If you’ve been looking for a new way of increasing your side income through affiliate marketing and you’re searching for a high-earning program to join, you’ve ended up in the perfect place. 

In today’s article, we’re looking at the TubeBuddy affiliate program — how much you can earn if you start recommending it to your audience, what it is all about, what cookie duration you can expect, and what alternatives you should pick in case you don’t feel like this is the right choice. 

TubeBuddy Affiliate Review

What is TubeBuddy?

The best way to describe TubeBuddy would be to say that it is a convenient and very easy to use extension that people can utilize to make the most of their YouTube channel. To date, the extension can be installed on a plethora of browsers, whether Google Chrome and Firefox or Microsoft Edge and Opera Mini. 

It is also available for both Android and iOS devices in case your followers find it easier to manage everything YouTube-related using their mobile phones or tablets. 

What can you recommend to your audience?

First of all, we’d like to note that there is a free version of TubeBuddy that your audience can try before they make a commitment to paying for a plan every single month. 

That should put your mind at ease — trials and free versions can usually make it easier for referrals to convert just because they get a feel of the product before actually spending their hard-earned cash on it. 

Naturally, the free version does not include the majority of the features that can be found in the paid plans, and there are quite a bit of differences in terms of those, too. 

There are four main types of paid plans to speak of — the Pro, the Star, the Legend, as well as the Enterprise. Users gain access to various functions depending on how much they are willing to spend for the TubeBuddy extension. 

The Pro plan is billed at $4.80 per month and it is specifically designed for YouTubers with a low number of subscribers. The extension designers are actually giving away a discount coupon called RisingStarBuddy which, once applied at checkout, gives users a 50% discount if they have less than 1,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel. 

The next plan is called Star and seems to be among the most popular options. This one costs $11.99 per month and it is designed for YouTubers that have a decent following and that need features such as bulk ones (copy cards, update cards, delete end screens and more), search rank tracking, publish to Facebook features, and some pretty nifty extras such as suggestions on when to publish for the maximum results. 

The Legend plan costs $23.99 per month and is the most attractive ones that TubeBuddy has designed as of yet. It includes pretty much all of the functions that a successful YouTuber requires to become even more successful, including things like Pick a Winner, Brand Alerts, Health Reports, Channelytics, Demonetization Audits, Search Insights, and of course, the TubeBuddy mobile app, too. 

While we couldn’t find any information as to how much the Enterprise plan costs, we suggest that you get in touch with a company representative to drop them a question — TubeBuddy customer service agents are very helpful, so you’ll get your answer in no time. 

Joining the TubeBuddy affiliate program

If you’re used to relying on affiliate marketing as a means of growing your income, perhaps you are aware of the existence of affiliate networks and platforms such as ShareASale, FlexOffers, Sovrn or VigLink, ClickBank, Awin, or anything else. 

These platforms are very convenient in the sense that you can see your data regarding dozens if not hundreds of affiliate programs you might have joined in the past. Well, when it comes to TubeBuddy, that is not an advantage that you can expect as the program is self-managed. 

That means that you will have to go to the official website’s signup page and tend to that over there. The good news is that you will not have to go through a lengthy approval process. Pretty much anyone who creates a TubeBuddy account is immediately accepted into the program if they create an affiliate code. 

Once you choose your affiliate name, you just have to make sure that you add your PayPal email into the dashboard so that the company has a way of paying you. 

How much can you make as a TubeBuddy affiliate?

Thai is probably the reason you ended up here in the first place, so let’s look at the TubeBuddy affiliate commission. As previously mentioned, this is one of the best-earning affiliate programs we have come across because every referral gets you a 30% rate — but that’s a recurring commission, too. 

In other words, if your referrals choose to utilize TubeBuddy for years and years to come, whether they pay for their subscription on a monthly or yearly basis, you will still get 30% of whatever they are spending on the website. 

As for the tracking cookie, it does last for just 30 days, which is pretty much the industry standard at this point. 

We would have liked for it to be at least 45 or even 60 days long, especially since your referrals can start with the free version and it may take a while for them to decide to switch to the paid version. At least it’s better than what other programs have to offer, such as Amazon Associates, with its strange 24-hour cookie duration. 

TubeBuddy affiliate program payment terms

Like we have noted above, TubeBuddy can pay their affiliates only using one method – PayPal. This is a service that has been experiencing an increase in negative reputation over the past few years, ever since a lot of users have started to have their accounts deleted for no reason whatsoever or for having too hefty fees. 

