Top 10 Affiliate Sites. Who are they?

[purex]

Do you use Commission Junction, ClickBank etc?

Who's the best of the best in your opinion?

Whichever site your with, they are all limited by the number of advertisers they have on their books.

List your top sites here, who are your WebPro World top ten?

[bhartzer]

I would love to tell you, but what works for me and my unique websites might not work for the visitors to your website.

What works for one website won't necessarily work for another because every website has different types of visitors.

What works best is giving the user exactly what they're searching for. I have a site that gets about 50 unique visitors a day. But I end up with about 10 sales a day because that site delivers exactly what the searcher is looking for--at the best possible price.

[edhan]

Yes, bhartzer, you are right. Every site has its unique point and one site success may not be for another. Taking part in affiliate program will depend on your own niche. My advice is to choose the affiliate that you want to put effort & time to be successful. Success depends on your effort to promote.

Edward

[purex]

Hi Guys,
I was thinking more of sites like commission junction and the like not individual advertisers. Questions along the lines of:

Which sites in your opinion are easy to work with
Who has the best source of advertisers?
Who pays on time, who doesn't?
Problems with some sites?
Who's helpful, who's not etc..

Maybe there is an all round winner?

Cheers.

[Linda Buquet]

Ahhhh purex,

I was confused, it sounded like you were asking about Affiliate NETWORKS and that appears to be the info you want.

Commission Junction is considered the leader by most people. Both CJ and www.shareasale.com offer consolidated commission checks so you get one check from all advertisers that owe you money. The merchants have to pay the network in advance so you are pretty much guaranteed to get paid. This is one of the reasons many affiliates like these 2 networks. They are both good at support.

SAS is smaller but some affiliates prefer it due to their no parasite policy and the fact that their links are not blocked by Norton and others.

BeFree used to be one of the top networks but is currently merging into CJ since they are both owned now buy the same company. I don't work with LinkShare much but they are considered one of the top networks too. Some merchants pay through LS but some you have to get a check directly from the merchant.

[Cedric]

Each network has their pluses and minuses -- the ones I use the most are ShareASale, CJ, and LS. I've got a couple of Performics merchants in the mix, but I don't add anything new for them (and won't because their interface is such a horror show, IMO).

LS has the best reporting options, CJ has the best system for finding products, and ShareASale has the most (by far) affiliate-friendly policies.

[TLDTrader.com]

Originally Posted by Cedric

I've got a couple of Performics merchants in the mix, but I don't add anything new for them (and won't because their interface is such a horror show, IMO).

Yes the Performics interface is so horrible! It's a pity because they have a number of nice merchants there.

[jackson992]

I always think this is funny to me because I think PF is the easiest place to make links LOL

[purex]

Thanks Catalyst, I did mean Affiliate NETWORKS.

I was trying to start a discussion about the best ones and ones to avoid.

Also does anyone have experience of using non US/UK/English networks for example German, French or Spanish ones?

[Linda Buquet]

Hi purex,

I'm not very in tuned in to non-US networks, but I think I have heard good things about Trade Doubler.

Check out the UK affiliate forum which is filled with lots of helpful and knowledgeable people from "across the pond."
http://www.a4uforum.co.uk

[bizgen]

I've been using CJ for the last couple of years. I find the site fairly user friendly, they always pay on time, and they recently changed their system so that non US affiliates can specify the currency they wish to deal in and view the site in.

I used to have a niggle that not many of the bigger UK merchants were signed up to them, but I think that is more of a reflection on us Brits being a bit slow to catch up, than it is on CJ. More and more are now signing up.

I would be interested to hear whether anyone has any views on ClickBank. I recently approached a business who had a product that caught my imagination to see if they operated an affiliate scheme. They said they worked through ClickBank, and I don't really know much about them.

And along a similar vain, I recommend keeping an eye out for the few sites/businesses out there who run their own in house affiliate schemes. The commission is invariably good and often they are in quite specialist fields making seo that much easier.

Have fun

[7thDsites]

We've tried most of them at one point or another...

