Best Affiliate Programs

Affiliate marketing programs typically work by having the merchant handle all the logistics involved in selling products or services, processing customer orders and payments, and shipping merchandise—all while the affiliate sits back and collects a commission for each agreed-upon action completed by the visitors the affiliate sends to the merchant’s website via an affiliate link. As long as the affiliate has done her homework and chosen a trustworthy affiliate program, she needn’t worry about non-payment.


1.        LinkShare

Reportedly the largest affiliate network, with over 10 million affiliate partnerships, LinkShare took the number-one spot in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 Affiliate Networks for platform strength, support quality, and international capabilities.

LinkShare offers over 2,500 affiliate programs and lets you choose whether to have every aspect of your affiliate channel managed for you or whether you would rather manage your own program using the company’s various service and support options.


2.        Commission Junction

Said to be the largest affiliate marketing network in North America (though it operates globally) and claiming the number-two spot in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 Affiliate Networks for being “the best at balancing the relationship between the merchants, the network, and the affiliates,” California-based Commission Junction, owned by ValueClick, Inc., offers affiliate, media, and tracking services and provides either a self-management or company-managed option for your affiliate relationships.


3.        Coupon Affiliate Programs

Coupon sites are the hottest way of making money online through affiliate programs. After reading all details & checking reviews of a product, they look for discount coupons or deals to buy that product.

You can create a coupon site similar to Coupon Connexion where you can post  coupons & deals daily. You need to do good SEO & some promotions so that traffic to your website increased & you can sell more products.

You need to signup affiliate program with all the top online stores so that you can insert your affiliate links in all the deals you post.


4.        Hosting Affiliate

Hosting is the highest paid affiliate programs & more than 70% of all hosting are sold through affiliate links only. You can earn $100 or even more for selling a single web hosting.

Some of the popular sites you can promote is HostGator, GoDaddy, BlueHost, SiteGround, DreamHost etc.

There are 2 ways you can start with hosting affiliate. One is by writing reviews on different hosting sites OR other by creating a coupon site that provides coupons for hosting only.

Both of these ways works best if your domain name contain hosting & other keyword like ‘review’ or ‘coupon’. Some of the examples of domain names are hostingcoupontoday .com, latesthostingcoupon .com, myhostingreviews .com.

Try to find something with .com but that is not compulsory. You can go for other options with country code like .in, .co.uk, OR .net, .info etc. But yes, SEO is necessary.


5.        Amazon Associates

One of the most widely used affiliate program by affiliate marketers. Really great for new marketers because you are already familiar with using Amazon.com!

You can promote either Amazon.com, Amazon.in or Amazon in your country. Some of the advantages are it is very easy to use and a wide variety of product you can choose and promote. Whatever you like!

Moreover the threshold payment amount is very low and sign up process is also easy. However the commission rates are quite low and that is a big downfall but still you can start with Amazon associates.


6.        Google Affiliate Network

According to the network’s Overview page, “Google Affiliate Network helps advertisers increase online conversions on a performance basis and enables publishers to monetize traffic with affiliate ads.”

Google Affiliate Network is a pay-per-action network that pays commissions to its affiliates for driving conversions (sales or leads). The network requires a Google AdSense account for posting ads to the affiliate’s website or blog and facilitating affiliate payments.


7.        ClixGalore

ClixGalore is an Australian PPA (pay-per-action) affiliate network that also has offices in the US, UK, and Japan. The company offers various types of programs, including PPM (pay-per-impression), PPL (pay per lead), PPS (pay-per-sale), and PPC (pay-per-click). Many programs pay in US dollars.

Some well-known brands that use ClixGalore for their affiliate offerings are Bluehost, Time Life, Trend Micro, Citibank, and Fox Sports Shop. While not as widely known as some of the other affiliate networks, ClixGalore is a solid network that offers thousands of potential merchant programs. The network also offers a two-tier network. By referring other affiliates to the network, current affiliates can receive a portion of their earnings.


8.        ClickBank

Click Bank just like Commission junction is also one of the oldest affiliate networks. I started with Click Bank.

The network offers some serious benefits for new affiliate marketers. Like commission rate could be up to 75% and there are  myriads of products to choose from.

They pay you weekly or monthly plus threshold amount is also very low.

However, you need to be careful with choosing products because many of them are just trash.

·         Threshold Amount: $10

·         Payment Mode: Pay Check, Pay Pal

·         Website: accounts.clickbank.com

9.        iTunes Affiliate Program

There is no doubt about the huge sales growth of apple products all over the world. And there is no doubt that people who buy apple products don’t purchase music, apps, books & more from iTunes store.

So there is great potential & good commission if you write about various iTunes apps & other products & give people a reason to buy the same from iTunes.

You can find more details at apple.com/itunes/affiliates.


10.        MaxBounty

MaxBounty came in sixth in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 CPA Networks, though it didn’t make a showing in the Blue Book’s top 20 affiliate networks. In business since 2004, the network was founded on the philosophy of paying its affiliates more.

MaxBounty pays affiliate commissions weekly, and the company appears to have a good reputation among its affiliates. In fact, the network is popular among many top affiliate marketers and has received numerous positive reviews and writeups and critiques over the past several years.


11.        Neverblue.com

Neverblue is a pay-per-action affiliate program that pays its affiliates for lead, download, and sale generation, as well as for new affiliate referrals. While Neverblue didn’t make the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 Affiliate Networks, it did take the number-one spot in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 CPA Networks.

Note: Neverblue’s parent company, Velo Holdings, Inc, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy earlier this year and now plans to sell the network at auction to pay its debts.

Despite this, the affiliate program has stated the following: “This filing will not impact Neverblue’s ability to meet client needs in any way—we intend to continue to operate business as usual without interruption. Neverblue’s business is fundamentally strong and we intend to make all affiliate payments on schedule, in a timely and reliable manner.”

Its management is just as confident that the sale will not affect Neverblue’s ability to meet its affiliates’ needs in any way. While this company tends to inspire high confidence among affiliates, you’ll have to decide whether to jump in now or wait a while to see how things go after the sale.