounts or coordinate with other people with the purpose of manipulating the Pinterest platform”⁶³. So running many accounts to push the same material is restricted on at least one platform. We do not know which platform the tweet described in Step 4 means, and we do not say it breaks any rule.

X. X’s page on spam refused us on every route. A search summary says it lists “misleading or deceptive links; e.g., affiliate links and clickjacking links”⁶⁷. We did not read the wording at source, and a labelled affiliate link is not obviously covered by it.

Selling the course onward has drawn regulators. In the MOBE case above, the FTC alleged that customers were told to sell the same memberships on⁴⁸. The FTC’s release on it does not use the words “pyramid scheme”⁴⁸. As general background, the FTC’s guidance on multi-level marketing says “courts look beyond a company’s policies and procedures and examine how the company operates in practice”⁵⁷. We found no regulator applying that guidance, or making any finding, against a programme or company named in the tweets, and we did not assess them. These cases concern the companies named in them only. We found no regulator action against any account quoted or named on this page, and we do not suggest any connection.

Earnings claims. In 2021 the FTC warned “more than 1,100 businesses that pitch money-making ventures” that deceptive earnings claims can bring penalties⁵⁴. In January 2025 it proposed requiring written proof for earnings claims in business coaching⁵⁵. The FTC’s own page for the existing rule, read today, lists no final rule after that date; the page lists nothing later than 2017, so this is not conclusive⁶⁸. We also searched the Federal Register, the US government’s official record of rules, for FTC documents on the subject since January 2025. It returned no final rule and no proposed rule, only two regulatory agendas, the latest dated 14 August 2026, and unrelated notices⁹⁵. So no final rule has been published. The search does not show whether the proposals were formally dropped⁹⁵. Its guidance on business opportunities says “Under the Rule, sellers have to give you a one-page disclosure document that offers five key pieces of information”; whether an affiliate course counts as a business opportunity is uncertain⁵⁶.

Tax. In the US the tax authority says: “You have to file an income tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more”⁶¹. Screenshots of commissions show money before tax, refunds and costs.

Who makes money from it

In our 59 tweets. By the labels our collector attached, 53 lead the reader to something and 6 show nothing on offer¹. Our count of where the 53 lead: 34 to a course, coaching, mentoring or a paid guide about affiliate marketing; 8 to a platform or programme to join; 5 to a blog or free guide; 2 to an AI video tool; 1 to a prompt pack; 3 to a link we could not classify¹. We did not open the links or profiles, so this is approximate.

The two most-viewed tweets both promoted the poster’s own product. The first, from 2023, offered a pack of prompts, “Normally $39, but next 24 hrs, it’s FREE”, in return for a follow, a repost and a reply¹. The second is from Higgsfield, a company that sells an AI video tool, and its playbook includes “Create ads on Higgsfield …”¹.

Several low-view tweets celebrate sales of a course, for example one saying a platform had told the poster that 100 people had bought it¹. We do not quote or name these small accounts. We did not check what these courses teach, or whether the posters own them or sell them as affiliates.

The platform, when you join. Expertnaire charges each affiliate N10,000 a year before any sale¹⁴. Selar’s blog, in a post dated June 2026, says of its refer-and-earn programme: “You earn 10% commission on every successful subscription payment they make going forward” and “If that person later becomes a Selar affiliate, you also earn 20% of their annual affiliate subscription.”¹³

The platform, on every sale. Whop’s fee page lists “2.7% + $0.30 per successful transaction for domestic cards”, with more for international cards and currency conversion¹⁰. Whop pays a share of what it earns to partners who bring in sellers, on two levels, as quoted earlier⁶⁵. ClickBank’s help page says “ClickBank keeps 7.5% + $1 of the purchase funds”¹⁸. Before a first payout, ClickBank says “users are required to generate at least 5 sales”¹⁹. And: “Dormant accounts are subject to a charge of $1 per pay period after 90 days of no earnings, $5 per pay period after 180 days of no earnings, and $50 per pay period after 365 days of no earnings.”¹⁹

The course seller. Wealthy Affiliate is paid $497 to $588 a year by each member on a paid yearly plan, whatever the member’s results²². A course sold with “master resale rights” lets each buyer sell the same course on; one listing we read is priced at $497²³.

The affiliate who sells courses. On Expertnaire a product can pay up to 75%¹⁵. One Expertnaire tweet in our collection, from June 2022, announces a course about another money-making method: “Price is N20,000.” and, on the next line, “Commission is 50%”¹. That is N10,000 per sale to the affiliate (our sum).

Large companies. At the top, affiliate referral is an audited business. NerdWallet, which says it earns “primarily through referral fees, lead generation, and partner-based monetization”, reported revenue of $836.6 million for 2025³¹. The New York Times reported $201.0 million of “Digital affiliate, licensing and other revenues, which consist primarily of Wirecutter affiliate referral revenues and digital licensing revenues”³². These are staffed companies, not solo beginners.

Scale of reported losses. The FTC said in December 2020 that “since 2016 consumers have reported to the FTC that income scams have cost them more than $610 million”⁵³. That covers all kinds of income offers reported to the FTC, not affiliate courses alone, and it is not about any company named on this page.

The upside

The base rates in Step 6 stand. This section looks at the other end: what success looks like when it happens. Most of the evidence at the top comes from the platforms themselves or from the people who earned the money. We mark each item as checked by a third party, a company’s own figure, or a person’s own statement. Only one item is in the first group.

Checked by a third party

• A review site sold for $25.0 million five years after it began. The New York Times Company’s annual report for 2016 says it bought the company that “owns the product review and recommendation websites The Wirecutter and The Sweethome” and that “We paid $25.0 million, including a payment made for a non-compete agreement.”⁷⁶ Vox reported at the time that the total was “more than $30 million, including retention bonuses and other payouts”⁷⁷. The Wirecutter was founded in 2011⁷⁷, and both sites earned their income from affiliate referrals⁷⁶⁷⁷. Wirecutter is a staffed business today, and its owner reports its affiliate revenue within a $201.0 million line³². This is a company’s filing, so it is the best-checked figure on this page. It is also one case.

