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.

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 (www.cj.com)

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 (www.clickbank.com)

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 (www.linkshare.com)

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 promote. LinkShare pays commissions as they receive them from merchants - monthly checks.

4. Affiliate Window (www.affiliatewindow.com)

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 (www.amazon.com)

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 (www.shareasale.com)

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 (www.google.com/adsense/)

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 (www.linkconnector.com)

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 (www.cpaempire.com)

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 middlemen, 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.

Article Source: http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Top-10-List-of-the-Best-Affiliate-Networks/106168

Google Adsense Vs Affiliate Programs

Google Adsense is a structured way to earn good money out of what Google makes from its advertisers on Adwords. The way it works is that advertisers pay top dollar to get their ads listed on Google. Google gets paid on every click that happens on the ad. By distributing the ads on your website and mine, they stand to gain more exposure, regain advertising funds quicker and also pay us good money!

Why you benefit?

The reason Adsense has become so popular is because it allows websites like ours to earn good money from the commissions Google receives from advertisers. By just placing a couple of ads on the site, you can earn a good commission percentage. However, there are certain drawbacks that an Adsense program has.

What it can do for your site

One good thing about Adsense is its immediate ability to boost your page ranking and popularity on search engines. That way you tend to receive a lot of traffic to your affiliate site. Also, people with affiliate programs on their site can actually look at Adsense as an alternate way of supplementing their income. Adsense lets you monitor which ads are performing and earning you most income. They do this by placing some Javascript code into your site which monitors the performance. Most of the time the traffic that comes to your site will most likely not find what they are looking for, on your site alone. That's where Adsense helps you. Even if customers don't find what they're looking for on your site, they can still visit the ads sponsored by Adsense and help provide you additional income. It basically provides you an alternate path to earn money online.

The context

In order to make your Adsense program most profitable as part of your affiliate program, you need to ensure you have contextual and relevant ads placed on your site. Else it defeats the very purpose. You want customers to click on these ads if they don't find something on your site. Hence it needs to be closely related to your website theme and your own products. Most contextual ads are characterized by lots of clicks but poor conversion rates. So make sure to test these ads out before placing them on your site. Pros and cons Both affiliate marketing and Google's Adsense have their own pitfalls and benefits. Here we explain the pros and cons of each.

Google Adsense:

Pros:

- Good for informational sites which do not have associated affiliate products to sell

- It allows you to create a content page without worrying about updating the content

- Very scalable. Adsense sites are low maintenance which make these good for the upkeep of multiple sites.

Cons:

- Not a good income generator when considering long term opportunities. It's because mailing lists are best for building customer relations. In Adsense you aren't asking for a subscription, instead just asking customers to click on ads.

- Search engine dependency. Adsense sites predominantly depend on the search engines to divert traffic. Hence if by chance an algorithm changes on a search engine, you risk losing a lot of income and traffic in the process.

Affiliate marketing:

Pros:

- More long term in nature which allows you to build on assets and customer relations

- Main focus is on creating and building email lists since they are the backbone for all promotional efforts

- Allows you to focus on a niche segment you like. This is unlike an Adsense program which tends to focus on only high paying keywords.

Cons:

- Involves the use and skill over persuasive tactics in order to coax customers to visit the site and buy products. For novices, this can be a difficult aspect.

- Every site needs plenty of effort. You need to spend time in creating product reviews, email list creation as well as web content creation - which can take up considerable time.

Balance it out

Both Adsense as well as affiliate marketing have their own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the best approach would be to balance the two to maximize your income potential online. You could have content on your site which you are interested in, while combining it with Adsense revenues.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/google-adsense-vs-affiliate-programs-243100.html

The End of Google's Affiliate Programs?

When Google launched their referral buttons, Darren over at Problogger.net raised a pretty interesting point. He speculated on whether Google’s link-up with Firefox marked the start of a range of affiliate products for publishers that Google were planning to roll out.

Now that the buttons have been around for a while, I have to say that I’d be pretty surprised if Google decided to try out any more.

