You’ve poured energy into building your business. But what happens when you need to step away—whether for rest, creativity, or life outside of work? The pressure to keep income flowing can make true freedom feel just out of reach.

Affiliate marketing offers another way. It allows you to earn revenue from the content you’re already creating, so you’re not solely dependent on client work or chasing the next sale. And if you’re using Squarespace, integrating affiliate marketing into your site is more straightforward than you might think.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the essentials. What affiliate marketing is, how to begin, adding affiliate income streams to your business, and how to use Squarespace to create a revenue stream that supports both your business and the life you want to lead.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, we might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we love and trust. Find our affiliate disclosure here.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn passive income online by recommending trusted products and services to your audience. Instead of creating your own offerings, you share thoughtfully chosen links to brands you align with. When someone makes a purchase through your unique affiliate link, you receive a commission—without handling inventory, fulfillment, or customer service.

Commission rates vary depending on the program, typically ranging from 5% to 50% of the sale. Here’s how it works in practice:

You feature a product or service from a brand (let’s call it Store A) on your website, blog, or social media.
A visitor, drawn to your content, clicks on your affiliate link.
They make a purchase from Store A.
The sale is tracked through the affiliate program.
You earn a percentage of the revenue.

Affiliate marketing allows you to generate passive income while offering value to your audience—curating products that genuinely align with your brand and expertise.

Why Should You Choose Squarespace for Affiliate Marketing?

Whether you’re integrating affiliate marketing into your existing business or building it as a standalone income stream, Squarespace offers the tools to do it:

A Design That Reflects Your Brand: With thoughtfully crafted templates and an intuitive, code-free editor, Squarespace allows you to shape your website into a space that feels considered and aligned. Create dedicated landing pages, resource hubs, or private member areas.
Built-In SEO for Visibility: Visibility matters. Squarespace’s built-in SEO tools help your content reach the right audience, guiding organic traffic to your site without the need for complicated plugins or external tools. Optimizing your blog posts and pages ensures your content reaches the right audience—people already searching for what you recommend.
Analytics That Inform Your Strategy: Understanding what resonates with your audience is key to growing your affiliate revenue. With Squarespace’s built-in analytics, you can track page views, engagement, and top-performing content, allowing you to refine your approach.
Content That Converts: Every Squarespace plan includes a blogging feature, giving you a space to share insights, recommendations, and resources that genuinely serve your audience. Thoughtful content naturally leads to meaningful conversions—without feeling transactional.

With these features, Squarespace helps you create a streamlined, professional home for your affiliate marketing, so you can create content that generates revenue while serving your audience.

Squarespace's 'Create a Blog' landing page.

How to Find the Best Affiliate Programs for Your Niche

Affiliate marketing works best when it’s built on alignment—choosing brands that reflect your values, resonate with your audience, and genuinely enhance the content you create. Thoughtful partnerships lead to more authentic recommendations, stronger connections with your audience, and long-term growth.

Here are some strategies to find affiliate programs:

Explore Affiliate Networks: Many well-known brands manage their affiliate programs through networks, making it easy to browse and apply. Some widely used platforms include:
- Amazon Associates (specifically for promoting Amazon products)
- CJ Affiliate
- Impact
Seek Direct Brand Partnerships: Consider the products and services you naturally talk about and use. If you’re a lifestyle blogger, a collaboration with a homewares brand could feel more organic than a generic program. Many brands offer direct affiliate programs, allowing you to work with businesses that align with your niche.
Research Potential Partners: Many brands have dedicated affiliate pages on their websites, often under “Partner,” “Affiliate,” or “Ambassador” programs. For example, Canva has a well-established affiliate program for designers and creatives. Once you find a program that fits, apply, set up your affiliate account, and you’re ready to begin.

Once you've joined some programs, the next step is to start earning commissions.

How To Create Quality, Engaging Content For Your Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing isn’t just about sharing links. It’s about creating content that informs and inspires audiences to take action. High-quality content builds trust, increases engagement, and makes your affiliate recommendations genuinely valuable to your audience—leading them to purchase.

Here how to start affiliate marketing on Squarespace by integrating affiliate links into your content:

Thoughtful Reviews & Recommendations: Share in-depth product insights, focusing on how they fit into your lifestyle or workflow. Instead of just listing features, highlight why a product matters and how it enhances your audience’s experience.

Guides & Tutorials: Educational content builds authority and helps your audience make informed decisions. Whether it’s a step-by-step guide, a how-to tutorial, or a comparison post, these formats naturally invite affiliate links while providing value.
Lifestyle & Visual Storytelling: People connect with visuals. Whether through blog imagery, Instagram posts, or video content, showing a product in action makes your recommendations feel more organic and relatable.

Squarespace blogging make it easy to create SEO-friendly content. You can strategically place affiliate links within your posts—ensuring they feel helpful rather than forced.