Companies’ own figures

None of these was checked by anyone outside the company.

• PartnerStack (software referrals). The network says “Top 100 PartnerStack partners earned over $21M in commissions in 2023”⁶⁹. That is about $210,000 each on average (our division). It gives no names and no middle figure, and does not say how many of the 100 are agencies or publishers and how many are individuals⁶⁹. It also says that in 2024 “each active partner” earned “more than $5K”⁷⁰. That is about $417 a month (our division). It is an average, and the network does not say what counts as active⁷⁰. Its 2026 report says “The average active partner saw their annual earnings jump by 19% in 2025” and that total commissions rose 54%⁷².

• LTK (fashion and home). CNBC reported in March 2024 that LTK had paid creators “at least $2.7 billion” since it began, “according to the company”, and had made 240 of them millionaires, out of more than 250,000 creators⁷³. That is about 1 in 1,000 (our division), counted over the platform’s whole life and not per year. Fortune gave an earlier count: “over 200 of these users have made upwards of $1 million”, out of more than 200,000 creators⁷⁴. Fortune calls them “vetted creators”⁷⁴, which means LTK chooses whom it admits. The article does not say how.

• ShopMy (creator links). Its co-founder told Modern Retail: “We’ve had creators make over a million dollars in commissions. The higher earners on our platform can make $100,000 per month, but it varies widely. Some creators treat ShopMy as a secondary income stream, making a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month.”⁷⁵ No figures on how earnings are spread were given⁷⁵.

• Top Amazon reviewers. A talent manager who represents such creators told Fortune that some of them “can generate over $1 million per year from Amazon commissions”⁸¹. He has an interest in the figure. Fortune wrote of another creator’s numbers in the same article that it “did not verify the earnings figures”⁸¹.

• Selar (Nigeria). TechCabal reported that in 2023 “8,000 products were sold through the program, and marketers made ₦187 million ($207,506)”⁸². That is about N23,000 per sale (our division). The report gives no count of affiliates, and “products” may mean units or listings⁸². This is the only total we found for affiliates on any of the Nigerian platforms, and it is small. Selar as a whole is growing: it said it paid over N18 billion ($12.8 million) to users in 2025, “almost double its 2024 figure”⁸³. That sum covers sellers and affiliates together⁸³.

• Whop. Fortune reported the company’s statement that it “has minted over 650 millionaires”, out of about 22 million users⁹⁶. That is about 1 in 34,000 (our division). The examples given are people who sell coaching, courses and supplements on Whop, not affiliates⁹⁶. We still found no figure for what Whop affiliates earn.

• Empire Flippers (a broker of websites): its completed sales. Empire Flippers, which earns a commission on each sale, looked at 145 of its own completed sales of content sites. These are the broker’s own counts; nobody outside the broker checked them. It sold about 70 in 2023, about 50 in 2024 and about 30 by late May 2025⁷⁸. The average price rose from about $175,000 in 2023 to about $240,000 in 2024 and about $325,000 in 2025⁷⁸. So fewer sites sell, and the ones that sell are bigger. Buyers paid about 24 times monthly profit in 2025, down from about 30 times in 2023⁷⁸.

• Empire Flippers: businesses for sale today. The same broker lists businesses with affiliate income and says “each business must already be generating a profit and have at least six months of earnings history”³³. On the day we looked it showed 10 listings, with monthly net profit from about $3,100 to about $106,000; 5 of the 10 were at $10,000 or more³³. Most mix affiliate income with adverts or other products, so the profit is not all commission³³. Seven were started in 2022 or earlier. Three were started in 2023 or 2024, including the largest, so a fast rise does happen³³. The largest, an affiliate site about AI tools, was priced at 2.0 times its yearly profit, near the bottom of a range that ran from 1.7 to 3.6 times³³. Not all ten depend on Google: one is two YouTube channels with about $8,700 a month of net profit, and one is three newsletters with about $6,100³³. The profit figures are those shown on the broker’s listings. The broker is not the seller, but we do not know how it checks them. It sees only businesses that survived and chose to sell.

People’s own statements

All six are the person’s own figures. None was checked by a third party. Mr Strahl’s account is an essay told to Business Insider, and the copy we read does not say that the outlet checked documents⁷⁹. On the same podcast as Mr Bauman, Spencer Haws said his income from the same programme peaked at about $6,000 in December 2023 and fell to about $1,500 a month after seven months without new videos⁹³.

What the top group earns

No source gives a middle figure, a top tenth or a top hundredth for affiliates as a whole. The pieces we have:

• In Rewardful’s software data, “a program’s affiliate revenue is generated by only about 10% of affiliates”²⁴. The report gives no figure for what those top affiliates earn²⁴.
• In one survey of people who call themselves affiliates, “3.78%” made more than $150,000 a year²⁵. The survey gives no method and leaves out everyone who stopped²⁵.
• PartnerStack’s top 100 partners averaged about $210,000 in 2023 (our division)⁶⁹.
• On LTK about 1 creator in 1,000 has passed $1 million over the platform’s life (our division)⁷³.
• In Authority Hacker’s survey, the average was $8,038 a month and those with more than three years’ experience earned 9.45 times what newcomers did⁸⁴. See Step 6 for why that average is not a typical result.

A realistic good result in the first year or two

No source measures this for a group of people who all started together. Our estimate, from the pieces above: a good result for a competent person after one to two years is a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month. The basis:

• ShopMy’s co-founder gives “a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month” for creators who use it as a second income⁷⁵.
• PartnerStack’s average for an active partner is more than $5,000 a year⁷⁰.
• Niall Doherty called $1,000 a month after a full-time year “the best-case scenario”⁴³.
• The case-study site reached about $2,300 a month in Amazon commission after two and a half years³⁵.
• A writer at Ahrefs, which sells search software, guessed in 2022 that most full-time affiliates make “less than $100K per year—likely around $30K–$50K annually”. He calls this a feeling and not data, and it predates the changes to search described below⁹⁸.
• For Amazon’s influencer programme, a Moneywise article says “It’s unclear what the average Amazon Influencer makes” and cites a forum thread putting a creator who posts at about $300 a month⁸⁰. We did not open the thread.

