If you are looking for a new way of increasing your passive income and you’re on the hunt for new affiliate programs, you’ve ended up in the perfect place. 

For today’s article, we’ve prepared a review of the Kartra affiliate program, where we give you all of the information you should know — from how much money you can make to what rules you ought to be aware of. 

Kartra Affiliate Program Review

What is Kartra?

To put it simply, Kartra is a platform that people can use for pretty much everything when it comes to managing their online business. That means anything from tracking leads, managing checkouts and getting paid for services or products, creating new pages, funnels, email marketing campaigns, and memberships, and more. 

You literally have the option to put together anything such as forms, calendars, and you even have the freedom to create your own affiliate program if you’re looking to increase your sales through that marketing method. 

What services can you promote to your readers?

We already mentioned some of the features that the platform offers to its customers, but let’s take a look at the plans that are now available and how they’re priced so that you get an idea of how willing your audience might be to try Kartra. 

The Starter plan is billed at $99 per month and includes up to 2,500 leads, 15,000 emails, one custom domain, the ability to host 50 videos, 100 pages, 20 products, as well as the ability to create two membership sites. 

The next plan is called Silver and is billed at $199 per month. It comes with all of the features already included in the Starter plan with the mentioned that the number of leads are increased to 12,500 and the number of custom domains is now 3 instead of 1. The rest of the features are basically unlimited. 

The Gold plan costs $299 per month and the Platinum one is priced $499 per month and obviously, these plans come with absolutely everything one might need to manage their online business. 

At the time we’re writing this, prospective customers also had the option to try out Kartra for just $1 for a period of 14 days.

How to become a Kartra affiliate

The best thing about this program is that you can join it even if you are not using Kartra at this time. This means that you do not have to pay for any potentially expensive subscription in order to recommend these services to your readers. 

The program is self-managed, which means that you are not going to encounter it on any separate affiliate network. We looked at this aspect and saw it as a drawback because seasoned affiliates that have dozens of niche websites may find it more convenient to check out everything in a single place, whether that be their conversions or earnings. 

Another note we have to make is that Kartra does not accept everyone. There is a questionnaire that you need to go through and you’ll receive your answer in a matter of several days. 

Many applications are rejected, though, because obviously the company is looking to be promoted on established websites or by popular influencers. 

If that’s possible, provide as much detail with regard to what you do and how you are looking to promote Kartra services — so that the affiliate management team can make a decision quickly and in your favor. 

How much money can you make?

The rate that you can expect with this affiliate program is a 40% recurring one. That means that each time someone purchases a subscription, you’ll be paid the same rate time and again — for the duration of someone’s paid plan, in any case. 

To make a rough calculation of what you might be able to make, our estimate was that you can earn just a little under $500 per year with a referral that gets the Starter plan and maintains it for 12 months. 

The more people you refer and get a subscription, the better your chances of being promoted to the second tier, where your commission will be increased by 10%. So yes, that means that afterwards, you’ll be able to make 50% out of the value of every paid plan (for its entire duration). 

The tracking cookie lasts for 30 days after your audience has clicked on your link, but this is pretty much an industry standard at this point, so lots of companies rely on this cookie length. 

How does Kartra pay its affiliates?

The payment method can be both seen as an advantage and a disadvantage because not many people might be able to access it. From what we have gathered until now, Kartra pays its affiliates only through PayPal.

While that can be convenient since this service is available in many countries across the globe, PayPal has a reputation for its hefty fees, especially given its exchange rates. 

In the past several years, PayPal has also started to analyze a lot of accounts, and if you’re one of the unlucky ones to have had your account deactivated by the company, there’s virtually no way of you creating another one. 

Rules and regulations of the Kartra affiliate setup

Most of the programs that we have reviewed in the past come with a set of rules that you should always abide by to make sure that you do not end up being booted out of the program. 

Probably the most important one that we encountered is that you are not allowed to make any false statements with regard to Kartra, whether that means inflating the benefits that potential customers might get from using it or making any vaguely negative claims. 

Although this is not specifically mentioned in the terms of service document that we found on the site, it’s hinted at — try to avoid using the Kartra name in your PPC or social media ads. Promote your content instead so that your audience can make informed decisions without being heavily influenced. 

Pros and cons to being a Kartra affiliate

In terms of benefits, the commission rate is an obvious one, along with the fact that it is recurring over the entire period of your referral’s subscription. You’re also not forced to be a Kartra user, but we recommend getting the $1 trial anyway and trying out the service before even applying to become an affiliate. 

