Education affiliate programs are your ticket to earn a share of the money people are spending on the hopes they can further their career or change what they do every day entirely. It is a massive industry online with market values in the billions and projected to grow.
The education field isn’t just kindergarten learning either. Studying can move the needle in careers, which is why people spend big on training. It’s considered a career investment.
As the affiliate of learning providers, consider it your job to help match people to the right course and the right course provider. Think of yourself as an independent career counselor.
Speaking of the right course provider, you do need to do your due diligence. Online education portals are unregulated marketplaces. Especially MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), as course quality differs vastly. Udemy anyone?
For most careers, accredited courses providing industry-recognized qualifications rather than certifications, are what people are willing to buy. For careers requiring qualifications such as medical careers, certifications have little use.
Not always though as certifications can have their place. For example, Google is not a Registered Learning Provider but their certifications do carry weight in the workplace. In 2019, the highest paying Certified career was a Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect.
Additionally, businesses use training for staff retention and some HR budgets have a separate spending account to keep their staff skills sharp. Along those same lines, businesses invest in Learning Management Systems (LMS) to lower the cost of on-boarding new recruits so HR and education can be paired together.
Yet another group is those who are sick of the career they went into. The opportunities are huge.
Do your keyword research for career transition from ___ and you’ll be inundated with terms you can target. Some people are clearly in psychological need of a career change and others you can use your best judgment to guesstimate. For example, a career transition from a dancer is likely due to physical health rather than a wrong career choice.
Once people enroll in courses, the opportunities don’t end. Students need a lot of things, which can include stationery, software apps, study material, extra tuition support, and test prep for before final exams.
Beyond the adult education industry, there’s plenty of prep work in the tutoring sector and there’s education apps as well as smart tables for groups of toddlers to interact with app-based learning from as young as 2-years old.
Education affiliate programs are only one monetization strategy for a student-focused website. There’s student budgeting, food recipes for students or self-paced and blended learning advice to those choosing to study from home.
Website Ideas
- Advise people on how to become ____ (insert job title)
- Build a blog focused on career transitions as a lot of people need help there whether it’s through choice or a downturn in the industry they specialized in.
- Focus on education for careers with an early retirement age when a new career is needed. Dancers are one group where the average age of retirement is just 34 years old. Modeling and all sports fields can have an early exit age too.
- Review tutoring services or build a directory of tutors that can be searched by location and expertise.
- Provide advice about learning to code for educational apps by age group.
- If you’re in the B2B space, a lot of learning platforms have corporate and team training packages available including LinkedIn Learning.
- There’s also the opportunity to blend education affiliate programs into business topics by mastering a hobby to monetize talent. Music and art are just two examples of pastimes that can become a career changer.
12 Education Affiliate Programs
- Learn and Master
- O’Reilly’s
- LinkedIn Learning
- 360 Training
- Brain Sensei
- Princeton Review
- SVS Learn (Society of Visual Storytelling)
- Edx
- Pro Writing Aid
- Wyzant
- Scrivener (and the Learn Scrivener Fast Course)
- Intoxicated on Life
1. Learn and Master
Learn and Master is the online portal of Legacy Learning Systems. A selection of specialist courses is available on popular interests and hobbies people want to learn, some of which can lead to good earning careers.
Courses covered are:
- Guitar
- Piano
- Drums
- Ballroom dance
- Photography
- Painting
The affiliate program is managed by the ShareaSale network with affiliate support provided directly. The commissions are 20% per sale and use lifetime cookies. There’s also pay per call tracking available too.
In addition to standard commissions, they are creative with bonuses, paying from $15 to $500 in bonuses based on overall monthly sales and lifetime sales. Sounds exciting.
Check it out and sign up to the Learn and Master affiliate program here.
2. O’Reilly’s
OReilly.com was formerly Safari Books before being transformed into O’Reilly Media in 2014. It’s a source of Hi-Tech content from massive names in the book publishing industry including Dummies, Wiley, Wrox, Site Point, Sybex, and NoStarch.
There’s enough content available to justify membership options for which you can earn 5% commissions on monthly and annual subscription plans.
Everything to do with computers can be learned here, which is why they have a range of training packages tailored to the needs of businesses. Training is delivered in a variety of ways including interactive videos, text, live training and conferences.
If you’re in the tech space, such as blogging about open software development, cybersecurity or big data and analytics… basically anything related to computer technologies, O’Reilly is a source to partner with as they have a reputation for cutting edge training.
The audience demographics are broad as there’s material for students covering test prep and official practice exam papers. In the broader business education space, there are training packages suited to growing businesses right through to enterprise training packages.
Cookies are set for 45-days, promotions are run frequently and there are $100 commission payouts for any conference tickets you sell.
3. LinkedIn Learning
Most of us are familiar with LinkedIn. For those who aren’t, learning.linkedin.com is the education portal of the network.