For even better search engine visibility, consider using Will Myer’s Affiliate Link Genie Plugin for Squarespace. It optimizes affiliate links for SEO, helping your content get discovered by the right audience.

The key to successful affiliate marketing isn’t just what you promote, but about how you share it. When your content is intentional and thoughtfully crafted, conversions happen naturally.

How to Build Trust in Affiliate Marketing

Trust is the foundation of effective affiliate marketing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires disclosure of affiliate relationships, but being transparent about your links also helps to naturally build trust.

Your audience values your recommendations because they trust your expertise and integrity, so transparency isn’t just a legal requirement. It’s essential for maintaining credibility. Here’s how to ensure your affiliate marketing feels honest, ethical, and aligned:

Be Open About Your Partnerships: Disclosure your affiliate links. Let your audience know when a link is affiliate-based, framing it as a way to support your work at no extra cost to them. For example, if you’re sharing your favorite botanical skincare products, a simple note at the beginning of the post lets readers know that some links are affiliate-based.
Create an Affiliate Disclosure Page: A dedicated disclosure page explains who you’re affiliated with and how affiliate links work. Linking it in your website footer ensures visibility on every page. To stay legally covered, consider using an attorney-reviewed template like the Affiliate Disclosure Template from The Contract Shop®.

Affiliate marketing works best when your audience feels informed, not sold to. By prioritizing transparency and authenticity, you create a space where trust and conversions go hand in hand.

How to Optimize Your Squarespace Site for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a key role in driving organic traffic to your content, helping more of the right people discover your affiliate links naturally. Fortunately, Squarespace includes built-in SEO features that allow you to structure your site, refine your content, and improve visibility in search results.

Here’s how to optimize your site:

Start with Keyword Research:
Understanding what your audience is searching for allows you to create content that meets their needs. Use relevant keywords strategically in headings, URLs, and throughout your content, without forcing them in unnaturally.
Refine Your URLs & Metadata:
Clear, keyword-rich URLs and well-crafted meta descriptions help both search engines and readers understand your content at a glance. Keep them concise, descriptive, and aligned with your topic.
Structure Your Content for Readability:
Search engines favor well-organized content. Use headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to improve readability—helping both your audience and Google navigate your site with ease.

If you want additional support, SEOSpace is the only SEO tool designed specifically for Squarespace. It scans your site, provides personalized recommendations, assists with keyword research, and helps you track your rankings—so you can refine your SEO strategy confidently.

How to Promote Your Content & Affiliate Links

Thoughtful promotion increases visibility, drives traffic, and boosts conversions, ensuring your affiliate marketing translates into revenue. Here’s how to expand your reach:

Share Strategically
Promote your content on social media, send it to your email list, and repurpose key insights across different platforms. Each touchpoint is an opportunity to engage your audience and encourage clicks.
Collaborate & Connect
Building relationships within your niche strengthens both your reach and credibility. Engage in online communities, collaborate with like-minded creators, and look for opportunities to co-create content that naturally leads traffic back to your site.
Optimize Your Instagram Traffic
Instead of relying on third-party tools, create a dedicated LinkTree-style page on your Squarespace site. This keeps all traffic within your own platform, giving visitors direct access to your most important pages and content. Our premium Squarespace templates include a beautifully designed Instagram Link page—ready to use.

Visibility isn’t about getting more eyes on your content, attracting the right audience, and guiding them toward meaningful engagement.

How To Track Your Affiliate Earnings

By analyzing your data, you can see which content drives the most clicks, conversions, and revenue, allowing you to focus on what works.

Here’s how to track your results:

Use Squarespace Analytics
Monitor traffic sources, top-performing pages, and audience behavior to see which content is attracting visitors. This insight helps you identify opportunities to optimize and expand.
Review Your Affiliate Dashboards
Most affiliate programs provide reporting tools where you can track earnings, commission rates, and click-through data. Comparing this with your site analytics gives you a clear picture of how your links are performing.
Refine Based on Data
Look for patterns. Are certain topics driving more conversions? Do specific product recommendations perform better than others? Use these insights to adjust your content strategy and improve your results over time.

Tracking your earnings helps you use data to create content that feels valuable and aligned with your audience’s needs.

How to Diversify Your Income

Affiliate marketing is a powerful income stream—but it doesn’t have to be your only one. Diversifying your revenue sources allows you to build a more sustainable, resilient business—one that supports you with greater financial flexibility and freedom.

If you’re already driving traffic to your content, consider expanding your income potential by leveraging your Squarespace site in new ways:

Sell Digital or Physical Products
Whether it’s templates, printables, artwork, or curated goods, an online store adds an additional revenue stream that aligns with your brand.
Offer Memberships & Courses
Share your expertise through exclusive content, workshops, or online courses. Squarespace makes it easy to create gated membership areas, giving your audience access to deeper insights and resources.
Bundle Your Offerings
Combine affiliate marketing with your own products or services to create a more holistic revenue model. For example, if you recommend design tools through affiliate links, you could also offer templates or guides that complement those tools.

