You don’t have to be an economist (or a 19th-century prospector) to understand the potential of gold affiliate programs.

Gold has been one of the most sought-after materials on the planet for literally thousands of years. Its value stems, in part, from its scarcity — all the gold discovered throughout history could fit into a single cube measuring 28 meters wide on every side.

On a simple level, the more gold we mine, the less is left in the ground, so the rarer it becomes. That goes some way to explaining why the global spot price of gold has risen significantly over the past 50 years.

And also why the precious metals industry is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 3.9% between 2020 and 2026 to more than $350 billion.

Want to make a ton of money online by promoting your favorite gold dealers, secure storage services, and gold IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts)? Check out our pick of the 10 best gold affiliate programs:

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1Augusta Precious Metals

Augusta Precious Metals strives to make economics easy to understand, giving customers access to its team of financial professionals to help them leverage the benefits of a gold IRA. The company has a robust compliance department and a cutting-edge affiliate portal.

The company’s affiliate program is operated in-house, with signups conducted through an onsite form. It offers a 90-day cookie window and pays lifetime commissions on transactions by qualified leads, with average high-dollar trades, because customers have confidence in the integrity of the company.

If a customer you refer goes on to refer their partner to Augusta Precious Metals, you earn a commission for that, too. Commission payments can be made via ACH and PayPal.

Your commission rate for both leads and transactions varies based on the amount of revenue you drive in a year, as follows:

As well as its standard affiliate program, Augusta offers an invite-only “premier program” for top-tier affiliates. It offers all the same features as the standard program, plus a bunch of extra perks, including:

A do-follow backlink from Augusta Precious Metals
Access to the company’s media team for custom videos and marketing collateral
A press release for your largest website
A site tweet or Facebook post from Joe Montana

Some Augusta affiliates are helping 80% of qualified leads become customers.

URL: Augusta Precious Metals affiliate program
Commission rate: $200 per qualified lead plus revenue share
Cookie duration: 90 days

2Goldco

Goldco is fronted by one of the world’s foremost financial professionals, Sean Hannity of Fox News; it’s rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and AAA by the Business Consumer Alliance.

The company has more than a decade of experience in helping individual investors protect their retirement savings and also offers direct sales of gold and silver.

Goldco’s affiliate program is one of the most lucrative in the industry, as it rewards its partners with generous payouts for qualified leads and sales.

However, it should be noted that, more so than the other gold companies in this article, Goldco is only interested in working with experienced affiliate marketers. Specifically, it demands that all new Goldco affiliates:

Have verifiable affiliate experience in a financial niche
Be prepared to meet its strict promotional policies
Submit websites, landing pages, and other marketing materials for review

In other words, if you’re a total newcomer to affiliate marketing, or don’t have a proven track record as a finance affiliate, don’t even bother applying.

If you make the grade, all commissions you earn will be paid on the 15th of every month via PayPal. The amount of your payout will depend on your traffic sources and type of promotion.

URL: Goldco affiliate program
Commission rate: Varies
Cookie duration: 90 days

3Birch Gold Group

Over the past two decades, Birch Gold Group has helped more than 10,000 Americans add physical gold and other precious metals to their retirement savings plans.

The company has a pretty high profile, having partnered with squeaky-voiced podcaster and political commentator Ben Shapiro. That gives it a ton of brand awareness, which is one of the most valuable marketing tools you could ask for.

As with a lot of the other affiliate programs on this list, Birch pays a wide range of commissions, as follows:

2% on sales under $10,000
3% on sales of $10,000 – $50,000
4% on sales of $50,000 – $250,000
5% on sales over $250,000

It also offers a $25 bounty payment for each qualified lead, defined as someone who lives in the US, has been contacted by a Birch Gold representative and confirmed their interest in its services, and has at least $10,000 in investment equity.

URL: Birch Gold Group affiliate program
Commission rate: $25 per qualified lead, 2% – 5% on transactions
Cookie duration: Unknown

4American Hartford Gold

Ranked the #1 gold company on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, American Hartford Gold is also highly rated by customers, with a five-star rating on Trustpilot from 1,100+ reviews.

The company also has strong brand awareness thanks to endorsements from the likes of Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and Rudy Giuliani. It’s far easier for affiliate marketers to drive referrals and sales if their audience has already heard of the brand they’re promoting.

American Hartford’s affiliate program pays commissions of 3% per sale and 1% on revenues generated by affiliates you refer to the program.

Affiliate partners can access brand assets, pre-made creative banners, and even promotional videos. You can also leverage the site’s real-time market information on platinum, gold, and silver bullion prices in your messaging.

URL: American Hartford Gold affiliate program
Commission rate: Up to 3% per sale
Cookie duration: Unlisted

5American Bullion

American Bullion was established back in 2009 by two veteran precious metals traders and has since become one of the most trusted names in the gold IRA account game.

The company specializes in converting customers’ existing IRAs, 401(k)s, and other qualified retirement plans into various bullion products, including gold and silver.

It’s also one of many platforms to sell gold online, with the capability to deliver physical products safely to customers’ doors.

Clearly, it’s pretty good at both, as demonstrated by a Trustpilot rating of 4.4 based on 194 reviews.

The American Bullion gold affiliate program offers two types of commission payments — a $30 bounty for qualified leads, and a 3% cut of qualified sales in excess of $10,000. With an average value of $35,000, gold affiliates typically earn more than $1,000 per sale.

