Affiliate marketing programs are useful tools for beginner affiliates who are looking for brands to promote on their websites. They are, however, not always easy to find. One useful tool that helps potential affiliates to find an affiliate program that would fit their content and ambitions is affiliate networks. Affiliate networks gather all brands looking for affiliates under one umbrella and presents it to affiliate candidates, making the process to find brands significantly more convenient. Here’s everything you need to know about affiliate marketing networks and how to use them.
What are Affiliate Networks?
Affiliate networks are a collection of brands looking for affiliates to promote their products. They act as a “middleman” in connecting affiliates and brands to form partnerships. They usually form a database of affiliate program postings and offer various data about the programs. This makes the process extra convenient for affiliate candidates, as they can see countless affiliate program opportunities in one place.
Brands usually sign up for affiliate networks when they have limited resources for advertising themselves or are trying to reach a new audience through affiliate marketing. It’s hard to find very big brands like Amazon or eBay on affiliate networks as they usually prefer to run their own affiliate program. However, you can find many well known smaller brands on affiliate networks if you are willing to promote their products.
One important thing to note is the difference between an affiliate program and an affiliate network. Affiliate programs are offered by a single company usually to promote one specific product. Affiliate networks are a collection of multiple affiliate programs, in other words they are a marketplace to find affiliate programs. The key distinction is that while signing up for an affiliate network doesn’t necessarily mean you are an affiliate, signing up for an affiliate program does.
How Does an Affiliate Network Work?
- Advertiser signs up: An advertiser (merchant) signs up with an affiliate network to promote their products or services. The advertiser creates an affiliate program that outlines the terms of the program, including the commission rate, promotional materials, and other details.
- Publisher signs up: A publisher (affiliate) signs up with the affiliate network to promote the advertiser’s products or services. The publisher applies to join the advertiser’s affiliate program and, if approved, receives a unique affiliate link or code to use in their promotions.
- Publisher promotes advertiser’s products: The publisher promotes the advertiser’s products or services using various marketing channels such as their website, email marketing, social media, or search engine marketing. When a user clicks on the publisher’s affiliate link or uses their affiliate code to make a purchase, the publisher earns a commission.
- Affiliate network tracks and manages commissions: The affiliate network tracks the clicks, conversions, and commissions earned by the publisher and manages the payments to the publisher. The network also provides reporting and analytics to both the advertiser and the publisher to help them optimize their campaigns.
- Advertiser pays commissions: The advertiser pays commissions to the affiliate network, which then distributes the commissions to the publishers based on the terms of the affiliate program.
Overall, an affiliate network provides a mutually beneficial relationship between advertisers and publishers, allowing advertisers to reach a wider audience and generate more sales, and allowing publishers to monetize their traffic and earn commissions by promoting relevant products or services to their audience.
How to Choose the Right Affiliate Network?
Choosing the right affiliate network is important for the success of your affiliate marketing program. Here are some factors to consider when choosing an affiliate network:
- Niche: Choose a network that specializes in your niche or industry. This will ensure that you have access to relevant products and services to promote.
- Commission: Consider the commission structure offered by the network. Look for a network that offers a competitive commission rate, as well as performance-based bonuses.
- Reputation: Research the network’s reputation by reading reviews and testimonials from other affiliates. Look for a network with a strong track record of paying its affiliates on time and accurately.
- Support: Choose a network with a dedicated support team that is available to answer your questions and provide assistance.
- Payment Terms: Consider the payment terms offered by the network. Look for a network that pays its affiliates promptly and securely.
- Technology: Choose a network with robust tracking and reporting technology to ensure accurate tracking of your affiliate sales.
- Product Selection: Ensure that the network has a wide range of high-quality products that you can promote to your audience.
- Relationships: Look for a network that has established relationships with merchants, as this can help to ensure timely payments and strong support.
