Affiliate Networks You Should Be Using

Posted on July 31, 2011
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Affiliate programs (programs run by merchants to sell their products or services via affiliates) are considered to be one of the fastest ways of making a good income from the internet. Beginners who want to make money online will especially find this a very encouraging way to start an online business, because, after all, we all need to have proof that an online internet income is good and sustainable. We need victories, no matter how small, and these victories are essential if we want to keep the mood up and the enthusiasm going.

Merchants with affiliate programs often end up joining affiliate networks. These networks offer an advantage to merchants by providing the merchants with ready made processing and payment services, as well as hordes of hungry affiliates-to-be who will do all they can to market the merchant products or services, all for a commission, of course. Usually the merchant affiliate program includes a lot of sales aids for the affiliate to use such as banners, information material and the like.

A virtual beginner will definitely find it difficult to choose between the various affiliate networks available. There are dozens of affiliate networks around and not all of them are suitable for the niche you are in. The two most popular affiliate networks in the online marketing world are Clickbank and Commission Junction.

Clickbank Affiliate Network

One of the most popular of affiliate networks. The Clickbank network concentrates almost exclusively on digital programs and ebooks. There are two ways of making money in the Clickbank network. You either market a program or ebook that you have developed (new merchants or vendors who want to market their programs or ebooks through Clickbank, CLICK HERE), or you become an affiliate of the merchant who is marketing them and earn a commission on their sales. Signing up on Clickbank is easy. Clickbank takes care of all the processing and payment issues and takes a commission out of you and of the merchant for successful sales. There are thousands of merchants in Clickbank network, marketing all sorts of programs and ebooks. Once you are registered with Clickbank you can become an affiliate for any one or all of these merchants.

The most common grouse for Clickbank affiliates is this: payment is by cheque, and threshold for payouts is for a minimum of $100, and if your commissions have been stagnant for a while because of poor sales (which needs to be made through 5 different credit card payments), Clickbank regularly deducts a small sum from whatever balance unpaid commission you have in your account. Currently this stands at about $1 per 2 weeks. So if you have not made any sales for a while, your balance of unpaid commission rapidly becomes a big fat zero. A rather unfair practice in my opinion, as this commission was earned through all your hard work and sweat.

Having said that, Clickbank is considered to be one of the most efficient and reliable of affiliate networks. Many bloggers and internet marketers do make money online via Clickbank as affiliates, through their blogs, email lists and adwords campaigns, enough to make a pretty decent living.

Merchants who wish to register with the Clickbank as vendors CLICK HERE

Commission Junction Affiliate Network

Another popular affiliate program. Easy enough to sign up, but in this case products sold by merchants can be products or services. In the majority of cases, inclusion as an affiliate of any merchant has to be approved manually, which means the merchant will need to approve of you as an affiliate before you are allowed to market his product or service. In this age of instant gratification, it can be rather upsetting if approval of your application is slow, or denied for whatever reason, and even more so if you felt that your website was drawing in enough traffic who could be big buyers for the product or service that the merchant whom you were trying to be an affiliate for, was selling.

Payments are reliable and also subject to a minimum threshold.