The Top 10 List of the Best Affiliate Networks

First, if you're new to affiliate marketing, some preliminary explanations may prove helpful in your quest for becoming a part-time or full-time affiliate marketer. 

preliminary explanations may prove helpful in your quest for becoming a part-time or full-time affiliate marketer.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is quite simple to explain: you promote and market a product or company in return for a commission if a sale or lead is made from your marketing efforts. With online affiliate marketing you simply place your affiliate ID embedded links on your web pages and if a customer clicks
your link and proceeds to that designated company's site and makes a purchase or signs up for a service, you earn a commission.

Affiliate marketing, if done right, can prove to be a very lucrative venture. Commissions can run anywhere from a few pennies to thousands of dollars for just one click or sale. Professional marketers develop affiliate relationships with hundreds of companies and build sites to promote these companies and products.

Needless to say, the advent of the Internet has been a golden opportunity for affiliate marketers to really expand their promotions and marketing. As more as more customers choose to buy online, advertising and purchases keep increasing at a maddening pace.

To accommodate all this online ecommerce we have seen the birth of large affiliate networks, operated by large corporations. Make no mistake, affiliate marketing is big business, accounting for billions in sales and commissions.

What is an Affiliate Network?

An affiliate network is a third party facilitator which brings affiliates and companies together. It connects Advertisers (companies with products or services to sell) together with Publishers (those who display and promote these products or services) so they can do business. The affiliate network does all the tracking, accounting and payment of commissions.

The following Top 10 list of the best Affiliate Networks is compiled by an actual full-time affiliate marketer who has worked these programs for over five years. This list is subjective and based on first-hand experience. It should be seen in this light and every marketer probably will have a different list or have these in a different picking order depending on the type and nature of their marketing.

But this list of the 10 Best Affiliate Networks will give you a general rundown on these affiliate networks and how they operate.


1. Commission Junction

Now owned by ValueClick, Commission Junction was one of the first affiliate networks. It is also one of the most important with many of the Top Fortune 500 companies listed here.

CJ is an international network with excellent stats and tracking (some of the best you will find), along with regular monthly payments makes this the obvious first choice for anyone wishing to try affiliate marketing.
For those new or old at affiliate marketing, CJ also holds regular seminars and training sessions.

Most merchants offer pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale, one of the best features is the performance bonuses and incentives. As most experienced marketers will know, selling 50k to 100k each month for merchants will bring in the big incentives or bonuses.

Commissions run as high as 50% but most are in 3% to 15% range. You have the option of direct deposit for your payments. One major plus, CJ will tell you which merchants
and ads are earning the most revenue for affiliates so you can easily choose which merchants are worth promoting.

2. ClickBank

ClickBank is another professional affiliate network with
excellent stats and tracking. Easy to use and pays every two weeks.

ClickBank is slightly different from the other networks in that it deals mainly with digital download products. The commissions from ClickBank are usually much higher than the other networks, around 40% to 50% or more.

ClickBank has over 10,000 products but keep in mind, info-marketing products will have stiff competition from all the savvy and well established Internet marketers promoting these same products. Consider youself warned!

The most successful marketing tactic here is to first dominate your targeted niche with your blogs and sites, then find affiliate products to match your content or niche subject matter, whether it be gardening equipment, gaming laptops or Mediterranean cruises!.


3. LinkShare

LinkShare is another excellent affiliate network. It is one of the oldest affiliate networks on the web. LinkShare was recently acquired by the Japanese Portal Rakuten, with a price tag of $425 million.

Very good stats and reporting with their Synergy Analytics system. Many Top Fortune 500 companies are presented here so you will no trouble finding products and services to romote.
LinkShare pays commissions as they receive them from merchants - monthly checks.



4. Affiliate Window

Affiliate Window is an UK based affiliate network which offers top brand companies and good commission rates. Pays once a month and has excellent stats.

Savvy affiliate marketers know promoting in other countries can be much easier than promoting in the American market place. Mainly because these other countries haven't become saturated with online marketers, little competition means more sales.


5. Amazon


Amazon is another excellent affiliate network to join if you want to sell products from your site or blog. Amazon has excellent stats and the links are very easy to create and place on your web pages.

You also have the option of creating your own store with Amazon aStores. Amazon also now has context link ads and Widgets!

Commission rates are somewhat lower than the other networks but making sales thru Amazon is much, much easier. You will make more sales mainly because Amazon is a well known and trusted online company. Amazon now pays monthly.


6. Shareasale

Shareasale is yet another easy system to work with good stats and simple to create links. With 1,700+ merchants to choose from, Shareasale is another good affiliate network to promote.