I’m not aware of anyone making any serious money out of them. The ad units are great. The link units can do pretty well. The image ads not so much. And the referral buttons might buy someone a small coffee once a month... provided they have an audience which has never heard of Firefox.

The real problem with the referral buttons we were offered was that they just weren’t very competitive. There’s a whole range of different affiliate programs that we can sign up to online and the payment terms that Google was offering just didn’t beat what was out there -- a dollar for a download? One hundred dollars when someone you’ve signed up for AdSense breaks a century? You’ll probably do better sending people to some dating site or pushing books at Amazon.

The buttons don’t do any harm. But I don’t think anyone really expects them to do a great deal of good either.

The fact that we haven’t seen any additions to these programs suggests that Google has picked up the message that affiliate programs just aren’t their strong points. In fact, I don’t think AdSense has produced anything yet that beats the basic ad unit. That was a killer idea... and no one’s beaten it yet. We’ve had a few false starts when companies have brought out some attractive new products but the bottom line is that it’s still the good old AdSense ad unit that’s keeping those fat checks coming in.

That doesn’t mean that Google shouldn’t be looking for new ways to make us all a little richer. But they need to be original if they’re going to make it work, and do something that no one else has done.

Or they can just focus on rolling out new formats and adjusting the Smart Pricing so that my prices go up. I’d be happier if they just did that than offer more affiliate buttons.

Joel Comm is The Internet Revenue Expert. Online for over 20 years, Joel teaches people how to make money in the digital age. The recognized authority on Google AdSense, Joel teaches how to multiply your AdSense income at The AdSense Code. To ask Joel Comm a question about making money online, visit http://www.AskJoelComm.com Joel invites you to download a free copy of The Internet Money Tree at http://www.internetmoneytree.net

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joel_Comm

Promote Affiliate Programs Through Your Own Google Adwords Campaign

by: Maxine Hough

Did you know that Forbes magazine has reported that pay per click ad sales are expected to increase to at least an astounding $8 billion by the year 2008? Pay per click though still unfamiliar to many, will be around for a very long time. One of the search engine giants to capture a lion's share of this market is Google through its Google Adwords service. A few ebooks like Google Cash and The Definitive Guide To Google AdWords provide basic and advance knowledge on releasing the incredible power of pay per click campaigns especially as this applies to businesses and affiliates around the world. Big businesses are still the largest group to benefit from incorporating pay per click in their advertising budgets but, home-based businesses and affiliate program promoters can benefit too if they understand how to use this tool.

Pay per click search engines provide a way for you to basically buy your way to the top of search results for any keyword you wish. Pay per click advertising works thru a bidding process, and your ads appear in the results pages of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves. With Google Adwords you bid on the keywords you want to focus your ad on. For example if someone were searching on "gourmet coffee", if you're the highest bidder for "gourmet coffee" you receive top placement for that phrase and depending on the search engine, the top 3-5 bidders for that phrase also receive placement on the first page of unpaid search results.

With Google Adwords the "ad campaign" is everything. When you sign up with Google Adwords you have unlimited campaigns at your disposal. I enjoy promoting affiliate programs and in the past I spent a lot of time deciding which keywords I would bid on to attract buyers to my affiliate programs. The only tool I use right now is Ad Word Analyzer which saves tremendously on time and gives me an overview of my keyword and/or keyword phrase as it was searched on the top two pay per click search engines Google and Overture ( now called Yahoo Search Marketing ).

Now that you've done your research and you've collected your keywords and/or keyword phrases, you'll need to open an Adwords account.

1. To do this go to https://adwords.google.com/. There is a one time sign up fee of $5 and your username and password are emailed to you.

2. Now you can log into the system and select "create a new campaign". Give your campaign a name that will also allow you to create multiple campaigns.

3. Before creating your first ad, I recommend that you print out Google's set of guidelines, ebooks such as Google Cash cover this area as well. Since most of you are probably promoting affiliate programs, it's important that you notify Google of this by simply adding "aff" at the end of your ad text.