The fact that you can increase your rate as time goes by and you get more referrals is another pro to consider. 

The biggest drawback when it comes to the Kartra affiliate program is that you need to apply on the company website and that the chance of getting your application rejected is relatively high. 

As you can imagine, the company receives a lot of requests every day, so the effort to separate the wheat from the chaff is outstanding. We’d say that this is a program that works for people who already have a massive following online and are getting a lot of organic traffic on their blogs and websites. 

Kartra Affiliate Program Alternatives

If for any reason, you feel that this affiliate program might not be a good fit for you, whether because the brand isn’t as well-known as others in the same industry, or because the commissions and payment methods don’t match your expectations, here are a few other options. 

Note: we tried to pick services that are as similar to what Kartra has to offer as much as possible, but do take into account that every company is different and so are the features of their products — so perhaps becoming an affiliate for several different ones might be a better idea. 

Systeme.io

This is another all-in-one tool that can handle absolutely everything for people who want to sell online, no matter the type of business they own. 

The marketing tools included in the Systeme.io packages are very effective and versatile and they range from a website builder to business automation, sales funnels, and even affiliate program management. 

As for the Systeme.io affiliate program, we’d say that it’s a pretty good one since you can make 50% out of what your referrals choose in terms of plans for the duration of their subscription. Yes, those are recurring commissions, so that is a clear advantage. You also do not have to be a Systeme.io user yourself to access the affiliate program. 

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels has been around for a long, long time, and during that time, it’s become the tool of choice for all sorts of marketers and small business owners. It has a lot of features, from built-in sales funnels, upsells and downsells, membership sites, and follow-up funnels to the ability to run online events. 

The program itself is less worthy of writing home about strictly because you can make just 20% in commissions for every purchase made by your referrals. However, the value of the services sold is slightly higher, so your rate is not going to be as low as you can expect it to be. 

There are different tiers, so you have the option to increase your rate, and each time you make $1,000 or more through the program, you get all sorts of bonuses. This company uses a Net45 system, so you do not have to wait for two whole months to receive your earnings. 

Podia

We recently did a review of this affiliate program, so if you have some time on your hands, we suggest you give it a read for all of the info you should know. This is yet another all-in-one tool that can help people do anything from building online courses to developing digital products. 

The 30% commission rate offered by the brand to its affiliates is decent enough, but the biggest problem with this one is that the tracking cookie lasts for just 15 days. As such, it can be difficult for you to get a conversion during that time. 

Even so, this one might be a good option if you have been trying to diversify your income sources. 

You might also like: Wix Affiliate Program Review

Builderall

We’d say that the Builderall affiliate program takes the cake when it comes to affiliate success in the sense that for the first month of a referral’s subscription, you will be paid 100% out of the value of their plan. Afterwards, your commission will become 30% for any recurring plans. 

Like ClickFunnels, there are several ways to increase your earnings with Builderall, and one of them is by getting more people to sign up. Once you reach 100 referrals, you will be eligible for a $500 bonus for a car rental, for example. There are more bonuses, though, so make sure you do some research. 

ConvertKit

We’re preparing to review this affiliate program in the very near future, so stay tuned for that. This one is slightly different because the brand doesn’t necessarily focus on building websites for all sorts of things — it’s mostly geared toward individuals who want to create courses and sell them to their audience. 

Getting back to how you can make some cash with ConvertKit, they do have an affiliate program and it involves you earning 30% out of every subscription bought through your affiliate links — but wait, there’s more, and it’s that this is a recurring rate for up to two whole years. 

The downside is that this program is not managed by a separate affiliate network, which means you’ll have to do everything on the brand’s own website. 

Read more: Skillshare Affiliate Program Review

Kajabi

This brand pays you 30% out of the value of every sale made through your affiliate links, which is more than decent. There are several reward systems that you should do a little reading on, but the point is that your rate can be increased by getting more people to try Kajabi. 

There is a Net60 period that you should be aware of, though, so you will have to wait for two months before getting your earnings to hit your account. Plus, Kajabi pays its affiliates only via PayPal, which can be a downside for some people.

On the upside, there are always Kajabi affiliate managers that can help you through your journey in case you run into any problem whatsoever. But the biggest drawback is that you can’t become an affiliate unless you already use Kajabi yourself. 

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