I wish to use an affiliate network to promote one or more of my websites. Which would you recommend? My budget will be relatively small, about $500 per month. I would be doing a pay per sale program.
I use clickbank.com (aff) or no aff: clickbank.com. they take care of the commissions and send you and the afffiliates the checks. I've read before that CJ has a $1,500 a month minimum I think, so not for you. how about http://network.hydramedia.com/advertisers.php ?
$500 a month is really a small budget to become merchant , by the way here is how most affiliate networks work $50 to $10000 network set up fee , depending upon how big they are 15-30% of of each transaction Maintain Advance funds (depending upon how many sales you expect) . As you are going to launch pay per sale program , most affiliates will not be much attracted to your programs, cause most affiliates like CPA programs , So you need to spend some more money to advertise your affiliate programs on forum's/ adwords etc (even if you join affiliate network) .. Even a single affiliate could earn $500 a day in commission(thats what your balance is) . So What will you do next day ? you will be expelled from network or you will be deactivated by merchant if you donot maintain advance funds to pay to affiliates . And if you join affiliate network who donot maintain advance funds , affiliates will prob. not trust you ... So i recommend try something else like go for PPC network etc .
Some of the best networks in my affiliate programs directory and the best ones that I have seen online are: ShareASale LinkShare CJ
Based on the PM you sent me, I don't think your programs are best suited for our network. MaxBounty predominantly works with per-lead merchants, or per-sale offers where a single higher end product or membership service is for sale, particularly trial offers. If you already have a means of charging your surfers for purchases, I would suggest you explore the options at Shareasale.com The owner Brian Littleton is an upstanding member of the affiliate community, and from my understanding, they are perfectly geared to just-starting-out programs like yours. If you require merchant credit card services, I'd suggest you explore ClickBank.com, although I'm afraid I know nothing of their fees. Also a heads up that ClickBank is more of a source of traffic than an affiliate program solution per se. You get virtually no interaction with the affiliates running your program.
I don't think you have the budget to get on a network. I would say start with a hosted affiliate platform. I would use iDev Affiliate. Here's a link to their site: http://www.idevdirect.com/14717914.html Good Luck!