The learning library is still all the content on Lynda.com but as the site is now part of LinkedIn, the only way to access 100% of Lynda.com courses is through a LinkedIn Learning Membership.
It is the largest training library online for professionals to enhance their careers. The majority of courses are focused on technology, business skills, and creative skills required across many industries as part of professional development.
The simplified new look for LinkedIn Learning is…
Pick a category and dive in. The LinkedIn Learning affiliate program is managed by Impact Radius (at the time of writing) however, there’s conflicting information on what they pay affiliates for membership referrals.
If you go by Acceleration Partners, it’s $5 commission for a free-trial sign-up.
The LinkedIn affiliate information page has $40 commission for monthly subscriptions but on the program terms on Impact.com, (the company managing LinkedIn’s Learning Affiliate Program), it’s $40 commission for a monthly membership and $60 commissions of annual memberships.
What is consistent is that affiliates earn 35% commission on any course sales and cookies are set for 30-day tracking.
For subscription plans, you’ll need to check when you sign up. It will be stated in the affiliate program terms. That’s the document you should read before you agree to participate in any affiliate program anyway.
Sign up to the LinkedIn Learning affiliate program here.
If things change, search the LinkedIn help section here for affiliate information.
4. 360 Training
360 Training is partnered with over 1,500 e-learning providers and is an approved provider by 450+ regulators across the US with over 6,000 courses available.
This is where you’ll find training for careers with certification requirements for compliance such as in the health care sector, construction industry and finance. Career-focused websites will find an abundance of opportunities here.
The affiliate program would be suited to anyone in a specialist field who teaches or blogs about getting into a specific industry.
As an example, if you run a cannabis website and decide you want to expand it to offer advice about becoming a cannabis vendor (coined as a budtender), ANSI-accredited training is needed. That’s available on 360 Training.
Refer your audience to 360Training.com for industry-specific training they need to either enhance their career, get a job, or start a business in an industry they love.
The affiliate program is available on the ShareaSale network or CJ.com with affiliate support provided through Advertise Purple, an affiliate management specialist.
Affiliates earn 15% commission, cookies are set to 60-days and the program is available for US and Canada affiliates.
Sign up to the 360 Training Affiliate Program with CJ.com or ShareaSale.com
5. Brain Sensei
The Brain Sensei training program is for preparing to sit the PMP (Project Management Professional) exam. PMP certification helps fast-track careers.
Brain Sensei is a Registered Education Provider (REP) with the Project Management Institute, therefore, you can be sure it’s a referral worth making as it will have an impact on test readiness and ultimately pass rates, which is where it matters.
If you’re familiar with Pat Flynn, you may recall his exam prep site Green Exam Academy which focuses on exam prep for the LEED exam. Well, Brain Sensei is similar but for a different audience.
The fundamentals are the same, it’s an exam prep site and that’s why it could be a good fit for people interested in moving into management.
Refer people with an ambition to get ahead in their career to this prep course and Brain Sensei will pay you a 10% commission.
The affiliate program is available on Commission Junction or through LinkConnector.com. The only difference between the two is Link Connector states they have first-in cookies, although it’s the same 60-day referral window.
Sign up on CJ.com or Link Connector
6. Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an online service to help students get ahead by getting them ready to ace their exams with better test scores.
The service includes test prep, admissions counseling, expert tutoring, and all the educational books students need to get them into top colleges across the US and even advise them on the best college to apply to for admission based on their prep scores.
For careers focused websites with a younger audience at a stage when they’re weighing up options of courses to study, where to go, what tests they’ll need and what scores they need to get into the college of their choice, this could be a good partnership.
Recently added too is a new section for academic tutoring services for 7th grade to 12th grade to prepare students for all of their exams, get them into their college of choice and then progress until they’ve achieved what they set out to do. Naturally, this section will be suited to parents rather than students.
The Princeton Review Affiliate Program is managed by ShareaSale.com, pays 8% commission and uses a 45-day cookie.
Sign up to the Princeton Review Affiliate Program here.
7. SVS Learn
Artists have a lot of career options, yet so many dreams go unfilled for no other reason than not knowing how to make a living from something considered a pastime.
SVSlearn.com is an art school with experienced instructors (not qualified teachers) on their instruction panel as well as artists with over a decade of in-the-trenches experience.
Consider it a niche learning library for creatives interested in making a living from their passion for art. The who’s who in the instructors’ page lists the details of 30 instructors, each bringing something unique to the learning experience.
Instructors have experience in children’s book animation, kid’s magazines, video and board game design, getting galleries to represent collections, design and branding, character creation for cartoons, storyboarding film scripts, and artists with licensing experience with designs for theaters.
Learning to draw is a big niche. Becoming an illustrator is more specific and this is a career with a lot of freelance opportunities. This is where people can get art education with the potential to lead to a new career, albeit, without becoming certified.
The video training is available to buy on a per-lesson basis or by subscription ($24.99 per month or annual membership for $198). The affiliate program is privately managed and pays 20% commission with payments made to PayPal quarterly.