By considering these factors, you can choose an affiliate network that is a good fit for your business and will help you to achieve success with your affiliate marketing program.Here are some affiliate network options worth checking:
Affiliate Networks Worth Checking
CJ.com
CJ.com is one of the oldest and most popular affiliate networks. The structure of the website is very convenient for content creators as it saves you time by gathering all affiliate programs offered by the brands in one place. CJ.com has a very simplistic but useful interface where it presents you the brand and various data, provided by the brand, about the affiliates and their earnings. EPC and sales percentage data are available for almost all brands and some brands offer even more statistics. As a beginner friendly affiliate network, CJ.com very rarely denies affiliates access into the network, but even when they do they usually provide detailed reasoning and constructive feedback to improve your website. Also, the network makes the payment process smoother by gathering all checks you receive from affiliate marketing under one big monthly payment.
Share A Sale
Share A Sale is one of the newer affiliate networks which has been on the rise lately. They were acquired by Awin in 2017, signalling that they will be a permanent actor in the affiliate network business. The biggest advantage of Share A Sale is that it features a lot of under the radar affiliate programs which, indeed, means a lot to affiliate marketers. This can be especially helpful to beginner affiliates as bigger brands tend to be pickier when it comes to choosing affiliates simply because they can afford to do so. Amateur affiliate marketers can easily find small and medium sized enterprises offering affiliate programs on Share A Sale which makes it an attractive option for many. The interface, however, looks outdated and the customer service of the network does not receive particularly positive feedbacks. Moreover, the network does not accept PayPal as a payment method which can be annoying for some affiliates who are used to using PayPal.
Clickbank
Clickbank is one of the oldest affiliate networks with a reliable number of merchants and affiliates, however it is slightly different than the other affiliate networks. It is used to solely focus on digital products and now although there are a number of physical products featured on the network, the majority is still digital products. It used to be the best in the digital products market, however lately there has been new additions into the market like Udemy.com. Clickbank, however, will be in the market for some more time, as it is still one of the networks that offer the highest commission rates and one of the very few networks that offer a recurring monthly commission. It is also very easy to use and doesn’t require you to be approved by the brands before you can promote their products.
Impact
Impact is another affiliate network that offers affiliate programs from a variety of brands that might be familiar to you. Like the other networks, Impact offers a lot of useful data to potential affiliates before they sign up for the programs. Impact collects and presents data regarding affiliates’ performance with different programs which can be very helpful for affiliates to improve their advertising strategies. Impact is also very flexible with payment methods, a feature that many affiliates would like.
Flex Offers
Flex Offers is the final network on this list. The greatest advantage of Flex Offers is the wide scope of brand profiles, hosting tens of thousands of brands looking for affiliates on the network. Flex Offers is also one of the most beginner friendly affiliate networks, as the sign-up process is very easy and the network very rarely rejects affiliates as long as they have the basic set up ready.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Are Affiliate Networks Legal?
Yes they are. Affiliate marketing is a completely legal business model where brands legally hire affiliates to promote their products. All steps of this marketing model are legal. Therefore, there is nothing illegal about signing up for an affiliate network. There might be, however, scammers disguised as affiliate networks, but it is very easy to distinguish them as legit affiliate networks will already be popular among fellow affiliates.
2. Why Use an Affiliate Network?
It is possible to find affiliate programs directly through brands’ websites or contacting them, however this will be very time consuming. Instead, it is much easier to search the brand you are willing to promote in an affiliate network and see if they are offering an affiliate program. The wide scope of affiliate networks are also helpful for beginner affiliate marketers who don’t know where to start. One other feature of affiliate network’s that users like is receiving your payment as one big check through the network instead of receiving separate checks from every program you signed up for.
3. Are Affiliate Networks Easy to Join?
Most affiliate networks are extremely easy to join as long as you have website set-up ready for advertising. Most are free to sign up and they give you enough insight about how the network works before you join. Some networks, Avantlink for example, have strict requirements to join and have the right to deny you access, but these networks are not the majority. Fortunately, most of the popular affiliate networks are very beginner friendly.
Conclusion
Affiliate marketing networks are a very helpful tool that makes the process of searching affiliate programs significantly more convenient. Signing up for an affiliate network will make everything about the affiliate marketing model you are trying to establish smoother and help you keep track all the different programs that you have signed up for. There are many good options and it is important to evaluate all networks before you join one to maximize your gains from affiliate marketing.