How To Earn Passive Income as a Designer with WordPress.com

While client work or selling one-off projects can be a great source of income for designers, you might be missing out on a readily available way to supplement and grow your earnings. Affiliate marketing can be a relatively low-effort, high-reward way to start earning a significant side income for your design business. 

That’s where the WordPress.com Affiliate Program comes in. With a range of trusted online platforms and tools that you may already know and use, including WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Jetpack, it’s a great way to earn extra money for your business. 

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to start earning by adding affiliate promotions to your design business.

Ready to apply?

What is affiliate marketing, and why should designers care?

Before diving into the specifics of the WordPress.com Affiliate Program, let’s take a quick look at what affiliate marketing is—and why it’s a great fit for designers.

Affiliate marketing: the basics

Affiliate marketing is all about promoting products and services naturally and seamlessly. Instead of sticking garish ads in front of your audience, you set up a simple, one-of-a-kind link for each product you promote and use that wherever you recommend it. 

Let’s say you’re referring WordPress.com to others in a social post, on your blog, or a YouTube description: every time someone clicks on your unique referral link and makes a purchase—for instance, of a plan—you earn a percentage of the sale.

Why affiliate marketing works for designers

By incorporating affiliate marketing into your business’s mix, you can create a sustainable income stream that complements your design work, expertise, and busy schedule. Here’s why:

• Diversifies your income: Instead of relying solely on client work or freelance gigs, affiliate marketing gives you an ongoing income stream, even when you’re sleeping. And it scales really well—the more effort you put into posting and sharing your affiliate links, the more you can potentially earn.
• Aligns with your expertise: As a designer, you have a solid understanding of website building, design tools, and creative platforms. Many of the products and services in the program—like WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Jetpack—are a good fit for your experience and audience.

Opens up passive earnings: Affiliate marketing isn’t one more thing to add to your list of client revisions, invoice chasing, and keeping your business moving forward. Once you create content that includes affiliate links, like tutorials or portfolio pages, it can continue generating income with minimal ongoing effort.

What is the WordPress.com Affiliate Program?

The WordPress.com Affiliate Program is a part of the Automattic Affiliate Program. Here’s what you need to know:

• The Automattic Affiliate Program includes popular brands like WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and Sensei LMS.
• You can promote and track your earnings across multiple products from a single dashboard.
• You’ll earn commissions when someone signs up for a WordPress.com hosting plan, purchases a domain name, or buys products from the WooCommerce Marketplaces through your unique referral link.
• Commission rates range from 20% to 100% of the first payment, up to $300, depending on the product.

For designers, this is an excellent opportunity to generate passive income while sharing tools and services that are well-matched to their audience’s goals and needs.

Why the WordPress.com Affiliate Program is ideal for designers

From great commissions to a suite of trusted and loved brands, here’s why designers choose our program:

• Established brand: WordPress.com is a well-known, trusted platform. You can confidently recommend it, knowing that it delivers a huge amount of value to your audience and clients.
• Natural fit: If you already use WordPress.com to host your portfolio or client websites, promoting it feels authentic. As you’re recommending a tool that’s already part of your daily workflow.
• Attractive commissions: WordPress.com offers competitive commissions for referrals of up to 100%.
• Broad appeal: Whether your audience consists of entrepreneurs, small business owners, fellow designers, or creatives, WordPress.com has something to offer almost everyone looking to establish an online presence.

Getting started as a WordPress.com affiliate: A step-by-step guide

Ready to start earning? Here’s how you can get set up as a WordPress.com affiliate:

Sign up for the WordPress.com Affiliate Program

1. Head to the WordPress.com affiliate program page.
2. Fill in the short application form.
3. Wait for approval (typically within a few business days).
4. Once approved, you’ll get access to your unique affiliate links and creative assets.

Create or find relevant content in your archives

• Develop helpful blog posts, tutorials, or videos for your audience, and you’ll have a great place to naturally and authentically promote your affiliate links.
• Have a look through your existing content to see if there are natural opportunities to include affiliate links.
• Add your affiliate links to relevant areas of your website and content
• Use clear calls-to-action to motivate clicks and sign-ups.

Monitor and adjust as you go

• Regularly check your Affiliate dashboard to track your performance.
• Analyze which content and strategies are working well for you and which might need some adjustments to help you go further, faster.