A few tips to keep in mind:

a. To keep your ad targeted, make sure your keyword or keyword phrase is in the headline.

b. Put your keyword or keyword phrase in the text of your ad.

c. In promoting your affiliate program, make sure you're linked directly to the owner's website thru your affiliate link so that you'll get the credit and the cash!

Now you can submit your ad and start tracking your campaign over the next few days. If you're not happy with your ad's performance you can make changes such as targeting other keywords or increasing your bid a little at a time. Adwords is flexible in allowing you to make changes within Google guidelines of course, to make your ad campaigns successful.

Pay per click is here to stay and it offers a high level of assurance that your ad is reaching your targeted audience. With the proper management and a clear vision, pay per click specifically Google Adwords, can provide you with well targeted and economical advertising on the internet.

As mentioned earlier pay per click ad sales are expected to increase to at least $8 billion by 2008, with Google Adwords, the right resources and a little effort on your part, you can also benefit from this increase and find yourself with a significant supplemental income each month or a fulltime "leave my 9-5 job" income. The sky is truly the limit with pay per click.

Article Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/marketing/article_1677.shtml

Affiliate Marketers Will Never Make a Dime Using Google Adwords

by: Kevin Emswiler

Most people start off their affiliate marketing business by getting traffic from google adwords. I know, because that’s how I started. If your anything like me, you purchased Google Cash or another pay per click ebook and you set up your first campaign. Latter on after many campaigns you found out that it was a lot harder than you originally thought.

Here’s why! Pay per click advertising works well for businesses that can count on repeat business. As an affiliate you usually don’t have that luxury. Your relying on one purchase per customer and then you’ll probably never see that customer again. A good E-business on the other hand knows that with every person that becomes a customer they can rely on x number of purchases from that customer. This also allows them to bid significantly higher than affiliates because they can make their profits from the back-end.. A business that can rely on a minimum of four purchases per customer for example, can burn up their profits on the first and second purchases and still make profits on the third and fourth purchase.

The last reason affiliates have a hard time is because conversion rates for a typical pay per click campaign average less than 1%. Its hard to make a profit with that kind of conversion rate. I’m not saying its impossible, but affiliate marketers utilizing pay per click advertising for their traffic are definitely fighting an uphill battle.

Article Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_3264.shtml

5 Hidden Ways Super Affiliates Use Google to Boost Sales

by: Codrut Turcanu


Have you ever wondered why and how Super Affiliates are using Google to Boost their Sales?

HINT: Google.com is a TOP Search Engine and maybe the most POPULAR. Other MAJOR Search Engines are Altavista.com and Msn.com.

FACT: last month there were 8 622 220 searches on Overture for "google.com" term.

I am going to show you below 5 ways Super Affiliates use Google to Boost their Sales:

Way #1 - Google Toolbar

Google offers a *free* downloadable TOOL called Google Toolbar that works into your browser. Super Affiliates use it mainly to find popular Web Sites by Page Rank and backward links.

Google Toolbar SAVES time by helping Super Affiliates to block pop-ups, autofill Web forms, translate Web Pages into English and more.

Way #2 - Google AdSense

Super Affiliates can GENERATE more revenue by serving highly targeted text-based ads on their Web Sites via the *free* Google AdSense program.

AdSense delivers Google ads relevant to the information people see on a Web Sites / Page.

When someone clicks on the ad, you profit.

You can find more info about Google AdSense at: https://www.google.com/adsense

You can even profit from their red-hot referral program that pays $100 when someone you referred makes his first $100, as well as $1 when someone downloads the FireFox browser from Google Toolbar.

Way #3 - Google AdWords

Google AdWords offers Super Affiliates a low-cost way to send targeted visitors (*traffic*) to their Web Sites and finally generate more *Sales*.

With AdWords advertising program you pay only when someone clicks on your ad.

You can find more info about Google AdWords at: https://adwords.google.com/select

Way #4 - Google DomainPark

Google DomainPark enables Super Affiliates who own lots of domain names to unlock the value in their parked page inventory.

