AliExpress Affiliate Program Review: Is It Worth It?

AliExpress is very similar to Amazon and eBay, aside from the fact that the prices are much lower, and you have to buy large quantities.

Some of the products have their own set of rules, but it’s safe to say that tons of buyers head to the website every day. If you want a piece of the income, then now is a better time than ever.

The AliExpress affiliate program is worth it because it allows you to sell a nearly endless supply of products. You can advertise anything from tech gadgets to clothing and everything in between. It’s one of the easiest affiliate programs to start making money, so it’s quite popular.

Throughout this article, you’ll also learn the following info about whether or not the AliExpress affiliate program is worth it:

The pros and cons of signing up for the membership
How you can sign up and optimize your income through this program
Whether or not it’s worth the time

Perks of the AliExpress Affiliate Program

Joining the AliExpress affiliate program is a no-brainer for plenty of people who want to monetize their websites.

It allows people to make money on their pages, creating a stream of revenue that could range from a part-time income to a full-time replacement job.

If you’re on the fence about it, then you’ll be delighted to read about the perks.

Here’s a list of benefits of joining the AliExpress affiliate program:

You’ll have access to thousands of products with a massive range of ideas. As mentioned by AliExpress, they offer plenty of items that you can sell. You don’t have to worry about being in a specific niche to make a sale. Instead, you can find anything related to a variety of subjects.

Commission rates are higher than the vast majority of affiliate programs. AliExpress boasts that they can make you up to 50% commission per sale. Compared to other programs that typically range from 2% to 10%, it’s much better. It’s an easy choice for those who want to make a lot of money.

Proven results from thousands of affiliate marketers bring relief and peace of mind. Another claim from the company states that they deal out over $100,000 per month to their affiliate marketers. If you want a piece of the income, then you’ll be happy to see proven results before you join.

AliExpress makes it easier for beginners to start making money right away. Rather than having to sit around waiting for a couple of months to get approved, this company does their best to accelerate the process. Once you’re good to go, the interface is easy to use and fun to link around.

People recognize the website, which means they’re more likely to make a purchase. You don’t have to worry about them not buying something because they don’t know the company. Most online consumers feel much more comfortable buying from a company that they know.

As you can see, there are more than enough reasons to join their affiliate program. Whether you’re trying to make a small bit of side income to supplement your career or you want to work full-time from home, this membership offers whatever you need.

However, it’d be a bad idea to dive into the program without knowing both sides of the story. In the next section, we’ll cover a handful of cons associated with the AliExpress affiliate business.

What Are the Downsides?

Unfortunately, this program isn’t perfect. There are several cons that steer many potential business partners away. To make matters worse, AliExpress is aware of the problems, but they refuse to make a change. Since business works how they want it to, they’re not likely to change anything any time soon.

Consider these downsides of the program:

The Commission Rate Is Capped at $50 per Sale

Blogging Lizard states that the $50 cap is a huge problem for a lot of affiliate marketers. There’s no denying the fact that your potential earnings will forever be limited.

If someone buys thousands of dollars worth of products, you can’t earn any more than $50. On other programs, you’d be able to earn without a cap.

They Currently Don’t Pay Through PayPal

If you’re trying to keep your income streams flowing through one source, then PayPal would almost always be the go-to option. Sadly, AliExpress doesn’t support PayPal.

For being one of the biggest online retailers in the world, it’s unclear why so many people aren’t able to use PayPal with their AliExpress accounts.

There’s a Massive Withdrawal Fee

Whenever you want to pull money out of the account or transfer it to your bank, you’ll have to pay a $15 fee. In other words, you’re not allowed to withdraw anything less than $16.

If you did it at that rate, you’d made $1 per withdrawal. You should consider pulling out hundreds of dollars at a time rather than small withdrawals.

There’s no hiding the disappointing drawbacks of the program. If you’re worried about losing money from withdrawals, then it’s a good idea to wait until you’ve amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars before you pull out the money.

