Woodworking affiliate programs are a fantastic way to make money online from your hobby (provided your hobby is woodworking — if not, they’re probably not for you).
For starters, there’s a whole lot of passive income to be earned in the woodworking niche. In 2017, the global arts and crafts market was worth approximately $35 billion, and it’s forecast to reach nearly $51 billion by 2024.
Woodworking accounts for a significant proportion of this market, with woodworking enthusiasts spending more on their beloved pastime than any other American hobbyist group, according to an interesting (if slightly old) study from the US Craft & Hobby Association.
When research was carried out, nearly 17 million households engaged in woodworking as a hobby, making it America’s fourth most popular arts and crafts-related activity — only behind drawing, scrapbooking, and crocheting.
Like what you read? Ready to start monetizing your woodworking projects? Read on for Authority Hacker’s pick of the best woodworking affiliate programs…
Woodworking Affiliate Programs
- Woodworkers Guild of America
- KC Tool
- Highland Woodworking
- Rockler Woodworking and Hardware
- Tools Today
- Toolbarn
- Nora Hall
- Woodsnap
- Hardware World
- Amazon Associates
Join our FREE Training and learn how to:
Find profitable, hidden niches
Steal your competitor’s best keywords
Get links without paying a dime
Build fast sites that rank quickly
Woodworkers Guild of America
First up is the impressively titled Woodworkers Guild of America (WWGOA). It’s owned by TN Marketing, which operates a bunch of other self-improvement brands, including Classic Car Restoration Club, FixMyHog, and Model Railroad Academy.
TN Marketing’s whole “thing” is about offering instructional video content to consumers across a wide range of niches and hobbies, and WWGOA is no different.
It sells a variety of physical and digital products, including training videos in downloadable, streamable, and DVD formats.
All of its content is created by woodworking professionals and expert instructors, so you can feel pretty confident they know what they’re talking about.
As well as educational videos, WWGOA sells books, tools, and accessories.
The website’s woodworking affiliate program pays a 6% commission on all purchases within the 60-day cookie window, other than guild membership signups, which cost $55 for a year and pay a 25% commission.
All sales referred in the first 30 days after joining the affiliate program pay double.
URL: Woodworkers Guild of America affiliate program
Commission rate: 6% – 25%
Cookie duration: 60 days
KC Tool
KC Tool bills itself as the “premier source” for German tools. All the tools it sells are from German brands — including Felo, Gedore, and Hazet — so if you (and your audience) are a big believer in the quality of German engineering, this could be the affiliate program for you.
The website has a huge selection of woodworking tools, with more than 10,000 in stock and over 25,000 available to order.
Most carry a lifetime manufacturer’s warranty, with the exception of bits, tweezers, and torque screwdrivers.
And while you won’t necessarily rack up huge commissions through the KC Tool affiliate program, the chance to earn 10% on every sale you refer certainly isn’t to be sniffed at.
URL: KC Tool affiliate program
Commission rate: 10%
Cookie duration: 30 days
Highland Woodworking
The online business now known as Highland Woodworking started life in 1978 as an Atlanta hardware store called Highland Hardware.
Back then, its specialty lay in selling fine woodworking tools to artisanal cabinet makers, carvers, craftsmen, and woodturners.
That expertise started to attract a growing crowd of amateur woodworkers with small basement or garage shops who relied on Highland’s expertise, reliable service, and high-quality products — and it’s those same people who shop at Highland Woodworking today.
Highland pays a 5% commission on all sales, which stacks up favorably with the other programs on this list.
It also offers a comparably generous 60-day cookie window, as well as providing affiliate marketers with all the instructions, banners, and text links they need.
URL: Highland Woodworking affiliate program
Commission rate: 5%
Cookie duration: 60 days
Rockler Woodworking and Hardware
Rockler Woodworking and Hardware specializes in selling innovative, high-quality woodworking tools and finishing supplies, as well as hardware and lumber.
From the simplest strip of sandpaper to the most advanced power tools, you’ll find it all here.
What’s more, Rockler’s resource center is a go-to source of helpful tips for woodworking enthusiasts everywhere, which means the brand name is pretty familiar. That can be a big help to affiliate sites promoting Rockler products.
Speaking of which, Rockler’s woodworking affiliate program pays 5% of net sales on all products, as well as a small but not insignificant $0.75 commission on free catalog requests.
Payments are sent by check within 30 days of every month, provided you’ve earned more than $25 in commissions. If not, the amount you’ve earned carries over to the following month.
URL: Rockler Woodworking and Hardware affiliate program
Commission rate: 5% of net sales
Cookie duration: 14 days
Tools Today
Tools Today prides itself on offering bargain-basement prices on all its products, which are used and trusted by architects, woodworking professionals, and more.
With an extensive product catalog, Tools Today stocks everything from router bits to industrial-quality cutting tools, many of which are exclusive to the website. It also promises same-business-day shipping on all orders received before 4:50pm EST.
The site’s affiliate program offers decent commissions of 5%+ on all sales, although the 15-day cookie window isn’t great.
On the plus side, Tools Today boasts an average order value of more than $150 and also claims “high” conversion rates (although it doesn’t provide any figures to back that up, unfortunately). However, a seven-day EPC of over $60 shows there’s lots of money to be made here.
