# Affiliate marketing for creators in India, and how to earn 10% to 30% on every sale Affiliate marketing for creators means earning a commission on every sale you drive through your own link or code. Marketplace programmes in India usually pay a small percentage that varies by category, while brands that set their own commission can pay 10% to 30% on certain products. You hold no stock, ship nothing, need no follower minimum and have no cap on earnings, and a good reel can keep selling for months. Disclose every affiliate post. Affiliate marketing for creators in India is simple to describe. You recommend a product, the viewer buys through your link or types your code, and you earn a commission on that sale. Marketplace programmes usually pay a small percentage that varies by category, while brands that set their own commission can pay 10% to 30% on certain products. The money comes from picking the right products and making content that shows them working, not from having a big following. This guide covers what affiliate programmes pay and why the rates differ so much, the real benefits of earning on commission, the maths with hypothetical rupee examples, a step-by-step way to start, and how to disclose properly. It also explains how Viewzar Shop, from the platform that publishes this blog, lets any creator build a shop from brands' products and earn on every unit sold. ## What is affiliate marketing for creators? Affiliate marketing is selling on someone else's behalf for a share of the sale. The brand makes, stocks and ships the product. You bring the buyer. A tracking link or a personal code tells the brand which sales came from you, and you are paid a percentage of each one. For creators it is the most direct way to turn trust into income. A brand deal pays you for posting. An affiliate commission pays you for persuading. If your reel about a ₹999 hair serum convinces 150 people to buy, you are paid on 150 sales, whether you have 2,000 followers or 2,00,000. There are three common kinds of programme in India: - **Marketplace programmes.** Amazon, Flipkart and other large marketplaces run affiliate programmes where you can link almost anything they sell. - **Brand programmes.** Individual D2C brands run their own programmes, often through a creator code that also gives the buyer a discount. - **Creator commerce platforms.** Platforms where many brands list products with a commission already set, and creators pick what to promote and get a link and code for each. Instagram and YouTube have also had shopping and affiliate features in some markets. Availability in India changes, so check the current terms before you plan around any of them. ## How much do affiliate programmes pay in India? Rates vary a lot, and the reason matters more than any single number. **Marketplace programmes usually pay a small percentage.** The marketplace is a middleman. It earns a thin margin on each order, it pays for warehousing, delivery and its own advertising, and it sells millions of products from thousands of sellers. Its affiliate rate is set across whole categories, not for any one product, and it changes from time to time. Check the current terms before you count on a number. **Brand-set commissions can pay much more.** A brand selling its own product directly keeps the margin a marketplace would otherwise take. It also pays to find every new customer, usually through ads. A creator who brings a buyer is doing the job that ad spend does, and many brands would rather pay that money to a creator only when a sale actually happens. That is why commissions of 10% to 30% are available on certain products when the brand sets the rate itself. The difference in rupees is large. On a hypothetical ₹999 product, a low rate of 5% is about ₹50 a sale and a 20% commission is about ₹200. Same reel, same buyers, four times the income. > Your income per reel is set before you film it, by the product you choose and the commission on it. ## How much can you earn at 10% to 30% commission? Commission maths is price × commission rate × units sold. Here are hypothetical products to show how the numbers behave. These are examples, not predictions. | Hypothetical product | Price | Commission | You earn per sale | 20 sales | 150 sales | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Lip and cheek tint | ₹399 | 25% | about ₹100 | about ₹2,000 | about ₹15,000 | | Hair serum | ₹999 | 20% | about ₹200 | about ₹4,000 | about ₹30,000 | | Cotton co-ord set | ₹1,499 | 15% | about ₹225 | about ₹4,500 | about ₹33,700 | | Wireless earbuds | ₹2,499 | 10% | about ₹250 | about ₹5,000 | about ₹37,500 | Three things to notice. 1. **The percentage is not the income.** The 10% earbuds pay more per sale than the 25% tint. Compare rupees per sale, then ask which one your audience is likelier to buy. 2. **Units decide everything.** Conversion varies widely by product, audience and content. As a hypothetical, a reel with 1,00,000 views where somewhere between 1 in 2,000 and 1 in 500 viewers buys sells 50 to 200 units. That range is an illustration, not an average. 3. **Returns come out.