[UPDATE 2021] As of September 2021, Treehouse has decided to close its affiliate program. The only way to promote Treehouse now is through their referral program. However, you don´t earn a commission but only a discount on your Treehouse monthly enrollment. For every person who joins Treehouse, you get 20% off your monthly bill. As long as that person's account stays active, the discount will continue to apply to your subscription.
Treehouse Affiliate Program (Updated 2024)
Treehouse is a popular online platform that teaches people web development, web design, app development and much more.
I was a Treehouse student in the past and had very good experience with their courses. They are well-structured and the material well-explained.
If you decide to join the Treehouse affiliate program, you will promote a product that can really help people. Promoting a quality product or service is very important if you want to succeed in affiliate marketing in the long run.
In this review, you will learn everything you need to know about the Treehouse affiliate program so you can decide whether this program is worth your time and marketing efforts.
Treehouse Affiliate Program
The Treehouse affiliate program has a very nicely designed affiliate landing page but, unfortunately, it’s not very informative. However, once you click on the ‘’Start Earning’’ button, you will be redirected to the application page where you can at least see the commission rates and referral period.
The Treehouse affiliate program runs on the Impact Radius platform and in order to join you need to have an Impact Radius account. It’s free to join and all you need is a website.
The referral period of the Treehouse affiliate program is 45 days, which is nice. Nowadays, most affiliate programs only have a 30-day referral period and some even less. The Walmart affiliate program that I reviewed just recently has just a 3-day referral period for instance.
The program provides you with a banner of various sizes and designs. You can also create deep links and track the performance of individual links, so you know which ones get the most clicks.
What Can You Promote as a Treehouse Affiliate?
Treehouse is a subscription website. When you subscribe to either the Basic or Pro Treehouse plan, you get access to Treehouse courses. If you are more serious about programming, you can try Treehouse Techdegress courses.
Treehouse Basic and Pro plan
Treehouse has a library of 1,000+ video courses that are divided into the following categories (called tracks):
- Web Design
- Web Development
- Rails Development
- PHP Development
- iOS Development
- Android Development
- Starting a Business Android Development
- Starting a Business
If you select the Web Development track, you will follow a pre-selected sequence of videos focused on just web development. The pre-selected sequence does not have to be followed and it’s just a recommendation. You can watch any video on Treehouse in any order you like.
Most of the videos are complemented by interactive coding exercises that allow you to try what you have just learned. Videos also include short quizzes that help you test that you understand everything.
Even though Treehouse course pages cannot be accessed from their front page, you can access them through this URL: https://teamtreehouse.com/library. You can take a look at all the courses that Treehouse has to offer and the syllabus of each one.
If you are planning on promoting any specific courses, it’s always good practice to check that Treehouse actually offers them.
I have seen some affiliates promoting Treehouse WordPress courses, even though Treehouse does not have any. They used to have a WordPress track but for some reason decided to cancel it and don’t offer it anymore. Therefore, always double-check the course availability.
Treehouse Techdegree
Treehouse Techdegree programs are more in-depth courses that allow students to earn a verifiable certification upon successful completion.
Each Techdegree course is concluded with a project that is reviewed by the Treehouse Techdegree Services staff. Therefore, Techdegrees takes a little longer to finish and so are more focused on people who want to enter the programming workforce.
Treehouse currently offers the following Techdegrees:
- Front End Web Development
- Full Stack JavaScript
- Python Web Development
- iOS Development with Swift
Treehouse Affiliate Program Commission
How much can you earn with the Treehouse affiliate program?
It depends on whether you promote the Basic/Pro plan or Techdegrees as the commissions vary.
For the Basic/Pro plan, you receive a commission of $3 for each free trial sign-up.
If your referral continues using Treehouse after the free trial ends, you receive 20% of the subscription plan if the referral opts for the annual subscription and 50% if they opt for the monthly subscription.
Specifically, the commission would be the following:
Basic plan
Monthly - $25 –$12,5 commission
Yearly - $250 - $50 commission
Pro plan
Monthly - $49 –$24,5 commission
Yearly - $490 - $98 commission
Techdegrees
If you decide to promote Techdegrees, you can earn more as Techdegrees are more expensive ($199/month). For each free trial sign up, you earn $5.
For paid subscriptions, Treehouse affiliates earn 50% commission, which equals $100.
Unfortunately, there is no mention that the commission is recurring, so I am afraid that Treehouse affiliates get paid only for the 1 month of any plan even if the referral continues being a subscriber.
How to Make Money as a Treehouse Affiliate
Promoting programming courses is not an easy task as it is very specific. It’s not like the Bluehost affiliate program that targets a wide audience, as everyone with a website needs hosting.
You need to have traffic who are interested in programming. If you want to earn a bigger commission with the Treehouse affiliate program, you need to promote the Techdegrees. For that, you need an even more targeted audience: people who want to pursue programming careers.
In order to attract this audience, you need a website or a YouTube channel that is focused on programming. If you don’t have a related website or YouTube channel, you cannot expect many clicks on your affiliate links.
If you do, you can target related keywords to the course that you want to promote and attract the right audience. Teach your visitors some basics and link to the Treehouse courses for learning more.
You can make an in-depth review of the Treehouse courses and compare them to courses on other platforms.
For instance, I know that many people like Treehouse because their courses are video-based. You get to practice the material through interactive coding exercises, but the majority you learn from videos.
Some people prefer learning by reading but more and more people prefer learning with videos.
This a just one of many things that you can consider mentioning when doing comparisons.
Conclusion: Should You Become a Treehouse Affiliate?
Treehouse courses are great for anyone who wants to learn some programming skills or even pursue a programming career. Therefore, as a Treehouse affiliate you don’t have to worry about promoting a bad product.
The 45-day referral period is great, and the commission is also decent. However, the biggest $100 commission for the Techdegree paid subscription will not be easily earned as the Techdegrees are quite expensive and you need a very targeted audience.
If you publish content mostly around programming, then becoming a Treehouse affiliate is a good opportunity that is worth trying.
But if you don’t have any content around programming, I would recommend trying a different affiliate program.
