What does 2026 look like for affiliate online marketers? In this episode, Im sharing 13 strong, research-backed forecasts for where affiliate marketing is headed, and what you can do now to be all set.
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Previous Episodes of The Affiliate Guy
How Affiliates Can Make More Money This Holiday Season
The Affiliate Manager Holiday Survival Guide
Why Every Author Should Be Using Affiliate Marketing
Inside the Mind of a Strategic Affiliate Marketer
The Affiliate Book Launch Blueprint
The Future of Affiliate Marketing: 2026 Edition
What does 2026 appear like for the affiliate marketing industry? Well, lets simply say that its not company as usual. From AI taking over the dirty work to virtual influencers, voice driven SEO, all of these things, the landscape is altering quickly. And in this episode I am sharing a few of my boldest 13, in fact a few of my boldest predictions ever for where affiliate marketing is headed and what you can do now to be all set. Spoiler alert.
The future favors the ready. So listen up. Heres the offer. If you didnt know already, things are moving quick in our industry. In the affiliate marketing industry, things are simply moving so fast.
There are brand-new AI tools every single day. I developed 4, in fact five in 2025. 3 are on the market. We got Review Post Pro, which helps you write high, ranking product evaluation posts. You can examine that out.
We got Affiliate Email Pro, which helps you write e-mails to your affiliates like in seconds. And then we have the Affiliate Terms wizard that helps you create an affiliate arrangement in seconds.
Simply due to the fact that they dont, it does not make sense for them. You understand, for selling like AI tools are simply popping up everywhere.
And the truth is that what worked this year might not even make a damage in 2026. Thats the craziest part about is things are altering so quick that you know, when I began doing these episodes in 2018, I was like, things are changing quick.
Now its like what operated in December of 2025 may not work in February of 2026. And affiliate, marketing has constantly been among the most versatile. Its been among the most quick moving channels. Now its progressing at a rate that weve never ever seen before. The world is progressing at a speed weve never seen before.
I discuss this in my book, the book on affiliate management, where I discuss how in the 80s, I grew up enjoying the Berlin Wall fall live on television. And then fast forward, you know, 14 years later on, you had the Arab Spring and you had all these things occurring on social media. And it was like, I enjoyed the Berlin Wall fall, however I say live, but it was like, I saw it fall the day after, however it was less than 24 hours later. And then the Arab Spring, it resembled, we see governments fall live. So we went from over night to reside in 15 years.
If you return, you understand, 15, 20 years before that, it was like, oh, we found out that there was a coup recently. And then, you understand, years before that was like, well, oh, there was a revolution in the colonies. Oh, that took place. Like, you know, did they win? Oh, no.
You understand, theyre still battling. Its been going on for years. Oh, fine. You know, things like the way that were simply moving so quickly. Crazy.
As affiliates and as people running affiliate programs. If you do not stay ahead of the curve, youre going to get left behind.
And like I said previously, Ive done this episode every year for 7 years now, possibly eight, but I believe seven. Honestly, I have actually typically been. You understand, typically Ill make in between 8 and 15 forecasts. And, you know, if I make approximately 10 annually, Im right on about eight or 9 of them. They are based on research, theyre based upon paying attention to the industry.
That is my one thing is like I may be stating, heres my prediction for 2026, and it does not come real until the middle of 2027. And then you can simply state I was a visionary.
My best pal Hunter was, driving. Sorry.
You just keep going straight on this roadway over the hill. You cant just go straight here.
And my joke was not that I was lost or, or didnt understand how to get to my own home, however that I was a visionary. Im going to stroll you through 13 forecasts for where I see this industry heading in 2026.
You understand, Ive been tracking based on what Im seeing from our clients, from our affiliates throughout the market. Some of them might surprise you, some of them may scare you, however all of them are going to help you prepare.
You understand, we cant just put our hands over our eyes and over our ears. You require four hands to do that. I dont know how thats possible. You know, you cant just be like, la, la, la, la, and pretend like reality is not taking place. Like, heres the deal.
If you do not, I dont like A. I. too bad. You know, its, its, its like stating that you dont, you understand, like cars like you. You require cars in todays society and the world that weve lived in for the last hundred years.