The $5,800 in a fourth month is one person’s report, and the article presents him as unusual⁷⁹. On the website route, the common outcome is still no sale at all²⁴. We found no case from after 2024 of a new website reaching a meaningful affiliate income with published, checked figures.

Affiliate links can also be a small part of a larger income: one publisher’s report for April 2023 shows $93,676 of revenue, mostly from adverts, with affiliate commission only “a few thousand”³⁶.

What it takes to compete

Our evidence is fullest for one route, a website that gets its visitors from Google. That is not the route most of the tweets describe. For social video we now have the entry conditions and a few personal accounts, but no data on how earnings are spread.

What the people who succeed have

1. An audience, or acceptance into a programme that checks applicants before letting them in. On PartnerStack, “43% of Network-approved partners earn commissions vs. 3% of non-Network partners”⁷¹. This is the clearest figure we found on what separates earners from the rest. It is the network’s own data, and the network is likely to approve people who already have an audience⁷¹. In a June 2026 survey by a link-tool vendor, 57% of 168 creators who sell mainly through Amazon said affiliate commission was their main income, and 33% of that group had 100,000 to 500,000 followers⁹⁹.

2. Time. Authority Hacker’s survey describes “a two-year ‘beginner’s hump’ that newcomers to affiliate marketing must overcome”⁸⁴. In it, people with three to five years’ experience earned 4.46 times what newcomers did⁸⁴. Ahrefs, which sells search software, looked at pages of every kind, not affiliate sites. It found that 1.74% of all newly seen pages, or 6.11% of non-empty English pages, reached Google’s top 10 within a year; it calls the second “a more fair number to use”³⁴. Of pages that did reach the top 10, 40.82% did so within a month, and “72.9% of pages in Google’s top 10 are more than 3 years old”³⁴. The blogger with $1.4 million spent about six years near $10,000 a year first³⁸. The case-study site reached about $2,300 a month in Amazon commission (about $5,200 with adverts) after two and a half years³⁵.

3. A lot of visitors, and more money from each one. The same survey gives average monthly site visitors by income band⁸⁴:

   Income from the site	Average visitors a month
   Under $100 a month	9,217
   $100 to $500	25,195
   $500 to $2,500	61,322
   $2,500 to $10,000	118,471
   $10,000 to $50,000	328,478

   So the sites at $10,000 to $50,000 a month averaged about 328,000 visitors a month⁸⁴. Earnings per visitor also rise across the bands, from $0.0054 to $0.0913, about 17 times (our division)⁸⁴. These are answers from the audience of a company that sold affiliate training. They describe people who lasted, not everyone who started.

4. A subject that pays well per sale. Software and finance pay far more than groceries²²⁴³¹. On TikTok Shop, a research firm reports that affiliate commissions “typically run 5% to 30%, averaging 13.1% in 2025”⁹¹.

5. More than one source of visitors, and an audience you own. Amazon cut rates in a week⁶. Google updates removed most of the visitors of sites that tested real products⁴⁰⁴². In the survey, people who used an email list earned 66.4% more than those who did not, and only 22.8% used one⁸⁴. This is a link in a self-chosen sample, not proof of cause. One long-running blog reports that “we generated over $220,000 in 2025, despite the massive traffic drop”, after $226,047 in 2022, $160,000 in 2023 and $190,948 in 2024⁸⁹. Those are its own figures, and it earns from people who want to blog⁸⁹.

6. Something original. Google’s rules treat copied or mass-generated pages as spam⁶².

7. Other income while it builds (our judgement). The accounts above took two to six years to pay much³⁵³⁸⁸⁴, so the people who lasted could wait.

At the top, people do not work alone. In the survey 77.1% of all respondents worked solo, while the survey says six-figure earners had six or more team members⁸⁴.

What most people run into

• Getting visitors. “45.3% of affiliate marketers say getting traffic is their biggest challenge.” Among those with under a year’s experience it was 51.4%⁸⁴. Of those who used social media for visitors, 85.8% had under 10,000 followers⁸⁴.
• Large publishers hold the search results. Detailed, which publishes on search and sells tools, checked 10,000 product searches of the kind affiliates target. It found 16 media companies “ranked on the first page of 8,574 (or 85%) of them”⁸⁶.
• Search sends fewer visitors. Data for the Reuters Institute shows “Google traffic from organic search to over 2,500 sites was down by a third (33%) globally between Nov 2024 and Nov 2025 and by 38% in the United States, but it is not clear how much of this is down to AI overviews”⁸⁷. These are news and media sites, not affiliate sites⁸⁷. Pew Research tracked the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. People clicked a normal result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared and on 15% when it did not⁸⁸.
• Small starter sites have mostly gone. The broker Empire Flippers says: “Affiliate niche sites were a good kind of starter business for people to get into, to build and to flip or even to acquire. Now, most of those smaller businesses have gone to the wayside through Google algorithm updates, AI eating the world”⁷⁸.
• The firm that ran the survey now sells something else. Authority Hacker taught affiliate websites for years. Its site today sells training in AI and automation, and its old survey page no longer exists⁸⁵. The company gives no reason on the pages we read, and we do not infer one.

