Did you know that nearly 95% of "Making Money Online Methods" revolve around affiliate marketing? Apart from donations, online money involves some form of buying and selling. Even online advertising through ad networks is basically a lil bit complicated form of affiliate marketing. The difference is that now it is the ad networks that are given the work of promoting the products to be sold. And since they need to reach the buyers, they assign different willing publishers sections of the work and then share commissions. These sections of works are availed through attractively crafted units called ads for the buyers to view and click incase they are interested, and the end thing - "TRADE!". (hey, you got that).
So what do affiliate programs do? They remove any intermediaries, like ad networks, to ensure higher gain to the publisher and greater effectiveness to the product seller since the publisher / promoter is not limited to "Ad networks' lousy looking ads" and they can also engage potential consumers better.
There are thousands of affiliate programs out there and most of them will just want you to stay behind your PC for hours daily trying to persuade product buyers but will not pay you well for your effort. But the list below (oh what a great list!) is of the top dogs, I mean the Top 10 affiliate programs from which you will harness the benefits of your persuasive power - your marketing ability.
1.Amazon Affiliate Program
No list that claims to detail the best affiliate programs would be complete without the mentioning of Amazon associates. The online store giant that stocks nearly everything (except cars of course) has a great affiliate program that allow you to promote any product from as little as a 10 MB Android game to a 100 inch TV screen.
Amazon associates commission rates range from 4% to 15% of the sale price. This is not the best rate available but bearing in mind that everybody is buying items through Amazon, there are plenty of opportunities. The sign up process is simple and there are no special requirements except owning a site or blog with some form of traffic (earlier I thought I could get a product promotion link and share it on Facebook only to realize that I was mistaken).
You can promote Amazon products through contextual links (the most effective method), widgets with specific products, automated ads etc. You can Even show movie previews and play mp3 clips, making it easy to sell movies and music.
After you make the sales and your commissions reach the 100 dollar threshold, you can get your money through Check. They dont pay via Paypal (there is a rivalry between Paypal and Amazon, you know)
2. Hostgator Affiliate Program
Trying to beat the cut-throat competition in web Hosting services, hostgator has introduced a program where you can earn Upto 120 USD for Every sign up within your affiliate link. This affiliate program seems a lil bit far from being real since you only need to send them 21 sign-ups in any month you will get $125x21 = $2,625.
And you know what? Jumping into the bandwagon is as easy as counting 1 to 3. You just sign up for a free affiliates account where the toughest job you will do is to create a strong password. You can then customize your referral link to an attractive banner of any size you want out of the over 10 sizes. The best part is that you can share your link anywhere from blogs to forums to social media (you can even erect a billboard with your customized link if you want. lol). But to tell you the truth, hostgator affiliates deserves to be in this "top affiliate programs" list.
3. GoDaddy Affiliate program.
The largest domain registrar in The world is now offering Upto 100% commissions on its affiliate program. For you to start, you need to create a simple account and create an ad in form of an Html code of your preferred size. The ad code can be inserted anywhere from a forum signature to a blog post. GoDaddy affiliates pays through check and Paypal.
4. iTunes Affiliate Program
Have you ever wished to promote Apple products? Actually there are plenty of products you can sell in the iTunes Affiliate program ranging from music, TV shows, movies, audiobooks to even applications in the App Store and earn a 5 percent commission on all qualifying revenue. Moreover, Itunes has many good banners and links and they also allow affiliates to choose specific products to promote.
Sign up involves creating an account with Performance Horizon Group (PHG) where you find a custom, Apple- branded, portal for signup and managing things- that covers a significant portion of the App Store market with a single registration. But for Europe and Latin America, you¡¯ll need to register with Tradedoubler. Remember that Affiliated links to the App Store have a 24 hour cookie window.
5. Shareasale Affiliate Program
This affiliate program makes it to our list due to its unique features that ensure higher conversion rates for your promotional links especially when you are using a blog to promote their products. The following two products of theirs are just amazing:
A feature that is available only on ShareASale affiliates is the opportunity for affiliates to "Make-A-Video". It allows affiliates/product-promoters to convert previously recorded videos into creative media that will help them be able to use on their website as part of "high conversion" method.
The other Utility that ShareASale provides for their affiliates is the "Make-A-Page" feature, which helps affiliates easily search for and select products that they wish to promote on their website, after which an HTML link is provided, pre-coded with the affiliate's personal link. The affiliate just needs to paste the link on their site and a page is created for promoting and selling products. how cool?
6. ClickBank Affiliate Program
This affiliate program that focusses on e-books and software products (digital products). ClickBank offers uncountable digital products for their affiliates to promote and rake in upto 75% commission! The best thing you will love at ClickBank affiliate program is the "HopAd Builder". ClickBank provides You with the tools for you to create ads for the products you choose to promote. On clicking on your HopAd, a customer lands at a page where they are able to purchase the product And you receive a commission from any purchase through the click within 60 days. Payments are done bi-weekly
7. Commission Junction Affiliate Program
It can not miss in this list. it's one of the big boys when It comes to products variety. On top of their good commission rates, they offer some unique services like a web-based email system that allows affiliates and advertisers to correspond/communicate with each other. CJ also alerts its affiliates when a link or advertisement has expired to enable their affiliates keep their websites upto date. An affiliate can also manage their advertisements and track their statistics and ad performance for each site individually (on its own).
Payment is made via check and direct deposit monthly on reaching the $50 threshold for direct deposit and $100 for check.
8. Linkshare Affiliate Program
Linkshare has made it to this list because of its long time experience in the game, though its commission rates are relatively low. They offer some good features too. BentoBox provides users with a wide variety in their applications choice, thus increasing traffic by keeping customers shopping longer. This is possible by the ability of publishers to create tracking links that will take customers to a product on an advertiser’s site with just the tap of a button. BentoBox also makes it easy to create coupons thus enabling affiliates to offer coupons from specific advertisers and promote more traffic to the advertisers sites rake in more and more commissions.
9. Plimus Affiliate Program
Plimus is not as experienced as the other programs in this list (just forgot... I must say "this wonderful list"). It's commission rates are better compared to Linkshare and They offer many tutorials that can help you get the best out of them. Another great tool they have is their integrated Google Analytics tool that enable affiliates to track links lead traffic to the advertisers product pages.
10. ClixGalore Affiliate Program
This Australian CPA (Cost per Action) or PPA (Pay per Action) (affiliate program) Program has been in business for quite a long time and is known for its timely and good payment to its affiliates. It is not so far from being an ad network but its high Commission rates ensured It never missed a place in this our Top affiliates list. It pays in US dollars via Paypal, check and Wire. It deals with top brands and companies like Bluehost, Time Life, Trend Micro, Citibank, and Fox Sports Shop.
Which great Affiliate Program missed our list? These three are also big ones PeerFly.com, MaxBounty, Neverblue.com.
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