You understand, so lets leap into These forecasts for 2026, All right? Prediction top is that AI ends up being like, it becomes a staff member for affiliates and affiliate managers. It becomes a co pilot. we are entering a period. Can you think this?
Its actually only been three years. Were getting in a period where AI isnt simply a tool. It is. Its a strategist, its a worker, its an assistant, its fill in the blank, its a copywriter, a graphic designer, all of these things. And where I see people prospering with AI Is not simply asking AI a concern and getting an answer.
Not simply asking AI to write this thing, however using it as a strategist. And in fact, my preferred timely, you understand, normally starts off with, I d like you to act as my thought partner.
You are a Facebook marketing strategist. You are a whatever. You understand, I get as granular as possible. Im writing a book right now, for circumstances, in my little extra time, Im writing a book. Its a fiction book.
We started a company composing childrens books, primarily targeting ages like 9 to 15, 16 years old. And were working with some excellent entrepreneurs, and were turning their books into stories for children so they can discover these lessons.
Well, thats a separate business. Thats not what Im talking about there. However Im composing a fiction book. Its for grownups, you know, teens and adults. And Im, not going to discuss all it is, but Im utilizing AI as a believed partner since therell be a line where Im like, gosh, that line.
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Youre going to be, you understand, lets state youre currently doing, you understand, five million dollars a year out of a twelve and a half million dollar pool. You understand, thats a quite big fish actually.
For context, right now less than 90% of e com brand names have affiliate programs. I am predicting that by the end of 2026 we are at 95%. Nearly every online seller will have an affiliate program once again due to the fact that of what I just discussed. So thats the other element by the method, that contributes to getting to 15 billion is were going to have countless brand-new affiliate programs. Thousands of brand-new legitimate affiliate programs.
Thousands of new, you understand, affiliate programs that are coming in hot, paying high commissions, employing, you know, utilized to be like, you kind of start off little and blah, blah, blah? Theyre going to be bringing on groups and theyre going to be investing, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars into their affiliate program on day one.
And so as advertisements get more costly and as they become more limiting with what you can state, specifically in industries like supplements and health and health, where its like, oh my gosh, can you even state this vitamin will assist you be healthier? No, you cant say that. Well, its quite real, you understand. Therefore as it becomes more restrictive and harder and more costly and lower return, people are going to turn more towards affiliates. Heres the catch again.
As more brand names offer affiliate opportunities, affiliates will require to be and ought to be pickier. There might only be 8 rivals of yours in the market today and, and by mid-2026 theres 10. And like I said, among them is investing huge. Among them hired a rock star affiliate manager, one is beating your commissions. And they simply began.
It suggests that the affiliates who prosper will require to be the ones who truly specialize, who are own a specific niche, who speak straight to their loyal tribe and they prevent the temptation. Again, this is for affiliates.
Again, the forecast here now, 95% of E commerce brands will have an affiliate program by the end of the year. Prediction number 5 talked about $15 billion.
5 billion in 2026 will come from live stream sales. Live stream sales today were, last I saw we remained in the low, 6%, high 5% range. Well just call it 6%. Its quite huge boost, in 2026. Generally Im looking at it doubling in 2026.
I think its going to be 1. Just if you do not know what livestream sales are, just think of QVC on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Live.
Except that the hosts are affiliates. And so, you know, Gen Z, particularly Gen Z consumers tend to be more most likely to make impulse purchases in real time.
The other feature of it is, from an affiliate viewpoint, you do not need to have actually polished scripts. This isnt about understanding all the sales levers to pull and all that. Its just like, energy. You understand, affiliates who can connect on video, who can address live concerns. Answering concerns is resolving objections
.
I. I simply, I know it can be better. Its not popping. Therefore I have a particular chat where Ive said, you know, you are like, I dont know exactly what I composed, but youre a literary genius. You understand, youre an author, blah, blah, blah.
And thats what affiliates are doing. You understand, affiliates, whatever from content angles, subject line screening.
It eventually provides me, you understand, the data on whats in fact working. And then I can go, heres an e-mail.
And then itll say things like, well, when you do the resend, attempt these 2 that I recommended, due to the fact that I feel like these are going to do better. And sure enough, you know, subject line D was the finest of the four, and it learns and its I indicate its become like my open rates are up almost 4% simply in.