What it costs

• A bare website costs about $150 to $200 for the first years (our estimate). One host’s cheapest plan was “48 months for $143.52”, and it “Renews at $10.99” a month⁹⁷.
• The tools higher earners use bring it to roughly $1,700 to $3,000 a year before any content, products or helpers (our estimate). The basis: a search research tool at 119 or 229 a month on its middle plans, shown to us in euros and treated here as roughly the same in dollars, and an email service from $12 a month once a list passes its free limit of 250 subscribers⁹⁷. These prices were read through a tool that summarises pages.
• Social video costs followers, not fees. TikTok Shop in the US asks for at least 1,000 followers to apply as an affiliate creator⁹⁰. Its policy says: “Affiliate Creators with fewer than 5,000 followers are automatically enrolled in the Affiliate Creator Pilot Program for at least 30 days.”⁹⁰ In the pilot a creator may post at most 3 shoppable videos a day and may only promote products from highly rated shops⁹⁰. Full access comes at 5,000 followers, or earlier through a quiz, a score and a number of orders such as 10⁹⁰. The creator must be 18 or over, based in the US and pass an identity check⁹⁰. Amazon’s influencer programme asks for a YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok account and publishes no follower number: “we look at the number of followers you have in addition to other engagement metrics”⁹². YouTube Shopping’s conditions are in Step 5²⁰.
• Volume of work. Mr Bauman says he published more than 200 videos in his first month⁹³.
• Money does not buy a place. FinMasters put in $477,924 to launch and $289,000 more over 18 months, reached about $7,000 a month in affiliate revenue, and then lost most of its visitors⁴⁰.

The routes the tweets describe

• Promoting digital products or memberships (Whop, Selar, Expertnaire and similar). The sums in Step 3 need hundreds of paying customers. That is within reach only for someone who already has an audience of likely buyers, or can build one. We have one total for affiliates on these platforms, for Selar in 2023, given under “The upside”⁸². We have nothing for Whop or Expertnaire affiliates beyond the totals in Step 6¹²¹⁴.
• Pay per action and pay per view. Step 4 gives the volume needed. We found no figures from people who did it.
• Selling through social video (TikTok Shop, Amazon’s influencer programme, YouTube Shopping). This may be the main route for a newcomer today. We have the entry conditions above²⁰⁹⁰⁹² and personal accounts from Amazon’s programme⁷⁹⁹³. We have no trustworthy figures on how creators’ earnings are spread. Figures for TikTok Shop that circulate online could not be traced to a source, and we do not use them.
• Buying adverts to promote offers. Not researched.

How to tell early which side you are on

These checks are our judgement, built from the figures above.

• Is your first step a payment? If the first thing you are asked to do is buy a course, a kit or a membership, the seller has earned and you have not. Amazon and Digistore24 cost nothing to join⁴¹⁶.
• What is the product, and who buys it? If the product you would promote is the course that taught you, your income depends on finding the next learner. That is the arrangement the FTC alleged in the MOBE case⁴⁸.
• Do the sum. Divide your target by the commission per sale. In Rewardful’s data 8 in 1,000 referred visitors bought²⁴, so a few hundred clicks a month means a handful of sales at most.
• Three sales in 180 days. Amazon’s bar is low⁴. If you cannot reach it without buying through your own link or asking friends, which the rules forbid³, the audience is not there yet. Missing it is not final: Amazon can withdraw the application, and you may apply again⁹⁴.
• Ask the seller for typical results. The FTC alleged that Lurn did not track what its customers earned⁴⁶. We found no affiliate course that publishes how its students’ earnings are spread.
• Are your visitors or followers growing without workarounds? TikTok’s 5,000 followers⁹⁰ and the visitor counts in the survey table⁸⁴ show the scale. If your numbers are flat after several months of steady work, you are on the wrong side so far.
• Is each visitor worth more over time? In the survey, higher earners made more per visitor as well as having more visitors⁸⁴.
• Do you own any audience? An email list or a following that does not depend on one search engine is what the higher earners in the survey had more often⁸⁴.