We did have a very bad CJ experience, and have known others that have as well.
They owed us a couple thousand dollars and then didn't send the check... when we asked when they were going to send it they zeroed out our account and closed it that same day due to "non-activity." Since this happened I've encountered about a half dozen others that had the same thing happen to them. As you can imagine this was a real shock as they are one of the more highly branded affiliate processors.
Needless to say we'll now not sell anything for people using CJ which kind of bites as there are some people that we could seriously sell some stuff for but won't go near until they provide another processor option.

We found that Befree wasn't too bad unless you needed to get in touch with them - then they sucked. They don't return phone calls and rarely respond to email. This may have changed now that they're part of CJ but we've cut them off as well due to their new found 'CJ-ness'.

I've not heard anything bad about ClickBank, but they do need to work on their stats - or lack there of; I spoke to them recently and this is something they hope to have by fall.

Linkshare has been great to us; and if the merchants lag on sending payments, they deal with it right away.

I have to say though that after 5 years of having affiliate sites and selling stuff as an affiliate we've ultimately had the best experience with those people that do their own affiliate processing.
Sorry third party processors.

[kimmyshop]

I've been using ShareASale.com for the past 9 months now and I very pleased with their network. Although their interface is rough around the edges, they have brought us some quality affiliates.

Ron Goldman
http://www.kimmyshop.com

[murcoweb]

MyTemplateStorage.com (no affiliate link)is a great one. I have had great sucess with them.

And if anyone wants to be nice, here is my affiate link.

[seogame]

Funny that this topic came up. Just wrapped a lunch with the 2 owners of a SLC based affiliate tracking company at www.fusionquest.com

I'm pleased with the results that they've been providing for a couple of my clients that I recently set up. Keeping to their promise since 2000, they still are the only affiliate software package that assist in SERPS because link popularity is not affected like the other programs. Other programs involve a query string. Example: http://domain.com/?this_link_will_not_give_me_serps

The program is very robust and very easy to install. I hope that I didn't just give my secret away to my clients' competitors for out ranking them as well as saving them money (30% payouts to commission junction on sales and monthly fees.) Fusion Quest is just $595 one time and lifetime support. I'm not a sponsor to them. They just took me out to lunch because I'm a lovable, harmless little fuzz ball as Rush Limbaugh likes to say and to talk business with my business partner. Enuf said.

[imvain2]

I have mixed feelings also about CJ. As I came into work one day and our account was mysteriously terminated.

Befree is decent, but I hate their reporting and linking system.

As for LinkShare, I haven't had any problems with them. They have a great reporting function and some good affiliates.

As for clickbank, I haven't really tried to use this that much; because IMO most of their affiliates aren't worth the time to even visit their websites.

I would have to agree about companies who don't use third parties for their affiliates. They seem pretty good, however the obvious problem is you are limited to one company's products.

But to jump off and on the topic real quick:
I have had good experiences with this individual affiliate:
Tshirt King



[/url]

[gleames]

I used to deal a lot with affiliate sites, just haven't had the time lately to keep up on them but here is my ranking for past performance.

Cj.com - top rated, great advertisers, pay on time, mostly pay per sale

Linkshare.com - Same as CJ

ShareAsale.com - the cutoff is $50 for them, they have cpc campaigns once you reach that threshold, also pay per sale, pay per lead

Websponsors.com - paid numerous times, they deal mainly in sweepstakes, freebies, things of that nature. pay per lead mostly - a lot pay with just an email lead

Directresponse.com - they are similar to websponsors but I haven't been paid by them so I don't have an opinion. Sometimes I could find the same campaign on here as on websponsors but they were paying more or vice versa

FastClicks.com - Had been paid by them awhile ago, can't give a positive or negative review

ClickxChange - no cap on payout, have been paid by them but seemed my click through's got disqualified a lot, not sure why, it seems like they carry a lot of adult links that I never saw with the other programs and it's kind of a pain to apply to advertisers

Clickbank - I signed up but never used them, couldn't find a product I would promote.