25% which is, you know, it does not sound like a lot, but thats, you understand, thats an extra. Some quick mathematics, you know, an additional whatever hundred seventy five to one hundred clicks a day, every day for a year.
Load perks that youve used in the past, load all the, all the rewards you have that are readily available and how theyve converted and after that utilize it to brainstorm, you know, future bonuses. I spoke about that in previous episodes where AI can assist you to brainstorm bonuses. It can help you from scratch, however its even better if you really fill some details therein. It assists you recognize trends. I highly advise Grok and Gemini for anything thats more current.
Grok I discovered is the most current of all of them. Patterns and things like that. Ive used Grok. you know, if it doesnt require to be as much as date within the past few months, GPT is excellent. You understand, cloud is terrific, anthropic, you understand, Gemini are all great.
The distinction between elite and typical affiliates in 2026 is going to be how well they use AI. AI is going to be that co pilot in 2026.
I have had a co affiliate supervisor that does a lot more of the data analysis and more of the a lot of the grunt work, you know, like making sure that I can have info there so I can be at my innovative finest. The thing is that AI can take on that function you understand, its not just affiliates using AI.
Affiliate supervisors need to be utilizing it too. So automated onboarding series that you can like. If you want to create onboarding sequences for affiliates that are customized, customized to, you know, the affiliate AI is a fantastic way to do that since you dont have to reword each and every single message. You understand, tools like Affiliate Email Pro, they help to do that. I wish to compose a welcome message to this affiliate.
Help me modify this for, you know, and Health and Wellness Influencer. Heres her last, you know, heres her Instagram profile.
Evaluation Post Pro is helping this where, you know, yeah, you can essentially RPP Review Post Pro helps you write the review posts that then rank high and really transform into affiliate sales. You still have to pick the products, you still need to know about the item.
You utilize AI to create a few images and you can have an entire post done in about 45 minutes. 8 hours, 10 hours down to 45 minutes, pretty big win. Youre still operating at your highest level, which is using your brain to identify like review, Post Pro will not inform you what are the best 3 functions about this program and why it wont do that. You will inform it that you will make those choices, however then it will help you compose it. Thats an affiliate marketing side.
On the affiliate management side, it truly simply boils down to increasing your effectiveness and enabling you to operate at the greatest level. It handles AI, manages the repetitive things, releases you up for actual leadership, releases you up for real relationship building. And were visiting that increase by probably a factor of 5 to 10 as individuals discover how to utilize AI in 2026 and not just like, you understand, asking AI like, hi, you understand, whats the, you understand, what, whats the capital of something? Or you know, odd questions and things like that? Its actually going to end up being a thought partner and an assistant in 2026.
Huge prediction. This is number three, total big one here.
6 maybe is what theyre projecting for 2025. We are going to make a big dive, 20% plus in 2026. Itll be the most significant non pandemic year dive in the history of affiliate marketing, a minimum of in the past 25 years. And heres the reason. It is among the only ad channels with a clear roi.
Theyre going to move more of their budget to affiliate marketing. They are going to pay more to affiliate supervisors.
Perhaps they have an affiliate group of, you understand, if its a huge business, they have a, you know, two individual affiliate supervisor team, theyre going to employ a 3rd or theyre going to invest a little bit more on AI, you know, and so thats excellent news. As your rivals increase their commissions and they employ affiliate managers and they use AI much better and they run much better affiliate contests, you got to step up your video game.
All set to turn your passions into a successful service? Have a look at my new book here!
We got Affiliate Email Pro, which helps you write e-mails to your affiliates like in seconds. Prediction number one is that AI becomes like, it ends up being an employee for affiliates and affiliate managers. If you want to develop onboarding series for affiliates that are customized, customized to, you understand, the affiliate AI is a fantastic way to do that since you dont have to rewrite every single message. Perhaps they have an affiliate team of, you understand, if its a huge business, they have a, you understand, 2 person affiliate manager group, theyre going to hire a 3rd or theyre going to spend a little bit more on AI, you understand, and so thats good news. As your rivals increase their commissions and they employ affiliate supervisors and they use AI much better and they run much better affiliate contests, you got to step up your video game.