Are you still wondering if the pros outweigh the cons? Read on.

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Is This Membership Worth It?

You’ve seen the pros and cons, so now it’s time to find out if it’s worth your time. Many people who’ve used the program admit that it takes a bit of getting used to, but in the end, it’s more than worth it.

If you want to add another stream of income to your entrepreneur business, then it’s time to find out if it’s a good match.

Review these questions to know if you should join the AliExpress affiliate program:

Are you able to sell enough products to stay on the program for the long run? Some affiliate programs have a required sales threshold to stay in business. If you want to prevent your account from getting deactivated, it’s important that you continue to make a couple of sales per month.

What niche are you a part of? While you can use AliExpress to make money in almost every niche, some topics offer a higher commission rate than others. The range goes from 2% to 5% for most items, a few of them hit 10%, and hot sale items offer all the way up to 50% or more per sale.

Do you have a proven flow of traffic to your website? AliExpress approves the vast majority of applicants, but you might be wasting your time if you don’t have enough traffic to get a sale. However, it doesn’t hurt to set up a few reviews with affiliate links to understand how the program works.

Do you know how to use linking strategies? You can’t link everything in each paragraph. It’s important that you place affiliate links wisely. While this point isn’t unique to AliExpress, it’s still worth mentioning that you’d be wasting your time if you don’t know how to use their links and banners.
Have you ever bought or sold items on AliExpress? They have a unique system that’s a bit different than their competition (including Amazon and eBay). A lot of AliExpress’s items are significantly cheaper than anywhere else in the world, but customers are required to buy them in bulk (sometimes).

Once you’ve read through and answered these questions, you’ll know if you should join the program.

That being said, we’ll discuss a few more essential tips in the next section to keep you updated with recent trends.

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What You Should Know Before Joining

You know almost everything there is to know about the AliExpress affiliate program, but few pointers are left on the table. By now, you’ve probably made your decision.

Those who are wondering whether or not they should sign up should’ve been swayed in either direction by the aforementioned subheadings.

Keep these three factors in mind before joining the business partnership:

Hot sales only go through during their allotted time: If you’re chasing the 50% or more commission you get on hot sale items, you might be disappointed when you only get 2%. A lot of the hot sales items stay on the page for a long time, but some of them drop back to their original commission rate. In other words, don’t expect to get the same rate for every product.

Their tracking cookies last for 30 days: It’s fairly average for affiliate marketing companies to give tracking cookies that last between 14 to 30 days. The tracking cookie stays with customers when they click the link through your website (or wherever you paste them). When they go through your link, you’ll earn a commission. The cookie stays for 30 days, meaning they can click today and buy next month.

Customer service is tricky: According to multiple sources, AliExpress doesn’t have the best customer service for their affiliate marketers. There’s no dedicated team, which means you’ll have to go through countless representatives if you have a complicated question. Fortunately, they’re available to answer questions 24/7. There’s also a FAQ page to review if you need an immediate answer.

These few notable factors may or may not influence your decision. The most important thing is that you know what you’re getting yourself into before making a business commitment.

When you’re ready to proceed with the process and starting pasting links, follow the step-by-step instructions in the next section.

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How to Sign Up for the AliExpress Affiliate Program

When you’re ready to get started, you don’t have to do too much. Thankfully, signing up for the AliExpress affiliate program is much easier than many other affiliate memberships.

There’s no need to spend a few hours trying to get everything in order. Get your laptop and start signing up as soon as possible.

Here’s the step-by-step process to sign up:

Navigate the AliExpress website to the Affiliate area at the bottom of the page. Make sure that you have an email address, home address (or PO box), and any other personal information that’s typically required for business transactions. The link is always found at the bottom of the page, or you could click it through the Google link.

Input your email, name, and create an account. You’ll need a username (or email in most countries) and a password. Keep these set aside for future logins. Note that it might take a couple of hours for the approval process, but the sign-up process can be done in less than one minute.