Clixgalore - terrible program, never been paid, shotty interface, click thru always seemed off, I would stay clear of this site, it seems great because it has so many cpc campaigns but it seemed a lot ran out of funds or never paid

[scot184]

I tried affiliate networks a few times. I used click synergy or whatever that is and never got a single sale. I had hundreds of clicks and no sales. It was pointless. I think the companies that run affiliate programs win, while those who advertise for them, webmasters, lose. That's just my experience with it. I highly doubt I will ever deal with any affiliate program again, ever.

Not to mention most of these networks are blocked by pop-up stoppers...even pages like fastclick are ignored on my machine...tribal fusion as well. My machine will block an entire website if I try to visit some of these sites. Its great...and I know a lot of other people block these as well...so its pointless.

[Tubby]

I did try CJ, and I think I have a paltry $32 in there somewhere for around two years. . but until they work out how to explain to Australians what needs to be done to get paid, I suppose it will sit there forever.

I have dumped almost everyone for adsense, it targets my users. . and does not haggle about overseas payments. and does not pester me with 'promotions'

I think the biggest problem with these programs is their focus on getting clicks. . and not spending enough effort on making a sale when you arrive. Some of the "selling" pages contain up to 50% space recomending other items, or recomending things other that the item the visitor came to look at. Some of the magazene subscription site, have a picture of the magazene and a subscribe bar, and insted of using the space on the page to tell the visitor what is in this months edition that they would want to read. . . They dedicate the space to adverting other product lines.. Pathetic, why should We waste time delivering traffic if its going to be wasted..
I now expect payment, for delivering the traffic, If they waste it thats not my problem..

[Steven Sauve]

Hi everyone,

No affiliate network is perfect. They all have their good points, and they all have their bad points. But if you really think about why you are using an affiliate network, it's to make money.

With that in mind, I'd say that the biggest problem with most other affiliate networks is that they keep too much of the merchant's money for themselves. If a merchant is willing to spend $10K on advertising in the network, you can be sure that $5K of that will stay in the pocket of the network.

I know because I've been a merchant running CPA campaigns on some of the affiliate networks. I've personally experienced networks keeping half of what I was willing to pay per lead. I understand that a network needs to be profitable, but to have them take 50 cents out of every dollar I was willing to pay is totally unacceptable.

So I did something about it. I started my own affiliate network, MaxBounty. The mission of MaxBounty is to put the money back where it belongs - in the hands of affiliates. If you are curious as to what I mean, you can take a look at our current campaigns and CPA rates right here:
http://www.maxbounty.com/showoffers.cfm

Compare them against what you might get for these campaigns on other affiliate networks and you'll see that MaxBounty pays affiliates more.

So, if you are interested in a different kind of affiliate network, why not consider signing up with MaxBounty right here:
http://www.maxbounty.com

Thank you!

PS: Linda, if this post is out-of-line, please feel free to delete it.

[Linda Buquet]

imvain2,

T-Shirt King is one of my clients and we have made and ARE making lots of great improvements to this program. Improved datafeed - Product Showcase Creator and more. See them their full page review on my site for all the latest updates.

Steven,

Other mods may not be as lenient, but I am all for posts that help affiliates find out about new resources. When posts cross the line from informational to pitchy I am forced to do my job. Yours is close but I will let it stay.

[HellaCooL]

Originally Posted by scot184

I tried affiliate networks a few times. I used click synergy or whatever that is and never got a single sale. I had hundreds of clicks and no sales. It was pointless. I think the companies that run affiliate programs win, while those who advertise for them, webmasters, lose. That's just my experience with it. I highly doubt I will ever deal with any affiliate program again, ever.

Not to mention most of these networks are blocked by pop-up stoppers...even pages like fastclick are ignored on my machine...tribal fusion as well. My machine will block an entire website if I try to visit some of these sites. Its great...and I know a lot of other people block these as well...so its pointless.

I totally agree with you. I have affiliate links for tiger direct (with Befree). I had thousands and thousands of clicks and only couple of thousand of dollars in sales. With commission of 2% I made only around $40. I could have made almost ten times more than that with Google ads.
My other site had around 500 clicks and no sales at all. Again, whish those were clicks on Google ads.
Unless you have a high paying affiliate program (at least 10-20%) I think it is very hard to earn decent money (if any) with affiliate links.

