Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. If you click through and purchase an item, I may earn a commission. See my terms of service for details.
In 2013, ConvertKit was born. The company’s founder, Nathan Barry, challenged himself publicly to build a web application in six months that would generate $5,000 in recurring monthly revenue. Kudos to Barry for fulfilling his goal as his business is now making millions.
ConvertKit is “email marketing software the way it should be.” It’s also a platform that is “made by creators, for creators.” It “exists to help creators earn a living online.” Alongside email marketing services, it provides marketing automation, opt-in forms, landing pages, migration support, and a WordPress plugin. Tradecraft by ConvertKit has guides, articles, and podcasts about working online and making money.
Company Profile
- Founded by Nathan Barry in 2013
- Headquarters: Idaho, United States of America
- 20,000+ customers globally
- ConvertKit publishes its sales data publicly via Baremetrics
Plans & Pricing
ConvertKit has a 14-day free trial. It has four plans, and prices reflect subscriber totals. Users get discounts on annual plans.
- Zero to 1,000 subscribers: $29/month
- 1,000 to 3,000: $49/month
- 3,000 to 5,000: $79/month
- 5,000+: $99+/month
ConvertKit Affiliate Program
The ConvertKit affiliate program is hosted on a private network, and anyone can join it. Let’s review the benefits, drawbacks, commission rate, cookie length, and details of the program.
Program Benefits
ConvertKit is a well-known company that has quickly established itself. Its growth is due in part to forming marketing partnerships with top bloggers, vloggers, influencers, and marketers. Given its mass adoption and supporters, ConvertKit is a legit company to promote.
Affiliates can earn excellent recurring commissions. Many email marketing companies have affiliate programs and typically pay recurring commission rates of 20 to 30 percent. ConvertKit pays 30 percent, which is fantastic.
The program has a 60-day cookie. As of this writing, details about the referral period are missing on the landing page. However, if I recall correctly, an affiliate has a 60-day window to convert traffic (I used to be an affiliate). Sixty days are above the 30 days that many advertisers give. Separately, ConvertKit uses a first-click attribution, which means the commission will go to the affiliate whose link was clicked first, not last.
There’s no payout threshold. Once your sales/commissions are approved, ConvertKit will pay you on the 2nd of the following month. Commissions will be sent to your PayPal account.
There’s a full-time affiliate marketing manager. When a merchant has the staff to support publishers, it quickens processes and shows commitment. Additionally, there’s an official ConvertKit affiliate Facebook group to ask questions, share tips, and celebrate successes.
The affiliate landing page is excellent. An affiliate landing page is supposed to be informative, and ConvertKit’s updated landing page is much better than the one before. However, it’s still missing cookie details, and a FAQ section would be beneficial.
Program Drawbacks
The program is hard to find. You wouldn’t know ConvertKit has an affiliate program because it doesn’t list or mention it on its homepage. A common practice is to call out and link to a program from a primary or secondary menu. Why is ConvertKit hiding its program?
Deep linking isn’t available. Deep linking is the practice by which an affiliate creates a link to a specific page on the merchant’s site. For example, instead of using a generic homepage affiliate link, I can link to an article that relates to my post. Affiliates cannot create unique links but are given a handful of deep links to other pages.
Creative assets and banners are missing. Affiliates are limited to using a few ConvertKit logos. A selection of banners and sizes would be advantageous.
ConvertKit uses a subpar affiliate tracking solution. Ambassador is a lower-tier affiliate software application. Its software is dated, inconsistent, and features an unfriendly user interface. Furthermore, customer support and follow up are nonexistent.
Your payout can take up to 60 days, which would be frustrating. As ConvertKit states,
Affiliate commissions are approved on a monthly basis, on the first day of the month. There is a minimum delay of 30 days before approving pending commissions. (This is to account for any refunds since we have a 30 day, no questions asked, refund policy).
Depending on when a commission is earned in a month, it can be pending for up to 60 days. For example, if you earned a commission on August 5th, it along with all August commissions would be approved and paid on Oct 1 (creating a 55-day delay). If you earned a commission on Aug 30, it would also get approved and paid on Oct 1 (creating a 30-day delay).
ConvertKit isn’t helping you to grow your brand, it’s helping Pat Flynn (its “number one affiliate”). It has enlisted the help of Pat to give tips and strategies to affiliates. He also appears on the affiliate landing page, which is excellent for his brand and business. However, merchants shouldn’t take a biased approach to their programs by singling out affiliates or playing favorites. It’s inappropriate and not fair to other publishers. Furthermore, I would hate to send traffic to a company that’s busy promoting specific partners.
ConvertKit is a mediocre email marketing application. Its software is clunky, unfriendly, and overpriced. Also, there are better and more affordable email marketing services, for instance, Sendinblue, MailerLite, and Mailchimp (read my comparison between ConvertKit and MailerLite). If you think I’m alone in my assessment, the folks at EmailToolTester agree. The independent review site gives ConvertKit a disappointing score of 3.5/5 in an article entitled, ConvertKit Review 2019: Do their Features Justify its High Price?
Making Money
Can you make $1,000 a month as a ConvertKit affiliate? It’s unlikely that you will make that amount or a significant income. Although ConvertKit’s affiliate program pays well, the email marketing software landscape is crowded, which produces a lot of options for customers. Secondly, ConvertKit’s software is below average, which could lead to low conversion rates.
Where should ConvertKit rank in your marketing activities? Unless you’re a customer and passionate about its services, it should be a low priority.
Why would anyone promote ConvertKit given its high prices and substandard software? Since ConvertKit doesn’t have free plans, all conversions will yield commissions. Alternatively, affiliates who promote companies with free plans aren’t guaranteed commissions. They will only get paid if their leads pay immediately or turn into paying customers, which may never happen. Therefore, promoting a company such as ConvertKit is potentially more profitable and appealing to publishers. Secondly, you could argue that a smart way to make passive income and money in affiliate marketing is to prioritize profits over products and people (your audience). In doing so, the affiliate would selfishly partner with high paying merchants (like ConvertKit) regardless of how their products perform.
Related Affiliate Programs
- Sendinblue Affiliate Program
- Constant Contact Affiliate Program
- GetResponse Affiliate Program
- MailerLite Affiliate Program
- AWeber Affiliate Program