Optimize your own WordPress.com site

• If you’re not already using WordPress.com, creating your portfolio or blog on the platform can help you build trust with your audience.
• Make sure that your site showcases a professional, polished design that reflects your style and abilities.
• Use this as an opportunity to gain firsthand experience with the platform, which will help ensure that your content is authentic and on-point.

Ready to start earning?

6 Ways to Promote WordPress.com as an Affiliate

Now that you’re set up as an affiliate, let’s explore six key strategies to help you start earning faster.

1. Create a resource page

One of the most straightforward ways to introduce affiliate marketing into your design business is by creating a resource page on your site. Think of it as a curated list of tools, platforms, and services that you use and recommend. You could:

• Create a “Tools I Use” or “Designer’s Toolkit” page on your portfolio or blog.
• Include WordPress.com alongside other design tools and services you use and like.
• Add your affiliate link with a brief explanation of why you recommend WordPress.com, maybe highlighting its ease of use, design flexibility, or affordability.

This is also a great opportunity to include and recommend other products from the Automattic Affiliate Program, like WordPress.com Domains, our Express Website Design Service, WooCommerce, and Jetpack.

2. Create tutorials on building portfolios with WordPress.com

Aspiring designers and freelancers could often use some advice on building their own portfolios. Why not put together tutorials that show them how to showcase their work on WordPress.com, including detailed steps, screenshots, and your affiliate link?

Consider creating content like:

• “How to Build a Professional Portfolio on WordPress.com in 5 Steps”
• “Why WordPress.com is the Ideal Platform for Designers”
• “Crafting Your Design Brand with WordPress.com” 

3. Showcase WordPress.com’s design flexibility

As a designer, you know the importance of customization and flexibility in a website platform. Highlight how WordPress.com allows you to customize themes, add custom CSS, and integrate powerful plugins.

You could create content that shows these capabilities off, like:

• “How to Customize Your WordPress.com Website Like a Pro Designer”
• “Using Custom CSS to Enhance Your WordPress.com Portfolio”

This will not only attract potential affiliates but also show clients and designers that WordPress.com can cater to their specific design needs.

4. Share real-life examples of WordPress.com designs

Nothing speaks to a platform’s potential like real-life examples. Create blog posts or case studies of websites you’ve designed using WordPress.com. Walk readers through your process and highlight the ease of use, design options, and overall benefits of the platform.

Some post ideas could include:

• “Portfolio Spotlight: Creating Client Website with WordPress.com”
• “From Concept to Launch: My WordPress.com Design Workflow”

By showcasing real examples, you may well inspire other designers and business owners to give WordPress.com a try.

5. Highlight WordPress.com’s ecommerce capabilities for designers

For designers interested in selling digital products or services, you could publish some content demonstrating how to set up an online store or sell design services right from a WordPress.com site. 

Some example posts might look like:

• “How to Sell Your Design Services Online with WordPress.com”
• “Setting Up a Digital Product Store on WordPress.com” A Step-By-Step Guide”

6. Offer free design templates powered by WordPress.com

If you create website templates or other design resources, consider offering some for free to your audience. This can drive traffic to your affiliate links while also providing clear and obvious value.

Here’s how to put this strategy to work:

• Design free website templates or graphic resources specifically for WordPress.com.
• Create a blog post or landing page offering these resources at no cost.
• Include your affiliate links in the post or page, encouraging users to sign up for WordPress.com to make best use of the templates.

By offering free, valuable resources upfront, you’ll build trust while encouraging your visitors to sign up to WordPress.com through your affiliate link. Everyone wins.

Start building your passive income with WordPress.com today

The WordPress.com Affiliate Program is a great way for designers to earn a passive income from their expertise and experience, by promoting products they already know and trust to a receptive audience

Whether you’re creating tutorials, highlighting WordPress.com’s design features and flexibility, or helping fellow designers build their online presence, there are numerous ways to make the program work for you. 

Ready to get started?

Visit the WordPress.com Affiliate Program page to apply. When approved, you’ll get access to your unique affiliate links and all the resources you need to start promoting WordPress.com to your audience, and start earning more for your design business. Apply to the Affiliate Program today.