[jim@kowabunga]

Hey everyone, if you're looking for more network choices, check out our latest Industry contribution at http://www.kolimbo.com

It's our new OPEN network.

<edited by Catalyst to make link work>

[ozchris]

Topical.
I just received my first cheque in the mail yesterday from CommissionMonster. Lotto and Roses did it for me.

[marcel]

I made money with ClickBank.

Advertised on Google, Broke even, didn't make any money. But the products sold. Not bad... There are good products on ClickBank. You just have to look really hard. lol :)

[bjbtexas]

[quote="scot184"]
I tried affiliate networks a few times. I used click synergy or whatever that is and never got a single sale. I had hundreds of clicks and no sales. It was pointless.
[quote="HellaCooL"]
I totally agree with you. ...I could have made almost ten times more than that with Google ads.

I agree that Google makes much more money than I have seen with any affiliate sales, but I had a LinkShare account account for years now and back in February a merchant with LinkShare emailed me directly that they would sponsor my Merchandiser Account (data feed program) if I would put their data feed on my site. They said my site fit what they were promoting. My first reaction (while I had gainful outside employment) was yah-right I don't have time for that! In April, after getting laid off, I dug up the email and replied to their offer to see if it was still available. To my delight the merchants Affiliate manager responded that same day with the data feed and some basic instructions on how to replace the tracking numbers. Well I had no idea how to put up data feed. So I searched Google and scoured the forums on how get it done. I found some great programs and learned the basics. In two long days I had posted the data feed to my site. Well next next steps where like waiting for Christmas as a kid. Checking every day to see if Google had indexed anything yet.

I got busy on some other projects and forgot about the whole thing writing it off as another web affiliate learning experience. Well Monday this week I got a letter from the merchant that that I was the fastest growing affiliate in their network and to my shock I had sold over $1000 worth of product for the merchant since May 26. I'm not getting rich, but my previous experiences were more along the lines of 49,000 banner impressions with 26 click throughs and 0 sales. What a nice surprise, and I was getting a bonus from the merchant! In checking Google, less than one fifth of the pages I put up have been indexed on Google, so here's to hoping.

Also, on the data feed forum pages it seems there are some people out there making some serious money and without using unscrupulous techniques.

So with some luck and persistence maybe it will eventually pay off.

I too have had CJ close my accounts for inactive sales -- two now, but I am back! I have a new data feed I just posted with CJ and a merchant with 3200 items. LinkShare merchants have always paid and they haven't closed my account even once! I never liked the BeFree/Reporting.net interface, so I am glad they came on board with CJ winning out.

[scot184]

And that $1000 equated to what? $40 or something? For being a "special" affiliate. That is a complete waste to me. That is terrible money for a website to be earning in that time. Sorry if I sound rude, but I want people to realize that affiliate marketing is a joke and it clearly benefits the merchant over the webmaster!

[hbonline]

By far the best is FASTCLICK.COM

I consistently get $300.00 - $500.00 per month from them.

the best thing is that they are not commission based but traffic and click thru based. Great for high traffic sites.

later

Nick
http://www.hbonline.com

[jackson992]

Affiliate Marketing a Joke!

ROFLMAO!


Glad to know I have a joke for a job:)

[Cedric]

Yah Jack, the people who aren't making money with affiliate marketing aren't doing it right.

Affiliate marketing is the only source of income in my household (by choice) and we live quite well.

There are pros and cons to every network and every independent merchant -- but those pros and cons are not what makes an affiliate a success or a failure.

[apply75]

affiliate marketing used to be profitable a few years back, but now its much less. Ive been using Cj.com went from 200 a month to about 30 a month...but you really need to keep up with the programs..i have had bad experience with clickbank...
linkshare is slow to pay they dont combine your check and performics...forget about it...they are the biggest joke of all...Im also not a big fan of befree.

[redwood1775]

this forum is making me rethink a good way forward for my own site. can i ask for advice ?