Decide where you’re going to paste your links and banners. It’s important that you know where to place them, so you don’t look spammy or get banned from the service. There’s a list of terms and conditions that you must agree with if you want to prevent your account from getting terminated.

Start posting links and wait for the results. If you’re just getting started with your blog, then it’s important to mention that keyword ranking can take a long time. Never expect to get instant results. Like all other affiliate programs, proper links and banners will make a huge difference and generate better results.

Choose your payment method. As mentioned a few times throughout this page, AliExpress doesn’t accept PayPal as a payout method. Instead, you’ll have to input your bank account information. Some people prefer to create a separate account for business transactions, or you could choose to have a check sent to an address.

You’ll enjoy the simple setup process, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to make a fortune as soon as you get approved. Instead, you’ll be facing an uphill battle against thousands of other affiliate marketers.

Don’t let that news deter you, though. If you want to know how to use the program for the best results, the next section has everything you’ll need to learn.

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How to Use the Affiliate Links

Once you’re approved for the program and ready to start earning a commission, you’ll need to follow some crucial steps.

Failure to do so will result in a pointless endeavor, giving you $0, regardless of how hard you try. Online business tactics require specific steps, so let’s get started with all of them.

To use the affiliate links and work the program, try these tips:

Familiarize yourself with the analytics page. Their basic analytics page shows you how much money you’re making, how many people are clicking the links, and how many people make a purchase. These three bits of information are what you need to know if you want to improve your sales.

Make sure you pay attention to the commission rate of every product that you sell. Digital Fodder points to the fact that the commissions vary drastically in the program. Some items offer 3%, others offer 7%, and many of them will give you up to 9%. As you could’ve guessed, the hot sales list typically ranges over 50% per sale.

Don’t paste links all over every page that you have access to. Instead of overwhelming your viewers, let them know that every product that you recommend is a good suggestion. Nobody trusts someone who’s out to make a sale without helping others, but if you show that you truly believe in something, they’re more likely to click.

Know when it’s a good time to use a banner (and when it’s not). You can make banners with different codes, including simple images with affiliate links. Using banners is a good idea if you want to bring life to a dull page, but it’s a terrible decision if there’s already too much going on.

Sign up for forums and similar informative pages. There’s only so much that AliExpress can help you with when it comes to making more money through their program. However, there are dozens of forums for affiliate marketers who want to know how to get more money.

Ensuring that you follow these suggestions will improve your odds of making a good income.

The potential earnings are what attracts most affiliate marketers to AliExpress, but how much money can you make with the program? Find out below.

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Can You Make a Decent Income?

Perhaps the biggest concern that online business people have is whether or not they’re going to make enough money to make the experience worthwhile.

If you’re in that category, rest assured that AliExpress pays out hundreds of thousands of dollars every month to thousands of clients.

You know the numbers are there, but how much can you make?

How much money can you make with AliExpress? Although you’ve seen that the company pays thousands of dollars each month, that doesn’t mean that everyone makes amazing commissions. In fact, a little bit of mathematics will show us that the average marketer doesn’t make much at all through the program. If you want to make enough money from AliExpress, the next subheading has what you need to know.

How many links should you post to make more commission-based sales? Contrary to popular belief, posting a ton of links isn’t the key to marketing success. Quite the opposite is true. Nobody wants to get drowned in a sea of links when they’re looking for an answer to their question. Post the links whenever they’re necessary, aka whenever you mention the product for the first time.

What’s the most profitable niche? Tech gadgets and clothing tend to be the most popular, profitable niches within the AliExpress affiliate program. You can earn between 2% to 9% in these niches, so it’s easy to see why so many people get them. As long as you can stay up-to-date on the latest trends, there’s no reason that you can’t make a good income.

These three factors can help you make more money through AliExpress, but they’re just the start of it.

If you want to start raking in loads of income through plenty of affiliate sales, then you should review the suggestions in the following section. They’re easy to apply, even for beginners.