** A returned order earns no commission, so a product people keep is worth more than one they send back. Picking well is the biggest lever you have, and [how to choose products to promote for commission](/blog/how-to-choose-products-to-promote-for-commission) walks through a scoring checklist with three products compared side by side. ## The benefits of being a commission-based affiliate creator ### No stock, no money up front, no shipping You do not buy inventory, rent a warehouse, pack parcels or answer "where is my order" messages. The brand ships and handles returns under its own policy. Your only cost is the time it takes to make good content. ### No cap on earnings A fixed-fee brand deal pays the same whether your reel sells 5 units or 5,000. A commission pays on every unit. When a reel takes off, your income takes off with it, which is the one thing a rate card can never offer. ### Any follower count can start Reels are shown to people who do not follow you, so a creator with 1,500 followers can reach 1,00,000 people with one good reel. Commission pays for sales, not followers, and good creator commerce platforms do not ask for a follower minimum or an application. ### A long, passive tail A brand deal is paid once. An affiliate link in your bio, a code in a reel that keeps getting shared, a product on your shop page, all of them keep earning as long as people keep finding them. A good demo reel can keep selling for months. ### It compounds across products One product is a side income. Ten products you genuinely use, each with a few reels behind it, add up. Every new reel also sends people to the products you posted about before. For the bigger picture of why creator income is moving this way, read [why commission-based creators are the future of content creation](/blog/commission-based-creators). ### You choose what you stand behind Nobody hands you a script. You pick products you would recommend to a friend, and that honesty is exactly what makes viewers buy. ## How to start affiliate marketing as a creator in India, step by step ### 1. Pick one niche you can talk about for a year Skincare, home and kitchen, fitness, fashion, tech, baby products, stationery, devotional items. Commission rewards trust, and trust comes from depth. A creator who has reviewed twenty serums sells serums better than one who reviews everything. ### 2. Switch to an Instagram Creator or Business account You get insights on reach, saves and link clicks, which you need to tell which products and reels actually sell. ### 3. Choose three to five products you already use or would Start with products you can show working in under 30 seconds. Compare rupees per sale, not just percent, and read the brand's return policy and reviews before you add anything. ### 4. Get your link and code for each product Put links where people can tap them, which means your Instagram bio, story link stickers, WhatsApp, Telegram, YouTube descriptions and DMs. Use codes where they cannot, said aloud in the reel or written on screen. ### 5. Make content that sells by showing, not telling Lead with the problem, show the product solving it, then say the code. "My hair was frizzy after every wash. Here is the same hair, three washes after switching. Code ARJUN-K7Q at checkout." Use our guide on [how to make money on Instagram in India](/blog/how-to-make-money-on-instagram-in-india) for the wider set of formats that earn. ### 6. Disclose every time Put "I earn a commission" or #affiliate where people will see it before they buy. More on this below. ### 7. Review after four weeks Look at clicks, orders and sales per product. Drop what does not sell, make more reels about what does, and add one new product at a time. ## How Viewzar Shop pays creators a commission on every sale Viewzar Shop lets brands sell their products on Viewzar and lets any creator build their own shop from those products, earning a commission on every sale. **Find products.** The Products tab shows every brand's store. You can search, filter by category, commission and price, and sort by highest commission. Each brand sets a per-unit commission on each product as a percentage of the sale price, and every product card shows it in rupees and percent, for example "Earn ₹50 · 10%". Commissions of 10% to 30% are available on certain products. There is no follower minimum, no application and no pitching. Adding a product to your shop takes one tap. **Get your link and code.** Adding a product instantly creates your own short link (viewzar.com/l/ plus six characters) and your own code for that product, made from the first letters of your username plus three characters, such as ARJUN-K7Q. A typed code wins over a link click, so a viewer who lost the link but remembers your code still counts as your sale. A brand may also give buyers a discount on creator codes. **Your shop page.** Every creator gets a Shop tab on their Viewzar profile showing their picks. You can pin up to three favourites, reorder, hide or remove products at any time, and give the shop a title and an intro line. A small line tells buyers you earn a commission on purchases from your shop. Commission figures are shown to you, never to buyers. **Trusted stores.** Every store is checked by the Viewzar team before it goes live, including business and GST details, a product sample and a test delivery. Each product page shows the brand's own return and replacement policy and dispatch time, and only verified buyers can leave reviews. Checkout and payments run on the platform, and the brand ships. **Getting paid.