I have a niche web site that is targeted at the world of wood, and pallets. www.palletguide.com and I cant seem to find anything related to this industry on any affiliate network. My thoughts are that my users are people...... and people need things..... like holidays, shopping, (everything in one place) etc...should i include ALL types of affilites on my site, or would this detract from the purpose of my site ? Would adsense be an aleternative

any advice would be very welcome.

regards

peter

[purex]

Great response everyone!

Alarming news from some that their accounts are simply cancelled with no warning! Not good practice surely.

Very interesting response from people who think affilliate marketing is a waste of time.

Is it?

As always I suppose some people are better at certain things than others and therefore they make the cash and others don't.

To take this subject further and to dispell or prove the thought that this kind of marketing is worth it how about this...

Please feel free to post affilliate earnings minus costs from say last month or this year. No need to be precise if you don't want, for example did you;

a) buy yourself a loaf of bread
b) pay the gas bill
c) buy a ferrari?

Might be interesting...?

[javajack]

[quote="purex"]Do you use Commission Junction, ClickBank etc?

I use jc and think they do a great job. I also use amazon (does anyone have a good return from Amazon?) and getting ready to switch to another book store. It also seems that my best commisions come from direct affiliations from the company. Any thoughts on that?

[Karrina]

The destination sites you are talking about are a good presift if users are going somewhere specific. In some cases, search returns have become too overwhelming or non-applicable. A couple of my favs to narrow ot down are....

Thomasnet.com (formerly thomasregister.com) (for industrial items)
CEOExpress.com (for business research)
pricewatch.com (for component buying)

[Karen Hudgins]

I'd like to hear from affiliate program managers. Who have you used? Who is the best in your opinion?Who is the worst? I'd love feed back on the networks like CJ and Linkshare and the solutions like MyAffiliateProgram and DirecTrack. Thanks.

[dEdy]

1.shareasale.com (I think they are the best)
2.linkshare.com (very good relation with administrator)
3.affiliatefuture.com (very good!)

4.cj.com (they ended my account without any warnings or details and no answer to e-mail)

Now I try google...

[dEdy]

Originally Posted by purex

Great response everyone!

Alarming news from some that their accounts are simply cancelled with no warning! Not good practice surely.

Very interesting response from people who think affilliate marketing is a waste of time.

Is it?

As always I suppose some people are better at certain things than others and therefore they make the cash and others don't.

To take this subject further and to dispell or prove the thought that this kind of marketing is worth it how about this...

Please feel free to post affilliate earnings minus costs from say last month or this year. No need to be precise if you don't want, for example did you;

a) buy yourself a loaf of bread
b) pay the gas bill
c) buy a ferrari?

Might be interesting...?

hmmm not very much...about 500$ in 4 months
yes is not the solution to pay bills, but you can pay hosting company and merchant gateway with that!

[bjbtexas]

[quote="scot184"]And that $1000 equated to what? $40 or something? For being a "special" affiliate. That is a complete waste to me.

Actually that would be $70.14 plus a ten dollar bonus.

As I said I am quite aware of how unrewarding posting individual banners and text links on my web pages is prior to getting involved with the data feed style of affiliate marketing. I had 2 CJ accounts closed for lack of sales. I have a banner that has shown 40,095 times since May 1 and it has 24 click-throughs and 0 sales. (And yes, I concede your point only LinkShare/CJ/Befree benefit in these cases)

I use the banners as a compliment to lend my site a little credibility. The casual surfer might just believe American Express actually advertises on my site and I actually sold a couple, but it’s not what the site makes money on -- it’s a compliment to the site.

LinkShare has what they call their Merchandiser Program and there are people out there making huge money on it. CJ has the same thing, but it is not formalized like the LinkShare program. I used a program I found and put up over 3200 pages of individual affiliate merchandise links on Tuesday -- adding to the 1200 pages that are just beginning to show monetary returns (of which only 204 are currently indexed in Google). There are 4400 pages more pages on my website that are relevant to what I do on the website and I have Google Adsense placed on all those pages. A casual surfer doesn’t like my affiliate ad there four Google Contextual ads just waiting to pay me. I like my odds and the 8 hours I invested in creating 3200 pages.
Sample Page:
http://www.advenquest.com/shop/Gear/..._Shuttle.shtml

Waste of time maybe, for me its $80.14 I didn’t have yesterday and its 4400 highly targeted content pages for my website for the future.