How to Improve Your Profits

As with all business ideas, there’s one way to make nothing and another to maximize your profits.

Unfortunately, many affiliate marketers choose the former route, resulting in wasted time. If you’re trying to find out if it’s worth it, then you’ll be delighted to know that there are quite a few ways to make it so.

To improve your profits with the AliExpress program, try these tips:

Follow the hot sales pages on AliExpress to know where you can make money the quickest. As you know by now, the hot sales offer much more money for every sale, which means they’re worth the time investment. Note: Only use the hot sales links if they’re related to your niche.

Hyperlink the text of the items you’re selling. For example, don’t write, “there’s a great office chair that you should try.” Instead, write something along the lines of “the X Office Chair by Y is an excellent choice.” When you capitalize and specify what you’re linking to, people don’t feel that there’s any mystery.

Market to a searching audience. What this means is that you need to make sure that your audience is ready to buy. People search for products or reviews when they know that they have their wallets ready to go. You shouldn’t be convincing people to buy something unless they’re willing to make a purchase.

Keep track of the analytics page on the AliExpress affiliate marketer tab. This page will show you the results for every link. If you know how many people are clicking vs. how many people are buying, you’ll know if you’ve chosen the correct products. If something isn’t getting clicked, you can adjust your strategy.

Write for people who want to buy a lot of one item. For example, if you’re writing about yoga mats, you should direct your attention toward yoga studios, not individuals. AliExpress is all about selling a lot of items in bulk. Nobody wants to buy 300 yoga mats if they only need one!

These simple tips and tricks will allow you to propel yourself to the top of the charts.

Why sit around waiting for a sale when you can optimize your website? More traffic results in a better sales opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you’ll secure the sales.

These suggestions will improve your odds and convert readers into buyers.

Check Out A Complete List Of My Favorite Affiliate Programs

Does It Compare to Similar Affiliate Memberships?

AliExpress is far from unique when it comes to the affiliate marketing industry. There are dozens of similar programs, some of which are more appealing than others. If you’ve heard about AliExpress, then the chances are that you’ve heard about the popular Amazon affiliate program.

Amazon’s program allows you to find items in any niche and sell them to your readers. Almost every item on the website can have a link, broadening your chances of making a sale. In a world where millions of online transactions go through Amazon (and similar sites) every day, it’s an easy choice to give it a try.

Truthfully speaking, Amazon offers more products without requiring bulk sales. This factor makes them a better choice for most marketers. However, there’s no reason that you couldn’t have both of them. You could choose Amazon for individual sales and AliExpress for bulk sales and hot sales when you want the high commission rate.

Many customers believe that Amazon is more trustworthy than AliExpress since it’s an American company. If your audience is based in the USA, Canada, or Europe, then Amazon is much more welcome and well-known.

On the other hand, if your customers are based in China or the surrounding countries in Asia, then AliExpress might be a better choice. Again, signing up for both programs will often yield the best results. Some people prefer buying in bulk, regardless of where they live or the cost of shipping and handling. Note: AliExpress is very popular in Russia!

Finally, AliExpress ships to more than 170 countries, whereas Amazon only ships to about 100. The difference might not matter, depending on where your customers live. However, it’s worth considering if you’re comparing these companies. Shaving off 70 countries removes millions of potential buyers, so why not do both?

Conclusion

AliExpress might not be as successful as Amazon in the affiliate marketing business, but you shouldn’t forget about it.

Since there aren’t as many sellers, you could start making an income in an unsaturated market. Make sure your customers are ready to buy in bulk so you can reach the $50 sale cap.

Here’s a quick rundown of the post:

AliExpress offers a commission rate that ranges between 2% to 50% or more.
They don’t accept PayPal, so you’ll need a bank account for payments.
The payment threshold is $16, and there’s a $15 withdrawal fee on all withdrawals.
Tracking cookies last up to 30 days per click through your affiliate links.
AliExpress offers lower prices on bulk sales, which means your customers can save tons of money.