** Your earnings screen splits into Campaigns and Shop. Shop shows clicks, orders, sales, and commission as Pending while the brand's return window is open, then Unlocked once it closes after delivery, then Paid out. A returned order earns no commission. Shop commission is withdrawn through the same payout flow as campaign earnings, described in [getting paid](/help/getting-paid). There is no cap. You earn on every unit sold through your link or code, and many creators can add the same product, each paid on the units they sell. When a brand also runs a pay-per-view campaign, one reel can earn from verified views and from sales, as [earning from views and sales on the same reel](/blog/earn-from-views-and-sales-on-one-reel) explains. It is not for creators who want a guaranteed fee per post. It suits creators who demo products well and recommend only what they believe in. ## How to disclose affiliate links in India ASCI's guidelines for influencer advertising in India require paid and affiliate content to be labelled so a viewer can tell it is an ad before they act on it. For affiliate posts that means: - **In the reel.** Say "I earn a commission if you buy with my code" or put it on screen, near where you mention the code. - **In the caption.** Put #affiliate, #ad or "I earn a commission" in the first lines, not buried under the hashtags. - **In stories and bios.** Add a short label next to the link. Disclosure does not cost sales. Viewers already assume a recommendation might be paid. Saying so plainly is what makes the rest of your recommendation believable. Read [ASCI's guidelines](https://www.ascionline.in/) for the current wording. Commission is income, so keep a record for tax as well. [Taxes and KYC](/help/taxes-and-kyc) covers what Viewzar asks for. ## Mistakes that keep affiliate income small - **Chasing the highest percentage.** A 30% commission on a ₹199 product is about ₹60 a sale. Rupees per sale and likely units matter more. - **Linking everything.** Forty random products in a bio tells viewers you will recommend anything. Ten you use beats forty you do not. - **Promoting products with weak return policies or poor reviews.** Returns cost you the commission and the viewer's trust. - **Talking instead of showing.** "This is amazing" sells nothing. The before and after does. - **One reel and done.** Most products need several angles before one lands. Make three different reels before you judge a product. - **Hiding the commission.** It breaks ASCI's guidelines and, when viewers find out, it breaks their trust. ## The bottom line Affiliate marketing is the creator income stream with no ceiling. Marketplace programmes are a fine place to learn, but brand-set commissions of 10% to 30% on certain products are where the rupees per sale get interesting. Choose products your audience already wants, show them working, give a code they can remember, and disclose every time. To build your own shop from brands' products and earn on every unit you sell, [sign up for Viewzar as a creator](/signup/creator) and open the Products tab. ## Frequently asked questions ### How does affiliate marketing work for creators in India? You promote a product with your own link or code, a viewer buys through it, and the brand pays you a percentage of the sale. The brand stocks, ships and handles returns, so you only make the content. Commission rates depend on the programme and the product, so always check the current terms. ### How much commission can a creator earn per sale? It depends on the product's price and the rate. Marketplace programmes usually pay a small percentage, while brands that set their own commission can pay 10% to 30% on certain products. As a hypothetical example, a ₹999 product at 20% earns about ₹200 a sale, so 150 sales from one reel would be about ₹30,000. ### Can I do affiliate marketing with few followers? Yes. Reels reach people who do not follow you, and commission pays for sales, not follower counts. A small creator who demonstrates a product well can outsell a large account that just mentions it. What you need is trust in one niche and products your audience actually wants. ### Do I need to disclose affiliate links on Instagram? Yes. ASCI's guidelines for influencer advertising in India require paid and affiliate content to be labelled, for example with #ad, #affiliate or "I earn a commission". Put the label where viewers see it before they buy, in the reel and near the top of the caption. ### How does Viewzar Shop work for creators? You browse every brand's store in the Products tab, see each product's commission in rupees and percent, and add products to your shop in one tap. Each product gives you your own short link and code. You earn commission on every unit sold through them, with no cap, and it unlocks once the brand's return window closes after delivery. ### Is affiliate income passive? Partly. Making the content is work, but once a reel, a bio link or your shop page is live, it keeps earning on every sale for as long as people find it. Creators who build a set of products they use and post about them regularly see the income compound over months.