[TrafficProducer]

Commission Junction.

I found CJ OK.

They appear to have a very slow website, I'm in the UK so a bit of lag in data flow may occur, other USA sites are OK so I don't think this is the problem.

They pay out OK, good rates and not bad conversion.

Only once when they paid by cheque, (check USA) did the payment get lost, they sorted this out about 8 months later. Some wait, but they wanted to give the cheque six months to see if it got cashed before reissue. I now get payments transferred to my UK account without problems.

The other issue I have with CJ is they request about $200.00 if you want Data Feeds, (Ideal for searching and making web pages on the fly, dynamically)

[Route66]

I tried a Google AdWords campaign for my niche product from mid-October to late December last year. Got lots of clicks, cost me hundreds of dollars, and maybe I got 2 small sales. I terminiated the campaigns.

I decided that all of the "get clicks" stuff can be a huge money sink. Instead I invested a little bit of money with SubmitNet to get my page rankings up. I've also aggressively sought links for my sites where appropriate and improved my Meta tags, etc. Recently I got my products up in Froogle. All of this was relatively inexpensive (Froogle is free!)and has begun to pay off. More people are finding my products with their searches and I'm getting more sales.

I have some affiliate product ads on one of my sites and I've made a small amount of money from them. I was thinking of joining CJ or one of the other affiliate networks so other people could sell my products, but frankly don't have thousands of dollars to potentially waste (like the hundreds I wasted on AdWords). I'm concerned that I'll just be throwing money away.

I suppose it depends on your budget, your product, and your mindset. If I had thousands of dollars to throw around, I'd try all this stuff and do print advertising, too. But when you're a very small home-based business and are only making a small profit, it's difficult to spend all your profit (and more) on these affiliate or ad programs and then NOT see results. It's like having an angel and devil on your shoulders. The devil says, "Go for it, join these great sounding programs," and the angel says, "No! You'll drain your bank account and get an ulcer!"

[Linda Buquet]

TrafficProducer,

CJ is sometimes slow in the US too so it's not just you.

FYI many CJ merchants offer free feeds outside of CJ.
Check out www.datafeedforum.com for many that do. I started a thread that is a sticky at the top that is all free merchants feeds, plus if you scan the rest of the forum you will find more.

PLUS check out this AWESOME tool that let's you build products pages quick and easy without even using datafeed software. Many of these merchants are on CJ and some are our clients. We set all of our product based merchants up with this tool because it is such a huge time saver for affiliates. Build a product page in less than 2 minutes.

http://www.afftools.com/psc/directory.html

[Karen Hudgins]

If there are any affiliate program managers reading this post, I'd love to know what networks and solutions you use and which ones you have listed and disliked.

[bjbtexas]

Originally Posted by Catalyst

Build a product page in less than 2 minutes.

With a data feed you can build thousands in minutes - after you get it set up.

Catalyst,
I have a site that I would like to start an affiliate program on -- is that what you do? The software is installed as part of OScommerce on the site.

www.shophotties.com

I just am trying to firgure out how to get started in marketing an affiliate campaign.

[scot184]

I suppose the difference between myself and you "successful" affiliate marketers out there is that you are building a business on affiliate networks, whereas I simply added some banners and links to an existing business model. I looked at some of your signature links and they just appear to be pages of products fed from merchant sites. This is the type of redundant content that clogs up the internet.

Notice when you watch TV or a sporting event you see advertisements. They come with a product, they aren't the product themselves. Although they are becoming increasingly satured, notice something is offered along with the ads. A lot of you webmasters are simply reproducing advertisments. And the money doesn't seem to be very high from the sound of it. It sounds like from the estimates I am hearing that a lot of people out there are only earning about $0.10, 10 cents an hour! These companies pay out such low percentages. If you are selling their products, you should get more.

I'm just trying to make the point that the webmaster gets the short end of the deal here. No matter what. So don't take offense.