The control panel is easy to use and the reporting is very good. Usually pays the month following your sales.


7. Google

Many won't think of Google as an Affiliate network but it does run affiliate products thru its Adsense program. Very few products but like everything from Google it is professionally run and top caliber all the way.

Please note, top marketers know affiliate links/products on their content pages will return 10 times what Google Adsense will give them. However, these marketers will also know using Google Adsense on less targeted pages throughout your sites or blogs will give you a healthy return.

Besides receiving that monthly check from a multi-billion dollar company like Google will put a smile on your face every time.


8. LinkConnector

LinkConnector is a relatively new affiliate network which launched in 2004. It has Pay Per Click, Pay Per Sale and Pay Per Lead. Good stats and reporting. Worth checking out for their different types of new affiliate technology such as Direct Linking which passes pagerank along to the merchant's site.


9. CPA Empire

Great CPA (Cost Per Action) network especially if you do a lot of email marketing and promotions. Geared towards acquiring leads and sign-ups but does offer other merchants as well. Good stats and reporting.


10. Independents

Individual affiliate deals with different companies which may or may not be listed with the major networks above. Your independent affiliate deals will be some of your most lucrative since you can sometimes work out separate private commission rates and bonuses. Aim for residual income here. Don't ignore this aspect of affiliate marketing as it will pay the highest dividends.

Keep in mind, all the above affiliate networks are iddlemen,
they come between you and the merchant you're promoting. For affiliates with a proven track record, who have shown they can deliver the customers and sales, a private deal cutting out the middleman/fees can prove very beneficial for both parties. If you're fortunate enough to become known as a super affiliate, these private deals will become more common and more profitable.

Professional affiliate marketers use all of the above networks to create multiple income streams from their marketing efforts. In the process, they build a healthy monthly income for themselves and their families. There is no reason why you can't do the same.

The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest and most effective web marketing tools try: Internet Marketing Tools 

Top Affiliate Networks in Germany: a Guide for Success

At the dmexco conference last week, I had the opportunity to speak with some of the best-known SEO and affiliate agencies in Germany (and of course, worldwide). As a blogger and affiliate myself, it was interesting to hear the marketing gurus’ perspectives as they revealed their opinions on affiliates and affiliate activities. Although blogging isn’t something I do full-time, I know that for many people, the money earned as an affiliate can be a substantial, if not primary source of income.

Have you thought about earning money as an affiliate but you don’t know where to start?

Or, have you already signed up to become an affiliate, but you don’t know how to get the ball rolling and actually earn money?

Before I reveal several affiliate tips and tricks in my next post, I will first give you a brief overview of the views on affiliate marketing as an occupation and how affiliates contribute to brand success.

The flexibility of affiliate work

First, I was eager to know whether the marketing giants viewed the affiliate role as an appropriate full-time job. The overwhelming majority were not just in support of this concept, but explained that there was a relationship between affiliate contribution and effort and the income generated. When I asked Christian Kleinsorge, CSO at zanox, whether it was possible to be a successful full-time affiliate, he without hesitation responded, “absolutely”. Viengmany Vongpraseut, CEO at metaapes, also supported the idea of full-time affiliates, stressing that if you really want to be a successful affiliate, full-time may in fact, be the way to go.

For those of you who already have a full-time occupation, being a full-time affiliate may not be an option. But is being a part-time affiliate still a good option? From my experience, part-time affiliate work has certainly paid off. The experts seemed to agree that part-time affiliates also have the potential to do well. Robin Grünbichler, Senior Sales Manager at TradeDoubler, painted a picture of what I imagine to be the frequent affiliate sign-up prototype: students. He said, “If you have basic computer skills and you’re an affiliate during university, A-Levels, etc., then you can, of course, do it part-time.” Also in agreement was Tom Maier, Sales Manager at affilinet, wholeheartedly answered, “Of course! As an affiliate, I can choose when I want to work. It’s something I can do at night while I’m doing something else, like a full-time job during the day. It’s also a good way to have an option to a normal job.”

The co-dependent relationship between affiliates and brands

As an affiliate, it is important to understand that you play an important role in a company’s marketing strategy. You’re not just helping a company sell products; you’re supporting and raising public awareness about brands in the ‘old school’ marketing style. Agencies are aware of this when they see not just the growth in their own client companies, but other major brands worldwide.

