An Introduction to Affiliate Networks
An Introduction to Affiliate Networks
If you’ve just gotten started with affiliate marketing online, you might still be wondering what affiliate networks are, why they’re used, and which ones are the best to work with. So we’ll cover these basics for you right now.
What is an Affiliate Network?
An affiliate network is a place where you can sign up once, have just one username and password, and one control center for all your stats, but you can promote hundreds or thousands of affiliate programs, partners and products all at once.
Some affiliate networks allow you to simply set up an account and start getting promotional codes for whatever products you’d like to, while others require you to apply to each merchant and be approved before you can start promoting the products.
There are affiliate networks who will combine all your commission earnings into one paycheck, and there are those who will have each merchant pay you individually. And these are things you should take into consideration when joining any affiliate network.
Why Use Affiliate Networks?
There is no rule that says an affiliate marketer has to use an affiliate network. In fact, plenty of marketers don’t use the networks much at all, because they feel independant affiliate programs are more personable, and pay higher commissions.
One of the best reasons to use an affiliate network though, is the wide variety of program access it gives you. Instead of hunting the web for ten affiliate programs all centered on a specific niche topic – and signing up at ten different places when you find them – you can simply sign up at one place, and potentially find hundreds of partners for your niche all at once.
The second best reason to join an affiliate network is the payout benefits. When you have ten separate affiliate merchants you’re promoting, and each of those accounts requires you to earn a minimum amount of commissions before you’ll receive payment, that can take some time. With many affiliate networks however, all of your commission earnings are added together. So even if you’ve only earned a few dollars with each merchant, the combined total of those earnings is often more than enough for you to receive payments more quickly.
Which Affiliate Networks Are Best?
There are many excellent affiliate networks for affiliate marketers to join, but several are considered to be the best. We’ll look at each briefly here:
1. Commission Junction – One of the largest and oldest affiliate networks, CJ is an excellent place for affiliates who want to promote physical products.
2. Click Bank – Another one of the oldest affiliate networks which is quite popular, CB is for affiliates who want to promote digital products with higher commissions. Click Bank also sends commission payments every two weeks, which is quite popular with new affiliate marketers.
3. Share A Sale – SAS is very much like Commission Junction, just smaller and a slight bit newer. They have an excellent selection of physical products, with a few digital ones mixed in too.
4. Link Share – Another older and larger network, this one has many merchants to choose from but they don’t combine all of your affiliate earnings into one check.
5. Pay Dot Com – This is a newer affiliate network which is popular because affiliate payments are made through PayPal instead of with a paper check. Like Link Share though, PDC does not combine all affiliate earnings into one payment for you.
Learn more about Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Networks
Related posts
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment