Affiliate Networks

The Affiliate Networks act as the 'middle man' between you (the website owner) and the merchant (the service or product owner).

In a nutshell, the networks provide you the opportunity to join various affiliate programs, add links or banners to your site and then pay you your due commission. In turn, they will take a slice of the action from the merchant. The advantage for the merchant, is that the management of their affiliate program is out-sourced so they can get on with running their business.

Which Affiliate Network?

There are many around but you want to ensure you are working with reputable companies who have a broad offering of affiliate programs, offer a good support structure and actually PAY YOU!

I use the following sites and can highly recommend them. Commission Junction offers (probably) the most comprehensive reporting structure but Trade Doubler also has the ability to let you track sales by keyword. If you run any Pay Per Click campaigns, this really is very useful.

If you looking to sell electronic produces, such as eBooks or Software, then ClickBank has to be favourite, though this is less clear since the steady development of PayDotCom.

Best Affiliate Networks:

Trade Doubler has a strong UK / European network, a comprehensive affiliate management centre and a wide choice of merchants to partner with including some big name brands, including American Express, Carphone Warehouse, HMV and lots more.

It offers extensive reporting capabilities and has recently gone through a bit of a site make over. It's still not the easiest interface out there but this is more than out-weighed by the extensive list of merchants available to affiliates.

Commission Junction. CJ is my personal favourite. They have a wide choice of merchants for you, there's extensive search capability and a comprehensive suite of reporting tools.

Commission Junction have offices around the World and offer an excellent Help/Advice section. They have never been late with a payment and offer direct credit to your bank account which is paid monthly in your local currency.

ClickBank

Brilliant if you want to sell ebooks or audio. ClickBank is the long established leader in providing merchants a place to sell products that are downloaded such as ebooks and software.

If you're an affiliate looking to sell books or software this should be the first site you visit. ClickBank now allows PayPal payments and whilst there are other networks coming on the scene offering similar services, I would go with the market leader.

If there was a criticism of ClickBank, it would be the fact that payments are still sent by cheque (paid fortnightly, US$) and that fact that the affiliate management system could do with an overhaul, i.e. make it easier for affiliates to find products. This though is a minor annoyance since there are plenty of 3rd party products that help with this process.

ShareaSale

Covers the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Not as comprehensive as those network's above in terms of choice but it does provide a wide range of affiliate data feeds (RSS Feeds) that allow you to easily add your chosen merchant's products to your own site. See my video on adding RSS feeds if you need some guidance with this.

Which Affiliate Networks to Avoid?

I've stopped adding those networks that I no longer use here as it didn't seem appropriate given that some may well have improved. However, I would say there are some not listed above that I have used in the past where commissions have not been paid, support is atrocious and commission balances shrink for no apparent reason. If this list was in alphabetical order, it would stop at the letter 'Y' ;-)

The point being is that you need to have total confidence in the network(s) that you work with.

It is also worth checking out the affiliate forums for details of a network to check on credibility, honesty and payment integrity before you invest your time and energy into building your marketing campaign. You can also get a lot of feedback and reviews over at Publisher Spot. This is vital with so many networks springing up to carry out due diligence. Get behind the glossy website!