What we did not verify

• How many people who try this succeed. No source measures income across everyone who starts. The Rewardful figures are one vendor’s data on software programmes, with no stated lifetime window²⁴.
• The income claims in the tweets. We read the tweets from our collected copy, not on X, which refused us. We did not view their pictures, videos or threads, open their links or check any author’s earnings. Our count of where the tweets lead rests on our collector’s labels. We do not know which Whop programme the tweet about $10,000 a month of commissions refers to.
• Social video selling. We now have the entry conditions for TikTok Shop and Amazon’s influencer programme⁹⁰⁹². We found no official or independent figures on how creators’ earnings are spread on TikTok Shop, Amazon’s influencer programme, LTK or ShopMy. Figures that circulate for TikTok Shop (shares of sales by top creators, median monthly earnings, totals paid to creators) appear on marketing sites with no traceable source, and we do not use them. What YouTube Shopping pays was not researched.
• The upside figures. PartnerStack’s, LTK’s, ShopMy’s, Selar’s and Whop’s figures are the companies’ own statements; none was checked by a third party^697073758296. PartnerStack does not define “active partner” or “commission-earning partner”, gives no middle figure, and does not say how many of its top 100 are companies. The talent manager’s figure for Amazon reviewers is an interested party’s statement⁸¹.
• Individual accounts in “The upside”. All are the person’s own figures. We do not know whether Business Insider checked documents for Michael Strahl’s earnings; we read a syndicated copy, and the original page did not open⁷⁹. We did not check his channels for anything he sells. We are not sure which year the $160,000 on BloggersPassion’s income page belongs to⁸⁹. Its yearly figures are the blog’s total income, by a summarising tool’s reading of the page; we did not separate the affiliate share⁸⁹.
• Wirecutter. The purchase price is from a company filing⁷⁶. Its founder’s earlier career and a figure for the site’s total affiliate revenue before the sale were seen on Wikipedia only and are not used.
• MoneySavingExpert. The Guardian reported in 2012 that this one-person site was sold for up to £87 million. We could not confirm that its income came mainly from affiliate links, so it is not used as an example.
• A realistic good result. Our range of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month is an estimate from scattered figures. No source follows a group of starters.
• Costs. The tool prices were read through a tool that summarises pages; the search tool’s prices were shown in euros and its dollar prices were not seen⁹⁷.
• Authority Hacker’s survey. Read in an archived copy⁸⁴. It gives averages and charts only: no middle income and no count of respondents per income band. All answers are self-reported. Why the company’s site now sells different training is not stated on the pages we read⁸⁵.
• Exact quotes. Most pages were read through a tool that extracts or summarises text. The Lurn complaint was read as full text. Other quotes were not checked a second time against the page as shown.
• Refused pages. X’s rules, Reddit, Whop’s Content Rewards page, and the income disclosures of Legendary Marketer and Wealthy Affiliate did not open. Selar, FinMasters, CNBC, ClickBank’s fee page, Higgsfield and one course listing were read only through r.jina.ai, a service that fetches a page and returns its text. Higgsfield’s prices rest on a single read. In the later pass, the TikTok Shop policy, Amazon’s influencer page and eMarketer were also read through r.jina.ai. Pew, Rewardful, Empire Flippers’ listings and the tool price pages were read through a tool that summarises pages, so their wording is paraphrased here and was not checked against the page as shown. Other new quotes were pulled from page text by script, not read by eye on the page as shown.
• Conversion rates and order sizes. The $40 order and $50 membership are our assumptions. The click figures come from one small site⁷. The 0.8% figure is for software²⁴.
• Whop. We found no figure for what Whop affiliates or partners earn. The “650 millionaires” figure is Whop’s own and concerns sellers⁹⁶. A Forbes report from April 2026 on what Content Rewards pays out was seen only in a search summary and is not used. The Whop Partners sum uses only the card fee. Whop Trends’ method was not checked, and its own figures do not add up exactly: its table accounts for 189,892 of its 191,654 products, and it prints 3,841 products above $1,000 a month where its table adds up to 3,941¹².
• Amazon and the large networks. Amazon Associates, Awin, CJ, Rakuten and Impact publish no figures on how their publishers’ earnings are spread, as far as we found.
• Nigerian platforms. How many affiliates shared Selar’s N187 million in 2023, what “8,000 products” counts, and any later affiliate total⁸²; Selar’s current fee and its cut of each sale; Expertnaire’s rates per product, the dates of its homepage figures and what they count; prices and results for the courses named in tweets. No regulator outside the US and UK was searched, although many of the low-view tweets come from Nigeria. The naira rate is a market rate from a data service, not the central bank’s⁶⁶.
• Pay-per-action networks and paid advertising. No network’s rates or rules were read at source.
• The FTC cases. These are allegations, read in a complaint or in press releases; we read settlements only for Lurn and MOBE; no court ruled on Lurn’s conduct. We did not read how the Digital Altitude case ended after the temporary order; the page we cite does not say⁵¹. The Digital Income System refund release does not say how that case ended either⁵². The Hardbacon interview and the Digital Income System refund release were opened again on 7 October 2026⁴¹⁵². We ran no separate search for regulator action against each account quoted on this page. A search of the Federal Register found no final rule on earnings claims since January 2025⁹⁵. It also found no publication of the January 2025 proposals there. That is our reading of a search that returned nothing, not a statement by the FTC, and we do not know whether the proposals were formally withdrawn⁶⁸⁹⁵.
• Empire Flippers. We do not know whether the 10 listings were all of them or the first screen. Listings change daily³³. The sale counts and average prices are the broker’s own account of its sales, and it earns commission on them⁷⁸. We do not know how it checks the profit figures on its listings³³.
• Income reports. No screenshot in any income report was independently checked. Most predate or straddle Google’s 2023 and 2024 changes.
• Figures left out. A widely repeated “91%” visitor loss at HouseFresh, Impact.com’s payout totals³⁰ and TikTok Shop earnings figures were seen only second-hand and are not used. A “2026 survey of 500+ publishers” on one affiliate blog gives no method and reuses older figures, and is not used. A founder’s claim of a new site “on track for $200K” within six months was seen only on a mirror and is not used.
• Whether the people named have seen this page. The people and companies named here were not contacted.

Sources

“Read at source” means we opened the page itself on 7 October 2026. “Secondary” means we read an article or summary about the source, not the source itself. “Estimate” means our own sum.

