The challenge after is to turn those earning opportunities into useful revenue streams.
Even still, affiliate marketing is the key to generating income from websites that might otherwise struggle to sell advertising space, or else serve as an additional income for those websites already active in the advertising space.
The concept of affiliate marketing is relatively simple: you sign up for a program for a particular product or service, and if accepted for it, you can then use existing marketing materials and/or links with a unique URL. In the event that someone signs up for that product or service using that URL, you earn a commission.
As a way of making money online it sounds easy enough, but there are a lot of potential complications with affiliate marketing. For a start, the affiliate tracking must be precise and accurate, so that you are rewarded for the sales you actually made.
On top of that, you need products and services of actual interest to consumers. While many big brands are actively involved in affiliate marketing, there are various restrictions that may make them less attractive than alternatives.
For example, the time between a customer clicking a link and making a sale can be a number of days, so affiliate tracking that takes this into account will likely be more favorable to the affiliate marketer than ones that only reward instant sales, and therefore ignore the possibility of browsing.
You also need to actively promote affiliate products, something a lot of website owners overlook - or even overdo. But done right, and with enough traffic in play, it's possible to make income from it.
Here then are the best affiliate marketing software programs currently available.
1. Amazon Associates
The best affiliate platform for general websites Just about everyone already has an Amazon account and buys from them, so it certainly makes sense to partner with them as an affiliate marketer through their Amazon Associates program.
It's free to join, and once accepted to the program you can sell any Amazon product, including third-party ones without getting into individual programs. You also get the opportunity to receive commissions on not only the specific product that was advertised, but any other purchases that are made at Amazon for 24 hours post-referral.
Signing up to Amazon Associates is a generally pain-free experience - unlike some other platforms where you need to apply for each affiliate product/service separately. With Amazon, you have a single sign-up and can promote any of its products and services afterward. This can be especially handy as Amazon frequently do promotions specific to services, such as Amazon Prime or business accounts, making it potentially more lucrative than individual product links.
However, Amazon does change its terms quite frequently, and sometimes this has resulted in a reduction of commission across various product ranges, so that the earnings potential available now is lower than it was a few years ago. Even still, it can be a handy way of monetizing existing links to Amazon that you might be using anyway, and the ease of use is second-to-none.
2. Awin
The best for size and choice Awin is a huge affiliate marketing platform that accommodates a wide range of advertisers, services, and products.
Publishers can sort through different advertisers to apply for the products or services that might work best, then if accepted, apply targeted links to generate an affiliate income.
Awin does enjoy a lot of brand companies offering a wide range of products and services, so there is a lot of choice. However, this means that a single brand might offer multiple products that need to be signed up for individually, such as for financial services.
Additionally, some brands can be very picky about the publishers they will work with, and even though you might successfully apply to one service from a company, you might find your application rejected from promoting a similar service by the same company.
Overall, though, despite there being such a huge amount of choice the platform is actually quite easy to use, though applying for individual services can be quite time consuming, especially if you think your website(s) might be fit for a number of different companies and/or services.
3. CJ Affiliate
The best for link automation CJ Affiliate is a popular affiliate marketing program with global reach, formerly known as Commission Junction which goes back to 1998. CJ Affiliate features Product Widgets that are embedded on your site, and can then feature multiple products via a slideshow, collage or grid to increase sales. Additional functionality includes deep link automation to automatically monetize links that lead to a CJ advertiser domain, and real-time transaction monitoring.
While this all sounds good, the stumbling block is the application process. First you need to apply with your website, which needs to be found worthy of becoming a partner, based on traffic, optimization and quality of content.
However, this is only the first step, as then you need to apply individually to each vendor for the products that you wish to sell, and you may not be accepted into their individual affiliate programs, making this one of the harder programs to get up and running with.
4. ShareASale
The best signup process ShareASale is another affiliate marketer, with a longstanding reputation across eighteen years, and was acquired last year by Awin, an international affiliate marketer. It features a large catalog of products to partner with from beauty supplies, to branded sports gear, luxury goods, and eyewear- almost 5,000 vendors in total, making it easy to find products that tie into your site.
With so many options, ShareASale uses a Power Rank system to clue you in to the most popular vendors. The signup process to get started has no cost, and is quite painless, with owners of multiple sites able to sign them all up in ‘one fell swoop.’
The drawbacks of ShareASale center around the payouts. The payout threshold can be difficult to reach for newer websites still building their traffic. In addition, be warned that it reserves the right to delete your account if your account balance remains under $25.
5. Clickbank
The best for commission rates Clickbank is a major affiliate marketer which has been around for years, with 200 million customers. It features a variety of products to partner with, across many categories, particularly eBooks. It is simple for a novice to get started as anyone can create an online account, and it is free with no signup fee, so it is great for startups.
It is also known for having a higher commission rate than other affiliate marketers. It even runs a Clickbank University to teach the ins and outs of affiliate marketing to those new to the field.
The downside of Clickbank is that most of the products for sale are eBooks, and while they span several categories, most are lower quality offerings, without brand recognition.
6. JVZoo
The best SaaS offering JVZoo takes a SaaS approach to affiliate marketing. Product creators can list their products in their marketplace for free, and JVZoo gets a standard 5% commission on anything that sells - and nothing before that. Marketing affiliates get instant payments to their PayPal accounts as soon as the item sells, with no payout threshold required.
In addition, there is an opportunity to make money as affiliates can get a cut of sales of any affiliates that they have recruited, termed a ‘Second Tier Commission.’ Finally, if the buyer that was referred purchases another product (that was not specifically referred), the affiliate gets the commission - permanently.
The downsides include that payments are only made via the PayPal platform, with no option for direct bank transfers. Also, looking at the top-selling products, they are all digital downloads, and of lower quality, that could potentially lower the quality of a website. Finally, the affiliate marketing commissions will be taken back for a buyer that requests a refund.
0 Comments