The key to income diversification isn’t just adding more. I
t’s about creating aligned, intentional revenue streams that enhance your brand and serve your audience.

The Squarespace e-commerce landing page.

FAQs

Affiliate marketing essentially means recommending products or services you love and earning a commission when someone buys through your unique link. You help others discover great products, and get rewarded for your recommendations.
Adding affiliate links is simple. Copy the link you get from your affiliate program and paste it into your Squarespace pages, posts, or buttons. Just don’t forget to include a disclosure letting your readers know it’s an affiliate link. Transparency is key!
You don’t need a traditional blog, but you do need content that encourages people to click on your links:
- A dedicated "Resources" page featuring tools and services you recommend.
- Landing pages with in-depth guides or product comparisons.
- Social media & email marketing to share insights and include links.
A blog can help drive traffic through SEO, but it’s not the only way to succeed. If blogging isn’t your thing, focus on evergreen content pages and other touchpoints to engage your audience.
Certain content formats naturally encourage clicks and conversions:
- How-To Guides & Tutorials – Show step-by-step ways to use a product.
- Product Reviews – Honest breakdowns of a product’s pros, cons, and real-world use.
- Comparison Posts – “X vs. Y” comparisons help readers choose between similar products.
- Listicles & Roundups – “10 Best Tools for…” or “Must-Have Resources for…” posts.
- Case Studies – Real-life examples of how a product improved your workflow.
These formats not only drive traffic but also provide meaningful value—making conversions feel natural and effortless.
Yes, it’s important (and required) to be upfront with your readers. Add a quick note saying you may earn a commission at no extra cost to them. It’s a great way to build trust with your audience.
There are tons of affiliate programs out there! Popular ones include Amazon Associates, ShareASale, and Commission Junction. You can pick programs that align with your niche or the products your audience loves.
Focus on creating valuable content that connects with your audience. Use SEO to help people find your site, write clear and honest product reviews, and make your site easy to navigate.
A large following isn’t required—what truly matters is engagement and trust. Even with a smaller, more focused audience, you can generate affiliate income if your content is valuable and your recommendations feel aligned.
Rather than chasing numbers, focus on creating content that helps your audience solve problems, discover useful tools, or make informed choices. When people trust your insights, conversions happen naturally.
The simplest way to begin is by integrating affiliate links into the content you’re already creating. If you're a designer, coach, or photographer, think about the tools, software, or resources you naturally use and recommend.
Start with these three steps:
1. Join affiliate programs relevant to your niche (e.g., website templates, business tools, design software).
2. Add links to your website, blog, or social media where they make sense—such as a “Resources” page, blog posts, or tutorials.
3. Create content around your recommendations—write reviews, share how you use a product, or offer comparisons to help your audience decide.
This approach allows you to organically monetize your expertise without changing how you already create content.
Not if you approach it with transparency and integrity. The key is to recommend only products you genuinely believe in and to be upfront with your audience.
Ways to maintain trust:
- Be selective—only promote products that align with your values and audience.
- Offer honest insights—share both pros and cons to help readers make informed decisions.
- Clearly disclose affiliate links so your audience knows when you may earn a commission.
Done thoughtfully, affiliate marketing doesn’t weaken credibility—it strengthens it, positioning you as a trusted resource.
Affiliate marketing works best when your recommendations feel natural and genuinely helpful rather than forced. Instead of just dropping links, weave them into valuable content.
Ways to make recommendations feel organic:
- Write tutorials and guides showing how the product fits into a real workflow.
- Tell personal stories about how you use the product and why it’s beneficial.
- Compare options to help readers make informed decisions.
- Show, don’t just tell—use images, videos, or case studies to illustrate the benefits.
When you position affiliate recommendations as solutions rather than sales pitches, they feel more natural and engaging.
Affiliate marketing isn’t a quick-win strategy—it’s about building a sustainable income stream over time.
How quickly you earn depends on:
- Audience size & engagement: Small, engaged audiences often convert better than large, disengaged ones.
- Content quality: Helpful, well-optimized posts rank better and attract more clicks.
- Traffic sources: SEO, Pinterest, and email marketing help drive steady traffic.
Some people see results within a few months, while others take longer. The key is consistency—creating valuable content, optimizing for SEO, and refining your approach based on data.

Apply to Join The Studio Founded Affiliate Programme

You know the power of a brand that’s thoughtfully designed to hold the business you’re building.

That’s why we created The Studio Founded Affiliate Program for business owners who value intention over excess, clarity over noise. If you’ve found something here that resonates, this is your chance to share it with others who feel the same—and earn along the way.

By joining, you’ll receive commissions for referring templates, design resources, and business tools to fellow entrepreneurs. It’s an opportunity to monetize your website and recommend tools that truly support creative, values-driven businesses.

If that sounds like a natural fit, we’d love to have you.

Join the Affiliate Program