Which affiliate networks do serious affiliates like?

We're planning to start up an affiliate program (i.e. we're the merchant), and I had some questions to throw out, particularly aimed at those of you who are serious affiliates that go beyond the "mom and pop" level.

1. Apart from CJ ($$$), which affiliate networks do you look for new programs on, and for what reason. I've heard linkshare.com mentioned several times as well as shareasale.com. Any others you use and like?

2. If a vendor had an in-house affiliate progam and an externally managed one as well (but with lower payout), would that reassure you that the in-house one was legit? Assume 25% on the in-house and 20% on the 3rd party, with the item price being $30 (i.e. $7.5 vs $6 commission)

3. What would you be looking for from the merchant in terms of product support, website templates, shopping cart integration?

 

CJ has a $5000+ startup cost ($2250 account setup fee, $3000 deposit) so it's out of our budget at the moment. Their cut is 30% of the commision paid to the affiliate, or $0.30 whichever is higher. On another board somebody commented that with CJ they get the affiliates, with others finding the affiliates is basically the merchant's task.

What kind of support materials do you look for from affiliates merchants? Do they provide turnkey websites, banners etc?

 

Have a look at A Best Web for a good list and discussion about the various networks. I'm sure if you put the same question to them you should get a few answers.

 

I have said it many times before, but many people like Amazon's Affiliate program. They have a bunch of Web Services that you can use.

http://www.Amazon.com/associates

 

how exactly does CJ work?

 

CJ has two types of clients, advertisers and publishers.

As a publisher (webmaster), I login to CJ's huge database of advertisers. I sign-up to be able to select ads from specific advertisers. I then select specific advertisements that match my sites content and userbase.

Sometimes I select text links, sometimes banners, sometimes skyscrapers. Sometimes I select links to the main page of an advertisers web site, at other times I select links to a specific individual product.

You can see a CJ ad in action on my What is 127.0.0.1? page, where I use a CJ advertisement to do a bit of keyword stuffing to improve the SERPS for a very short page.

Every time a user clicks an ad, goes to the advertisers web page, and buys something, I earn a comission. CJ aggregates the money I've earned and takes their cut.

 

Rick,

If you can't afford CJ, LinkShare is almost as high and requires an exclusive so you can't have an in-house program.

Many of our top affiliates prefer ShareaSale. 1) Parasite-free as opposed to CJ and LS. 2) Norton and other progras do not block SAS text links and ads the way they do with CJ. 3) SAS does aggregated payments like CJ and LS does not.

See IMPORTANT info and example of how Norton strips content and hurts affiliate revenue here:

http://www.5staraffiliateprograms.com/norton-blocks-revenue.html

 

I love shareasale, made $ XX in the first month, XXX in the second month. They are simple, easy to use and the datafeed accessibility is great.

Premium affililates also get access to a XML feed.

 

Clixgalore or
Kolimbo.com

 

Just search for affiliate networks on google and you will find log list of such networks. Then, you choose which ever fits your budget, product type and requirements. CJ is one of the most used affiliate network by the publishers who are responssible to bring in the customers for your products.

 

I really like Copeac but another one that I have been using as of recent and has been really good is Ads4dough. Both of these networks have great affiliate managers and always answer my emails in a timely manner. Either of the 2 are great to work with.

 

anyone like Clickbank.com ?

 

My personal recommendation is neverblueads. I've worked with them for a few month now as an affiliate and their offers are good, their account managers attentive and their system works real smooth.
If interested, you can sign up via referral link in my signature

 

In the UK I like Webgains, Tradedoubler and Affiliate Window.