[bjbtexas]

Originally Posted by scot184

I am hearing that a lot of people out there are only earning about $0.10, 10 cents an hour! These companies pay out such low percentages. If you are selling their products, you should get more.

I'm just trying to make the point that the webmaster gets the short end of the deal here. No matter what. So don't take offense.

scot184,
Just a few last questions and comments then I’ll go away... The LinkShare Merchandiser program has PETCO as one of their data feed members with the number of products listed at 7,000. If you could place 7,000 plus pages full of keywords and products that relate your core pages and lead people directly to your site would you take that opportunity?

How long would it take to build 7,000 of core content pages? People come to your site because they found the PETCO affiliate merchandise link, but they stay to place an ad for selling their pet and you make a few affiliate bucks on the side -- Is that bad?

Too me it’s a perfect fit, complimentary services, a win-win situation. You get 7,000 pages advertising your product and the affiliate merchant gets a low cost way to sell their product. What’s 7,000 more pages in the sea of billions?

PS Nice Site!

[Cedric]

I suppose the difference between myself and you "successful" affiliate marketers out there is that you are building a business on affiliate networks

Indeed.

whereas I simply added some banners and links to an existing business model

Yeah, that doesn't generally work out too well.

AdSense, IMO, is generally a much better option for the "slap up a banner" plan. I have a high traffic content site that I slapped banners on for years with little or no success. Slapped AdSense up and the site now generates a decent income each month.

Yes, merchants and networks promote the "slap a banner, make money while you sleep" theory, but it is a sure way to disappointment and it is NOT a means to successful affiliate marketing.

And the money doesn't seem to be very high from the sound of it.

Then you're listening to the wrong posters.

I'm just trying to make the point that the webmaster gets the short end of the deal here

And I'm trying to make the point that you're wrong. The webmaster who is getting the short end of the deal is the webmaster who is not paying attention to their business and who is choosing to maintain partnerships that are not profitable.

[mktplace]

I am suprised nobody has mentioned Google Adsense, although it is not really an affiliate program.

I built a number of websites (gifts, security, music, telecom) as affiliate doorways into partner sites, but the (now 6 months old) changes to Googles linking algorithms has wiped out nearly all the value. Also, click to buy ratios have severely declined over the last year or two, across all the affiliate programs I have used (Linkshare, BeFree and Cognigen Networks to name my favorite top three!)

But, adding Google Adsense advertising to these same site has breathed new life into their revenue streams, and more than replaced the lost affiliate revenue!

Owen

[Dan Palacios]

Obviously I am biased but I have talked to too many people that are not happy with CJ for various reasons.
1, lag time to pay outs
2, poor customer service
3, high cost
4, escrow account from what I understand is no longer refundable
5, the various reasons mentioned here

I think unlimited commissions paid to the tracking solution provider, as in the case of CJ, will slowly but inexorably disappear from e-commerce, the handwriting is on the wall and companies such as www.kowabunga.com and my company, www.fusionquest.com, will be there to pick up the pieces, because at least in Fusionquest's case, we offer both networked and non-networked solution's.

Affiliate marketing is not going away, despite scot184's assertion that it is a joke. Forrester research indicated as much in a report released late last year by pointing out that worldwide, affiliate marketing accounted for approximately 23-25% of online revenue generated by close of fiscal 2003 (August) and so I guess the old adage is correct, anything worth having is worth working hard for, so if affiliates are not making any money Scot, to put it bluntly, they are simply not working hard enough, or they are not choosing the right merchants or products to promote, there are plenty of quality affiliate consulting and management companies out there that can offer sound advice for affiliates, and strong management skills for merchants, Jim Gribble at www.linkprofits.com and www.partnerific.com leap to mind.

[scallihan]

Originally Posted by HellaCooL

Unless you have a high paying affiliate program (at least 10-20%) I think it is very hard to earn decent money (if any) with affiliate links.

Some of the highest paying affiliate programs are the poster retailers. Art.com and AllPosters.com both pay 25-30% commission on 10 return days, and 5% commission on your subaffiliate sales. They're independent affiliate programs, so a slice of the pie isn't going to a third party network, and they're very committed to helping their affiliates be successful.