However, it’s worth noting you won’t earn anything from sales of less than $10,000.

URL: American Bullion affiliate program
Commission rate: $30 per qualified lead; 3% on sales over $10,000
Cookie duration: Lifetime

6GoldBroker

As its name suggests, GoldBroker is a gold broker. Founded in 2011 by French entrepreneur and investor Fabrice Drouin Ristori, it enables customers to buy physical gold and silver (and other precious metals), and also offers secure storage.

In 2020, the company generated a consolidated turnover of €60 million and managed hundreds of millions of euros worth of precious metals, so it’s definitely legit.

Through GoldBroker’s affiliate program, affiliate marketers receive a commission on purchase transactions from referred customers, as well as on storage services, with the commission percentage varying based on how much bullion is being purchased and stored:

$500,000: 0.2% on purchase, 0.1% on storage
$500,000 – $1 million: 0.25% on purchase, 0.15% on storage
$1 million – $5 million: 0.3% on purchase, 0.17% on storage
$5 million+: 0.4% on purchase, 0.2% on storage

For example, say someone hits your affiliate link and buys $500,000 of bullion, then opts for safe storage in Zurich.

You earn $1,000 from the initial transaction, plus $500 per year for as long as they keep their bullion in storage.

GoldBroker offers a bunch of marketing tools to help you out, including an investment simulation widget and gold price widgets to add to your site.

URL: GoldBroker affiliate program
Commission rate: 0.1% – 0.4% lifetime commission
Cookie duration: One year

7BGASC

BGASC stands for “Buy Gold and Silver Coins”, which gives you a pretty clear indication of what it does.

The company is one of the largest retailers of gold and silver bullion, coins, and bars. It’s also one of the most trusted, thanks to its competitive prices, large catalog of gold and silver products, and fast delivery, with more than 95% of orders shipping the next business day.

BGASC’s gold affiliate program, run via the CJ Affiliate network — which is the fourth-most-popular network, according to our affiliate marketing statistics — offers a range of affiliate payments, starting at $5 per order and climbing to:

$20 for orders of $3,000+
$30 for orders of $10,000+

Affiliate websites can access a wealth of creative marketing materials, including banners and text links.

URL: BGASC affiliate program
Commission rate: $5 – $30
Cookie duration: 45 days

8GoldRepublic

GoldRepublic allows investors to buy physical gold and silver bullion with complete ownership and no inconvenience.

Customers can buy precious metals 24 hours a day, seven days a week, manage their portfolios online, and sell gold online (and withdraw funds) at any time.

The company also offers storage services, giving buyers the option to stash their bullion in a high-security vault or have it shipped straight to their home. Customers can even choose their favoured vault location — Germany, the Netherlands, or Switzerland.

GoldRepublic’s affiliate program offers a 25% commission on all transaction fees. With a generous two-year cookie window, that means you can earn multiple commissions from every customer who buys via your affiliate link.

URL: GoldRepublic affiliate program
Commission rate: 25% of all transaction fees
Cookie duration: Two years

9RC Bullion

RC Bullion specializes in converting an existing IRA or 401(k) into gold IRAs (or some other form of precious metal-based retirement account). As well as that, it sells a variety of bullion products and delivers them securely to customers’ doorsteps.

With an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, it evidently does those two things pretty well.

The company’s affiliate program couldn’t be easier to understand: you earn a flat 3% commission on all transactions, with a generous lifetime cookie window giving you maximum value from the traffic you drive.

To give you the best chance of making money, RC Bullion gives you access to a variety of marketing materials, including attention-grabbing banners. You can also plug its high-converting lead forms into your own landing pages.

URL: RC Bullion affiliate program
Commission rate: 3% on transactions
Cookie duration: Lifetime

10Golden Eagle Coin

Golden Eagle Coins is one of the industry leaders in the world of precious metals and gold and silver coins.

The website features more than 5,000 popular products, including all sizes of American Gold Eagles, and large quantities of Canadian Gold Maple Leafs, Gold Krugerrands, and gold bars.

If your audience is interested in buying gold and silver bullion and coins, chances are they’ll find exactly what they’re looking for here.

The Gold Eagle Coins affiliate program offers a $15 flat commission per sale. That might not sound particularly enticing, but you’ll also get a $5 bounty for signing up other affiliates, as well as a $50 bonus for orders of more than $5,000. For a bit of context, its average sale is approximately $1,200.

The only downside is the 15-day cookie duration, which is pretty stingy compared to other programs we’ve seen.

URL: Golden Eagle Coin affiliate program
Commission rate: $15+ per sale
Cookie duration: 15 days

Conclusion: Are Gold Affiliate Programs Right For You

The gold market is extremely valuable, meaning gold affiliates can potentially earn big money.

But it’s important to be realistic. The niche is extremely competitive and the net margin is tight, so discounts and special offers are hard to come by. That can make closing the deal a lot harder than other niches.

Do you want to learn more about other precious metals? Check out our roundup of the Best Silver Affiliate Programs.

On the flip side, transaction totals are so high that you can afford to invest in paid traffic sources and high-quality SEO.

Still, there are no guarantees. If you’re going to make money, you’ll need to stand out from all the other gold affiliate websites, which is no easy task.

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