What Creators Make from Affiliates

Another week, another deep dive into how creators monetize. 🤓 This week, we’re looking at affiliate income.

*Before we get into the nitty gritty–quick disclaimer.

We do our best to extract meaningful insights from the data, but for example, it’d be quite impossible to know whether a payment from Stripe is a brand deal or affiliate payout. So, for the sake of clarity, the data below shows affiliate income only from well-known platforms like ShopMy, LTK, Amazon Affiliates, etc.

This data is also based on the creators in our database. There are likely creators out there making less/more than those in our database.

Alright, enough of that. Into the good stuff.

💡 This chart shows data for creators with 100k to 500k followers. The platforms listed are their primary platforms, or the one they have the largest following on.

A few fascinating things we noticed about this data:

1) Those whose primary platform is Instagram made the most affiliate income, by far.

2) Even top-performers hover around $1,000/month in affiliate income.

3) Affiliate income is surprisingly steady.

Why Instagram Creators Likely Make More Here

Instagram’s affiliate ecosystem is uniquely powerful. Here’s why:

Product tags are native and frictionless. Instagram’s built-in shopping features mean creators can tag products directly in posts and Reels—no external links needed. Followers tap, shop, done.

LTK and ShopMy are Instagram-native. Both platforms were built around Instagram influencers. The audience is primed to buy from Instagram creators in a way that hasn’t fully translated to TikTok or YouTube yet.

The shopping mindset. Instagram users, on average, are more primed for discovery-based shopping than YouTube (which skews more educational) or TikTok (which is still maturing its commerce layer).

So what does this mean for creators?

If you’re building a brand, Instagram should be part of your monetization stack, even if it’s not your primary platform.

How to Actually Maximize Affiliate Income

We spoke to a few creators who’ve cracked the code on affiliate income—including one who makes a consistent ~$3k/month from affiliates alone—and here’s what we learned:

1. Build a Landing Page (Seriously)

Most creators skip this. Don’t.

A dedicated landing page (like a Linktree or personal site) that houses all your affiliate links in one place drives dramatically more clicks than scattering links across individual posts. It also makes it way easier to track what’s converting.

2. Use Email

Email has 10–40x higher click-through rates than social media. Even a modest email list of 1,000 engaged subscribers can generate consistent affiliate income that social media rarely delivers.

The creators making steady affiliate income almost always have an email list backing it up.

If you’re thinking about starting a newsletter, check out our guide on how to grow a newsletter.

3. Own Your Niche (And Stay In It)

The highest affiliate earners aren’t promoting everything. They’re known for something—skincare, kitchen gear, travel essentials—and their audiences trust their picks specifically in that domain.

Spreading too thin dilutes both your conversion rate and your brand credibility.

4. Double Down on Long-Form

YouTube videos and long blog posts have long tails. A single “best running shoes of 2024” video can drive affiliate income for years, not weeks. Short-form content gets views fast but has almost no affiliate shelf life.

5. Disclose (And Use It to Your Advantage)

Disclosure builds trust, and trust converts. Creators who are upfront about their affiliate relationships often see better performance because their audiences respect the honesty.

“I genuinely use this” lands better than an obvious ad.

Final Word

Affiliate income is one of the most passive revenue streams available to creators, but “passive” doesn’t mean effortless. The creators consistently earning from affiliates treat it like a strategy, not an afterthought.

If you’re leaving affiliate income on the table, the fix isn’t more followers. It’s smarter distribution.