Top 5 Affiliate programs 2016

Even though the Google Adsense is the best monetizing network but the small website or fewer page views it is not easy to generate great CPM. As the affiliate industry is the next step chosen by bloggers to earn money.

The number of merchants who have adopted affiliate marketing techniques has gone up, which has led to fresh opportunities for affiliate bloggers and web publishers to develop an audience and promote offers.

The most popular method of promoting affiliate offers, for publishers, is to join an affiliate network and implement the available offers on their website. This does mean that a certain amount is deducted from their earnings, but the gains often outweigh this token fee.

If you don’t feel like scrolling all they way down… just click on the one you’re interested in below:

1. Google Adsense #No. 1 from last decade

Google AdSense, also known simply as AdSense, is a high paying affiliate program network owned and run by the search engine giant Google. It provides advertisement units to publishers, who have to sign up for the program network which enables them to use their publisher account to earn money through the ads posted by Google on their website / blog. Each publisher gets a unique ID upon signing up, which is used to generate ad codes for their website so they can start earning cash. You can see why adsense is on of the top affiliate networks for website and blog owners alike just by looking at our pros and cons list.

Pros

Low traffic requirements: If your website contains unique content of good quality, you will have no trouble getting approved, since it requires very little traffic – 100 or more unique visitors each day, regardless of whether your blog/site has a sub level domain or a top level domain.

Multiple monetization options: As a publisher, you will not be restricted to earning cash through posting ads directly on your website – you can monetize through search, feed, videos, mobile site, and online games etc.

Multiple language support: Google AdSense is the sole publisher network to allow posting ads in languages other than English. In fact, over thirty different languages are supported!

No waiting time for ads to show up: Because of the very long list of advertisers present in Google AdWords, ads will start showing up in your Ads space the moment you supply the ad code on your blog.

Multiple ad formats: Text ads, display ads, link ads, rich media ads and video ads are all the various formats in which you can post ads on your website to earn money.

Highest revenue share for publishers: As compared to other publisher networks, you’ll earn a greater cut of the revenue if you employ Google AdSense. For content, the revenue share is 68 percent, whereas for search, the revenue share is 51 percent!

Country specific payment methods: Depending on the country you reside in, Google AdSense will let you receive your payments using options which are readily available in your country.

Cons

Strict uniqueness restriction: If even a single article on your website gets flagged as plagiarized, you won’t be able to get your AdSense application approved. This also includes the content which was originally yours, and was copied by another party.

Payment threshold: You won’t be able to withdraw earnings under $100, which can be a bother for smaller businesses.

2. Amzon Associate

In some regards, Amazon has the most vast affiliate program of them all, containing products from over 1.6 million vendors (i.e. anyone selling products on their site), as well as thousands and thousands of affiliates. Amazon’s affiliate program mechanism is the most user friendly and easy to grasp, which makes it ideal for non-tech business minded people looking to earn money on the internet. It also provides advanced features such as APIs for sophisticated developers. Many think of Amazon as just a small ticket network but a little searching and you will realize that this can be one of the best high ticket affiliate programs out there. Many internet marketers would tell you that this is the best affiliate program they have ever worked with. And who can blame them when you can earn a living solely on being an amazon associate.

Pros

Easy to use: The interface is intuitive and uncluttered, ideal for beginners and pros alike.

Greatest flexibility: The millions of products sold on Amazon mean that you can choose from a very large number of ads / affiliate links to put on your website.

Cons

Smaller commissions: The starting point for commissions is a measly 4 percent, which means you’ll have to gather quite a large number of sales before the affiliation becomes sustainable.

Extended pay cycle: The net-60 model of payments employed by Amazon means you won’t get money for a sale until two months after it has occurred.

3. Commission Junction

Now known as CJ Affiliate, this is one of the most expansive networks around, and all those who have dabbled in affiliate marketing, even briefly, will have likely come across it. Nearly all major merchants have offers listed on Commission Junction, which makes it something of a one-stop shop in the industry. Multiple creative sizes are available from the majority of advertisers, which means publishers have a greater control on performance. With such an extensive network, its no wonder this is one of the most popular and best affiliate networks around.

Keep in mind that this affiliate program requires constant management/monitoring, unlike the set and forget systems of AdSense and others.

Pros

Vast network: With over three thousand merchant partners, and plenty of flexibility in terms of affiliate links and creative sizes, this program will find an ad suitable for your site regardless of the niche it covers.

Payment reliability: The net-20 payment system ensures timely reception of commission each month.

Robust reporting: Impressive reporting capabilities enable performance optimization tweakers to play with their site’s ad configuration as much as they want.

Cons

Difficult to familiarize with: The powerful reporting abilities mentioned above aren’t easy to come to grips with for beginners.

Little customer support: The only way to acquire support is to fill a contact form, which can be quite frustrating at times. However, it is impossible to provide full scale support due to the very large number of merchants and affiliates who are part of the program.

4.Clickbank

If you’re a vendor of digital products, this affiliate network should definitely be a consideration for your affiliate program setup. With its 12 thousand vendors and one hundred thousand affiliates, coupled with a perfect history of timely payment, it is a strong contender for the top affiliate program. It isn’t an affiliate software; rather, it plays the role of a payment processor with a significant affiliate marketing element. This makes it easy to configure both your payments, and affiliate programs, which doesn’t take more than a few minutes.

Pros Promote as much as six thousand products on your website: As soon as you get your affiliate ID, you’ll be able to do this without having to register each product separately.

Higher commission rates: The majority of products sold via ClickBank are digital in nature, which means their commission rates are higher as compared to other marketplaces. You’ll be able to make between 50 and 75 percent for every sale.

Timely payments: The impressive payment system disburses cash to affiliates through direct check deposits every one or two weeks. Even if your merchant’s business goes bankrupt, you’ll still get your payment through ClickBank.

Cons

Before you get your first pay-out, you’ll have to be patient due to the fact that you have to meet two requirements: Customer distrubution and your payment threshold

Product scams: Sometimes, you may be promoting a product that fails to meet your expected returns. This is likely due to the product being a scam, something that certainly exists on ClickBank. If the rate of product returns is 10-20%, stay well clear of it.

5.LinkShare

Now a part of the Rakuten affiliate network, LinkShare been around since the early days of the industry. In recent years, however, it has seen its role get dwarfed compared to some of the other players such as CJ Affiliate. Keep in mind that a larger playing field is highly recommended when starting out with affiliate marketing.

LinkShare has a couple of distinct features which set it apart from the crew though. One, it automatically rotates through the various banner ads for a specific product, which makes your website easier to administer and optimize in the long run. Instead of having you manually choose the 300×250 ads that should be run, LinkShare allows the rotation of multiple versions with just one code snippet.

It also has a greater degree of flexibility when it comes to ‘deep linking’ to particular merchant landing pages, which translates into greater customization potential for your campaign.

Pros

Rotation of ads: Even though it may appear to be a minor feature, it can prove instrumental in streamlining the consumption of your time and efforts in optimization / management.

Flexible deep linking: You’re able to select the page of the merchant’s site that the click is directed to, which enables you to better determine the best way to funnel affiliate purchases.

Cons

Small network: This network is much smaller than competitors such as ShareASale and CJ Affiliate, which means you’ll have fewer opportunities of landing a profitable program.

Payments aren’t predictable: You get your cut only after the commission has been collected from the merchant, which can lead to delayed/erratic payments. This is bothersome when compared with the reliable net-20 system employed by Commission Junction.