Top Ten Affiliate Networks to use with Hubpages

Get Paid for Writing: Using Affiliate Networks

If you are already a HubPages author or a website administrator you should be well aware of affiliate networks and the revenue options they offer to you.

If at any point you have issues with vocabulary, jump over to the Internet Marketing Lexicon. Examples of affiliate networks that you are probably already aware of or part of, are Google's adsense, eBay Partner Network and the Amazon Affiliate network.

Traditionally, affiliate networks act as an intermediary between a content producer or site administrator and the online component of a Business, these businesses offer a commission to partners who can effectively send traffic/visitors to purchase items and services.

In addition to sales based commissions, some networks work in the CPA model - Cost Per Action, these networks can pay based on completion of a survey or online form, this action would be a "lead", some advertisers pay in excess of $20.00 simply for an email or phone number of an interested pre-qualified visitor.

Why would I want to be a member of any other affiliate programs ? isnt Adsense, eBay and Amazon enough?

These very common networks are a bit of a double edged sword. As they are very successful networks with very well known brands, your commission and personal relationship is truly a shadow of what most affiliates enjoy.

• AdSense - Great program, but you cant rely on only one network AND customer service is non-existent. Make 10,000/month with them and you might be able to get some CS..Might
• Amazon - People trust Amazon, but their cookie life and commission rates are downright insulting, whenever possible find an alternative merchant for products to promote, throw amazon in as a back-up. Most merchants offer 10-40% commissions and 30 day cookies, compare that to Amazon..yuck!
• eBay - an increasingly trusted site to buy from, an increasingly non-trustworthy site to promote for - phase out eBay as much as possible. The new Quality Click Pricing seems to be an ok model, but the lack of transparency and a constant reliable income metric is distressing. 

PepperJam Network

The PepperJam Network is my top suggestion for new affiliates. They are a very respectable network that has the most up to date user interface and stats management of any of my listed partner sites.

Unique:

PJ offers a $10 per post commission for reviews about their services from accepted blogs. Has to be from a domain you own.

Blogger Incentive Program - Bloggers are the lifeblood of the PJN Publisher Referral program and tend to be our biggest supporters and closet friends. As a result, we thought we'd create a sort of "Pay Per Post" incentive program where any PJN publisher / blogger will receive $10 for each post you make (up to 5 per month) that promotes Pepperjam Network or any Pepperjam Network tool.

Sign Up to PepperJam Network

Big Hitter:

PepperJam Network is the current home of the eBay Partner program, after eBay left CJ and started their own affiliate network they also began a partnership with PepperJam!

Some Top Partner Brands:

• Crutchfield
• eBay
• Mattel

PepperJam offers very strong affiliate support, I know my affiliate manager by his first name and can contact him via chat anytime I need to. They have a very transparent model for both merchants and advertisers.

Minimum Payout:

Only $25.00!

Payment Methods:

Check or Direct Deposit

ShareASale

ShareASale has to be my favorite affiliate network. They pay perfectly on time every month, the few questions Ive ever had, were answered instantly by a very helpful support staff. They dont have the most beautiful of user interfaces, but the stats work and all my reports show perfect synchronicity between my independent CTR% and what they report!

Sign Up to ShareASale.com

Unique Option: ShareaSale has the option of seeing offers separated by upcoming holidays and specials events, by selecting any of the holiday links you can see all promotions available from their over 2,000 partners. This is an incredibly easy way to stay up to date with ideas for upcoming trends and holidays. By using their integrated datafeeds and store builders one can quickly build trend and niche sites.

Minimum Payout: $50.00

Payment Methods: Check or Direct Deposit

MaxBounty - No Longer Allowed On HubPages

MaxBounty is only a CPA network. They offer some high commissions on some very attractive and seasonal promotions. If you are writing in the tech fields or about popular video games or trendy movies, this network has very relevant offers.

Although they offer products if you look around hard enough, most of these offers are for surveys, free trials and services like free credit reports. Many times the commission paid to you is many times the initial cost to the visitor as the partnered business is paying for the lead with the hope of further business from your visitor.

Sign Up for MaxBounty

Unique Option:

Currently, MaxBounty is running a $1000 performance bonus that is eligible only to new publishers. With action payouts at the $20-$50 range the performance requirements are not impossible to reach.

Top Partner Sites:

• Entertainment Books
• Nielsen Ratings
• FlyCell
• Bidz

Payment Minimum: $50.00

Payment Types: Check, Direct Deposit and PayPal

LinkShare

Sign Up for LinkShare

Commission Junction

Sign Up to Commission Junction

Amazon

Become an Amazon Affiliate

eBay

The eBay Partner Network

AdSense

AdSense Sign Up 

ClickBank - No Longer Allowed on HubPages

Be careful with Clickbank

Why? Using ClickBank products in your sites, twitter and social networks is a quick way to scare away visitors, ClickBank traffic should be highly prequalified, ebooks and downloads are a very popular market...but with a select user base. Trying to target ebooks at the wrong crowd will get you quickly seen as and disregarded as a spammer.

Ethically, I find it quite difficult to find products worth promoting in Clickbank, but there are a few gems, so get to wading!

Being Accepted into an Affiliate network

Managing Affiliates takes resources, this is a competitive field and not everyone will be accepted to every network

• Each Network uses different questions and criteria, each merchant within each network has their own additional criteria
• Using Hubpages as your website is probably not going to fly with most merchants, they want partners who have full control of their webspaces
• But, you can still use your affiliate links at your Hubpage locations
• Either use a clean established website with traffic or use NO WEBSITE at all
• Many affiliate networks will actually do a phone interview with you, use this time to shine, point out that you market primarily via PPC, meaning you dont use your own sites, you just drive traffic through media buying - This almost always works
• There are lots of Networks! If you dont get accepted to one, just move on to the next one.

Some Quick resources you can use to build small niche sites and begin your super affiliate career

• How to find available domain names
• How to Make a Blog
• The Best Wordpress Theme: Thesis
• Thesis Skins (Customize your niche site)
• Post Hubpages: Internet Marketing Lexicon
• PepperJam vs CJ

Affiliate Networks to Use off of HubPages