1. Does It Pay collection of 59 tweets on this scheme, collected 2026-10-06; individual tweets linked above. Read from our collected copy on 2026-10-07, not from the live tweets. Counts by label are estimates.
2. Amazon Associates, commission rate table. https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/node/topic/GRXPHT8U84RAYDXZ . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Sales-needed figures are our estimate.
3. Amazon Associates Program Policies. https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/policies . Updated 2026-04-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
4. Amazon Associates help, sign-up and application review. https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/node/topic/G8TW5AE9XL2VX9VM . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
5. Amazon Associates Program Operating Agreement. https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/agreement . Updated 2025-10-15. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
6. CNBC, “Amazon slashes commission rates for affiliate program”. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/14/amazon-slashes-commission-rates-for-affiliate-program.html . 2020-04-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai (direct fetch refused).
7. Advanced Ads, “How much can Amazon affiliates make”. https://wpadvancedads.com/how-much-can-amazon-affiliates-make/ . 2024-10-21. Read at source on 2026-10-07 (one site’s own figures). Click totals built on it are our estimate.
8. Whop documentation: affiliate programme for sellers, https://docs.whop.com/manage-your-business/growth-marketing/affiliate-program.md ; being an affiliate, https://docs.whop.com/affiliates/be-an-affiliate ; https://docs.whop.com/affiliates/setup-global.md . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Member counts needed are our estimate.
9. Whop earnings terms. https://whop.com/earnings-terms . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
10. Whop documentation, fees. https://docs.whop.com/fees.md . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
11. Whop documentation, Content Rewards. https://docs.whop.com/manage-your-business/growth-marketing/content-rewards . Undated. Secondary: search summary on 2026-10-07; the page returned no content to us.
12. Whop Trends, “Whop creator earnings data 2026”. https://whoptrends.com/blog/whop-creator-earnings-data-2026 . 2026-02-15. Read at source on 2026-10-07. A third party’s estimates; the share of all products is our estimate.
13. Selar blog: “Selar affiliate network”, https://selar.com/blog/selar-affiliate-network/ , 2022-06-30; “8 best affiliate marketing programs for Nigerians in 2024”, https://selar.com/blog/8-best-affiliate-marketing-programs-for-nigerians-in-2024/ , 2024; refer-and-earn programme, https://selar.com/blog/turn-your-network-into-rewards-with-selars-refer-earn-program/ , 2026-06-24. All read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai (direct fetch refused).
14. Expertnaire homepage. https://www.expertnaire.com/ . Undated, copyright 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Per-affiliate and per-sale averages are our estimate.
15. Expertnaire, page for affiliates. https://www.expertnaire.com/affiliates . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
16. Digistore24 pricing. https://digistore24.com/pricing . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
17. Digistore24 blog, on why affiliates fail. https://www.digistore24.com/blog/affiliate-marketing-fails/ . 2026-09-29. Read at source on 2026-10-07; the 95% figure in it is unsourced.
18. ClickBank support, fees. https://support.clickbank.com/en/articles/10535137 . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai.
19. ClickBank support: “What is the Customer Distribution Requirement?”, https://support.clickbank.com/en/articles/10535126 , 2025-04-07; “What happens if I don’t use my ClickBank account for a long time?”, https://support.clickbank.com/en/articles/10535108 , 2025-03-31. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
20. YouTube Help, YouTube Shopping affiliate programme. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9454088?hl=en . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Partner Program thresholds from https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851 , read at source on 2026-10-07.
21. Higgsfield pricing. https://higgsfield.ai/pricing . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai, once; later attempts were refused. Yearly totals are our estimate.
22. Wealthy Affiliate pricing. https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/pricing . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
23. Pensight listing, “The Roadmap 3.0” with master resale rights. https://pensight.com/x/digital_prosperity50k/the-roadmap-30-digital-marketing-course . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai. A reseller’s listing.
24. Rewardful, “State of SaaS affiliate programs report”. https://rewardful.com/articles/state-of-saas-affiliate-programs-report . 2026-03-17, updated 2026-07-21. Read at source on 2026-10-07. A vendor’s analysis of its own data.
25. Influencer Marketing Hub, “Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report 2023”. https://influencermarketinghub.com/ebooks/Affiliate_Marketing_Benchmark-Report-2023.pdf . 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Self-reported survey.
26. Ahrefs, “Affiliate marketing statistics”, citing Authority Hacker’s survey. https://ahrefs.com/blog/affiliate-marketing-statistics/ . 2024-10-29. Also https://partnerkin.com/en/blog/publications/affiliate-marketers-survery , 2024-04-06. Secondary: the original survey page no longer exists.
27. PartnerStack, commissions paid in the first half of 2025. https://partnerstack.com/resources/research-lab/charts/partnerstack-has-paid-out-nearly-25m-in-partner-commissions-worldwide-in-the-last-six-months . June 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Per-partner average is our estimate.
28. Awin, “About us”. https://www.awin.com/about-us . Undated page; financial year not stated. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Per-account average is our estimate.
29. Performance Marketing Association, press release on its industry study. https://thepma.org/pma-study-affiliate-marketing-industry-grows-49-8-to-13-63-b-outpacing-e-commerce-growth-by-2x/ . 2025-06-18. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
30. The Digital Voice, reprint of an Impact.com company release. https://www.thedigitalvoice.co.uk/impact-com-reports-record-growth-and-industry-innovation-in-2025 . Early 2026. Secondary.
31. NerdWallet, annual report for 2025 (the yearly filing US listed companies make, called Form 10-K). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1625278/000162527826000014/nrds-20251231.htm . Filed early 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
32. The New York Times Company, annual report for 2025 (Form 10-K). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/71691/000007169126000011/nyt-20251231.htm . Filed early 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
33. Empire Flippers, affiliate businesses for sale. https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/affiliate-businesses-for-sale/ . Live listings, 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
34. Ahrefs, “How long does it take to rank in Google”. https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank-in-google-and-how-old-are-top-ranking-pages/ . 2025-05-15; data from September and October 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
35. Niche Pursuits, affiliate website examples (Own The Yard case study). https://www.nichepursuits.com/affiliate-marketing-websites/ . Undated; figures refer to about April 2021. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Self-reported.
36. Fat Stacks, income report for April 2023. https://fatstacksblog.com/income-report-april-2023/ . Report for April 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Self-reported.
37. Niche Pursuits, interview with Niall Doherty. https://www.nichepursuits.com/niall-doherty/ . 2023-02-10. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai. Self-reported.
38. BloggersPassion, affiliate partnership case study. https://bloggerspassion.com/affiliate-partnership-case-study/ . Updated 2026-06-24. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Self-reported; the six-year and 80% figures come from a tool’s summary of the page.