DomainPark delivers targeted keywords and ads to parked domain name pages. DomainPark's technology analyzes domain names and displays targeted ads and related searches based on the meaning of the domain name.

If your Web Sites generate more than 750,000 page views per month, DomainPark could be the opportunity you've been waiting for.

You can find more info about Google DomainPark at: http://www.google.com/domainpark

Way #5 - Google Web Search

Super Affiliates use Google to search for high *traffic*, targeted keywords with less competitor Web Sites.

They use those keywords to build optimized Web Sites / Pages that bring *free* visitors on a regular basis.

Super Affiliates use Google to find out why other Web Sites ranked high for certain keywords and will try to achieve a higher ranking based on their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) knowledge.


Article Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/marketing/article_2196.shtml

Proceeds Mixed Through Affiliate Marketing and Google Adsense

by: Lionel Estridge

Do you happen to be a webmaster that needs money for your website? Well if you are a web publisher you're going to need cash, affiliate marketing may work for you. With affiliate marketing, you may get a lot of cash driving into your bank. Furthermore if your website is rich in great contents, why not get into the Google Adsense program?

Why Affiliate Marketing?

Because affiliate marketing is most likely the best way to earn profits online. Even online retailers can gain from affiliate marketing programs, affiliate marketing actually works for merchants as well as it works for the affiliates.

Simply said, is a liaison or agreement made between two websites, with one site being the merchant's website and the other being the affiliate's site. The affiliate agrees to let the merchant promote his products on the affiliate's site, and the merchant, agree to pay the affiliate in whatever scheme they have agreed into. This would normally mean easy profits for the affiliate, as he would do nothing but place the retailer's ad on his site. This would also be very favourable for the merchant, as getting affiliates to advertise their goods would be a lot more affordable than hiring an advertising firm to promote their products.

There are a range of methods on how the merchant would compensate the affiliate for his services, and for the webmaster, these methods simply translates to the method by which he would earn easy money. Among the more common methods of compensation are the pay-per-click method, the pay-per-lead method, and the pay-per-sale method. The pay-per-click method is the method most favoured by affiliates, for their site's visitor would only have to visit the advertiser's site for them to gain money. The other two methods are better preferred by merchants, as they would only have to compensate you if your visitor becomes one of their registrants or if the visitor would actually buy their products.

Getting takings on affiliate marketing programs does not depend so much on the payment method it does on the traffic generated by your site. A website that can catch the attention of more visitors would usually have the greater chance of profiting in affiliate marketing programs.

Google Adsense.

Google Adsense is in fact some sort of an affiliate marketing program. In Google Adsense, Google act as the agent between the affiliates and the merchants. The merchant, or the advertiser, would sign up with Google and provide the latter with text ads pertaining to their products. These ads, which are in fact a link to the advertiser's website, would then appear on Google searches as well as on the websites owned by the affiliates, or by webmasters who have signed up with the Google Adsense program.

While one can find a lot of similarities between Google Adsense and other affiliate marketing programs, you can also see a lot of differences. In Google Adsense, all the webmaster has to do is place a code on his website and Google takes care of the rest. The ads that Google would place on your site would generally be related to the content of your site. This would be helpful both for you and for the advertiser, as the visitors of your site would more or less be interested with the products being advertised.

The Google Adsense program compensates the affiliate in a pay-per-click basis. The advertisers would pay Google a certain amount each time their ad on your site is clicked and Google would then forward this sum to you through checks, although only after Google have deducted their share of the amount. Also, the Google Adsense program provides webmasters with a tracking tool that allows you to monitor the earnings you get from a certain ad.

Where do all of these lead us to?

To profits! Affiliate marketing programs and the Google Adsense program plainly work, whether you are the merchant or the affiliate. For the merchant's side, a lot of money can be saved if advertising effort is concentrated on affiliate marketing rather than on dealing with advertising firms. For the webmaster, you can easily gain a lot of profits just by doing what you do best, by creating websites. And if you combine all your profits from both the Google Adsense program and other affiliate marketing programs, it would certainly convert to a large amount of cash.

Article Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/marketing/article_2391.shtml