Please note that affiliate links may be included in some posts.
In this post, I discuss the Uber affiliate program- examining its commission structure and discussing how I would acquire and push traffic to this offer.
Living in NYC, Uber has become indispensable to urban navigation. Given the filth and incompetence of our MTA train system, Uber is a lifeline for fast, comfortable transportation.
Despite some recent controversies, Uber raked in $6.5 billion in 2016 and is operating in 633 cities worldwide (Source).
This revolutionary ride-share app offers an affiliate program for U.S. and Canadian traffic through Acceleration Partners.
The 3 Uber Affiliate Options
There are 3 different types of Uber affiliate options:
- The Uber U.S. and Canada Driver-Partner Affiliate Program (Join). This program enables you to earn when you refer new driver-partners.
Payout Details: When Uber approves the applicants driver's license, you will be paid between $30 – $40 for leads in participating cities. (180 day window). - The Uber U.S. and Canada Pay Per Call Affiliate Program, (Join). This program enables you to earn when you refer new driver-partners to Uber through the use of Uber’s call center.
Payout Details: If the lead you refer to the Uber call center talks to a representative for more than 30 seconds you will be paid $3 for leads in participating cities. - The Uber Eats Courier U.S. Affiliate Program, (Join). This program enables you to earn when you refer new delivery partners to Uber.
Payout Details: Once Uber approves the lead's background check & documents, you will be paid up to $50 for delivery leads who own cars and up to $35 for delivery leads who are using bikes or scooters in participating cities. (45 day window).
Some Thoughts
One thing I'd be wary of here is the term 'participating cities'. The affiliate page is unclear concerning which cities they'll pay for.
On the other hand, they also say that there are "additional bonus opportunities in specific geo-locations".
My advice is to signup with the Uber affiliate program and then contact the program manager for clarification regarding how they are paying publishers for referrals by geographic area.
This will impact the sort of content you promote. For example, it could make sense to create geographic-themed content ("how to become an Uber driver in Kansas") if Uber is paying more for that location.
In addition, if your site traffic isn't primarily from the United States or Canada, you aren't going to get paid referring people to Uber, at this time.
That said, there could be a great SEO opportunity if you publish content on 'how to become an Uber driver in India' and in the future the Uber affiliate program accepts Indian referral traffic.
You'll have the advantage- just go back into your now ranking content and add your affiliate links.
My Video Review Of The Program
I did a full video review of the Uber affiliate program- check it out and leave a Like if you enjoy it!
Audio Transcript
Uber Commission Structure
Uber Affiliate Program | Commission Payout​ |
---|---|
The Uber U.S. and Canada Driver-Partner Affiliate Program | $30 – $40 CPA (in participating cities) |
The Uber U.S. and Canada Pay Per Call Affiliate Program | $3 CPA (in participating cities) |
The Uber Eats Courier U.S. Affiliate Program | $35/$50 CPA for bike/driver signups |
VigLink & Uber
You can also partner with VigLink- if your users convert on an Uber link (Source) you'll get $15.00 - $200.00 on their "First Drive" and $0.10 - $5.00 per Driver Signup.
The way VigLink works, it will change links on your site to affiliate links- so if you're linking to Uber, and it's not an affiliate link, VigLink will convert it into an affiliate link.
Uber Keyword Research
Below, you'll see a list of Uber's top 1,000 keyword rankings.
This is a great place to start if you want to brainstorm content and traffic acquisition strategies:
Read More Of My Niche Reports
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How To Promote
A couple months ago I was looking at purchasing a ride-sharing authority site on Flippa- someone else ended up snagging it.
The reason I liked that site is that it was content-rich.
Indeed, my preferred promotional strategy would be to build out an authority site and acquire passive organic and social traffic.
A good example is the niche site Ridester:
Ridester.com: Your Rideshare Roadmap
As the go-to resource for rideshare drivers, our step-by-step activation gets new drivers on the road faster, while our tailored content shows existing drivers how to maximize their rideshare potential. What we offer our readers News Staying up to date on the rideshare industry is tough, and there’s very few resources dedicated solely to doing so.
The site covers all different types of ride-sharing apps- helping both riders and drivers to make an informed decision about using or working for the company.
Here's their Uber silo
You'll notice that the content contains a Hello Bar on the top that pushes users to an Uber affiliate squeeze page.
The widget in the right-hand column also links to the Lyft affiliate program (which offers $10 for referring new passengers and a varied rate for referred drivers):
It's a pretty awesome site. You can see below that they have some strong organic keyword rankings.
A site like this generates a passive flow of organic traffic, pushing qualified leads to the Uber referral program and passive affiliate commissions to the site owner.
It's a smart way to capitalize on the growing trend of peer-to-peer ridesharing.
Traffic Strategies
Purchase An Existing Site
If you're just starting out and want to cash in on the rideshare craze, I'd consider purchasing an existing site to get a leg up on the competition.
Try searching Flippa for Uber sites. Or you can just contact some of the sites that rank for Uber and ride-sharing terms and see if they're open to an acquisition.
Invest In Content
Of course, you can just start your own site and take all of that purchase capital and invest it in content.
While most rank-and-bank affiliates are going to want to do SEO, I'd recommend publishing content across various social channels.
When I was brainstorming promotional strategies, I thought about interviewing Uber drivers, documenting their best practices on YouTube, and publishing the transcripts on a website.
(You can use SupaGrowth's Elite Content Creator to scrape your captions to republish the YouTube transcript on your site.)
This would generate a massive amount of content pretty quickly and it would be a cinch to publish the unique content on both YouTube and the website.
Imagine publishing 25 YouTube videos, with each interview creating 5,000 words of content for your site?
Then I would convert each interview into a graphic- I'd publish the graphics on Pinterest and on the site itself, saturating Google & Pinterest with fresh, high-quality image content that will generate even more referral traffic and backlinks.
Don't Limit Yourself
I like what Ridester has done in going general- you don't want to niche down into one ride-sharing app and get demolished if and when your affiliate partner decides to cut commissions or shut down altogether.
Make sure you're not painted into a corner. Plus, Ridester's broad ride-share focus means they have lots of content opportunities, as opposed to a site that focuses exclusively on Lyft or Uber.
Also- avoid buying a domain with the brand term in it. That could end up in a lawsuit!
Summary
It's a cool niche with a couple different affiliate opportunities.
I think there are some ways to add value- I particularly like the idea of pushing content out across YouTube and harvesting it for Google Search.
It's a powerful 2-punch combination!
Last Updated on March 13, 2021 by Ryan Nelson
Does Uber have a program for referring new riders? I will definitely be adding the drivers affiliate to my sites under the ‘earning for travel’ section, but I will also be recommending people to use Uber to get around while on vacations, so if there’s an affiliate program for referring new riders, that would be great too.
All of the info above is quite helpful, as I couldn’t find any of this on the Uber site. Thank you!
It doesn’t appear so, at this time. Lyft does, however: https://nichefacts.com/lyft-affiliate-program/