Elegant Themes & Divi Affiliate Program – 50% Recurring Commissions

Divi is the world’s most popular theme (per BuiltWith).

It is our go-to theme for everything from affiliate review sites to magazine-style traffic focused sites. It is the theme used for this site. Yes, I know most things HTML and CSS. I can build a template with PHP. I could likely do almost everything “by hand” and have the website look the same.

But who has time?

What is great about Divi is the ability to design on the fly. This is particularly critical for landing pages and other one-off type needs. Without Divi, I would need to either stop writing and designing and put on my coding hat or hire someone to do it.

And top of being a great theme and page builder, they have a fantastic affiliate program with a super-long 6-month cookie.

How to Join the Elegant Themes Affiliate Program

The Elegant Themes affiliate program is very inclusive. There is a simple application form to complete. You will almost certainly be approved. You should have a website to promote their products. Your website  …

• can NOT be obscene, or pornographic;
• can NOT be offensive, profane, hateful, threatening, harmful, defamatory, libelous, harassing, or discriminatory
• can NOT be graphically violent; or
• can NOT be solicitous of any unlawful behavior

The full set of affiliate terms are in the application form. 

Elegant Themes Products

Elegant Themes is surely best known for Divi. Divi comes in two configurations. First, it is a theme that incorporates the Divi builder. The Divi theme is the most popular theme in the world per BuiltWith. Divi Builder is a plugin that you can add to any theme to then have a page builder as your front end.

Divi is packaged as a membership offering. For one annual price, you receive all of their products. In addition to Divi and Divi Builder you get:

• Extra – A theme powered by Divi Builder for bloggers and online publications.
• Bloom – Email opt-in plugin
• Monarch – Social sharing plugin

When you join the Divi family you also get great support, updates and 100’s of layout packs. One other nice thing about Divi is that your license allows you to use their products on an unlimited number of websites. This is great for affiliate marketers.

Divi always gets good grades for its functionality. But like any very successful product, there are haters. And in the affiliate marketing world negative SEO people ranking their pages by being controversial. Let’s look at why some criticize Divi.

Criticism #1 — Performance

The first objection I hear people complain about is that “Divi is slow”. I am very sensitive to this as I know that load time is a key SEO ranking factor. Well, let’s put this one to bed right away …

The site you are now visiting uses Divi and loads in just over 1/2 second!

That is fast.

And that is with 20+ plugins running including some large and therefor performance expensive ones like Easy Digital Downloads. If you are finding your Divi site loads slowly you should look at:

• Page Size
• Image and video handling
• Your host
• Cacheing and minification

Criticism #2 — Content is trapped by shortcodes

This is a much more valid criticism. If you were to look at the source of your page or post created with Divi, you would find loads of shortcodes. Those commands in between [ ]. These are proprietary to Divi. This means that if you decide to change themes you will not be able to easily migrate your content. Of course, you can easily get the actual words and images but all the extra Divi functionality will be in those shortcodes.

Remember Divi is the most widely used theme in the world. Plenty of people are not put off by this. Small sites can easily migrate the content and cleanup the shortcodes. This is more of an issue for very large sites.

Elegant Themes Pricing

There are only 2 choices. Annual license or lifetime. The lifetime is a great deal. You know Divi is not going away and for about 3 times the annual price, it has a quick payback. The pricing is $89 per year or $249 for lifetime access.

Elegant Themes and Divi Commission Rates and Rules

Elegant Themes knows how to take care of their affiliates. They pay 50% commissions. It is recurring, they pay you on renewals and upgrades.

They have the typical rules of most affiliate programs:

• No false claims
• No spamming
• No rebates or coupons
• No commissions on products you purchase

Also be sure to identify yourself as an affiliate and conform to any FTC or other rules.

They even give some practical guidance on disclosures …

“Example Article Disclosure: “Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are ‘affiliate links.’ This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.”

c. Linking On Social Networks : When using our affiliate links on social networks, you must also display a clear disclosure about the nature of the links and the material connection you have with our company. In the form of social media posts, these disclosures must be part of the post that contains the affiliate link.

Example Facebook/Google+ Disclosure: “Ad: Check out our review of Elegant Themes, and why we think it’s the best theme club around.”

Example Twitter Disclosure: “Elegant Themes has the best themes in the business! #ad”

Affiliate Tools and Support

Once your account is approved you will have access to your affiliate dashboard. The dashboard gives you access to lots of banners and text links to use on your website.

Elegant Themes has a strong support reputation for their affiliates. If you have a question or issue – just ask.

How to Promote Elegant Themes Online

Content marketing is my go-to technique for a product like Elegant Themes.

Focus on less competitive content. There is a lot of competition for Divi content. Not just from affiliate marketers but from people selling Divi add-ons and enhancements. As the number one theme there is an entire ecosystem around Divi. So think about the other products in the family; Bloom, Monarch, and Extra. Those are going to be less competitive.

Create a give-away. You can very cheaply get a designer to make a layout or layout pack. Make one for a very targeted niche that you have some topical authority in. Something like “Divi Layouts for Photographers”. You can use this as a lead magnet to get emails or as a bonus offer available for those who purchase Divi from your affiliate link.

If you are a Divi site create content around your findings. Your audience is much more likely to visit your referral if it is to a product that you actually use. You can create case studies, debunk performance myths (feel free to steal my Pingdom image above) and generally write about how you use  Divi or the other Elegant Themes products.

The only advertising I might use would be retargeting ads. Even with retargeting just send ads to people who have visited your Divi related pages and make Divi specific ads. I rarely send ad-clicks directly to the vendor – they are too cold. Send them to a landing page, article on your site or a Divi related give-away.

Pros and Cons — Elegant Themes Affiliate Program

 

DISADVANTAGES

Big enough to have haters

Content locked in shortcodes

FAQ

How much does Elegant Themes pay affiliates?

Affiliates receive a 50% commission on eligible purchases. The commissions are recurring for the lifetime of the customer membership

How long do you have to make a sale from someone who uses your affiliate link?

Elegant Themes has a 180-day cookie. Any purchases made in that time period will be credited to you.

What products are eligible for affiliate sales?

Elegant Themes bundles its products into an annual or lifetime membership with free upgrades and support for active members. Both the annual and lifetime membership are commission eligible.

Does Elegant Themes run its own affiliate program?

Yes, Elegant Themes has an in-house program with a dedicated affiliate support team.

Should You Become an Elegant Themes and Divi Affiliate?

Yes!

This is an easy one. Why wouldn’t you promote the best selling theme family that offers you 50% lifetime recurring commissions.