Affiliate Networks
One of the most important aspects of Affiliate Marketing is WHAT you promote. It all started (on a large scale) with Amazon.com, then tons of little private companies started creating affiliate programs. Eventually, entire businesses were formed with the idea of doing nothing other than creating one marketplace for a bunch of merchants to place their affiliate programs out there and for marketers to find them (Affiliate Networks).
Affiliate networks typically take a small fee from every transaction that occurs through them, but they process the payments, provide real-time tracking, and handle the payments for affiliates. This allows merchants to be on a level playing field, and worry about improving their business instead of maintenance work...and for us, that means we don't have to worry about late payments, poor tracking, or a lack of customer support. That's all the networks do!
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Amazon.com - Where it all began...Amazon has a great affiliate program, paying out 4-6% on all of their merchandise. It's important to consider that they pay more based on volume, meaning the more you sell, the higher commission percentage you earn. Also, you get commission on ANYTHING a customer buys through your link, even if it's not what you referred them to, within 24 hours. So, if you send someone through your link to a video game, but they buy a DVD later that night, you get credit for the sale!
It's important to note that most affiliate networks use a cookie (what tracks you as the affiliate that made the sale) that lasts 30-90 days or more, so 1 day isn't great, but it can still be quite lucrative, especially because your conversion rates will be much higher than normal due to brand awareness (trust).
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ClickBank.com - Though I've moved away from focusing on promoting digital products in the last 2 years, I still continue to make good money from the high profit margins you'll find from 50-75% commissions on ClickBank products. The key here is in finding value-added products. Many of the offers on this network are a bit too shady for me, at least on the outside.
People don't typically like the long-copy sales letters and hyped-up websites, which means it's common to get 1% conversion rates or much, much worse. With physical products (or reputable services) that people are looking for, or have at least heard of, it's common to achieve 2-4% conversion rates, which negates the advantage of the high commissions! However, if you can find a great offer that you can presell properly, you'll help your visitors and make a LOT of money.
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Commission Junction - Commission Junction is a premium network with huge companies and merchants such as Apple, Staples, Home Depot & Expedia. You can promote sites that people are used to seeing, which can greatly increase sales. While these merchants typically pay lower commissions than with sites like ClickBank, the popularity of the websites helps tremendously. The only issue with CJ is that you have to apply with a live website to most every program you want to promote. This makes competition higher-quality, but way lower quantity, which I've found to be a great thing (because there aren't 1,000's of people pushing the same thing with spammy methods)!
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Market Health - This is a nice little gem of a network. Many people are becoming filthy rich promoting products from this site, because they have a unique twist: 50% recurring commissions on physical products! Sometimes information or software just won't cut it, so providing your visitors with actual remedies for their health-related problems can help a lot more! Also, here's a tip: many of these products help with embarassing problems that most people want to take care of without going to the doctor (and most affiliates aren't attracted to the markets). If you want to break into something different from ClickBank with ClickBank-like commissions, start working with Market Health!
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Shareasale.com - One of the classics, Shareasale offers a network similar to the likes of CJ. They have stellar companies to promote, a wide range of markets to work within, great data on all offers, and timely payouts. They are definitely legit, and they're a good network to be a part of, especially if you're into 1 or 2 particular markets and want to expand your projects.
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CPA Empire - CPA offers are programs that pay a "cost per action" (sometimes called Pay Per Lead), which typically means you get money even though the customer didn't pay anything. Crazy, huh? Well, CPA Empire has some of the best offers like this, and you can make a fortune promoting them.
The key is that many of these offers, like credit card applications, insurance quotes and ringtone memberships, are extremely competitive. If you can break into one of these offers with a scalable PPC campaign, this network might just end up being one of your favorites. However, I must say that the majority of their offers are "scammy" or immoral in my opinion (like ringtone sites that charge without the customer knowing, unless they read the super fint print), so I don't like to promote them. You should be able to find some cool offers here, some of which will be value-added, which is a sign of long-term potential.
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PepperJam - This is a network that I actually joined because a merchant that I loved (NetShops) switched over to their network. In the end, I'm glad they did! They have a really cool interface, lots of great products to promote (some large companies like eBay), and they pay by direct deposit if you want them to...which rocks!
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LinkShare - This is another network on par with CJ & Shareasale. If you want to expand your campaigns and promote large companies, you might as well apply to this network, too. In fact, I've found some really cool websites to add to my portfolio of high-quality offers here that I would never have even heard of without LinkShare!
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Azoogle - This is another CPA network, but they have very different offers. There are more "legit" offers than with most CPA's, and they offer instant approval for promoting anything...once you get past their fairly tough application process. Very nice network for promoting tons of products through PPC advertising.