Third party affiliate networks such as Commission Junction,
LinkShare, Shareasale and ClickBank are essential resources
for the serious online affiliate marketer. They provide the
affiliate marketer with products to sell, website content,
hourly stats, complete tracking and collecting services. More
importantly they send out your monthly commission checks.
If you're new to online affiliate marketing, perhaps a brief
explanation is needed. Any webmaster or marketer can join an
affiliate program and place affiliate links on their websites
or blogs; if a visitor to your site clicks on one of your
affiliate links or banners and goes to that company's site and
buys a product or signs up for a service - you earn a commission
for having referred that customer. A commission can run from
a few cents to hundreds of dollars or more, depending on the
product's price and your percentage of the sale.
Third party affiliate networks are like Mega Affiliate Sites.
View them as malls for the online affiliate marketer - there
are thousands of companies under one roof or control panel. An
affiliate can join a third party network like LinkShare and
once accepted, you will be able to access and promote thousands
of high profile companies like Apple, Dell, RadioShack...
The affiliate then uses the merchant's banners, online coupons,
or text link codes to promote their chosen merchants.
The main advantage of using a program like LinkShare and those
mentioned above, you can easily join and control all your
affiliate links and codes through one site. Its acts like an
agent for marketers - it will work on your behalf for a small
percentage of the commissions. Only drawback, expect to earn
slightly less than if you dealt directly with the merchants
involved because these third party programs do take their cut.
I have been working all of the above programs for years, mainly
with my main marketing website www.bizwaremagic.com. The
following are some pointers you may find helpful if you're
planning on trying any or all of these programs.
First, like most people starting an online business, my
skeptic's thinking was in overdrive - I had many doubts and
misgivings. I have a background in art and even as a very minor
fine artist I have had a lot of experiences with art dealers
and gallery owners. Most of my artworks were sold on consignment
and sometimes just getting your commission checks was either a
constant pain or a very long wait, usually two to three months.
I expected the same with working on the Internet, I had
preconceived ideas that have been proven totally false. To
my complete surprise all of my dealings with these companies
have been very professional and pleasantly rewarding. These
companies do send you your commissions and most send them on a
regular and timely basis. Anyone who is used to getting a
regular paycheck every two weeks may also be surprised, like
I was, to get 10 - 20 regular checks each month. For the
first couple of months I was operating in a 'shock and awe'
mode.
Commission Junction
One of the first affiliate programs I used was Commission
Junction (www.cj.com). It was acquired by ValueClick in 2003
and they have around 1300 companies from which you may choose
to promote. Most merchants offer pay-per-sale or pay-per-lead,
many merchants offer performance bonuses. You also have the
option of direct deposit for your payments.
They pay monthly and they pay regularly. The way their control
panel or monthly stats are handled does take some getting used
to at first, but once you start working CJ, things run very
smoothly and they have the best reporting and tracking of all
these programs.
One major plus, they tell you which companies are earning the
most money for affiliates... you can then judge which merchants
are worth promoting on the Internet. Commissions are different
for each company, some go as high as 50%.
Linkshare
LinkShare (www.linkshare.com) is one of the oldest affiliate
programs on the web. It has just been taken over by the
Japanese Portal Rakuten, with a price tag of $425M. I expect
the quality of Linkshare to go up in the coming months with the
recent appointment of Steven R. Denton as President.
Linkshare's Statistics and reporting are very comprehensive
with their SynergyAnalytics system. Top brand merchants make
this program worth your while. It has a large number of Fortune
500 companies that provide the affiliate marketer with well
known products to promote. Some of my checks from them have been
very slow in coming but they do arrive but this area in my opinion
has to be improved upon. Hopefully, the Japanese takeover
will improve things.
Shareasale
Shareasale (www.shareasale.com) is also a very easy system to
work. It has good stats and joining merchants is a breeze.
It has around 1,700 Merchants to choose from. I only have a
few programs with Shareasale so my experience is limited,
but they do send their checks out on time , usually the month
following your sales. The control panel is easy to use and
reporting is also excellent.
ClickBank
ClickBank (www.clickbank.com) is a little different in that
it deals mainly in digital download products. The commissions
from ClickBank are much higher, usually around 40% to 50% or
even higher. Personally, although I have a marketing website,
I have found selling marketing-info products to be the toughest
niche to crack. Mainly because you have stiff competition from
the best Internet Marketers who have large contact lists and
know exactly what they're doing. To further explain, these
top marketers will often offer a whole array of their own
bonuses when marketing a high ticket item - this tactic
will quickly eat up a large share of customers who want
to buy any given product.
Other niche products through ClickBank sell better. The same
principle holds true for all these programs, little known
niches will offer quicker returns for the beginning marketer.
Needless to say, you will have better success if you tie in
your affiliate companies or products directly to the subject
or topic of your website or blog. Whether it be home
entertainment systems, gardening equipment or Mediterranean
cruises - you will have a better conversion rate (number of
sales/compared to number of visitors) if you pick products
directly related to your site's content.
ClickBank has over 10,000 products that a marketer or webmaster
can promote. ClickBank also pays every two weeks. They will
hold back a small percentage to cover charge-backs, but you
receive this hold back a little later. Small price to pay for
getting your checks every two weeks. ClickBank has the least
user-friendly online stats of all these programs, although it
now offers a search engine to help you find your products to
market. I have always found it difficult to check which product
has sold, so many nicknames for the different products, I find
it hard to keep track of what products are selling. Although
you can buy software programs to solve this problem.
Amazon
Amazon is another online company that also handles some
third party orders. ToysRus is one of their merchants. Very
good stats and easy links to place on your sites. Commission rates
are rather low, I sell laptops through my main site, an average
priced laptop will bring in around $25 in commissions. A
commission from Independent affiliate programs like Alienware
or Rockdirect would be double or triple that amount.
On the other hand, I found the conversion rate for Amazon to
be higher, mainly (I believe) because people are used to buying
from Amazon online, it has earned their respect and has a well
earned reputation for service and quality. Consumers feel
comfortable ordering from Amazon. You may earn less per sale
but you make many more sales so it evens out. Note that
payments are only done quarterly, but if you work Amazon to
any extent, those checks can be quite large.
My Number One Tactic For Using These Affiliate Networks
Keep your eyes open and watch carefully to see which companies
are doing a lot of advertising (tv, radio, newspapers) in the
real world! Many times all this advertising will point to a
popular trend or item that's selling rapidly. Pick those same
products or companies from any of the affiliate programs listed
here and place the affiliate links on your sites.
For instance, Dell does a lot of TV commercials... when people
go online and come across a Dell product on your site, changes
are good that they have already just watched a commercial for
the same product and may be in the mood for more information
or even in the market for that product. Pick companies that do
a lot of advertising, are household names and very familiar to
your website visitors. The Internet is still a very scary
place in most people's minds, a well known and well advertised
product or company will help break down this barrier. It will
make your job as an affiliate marketer just that much more
easier. And help make those monthly commission checks just a
little bit bigger.
.....
The author runs a modest Internet Marketing web site where you
will find helpful online guides on RSS/Blogging, Laptops, SEO,
Affiliate Programs, List Building, Internet Fax and quite a
few
Free Marketing Tools. Including the very popular
Free Desktop Calendar & Planner Copyright © 2006 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely
distributed if this resource box stays attached.
