Affiliate Marketing without a doubt
is one of the best ways to make money online. Note that I said best and not
easy. As with anything else, affiliate marketing requires a bit of effort and
while they are many ways to promote and convert traffic into sales, I won’t go
into those details as the objective of this post is to introduce you to some of
the affiliate networks that I have been using and of which I recommend. I know
that there are several out there that I will certainly miss out, but the ones
here are credible and reliable, and all of them have passed the money cycle test,
i.e., promote, earn/convert, and get paid.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Maybe the easiest way to explain
affiliate marketing is that it is a way of making money
online where you as a
publisher receive a reward for helping a business promote their product,
service or site. Such rewards are often times in a form of a commission, where
you earn money, when someone follows a link you provide to another site where
they then purchase something.
One general rule that you may
probably see many times over being recommended by “other” bloggers is that you
should not promote any product that you have not “tried for yourself”.
Promoting a product is like giving your endorsement, so you may want to stay
away from some of them, specially those systems that promise riches overnight.
In addition, there are those who firmly believe that you can only make decent
money, having your own product. While both of these statements have some truth
in them, it is my opinion that there are ways around that and for that purpose,
please refer to the following articles:
§
Do I Need My Own Product To Make Money Online?
§
How To Find Hot Products To Promote
Anyway,
following below are the recommended affiliate marketing networks, that I
believe are most definitely worth checking out. They are my top performers and
all are free to join (some have ref links).
Google Affiliate Network
Not many are familiar with Google’s
Affiliate Network. One of the reasons for this is that the network
is not tailored to certain types of niches. If you are in the blogging, make
money, or related niche, that are very few products that are worth promoting.
That aside, there are are many other categories to choose from. Marketing
material is good, including link generator, data feeds, banners, etc. Reporting
and tracking is great.
Another “big” advantage of Google’s affiliate network is
that it is integrated withGoogle AdSense. This means that your earnings are combined
with that of AdSense, thus making it easier to reach that threshold of $100
faster and get paid. Also, if you already have an AdSense account, chances are
you are already enrolled on Google’s Affiliate Network.
Share-a-Sale
Contrary
to Google Affiliate, Share-a-Sale has many choices for bloggers who blog
about marketing, themes, SEO, webmaster tools, business, and related topics.
For example, most of the popular themes, such as DIY Thesis, StudioPress,
Headway, eXpand2web, and SEO tools, such as Raven, InboundWriter, Scribe, etc.,
are all there. In addition, you can also get paid for sending leads to
Share-A-Sale themselves. Only downside is that they do not pay via PayPal
(yet).
SkimLinks
If you heard about the recent news
regardingPinterest monetizing its website via SkimLinks, then you might be interested in this program.
Essentially, Skimlinks instantly converts any normal product or merchant link
in your content into its equivalent affiliate link as a user clicks on it. For
example, if you are linking to an article to SEOMoz and someone clicks on it,
Skimlinks converts that link automatically to an affiliate link, if SEOMoz is part
of their 17K+ registered merchants. It is a great way to take advantage of your
blogs content and you don’t have to worry about crating affiliate links and all
that. Another interesting bit, is that unless you disclose that you are using
SkimLinks, your users will not notice anything different because the links are
not changed. Skimlinks works silently on their servers. In addition to
SkimLinks, they also provide SkimWords (similar to InfoLinks) and it is also a
great way to monetize your existing content.
Commission Junction
A
ValueClick company, Commission Junction (CJ) operates one of the largest and
most highly regarded affiliate networks that I know of. CJ is probably one of
those networks that “suits” almost every type of niche. Whatever the niche you
are in, you will most likely find a business partner that will fit your needs.
CJ’s portfolio is best suited for “non-digital” products, meaning, you will
hardly find any eBook, or similar. For that, I suggest, ClickBank or eJunkie.
CJ pays via check, Direct Deposit (some countries) and does not, unfortunately,
pay via PayPal. Marketing material is top notch. Includes link rotator, data
feeds, banners, text links, and more.
Plimus
Plimus is known
for having one of the largest “collections” of software and mobile related
apps. Games, System Utilities, PC Tools, anti-Virus, Photo and Video Editors,
Forex Software, etc. – there is a software or digital goods for just about
anything you can think of. One of the reasons I like this network is that they
have high commission structure (usually 3 times more than physical products)
and most of the products have a free trial version. This is simply awesome,
because not only can you take it for a test drive, you can comfortably promote
the software, because users are not buying anything. They can try it first
before making a decision. If they like it, and decided to purchase it, the you
get your commission. One drawback about Plimus is that sellers do not have an
area to provide marketing materials (banners or text links). You will have to
be creative or contact the seller directly. Plimus pays via PayPal.
DigitalRiver: OneNetworkDirect
Very
similar to Plimus, but OneNetworkDirect is more focused on technology related
products. Microsoft, McAfee, Laplink, Avast, nVidia, Roxio are just but a few
of featured programs available on Digital
River
ClickBank
What
is there to say about ClickBank.
Simply put, it is the biggest and probably the most popular marketplace for
“finding” just about any type of digital products you can think of. While there
are a vast amount of products to choose from, please do your research first
before promoting them. There are many “stuff” in there that are sheer crap and
will most likely only tick off your user. Good choice for affiliate marketers
in general.
Profits King Media
For
those of you who like to work based on CPA (Cost per Action), this is one
affiliate network that is gaining traction, despite being in business since
2009. This is due to their growing number of offers (900+ and counting),
dedicated affiliate network managers, and easy to use tracking software. Don’t
know about you, but I like to know what kind of user activity I have when
running a campaign. Profits King Media (PKM), for now, is tailored for niches
that are involved in the Mobile , Biz opp,
Health & Beauty, Credit Reports (finance), among other things. One
advantage of PKM is that they pay weekly with no threshold required, via check,
wire or direct deposit. For now, payment via PayPal is still not available
(yet).
Other
If you are also interested in PPI
(Pay-per-Install), CPA (Cost Per Action) or Pay-per-lead type programs, some
networks worthwhile checking are, Pinball,RevResponse and NeverBlue.
I love these three networks 
.
.
That’s
it! I am sure I have missed something out, and for that I am hoping you can
fill in the gap. If you know of any reliable and credible affiliate network
that you feel should be included in this list, please let me know. Remember to
get familiar with the network and read their TOS first. These networks work
well but they may not be a good fit for you.
Good
luck and to your success!
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