So, my next question for the marketing giants was, ‘what top brands would not have achieved great success without affiliate marketing?’ I was really intrigued to see what brands came straight to mind, and some of the major names stated were Groupon (Christian Kleinsorge (zanox)),Amazon, o2 (Viengmany Vongpraseut (metaapes)), Zalando, Vodafone(Tom Maier (affilinet)) and Dress for Less (Robin Grünbichler (TradeDoubler)).

These brands are well-known, and not just by affiliate agencies, but by the average internet user. So, as much as affiliates need individual brands to prosper, these companies are driven by, and strongly dependent on affiliates in a multitude of ways. The relationship between affiliates and brands is complex, however, and it is fundamental that affiliates focus heavily on their own strategy and planning. In my next post, I will discuss the fundamental aspects of affiliate strategy, outlining the most common mistakes made by affiliates and what affiliates need to succeed.

Stay tuned and until next time!

Best,

Ashley

Affiliates, Networks and Advertisers must manage your Accounts Receivable

Accounts Receivable is a huge part (and problem) with the affiliate business.

Affiliates are constantly waiting on payments from networks.

Networks are constantly waiting on payments from advertisers.

Advertisers are constantly waiting for their money to clear out of merchant accounts holding periods, and waiting for sales to come in. (This last one is not so much an account receivable but things that can slow down advertisers payments to networks.)

An affiliate network has to have a very smart system to know how much room they give to their advertisers. How much of a bill do you let them run up is a question you should have an exact answer to. This answer should coincide with your ability to float payments to affiliates and should also factor in what happens if a advertiser goes belly up or doesn’t pay you for whatever reason. You don’t want your network to go under because of a single advertiser messing up or going out of business.

As an affiliate you have to consider the same things. You have to be aware that advertisers frequently run up a bill and go out of business. A good reputable network should be paying you anyways, but some won’t if the bill is large enough or they themselves the network will go out of business today. Sometimes the burden goes down to the affiliate, which is unfortunate but true in this industry, I’ve seen it happen time and time again with affiliates not getting paid and networks blaming it on the advertiser.

My question is always regarding how the network handled their deal with the advertisers. In many times, it is not just that the advertiser didn’t pay but that all the warning signs were there that they were never going to pay and the network just neglected that fact and overlooked something that was obvious and inevitable.

One of the Victoria, Canada networks that “NeverPaid” me around $5k for a month of traffic, had every excuse in the book. At the end of the day, I questioned their own business practices. You would think a network supposedly as big as they were would be able to pay even if dealing with alleged issues with their advertiser(s).

TOP 10 CPA AFFILIATE NETWORKS OF 2012

Here are the Top 10 CPA Affiliate Performance Networks for Summer 2012 from Performance Insider. Six months have passed since our last survey and it’s been a weird, crazy six months with several well known, major companies either going bankrupt or disappearing completely from the industry.

Therefore the map of affiliate networks has changed enormously, making this survey harder than ever to conduct. In some cases the differences between the networks were just a few votes and there are many networks that could have been in the top 10 easily, with just a few extra votes from their supporters.

Almost 10,000 people voted this year bringing in a much wider base of affiliates to show their support of many different new networks. Because of that  some networks are making their first appearance into the top 10, and some completely dropping out of the rankings. More affiliates have entered the industry and are making their preferences known — and that if you don’t keep up with the times, make the changes necessary, you’ll quickly lose support in this fast moving industry.

 10) CPAWAY is down from #5 last year, and they are still considered one of the best networks. They have been become the king of parties, and this has helped grow their base. They have also launched Incentivize.com a new incent-based network that is sure to grow their revenue even more.

 9) W4 didn’t even make the survey last year, as it was still a new growing company. However, the three founders have made clear that W4 is not only a network that is going to stay in the industry, but is one that is going to make a showing for a long time moving forward.

 8) Adknowledge Affiliate Network is another company that wasn’t even ranked. However, since Adknowledge is one of the largest, most trusted companies in the industry, it seemed certain they would eventually be on the list. This year they rebooted their affiliate program, bringing some of the top email affiliates into the fold through their industry-famous email API.

 7) Convert2Media almost made it last year in the top 10 but with the strong industry leadership of their founder Steve Howe, and his legendary fraud-catching videos the company has made 2012 a banner year. Expect a lot more from this company in the next year.

 6) ClickBooth is down from #2, but still remains one of the top revenue generating networks in the world. They have been focusing on their new CPC platform, providing publishers with a great new revenue stream.

 5) CPAlead is a new entry into the list, and is one of the large incent and content lockingcompanies. Based in Las Vegas, they are known for their ability to take almost any offer and make millions overnight with their huge base of incent affiliates. With the new CEO Peter Tarr, the company has grown in huge leaps and bounds.