URL: Tools Today affiliate program
Commission rate: 5%+
Cookie duration: 15 days
Tool Barn
Tool Barn has been selling power tools, construction equipment, hand tools, and accessories online for more than two decades now.
It stocks thousands of products from numerous big-name brands and specialty manufacturers, and its pricing is competitive. All orders are processed and shipped from the company’s Iowa warehouse.
Tool Barn’s woodworking affiliate program has a solid 45-day cookie window — among the best of all the programs we’ve looked at.
And while the 3% commission rate isn’t great to say the least, an average order value of $75 means there’s plenty of passive income up for grabs.
Sign up and you’ll get access to high-converting text links and banners, which should help you monetize the traffic you refer.
URL: Tool Barn affiliate program
Commission rate: 3%
Cookie duration: 45 days
Nora Hall
If you’ve never heard of Nora Hall, prepare to get educated…
Born in the Netherlands in 1922, Hall was an internationally acclaimed master woodcarver and teacher.
Planning to attend art college in her youth, she was forced to take a different tack with the outbreak of World War II and ended up becoming an apprentice to her father, himself a master woodcarver.
After moving to the US, Hall made it her mission to help future generations of American enthusiasts learn woodworking the right way, adopting her technique based on making small, efficient cuts and using both hands.
She passed away back in 2011, but her lessons are still available today as a series of instructional DVDs.
Through the Nora Hall affiliate program, you’ll be aiming to drive sales of those instructional videos, as well as bundles containing DVDs and all the necessary tools.
Those bundles range in price from $420 – $600. The site also sells woodcarving patterns, some of which date back to Hall’s time in Amsterdam.
Whatever products you sell, you’ll earn a decent 10% commission, with payments sent via check on the 15th of every month.
URL: Nora Hall affiliate program
Commission rate: 10%
Cookie duration: Unknown
WoodSnap
WoodSnap specializes in premium wood printing — in fact, it describes itself as the world leader.
The website promises to accommodate almost every size of wood canvas, as well as offering a wide range of custom products, including gift boxes, ornaments, magnets, and much more.
Let’s be honest — this is a pretty niche service. It’s unlikely you’re going to drive thousands of clicks a month toward WoodSnap.
But it’s not all about quantity; if you send the right quality of traffic, there’s money to be made here, with the site boasting an impressive average order value of almost $90 and paying commissions of 11%+.
Not only that, but you’ll bag a $100 bonus if you manage to notch up 10 sales within your first 30 days of joining the affiliate program. Challenge accepted!
URL: WoodSnap affiliate program
Commission rate: 11%
Cookie duration: 30 days
Hardware World
With an inventory of more than 40,000 products, Hardware World can claim to be one of the biggest tool suppliers on the web.
From safety equipment to table saws and a whole lot more, anyone planning woodworking projects will find exactly what they need here, including specialty tools and harder-to-find items.
As well as its sheer breadth of products, the site attracts shoppers through its comparatively cheap prices, enabled by the fact that it deals in high volumes and doesn’t operate a physical shopfront.
So how does it stack up against the other affiliate programs on this list? Well, it pays a solid 6% commission rate, with higher “VIP” rates available for top-performing affiliate marketers. All things considered, there’s a lot to like here.
URL: Hardware World affiliate program
Commission rate: 6%
Cookie duration: 30 days
Amazon Associates
Look, you already know what Amazon is. It’s certainly not a specialist woodworking company, but it does sell a broad range of woodworking tools and accessories, plus books of furniture craft plans and much more besides. Basically, it sells everything.
Naturally, that means there’s plenty of money-making potential here. And because Amazon is a household name, it’s comparatively easy persuading people to buy.
However, don’t expect to pocket vast commissions from Amazon Associates, the company’s affiliate program. It pays a commission of just 3% on tools — and if your referrals don’t convert within 24 hours, you won’t earn anything at all.
That’s comfortably the shortest cookie window of all the woodworking affiliate programs we’ve reviewed. (Check our Amazon Affiliate Program Review and step by step guide on How to Become an Amazon Affiliate.)
URL: Amazon Associates affiliate program
Commission rate: 3% for tools (see other categories)
Cookie duration: 24 hours
Conclusion
As you can see, there’s no shortage of popular woodworking affiliate programs.
And we could have easily mentioned another high-profile affiliate program: Ted’s Woodworking, which promises to give you a frankly baffling 16,000 woodworking plans for $67. But it has a lot of bad publicity — and I mean a lot — as hinted at by Google’s “People also ask” section:
So, with the exception of Ted’s Woodworking, are these affiliate programs worth promoting?
As always in the world of affiliate marketing, that depends entirely on your expertise and audience. If you love the wider home improvement niche and know your stuff, these programs will be a great fit. If not, there are plenty of other niches that require less expertise.
Even if you do know absolutely everything about woodworking, there are no guarantees of success — you still need to create your own website. That’s a potentially huge stumbling block!
Fortunately, we’re here to help. Sign up for our free training and we’ll teach you how to build a high-converting affiliate site that’s fit for 2024 and beyond