39. RyRob, Amazon affiliate marketing guide (gift-site example). https://www.ryrob.com/amazon-affiliate-marketing/ . Published 2023-04-24, updated 2026-06-03. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Self-reported.
40. FinMasters, “An update on our newest media brand: 18 months and $289,000 later”. https://finmasters.com/an-update-on-our-newest-media-brand-18-months-and-289000-later/ . 2024-03-15. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai. Self-reported.
41. Hello Partner, interview with Hardbacon’s founder. https://hellopartner.com/google-decided-it-was-the-end-of-affiliate-julien-brault-talks-demise-of-hardbacon-site-reputation-abuse/ . 2024-10-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
42. HouseFresh, “How Google decimated HouseFresh”. https://housefresh.com/how-google-decimated-housefresh/ . Published 2024-05-01, modified 2026-05-11. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
43. NBC News, on Legendary Marketer’s course, as published by NBC DFW. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/ads-for-a-popular-online-side-hustle-course-are-misleading-customers-say/3494838/ . 2024-03-21. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Participants’ earnings are their own reports to the reporter.
44. Legendary Marketer homepage. https://legendarymarketer.com/ . Page as shown on 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
45. SiteSell, study of Wealthy Affiliate member sites. https://www.sitesell.com/blog/wealthy-affiliate-review/ . 2019-10-23. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Published by a competitor.
46. Federal Trade Commission, complaint in FTC v. Lurn (D. Md., 8:23-cv-02622), paragraphs 2, 3, 20, 22 and 73. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/FiledLurnComplaint.pdf . Filed 2023-09-27. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Allegations in a case that was settled.
47. Federal Trade Commission press pages on Lurn. https://www.ftc.gov/node/81723 and https://www.ftc.gov/node/81724 (September 2023); refunds, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/06/ftc-sends-more-24-million-consumers-harmed-deceptive-business-coaching-scheme-lurn (2024-06-06). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
48. Federal Trade Commission, “FTC action halts MOBE”. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2018/06/ftc-action-halts-mobe-massive-internet-business-coaching-scheme . 2018-06-11. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
49. Federal Trade Commission, MOBE refunds. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/04/federal-trade-commission-returns-more-23-million-consumers-deceived-online-business-coaching-scheme . 2022-04-05. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
50. Federal Trade Commission, settlement with MOBE affiliate marketers. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2020/03/affiliate-marketers-pay-more-4-million-settle-charges-they . 2020-03-05. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
51. Federal Trade Commission, Digital Altitude. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2018/02/ftc-obtains-court-order-halting-business-coaching-scheme . 2018-02-08. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
52. Federal Trade Commission, Digital Income System refunds. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/06/federal-trade-commission-returns-more-542000-consumers-harmed-bogus-money-making-scheme-digital . 2022-06-01. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
53. Federal Trade Commission business blog, “Operation Income Illusion”. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2020/12/operation-income-illusion-cracks-down-illusory-income-claims . 2020-12-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
54. Federal Trade Commission, notice on money-making claims. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/10/ftc-puts-businesses-notice-false-money-making-claims-could-lead-big-penalties . 2021-10-26. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
55. Federal Trade Commission, proposed rule changes on earnings claims. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-proposes-rule-changes-new-rule-deter-deceptive-earnings-claims-multilevel-marketers-money-making . 2025-01-13. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
56. Federal Trade Commission, consumer guidance on business opportunities. https://www.ftc.gov/bizopps . November 2011. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
57. Federal Trade Commission, “Business guidance concerning multi-level marketing”. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/business-guidance-concerning-multi-level-marketing . April 2024. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
58. Federal Trade Commission, “Endorsement Guides: what people are asking”, https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking , undated (read in part); “Disclosures 101 for social media influencers”, https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/disclosures-101-social-media-influencers , November 2019. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
59. Federal Trade Commission, final rule on reviews and testimonials. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials . 2024-08-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07 (the announcement, not the rule text).
60. Advertising Standards Authority (UK), on affiliate marketing. https://www.asa.org.uk/news/get-yourself-affiliated-with-the-rules-on-affiliate-marketing.html . 2024-10-10. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
61. Internal Revenue Service, Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/self-employed-individuals-tax-center . Reviewed 2026-09-27. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
62. Google Search Central, spam policies. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies . Updated 2026-08-28. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
63. YouTube Help, spam and deceptive practices policies, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2801973?hl=en , undated; Pinterest community guidelines, https://policy.pinterest.com/en/community-guidelines , updated May 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
64. Sales page for an “Affiliate Marketing Jumpstart Kit”, by an individual seller, hosted on Expertnaire’s domain. https://www.expertnaire.com/affiliate . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
65. Whop Partners. https://whop.com/partners/ . Undated page, copyright 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The sales volume worked out from it is our estimate.
66. ExchangeRate-API open data, US dollar to Nigerian naira (1 USD = 1,328.12 NGN). https://open.er-api.com/v6/latest/USD . 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Dollar equivalents are our estimate.
67. X Help, platform manipulation and spam policy. https://help.x.com/en/rules-and-policies/platform-manipulation . Undated. Secondary: search summaries on 2026-10-07; the page refused us on every route.
68. Federal Trade Commission, Business Opportunity Rule page. https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/business-opportunity-rule . Latest entry dated 2017-12-18. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
69. PartnerStack, “Top 100 PartnerStack partners earned over $21M in commissions in 2023”. https://partnerstack.com/resources/research-lab/charts/top-partners-earned-over-21m-in-commissions-in-2023 . April 2024. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The network’s own figure; the per-partner average is our estimate.
70. PartnerStack, record commissions and earnings per active partner in 2024. https://partnerstack.com/resources/research-lab/charts/partners-have-earned-a-record-high-in-commissions-through-partnerstack . January 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The network’s own figure; the monthly figure is our estimate.
71. PartnerStack, Network-approved partners and commissions. https://partnerstack.com/resources/research-lab/charts/partnerstack-network-approved-partners-are-far-more-likely-to-earn-a-commission-compared-to-non-network-partners . May 2024. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The network’s own figure.