Apply to the SVSlearn.com affiliate program
8. EdX
Let’s get the rough stuff out the way first. EdX has had bad press surrounding their abysmally low completion rates – a metric too-often used in the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) industry but if that’s the metric you go by, almost all MOOCs will be terrible.
Rarely do courses have above a 30% course completion rate[1]. The reason: Not everyone who enrolls in an online course is motivated by certifications. It’s for that reason edX offers the majority of courses for free. Those are for fun or to fill skills gaps.
For those who need the certification from a university for career purposes or students needing to earn credits to enroll in a university course, that’s where the fees come in so you do need to know your target market to make money from the edX affiliate program.
Some examples where course fees would apply include:
- Career transitions needing employer recognized certifications,
- Upskilling for career advancement
- … and a niche group that’s estimated to be 3% of the US is home school students. Some of those will want to pursue higher education only to come against numerous barriers. Getting referees who aren’t a relative and providing evidence of academic work are two major barriers. EdX courses can help with both of these because of edX’s recognition and blended learning approach.
Where edX differs from most MOOC platforms is the recognition they have from leading universities in both education and in the business community.
The affiliate program is handled by Awin.com but ThoughtMix.co.uk provides the affiliate support.
Commissions are 10% unless vouchers are used in which case, the commission drops to 5%. The cookies are set to 60-days. The edX affiliate program is not suited to advertisers as they have a no PPC policy.
Join the edX affiliate program on Awin.com
9. Pro Writing Aid
Pro Writing Aid is a cloud-based service for editing documents making it very useful for academic writing.
Unlike most writing apps that act as a spell checker and grammar checker, sometimes with a plagiarism checker included, Pro Writing Aid does more sophisticated checks making it a popular essay writing app.
When problems are picked up, tips are provided to fix errors. Those could be related to spelling, grammar, punctuation, word repetition, sentence structure or paragraph length.
It’s designed to make documents more reader-friendly with varied wording and with varied sentence length structure to avoid repetition.
The student package also includes a plagiarism checker too and it’s only a $10 per year add-on.
The prowritingaid.com affiliate program pays 50% commission, uses a 90-day cookie and offers your readers a 2-week free trial.
Join the Pro Writing Aid affiliate program here
10. Wyzant
Tutoring is a bustling industry. According to a market report by Ibis World, the tutoring market forecast is $633M in 2020. It’s also one of the many work at home jobs as a lot of the tutoring can and is done via live video.
Much like any freelance job marketplace, the lower-skilled and the lesser-known tutors are the affordable options. Those with credentials, impressive resumes, and significant experience can command higher rates and get booked solid.
Wyzant is a marketplace, make no mistake about it. It’s no different from your Fiverr’s and Upwork’s. Anyone can sign up to become a tutor so they’ve no shortage there.
What they will always need are students and that’s where you come in as the affiliate and they offer plenty of tools and support to help you help them help tutors.
You don’t even need to make a sale as it’s a pay per lead program, paying $8 commission when your referral sends a question. Cookies are set 180-days.
Besides a good pay per lead commission structure, there’s also an API feed that could be used to list tutors by location and subject. It should be fairly easy to set up a tutor search page for [area] tutors for [subject] to take advantage of local SEO.
Given that this is an open marketplace where anyone can become a tutor, it will be worth your while to use the deep linking feature to bypass those lacking certain things students want, like experience, good reviews and who are experts in their subject.
Sign up to the Wyzant Affiliate Programs on ShareASale
11. Scrivener
Scrivener is a bit like a word processor but with built-in organizational tools. It’s used by students, professors and in a range of professional sectors including law, all of which require a lot of writing. That brings the need to organize all those files and that’s where the Scrivener software comes in.
Considering that an undergraduate thesis can run dozens of individual documents, it makes sense to keep them all organized in the one dashboard, rather than a folder. It’s quicker, more convenient and just makes academic writing less stressful.
The affiliate program is managed by Paddle with support provided by Scrivener. Commissions are 20%, a student discount is available and payments are made monthly, either direct to your bank, PayPal or Payoneer. There are no details on how long the cookies last though.
Then there’s this…
Since there is a learning curve to getting started, there’s another opportunity to play match-maker and that’s by referring your Scrivener referrals to LearnScrivenerFast.com. The Student Fast Track program (fancy name for the basic package) pays 50% commission.
Links to Scrivener and separate training below
The software and training would make a good pairing for an email funnel.
12. Intoxicated on Life
You know what they say about riches and niches, right? It doesn’t get much more niche than this.
Homeschooling with family discipleship in mind. In other words, it’s a homeschooling resource for Christian parents. The site itself is a blog that’s financially supported by its own products, a lot of which are homeschooling resources for Christian families.
The affiliate program is privately run, pays 40% commission on all products except the Experience Astrology products which pays a 25% commission.
The payout threshold is $20 and payments are made monthly. No details are provided about the cookie duration.