In terms of payment thresholds, it’s a good thing that the limit is just $10, which means that you will be able to withdraw your commissions earlier than you would with other affiliate programs. We’d also like to note that while the base rate is a recurring 30% one, if you send out a lot of referrals to TubeBuddy on a regular basis, you can reach the so-called VIP or Super Affiliate level and get a commission that is increased up to 50%. 

Pros and cons to being a TubeBuddy affiliate

TubeBuddy is one of the best-known services in the field, which means that some YouTubers might have at least heard of it before. The reason we are saying this is that you might end up having less of a hard time recommending it to your followers if they have at least heard the name of the company before. 

But as you know by now if you’ve ever used affiliate marketing for monetization before, there are both benefits and drawbacks that need to be given some thought to before you decide to join a specific program. 

When it comes to the reasons you should consider joining the TubeBuddy affiliate program, one of the best ones is the fact that you’ll get recurring 30% commission rates, which is a decent earning opportunity when you compare it to some of the other programs in the same industry.

We would have liked it if the cookie had lasted for a bit more, but 30 days is what you can expect from the majority of other programs, too. It might have also been a little easier if TubeBuddy had decided to use a separate and reputable affiliate network for its program rather than managing it individually. 

Even so, we would say that this is a pretty decent affiliate program and that if you are in the right niche, you should definitely consider it. 

TubeBuddy affiliate program alternatives

If for any reason, you have come to the conclusion that being a TubeBuddy affiliate does not make sense for you at this point, here are some other options you have at your disposal. 

For most of the following choices, we’ll specify the commission rates you can expect, keeping in mind that the one that’s most similar to TubeBuddy is VidIQ — the rest are somewhat related to YouTube but from afar. 

VidIQ

VidIQ is yet another popular earning opportunity for affiliate marketers whose readership or followers are on YouTube. This extension is extremely nifty when it comes to giving content creators the stats that they truly need, whether that be their views and subscribers or watch time and retention or different ways of making the most when it comes to keyword research, for example. 

There are several different affiliate levels when it comes to the VidIQ affiliate program. If you make between 1 and 10 sales per month, your commission rate is going to be 15% out of every sale. At 11 to 50 sales, you’re called an influencer and your rate becomes 20% whereas when you surpass the 51 sale limit, your commission rate is increased to 25%. 

If your performance is truly stellar, you can also get in touch with a VidIQ representative and ask just how high your rate can go. We did not find any information account to which this is a recurring commission, though, so do keep that in mind. 

Canva

As a Canva affiliate, you can expect to be paid $36 for every person that gets a Pro account through your referral link. 

That might not seem like a lot of money, considering that it is not a recurring commission, either, but you do have to think of the fact that Canva is one of the most popular apps for editing photos and thumbnails these days — and all YouTubers need thumbnails. 

On the upside, this program is managed by Impact Radius, so if you already use the network for your other niche sites and have an account with Impact, everything will be much easier. 

You might also like: Create Graphics and Designs with Canva

Zubtitle

The Zubtitle affiliate program speaks to the needs of content creators who are sick and tired of spending a lot of time editing their videos, especially shorts for either YouTube or Instagram. The software is very user-friendly and allows people to trim their content and add subtitles, which can be very handy especially for YouTubers who have an international audience. 

The commission rate is pretty much identical with the one you can expect from the TubeBuddy affiliate program, so 30% over the entire duration of your referral’s subscriptions and plan renewals. 

Epidemic Sound

The Epidemic Sound affiliate program strictly addresses other content creators. So, if you also have a YouTube channel and you’re looking to utilize great music in your videos, you might want to know that referring other creators to Epidemic Sound can earn you free months. 

So, while it’s not good that you can’t really make money with this alternative, there is no limit when it comes to the number of referrals you can send out Epidemic Sound’s way or the number of free months you can get. 

Restream

This is perhaps the best affiliate program to recommend to content creators who are heavily into live streaming. The platform makes it possible for video creators to stream at the same time on several different social media networks, ranging from LinkedIn and Twitter to YouTube and Facebook. 

The affiliate program offers 30% in recurring sales on all of the paid accounts that you manage to refer to, so whenever someone decides to get a subscription and keeps it and renews it, you get paid your commission without you needing to worry about anything. 

Read more: EngageBay affiliate program

StreamYard

When it comes to StreamYard, there are actually two ways to warn — they have both a referral and an affiliate program. As an affiliate, you can make 25% of whatever your followers spend on StreamYard for the whole duration of their subscription and their renewals. 

The referral program on the other hand, gets you free months of StreamYard, so it might make the best choice for someone who’s also creating content themselves. 

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