72. PartnerStack, report for 2026. https://partnerstack.com/resources/research-lab/report-partnerstack-is-scaling-revenue-precision-in-2026 . February 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The network’s own figures; only figures written in the text were used.
73. CNBC, on LTK and its founder. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/13/how-amber-venz-box-turned-fashion-blog-into-billion-dollar-company-ltk.html . 2024-03-13. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai. Company statements; the 1 in 1,000 is our estimate.
74. Fortune, on LTK. https://fortune.com/2023/05/20/ltk-amber-venz-box-turns-influencers-into-millionaires . 2023-05-20. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Company statements.
75. Modern Retail, interview with ShopMy’s co-founder. https://www.modernretail.co/technology/marketplace-briefing-how-creator-affiliate-platform-shopmy-is-carving-out-a-bigger-share-of-the-social-shopping-pie/ . 2025-02-27. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The company’s own statement.
76. The New York Times Company, annual report for 2016 (Form 10-K). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/71691/000007169117000003/a2016form10-k_q4project.htm . Filed 2017-02-22. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
77. Vox, on the purchase of The Wirecutter. https://www.vox.com/2016/10/24/13381002/new-york-times-wirecutter-purchase-30-million-briam-lam-consumer-guide . 2016-10-24. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
78. Empire Flippers, on its sales of content sites, 2023 to 2025. https://empireflippers.com/you-can-sell-your-business-for-life-changing-money-in-2025-heres-the-secret/ . Updated 2025-07-11. Read at source on 2026-10-07. A broker’s account of its own sales.
79. Yahoo Finance, copy of a Business Insider essay as told by Michael Strahl. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/around-10-000-month-revenue-090501874.html . 2026-04-08. Read at source on 2026-10-07 (the syndicated copy). Self-reported.
80. Yahoo Finance, copy of a Moneywise article on the same account. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/blue-collar-worker-says-makes-123000364.html . 2026-04-12. Secondary for the forum estimate: the forum thread was not opened.
81. Fortune, on creators who review products on Amazon. https://fortune.com/2023/06/27/amazon-platform-attracting-creators-commerce-content-commissions-shopping . 2023-06-27. Read at source on 2026-10-07. A talent manager’s statement.
82. TechCabal, on Selar. https://techcabal.com/2024/01/24/selar-africa-creator-economy/ . 2024-01-24. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Company figure; the per-sale average is our estimate.
83. Condia, on Selar’s payouts in 2025. https://thecondia.com/selar-10-million-student-support-2026/ . 2026-02-26. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Company statement.
84. Authority Hacker, affiliate marketing survey, archived copy. https://web.archive.org/web/20250115025446/https://www.authorityhacker.com/affiliate-marketing-survey/ . First published by September 2023 (earliest archived capture 2023-09-05; the capture of 2024-01-11 is dated 14 September 2023); updated 2024-11-15, archived 2025-01-15. Read at source on 2026-10-07 (the archived copy). Self-reported answers from the audience of a company that sold affiliate training; the per-visitor multiple is our estimate.
85. Authority Hacker, former statistics and survey addresses. https://www.authorityhacker.com/affiliate-marketing-statistics/ . Page as shown on 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
86. Detailed, on the media companies in Google’s product results. https://detailed.com/google-control/ . Updated 2025-09-20. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Published by a seller of search tools.
87. Reuters Institute, “Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2026”. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2026 . 2026-01-12. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
88. Pew Research Center, on clicks when an AI summary appears. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/ . 2025-07-22. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through a tool that summarises pages.
89. BloggersPassion, income reports. https://bloggerspassion.com/our-income-reports/ . Updated 2026-01-03. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Self-reported.
90. TikTok Shop (US), policy for affiliate creators. https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?from=policy&identity=1&knowledge_id=6939143037667118&role=1 . 2026-09-25. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai.
91. eMarketer, questions and answers on TikTok Shop. https://www.emarketer.com/content/faq-on-tiktok-shop—market-size—creator-engine—how-brands-turn-profit . 2026-08-27. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai.
92. Amazon Influencer Program. https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/influencers . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through r.jina.ai.
93. Niche Pursuits, podcast on Amazon’s influencer programme. https://www.nichepursuits.com/i-make-3k-month-posting-short-videos-to-amazon/ . 2024-08-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Self-reported, by a seller of a course on the method.
94. Amazon Associates help, account dormancy. https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/node/topic/G7MJTPEP9NC3YKMG . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
95. Federal Register, search of FTC documents for “Business Opportunity Rule” and related terms. https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json?conditions[term]=%22Business+Opportunity+Rule%22&conditions[agencies][]=federal-trade-commission&conditions[publication_date][gte]=2024-12-01&order=newest . Queried 2026-10-07; latest matching document 2026-08-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
96. Fortune, on Whop and its founder. https://fortune.com/2026/06/14/gen-z-founder-steven-schwartz-whop-platform-minted-650-millionaires-wants-work-be-fun-money-worries-obsolete/ . 2026-06-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Company statements; the 1 in 34,000 is our estimate.
97. Price pages: Hostinger, https://www.hostinger.com/pricing ; Ahrefs, https://ahrefs.com/pricing ; MailerLite, https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-07; Ahrefs and MailerLite through a tool that summarises pages. Yearly totals are our estimate.
98. Ahrefs, on affiliate marketing income. https://ahrefs.com/blog/affiliate-marketing-income . 2022-09-27. Read at source on 2026-10-07 through a tool that summarises pages. A writer’s opinion.
99. Net Influencer, on a URLgenius survey of 419 creators. https://www.netinfluencer.com/creators-split-between-amazon-and-tiktok-shop-ahead-of-prime-day-survey-finds/ . 2026-06-17. Read at source on 2026-10-07. A vendor’s survey.

Corrections

If you are quoted or named on this page and think something is wrong, want your reply shown beside it, or want to be removed, write to [email protected]. We aim to reply within 14 days, and always within one month. Factual errors are corrected with a dated note here. A sentence that is seriously disputed comes down while we check it.

Change log:

• 2026-10-07: “When it can work” replaced by “The upside” and “What it takes to compete”. Corrected: the PartnerStack per-partner estimate in Step 6; the note that Authority Hacker’s survey could not be opened; the statements that social video and Nigerian affiliates’ earnings were not researched. Added: what Amazon does without three sales in 180 days, and a Federal Register search on the FTC’s proposed rule. Sources 69 to 99 added.
• 2026-10-07: after review, Empire Flippers’ sale figures moved from “Checked by a third party” to “Companies’ own figures”; the claim that LTK accepts creators by application removed, as the cited article does not say it; dates corrected for sources 78, 84 and 98.
• 2026-10-07: wording about named accounts and companies reviewed; two small accounts are no longer named or quoted, FTC allegations are marked as alleged with outcomes added where we read them, one unnamed tweet is paraphrased instead of quoted, and an unsourced line about one person’s income was removed.