4) Adscend Media is down from #3 this year, but it doesn’t mean that things aren’t going great for them. Fehzan Ali and his team become the heroes of the industry, beating Facebook and the Washington AG in a legal battle. Focused on content locking, they are definitely making a name for themselves.

3)  Affiliate Venture Group became a name in the industry based on ethics and networking in 2012 and quickly became a favorite of affiliates and advertisers.  Ricky Ahuja and Chris Kautz-Scanavy charmed the industry this year bring new found attention to their company.

2)  MaxBounty made 2012 their biggest year ever and has celebrated their success with numerous giveaways and launching perhaps the biggest affiliate rewards program ever seen in the industry at AffiliateRewards.com

1) PeerFly is once again at the top of the list, partially because of its enormous base of loyal affiliates. People just really love Peerfly. They have managed to perfect the art of the offer, getting whatever product or customer necessary to make their affiliates happy. Last yearLuke Kling, one of their affiliate managers won the prize of top affiliate manager. If anyone is looking for an offer, they’ll probably have it.

Adknowledge Offers Bailout of Bad Affiliate Network Debt

With all the networks having problems, going bankrupt, not paying their debts and generally being total epic scumbags, it’s good to see some network step up to the plate to helpaffiliates. Adknowledge, the mega-online marketing company with divisions in social, mobile, display and of course, affiliate CPA marketing, has announced a program where they will help affiliates affected by the industry downturn.

The program will offer up to a 30% bonus to all affiliates based on any additional traffic they sent to Adknowledge for two months. For those affiliates who are owed money from other networks, this is perhaps one of the best ways to make additional cash.

“We hate to see the affiliates left holding the bag,” said Adknowledge CEO Ben Legg. “Too many ad networks have gone bankrupt, leaving affiliates with no payments and no answers. As one of the most stableand longest standing network, Adknowledge felt it could help by picking up the tab and offering that extra layer of security that affiliates are looking for at this time.”

Through the Affiliate Relief Program, Adknowledge will provide affiliates with up to a 30% bonus based on incremental Adknowledge revenue earned over and above that affiliate’s Adknowledge revenue from the preceding calendar month. Adknowledge cites a recent flurry of calls from affiliates running on other networks who are concerned about even more networks going under as the impetus for this program, and sincerely hopes that its willingness to pay these unpaid affiliates helps restore some stability to the industry as a whole.

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

The makings of the next gen affiliate network

There are prominent signs all around us of a sea change .My clients in the travel business frequently talk about how they are trying to compensate for the decrease in profits from air ticket sales by offering a variety of services. That helps of course but more important is how one distributes these services in the fastest possible manner to the most distant markets. I feel the answer lies in one of the oldest practices of travel business - Affiliate networks

The travel industry is the one of the oldest social networks. Even before Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter became such a rage for promoting business, the travel fraternity, through its network of affiliates and alliances, was using the principles of social networking to share its offerings and to reach out to markets.

Although the technology wasn’t there, this old school “travel social network” was a highly effective one. In a business where co-operation and sharing of services made the difference between success and failure, sharing ones service offerings with the farthest corners of the world remained and still remains the key.

Does this mean the travel affiliate network is a social network? Actually no, it is something much more but the principles that govern a social network are also very relevant to an affiliate network.

So what has changed? In an era of travel technology and ecommerce, reaching out to affiliates and sharing the right set of services is one of the strategic decisions that travel businesses have to take. While social networking platforms help, the biggest challenge today is how to effectively share your services to more and more affiliates across the world.

Setting up an affiliate network is not just about letting them know that you exist. It is about making your affiliate a part of your business process and about sharing relevant offerings that bring long term business value. The benefits would be immediate. Just like the “likes” on your social page define your popularity on the web, the “connects “in your affiliate network would define your reach and scalability.

The question is - Can we package the complexity of travel e-commerce and the simplicity of sharing on a social network, into one “easy to use” technology platform? Affiliate management technology today has reached a level of maturity that encompasses this thought.

There is another way to look at it. A hundred years ago the biggest barrier in travel business was communication. Although we were able to tide over this shortcoming through innovation in technology, other barriers emerged. Today the challenges in the fuel and energy industry are as relevant as the challenges, due to lack of communication technology, all those year ago.

If we are asked to rethink the most important driver of doing business in the travel domain today, I would say that it is time to go back to the basics. How can we adopt the old way of thinking in this new age? How can we evolve a business landscape where every travel entity, in some way, is a part of someone’s extended network?