Affiliate programs

Top affiliate programs

Affiliate program. This is a question most people ask themselves, an affiliate program is an automated marketing program where a web advertiser or merchant recruits webmasters to place the merchant’s banner ads or buttons on their own website. Every time a customer has clicked the affiliate link to get to the merchant’s website to perform the desired action, which on most cases is to make a purchase or fill a contract form, the webmaster will receive a referral fee or commission from sales. This is really a great and trouble-free way to earn money for bloggers and website owners. Currently you can even use social media sites as a stage on which to market your campaigns.

How do I get a good affiliate program? For one to get a good affiliate program, first you must learn how the affiliate business works in the well-organized way. Secondly, that affiliate program must have fresh techniques and new information this is because there are a lot of changes happening on the internet making old material useless. Ensure there are clear step-by-step directions and guidance so that you know the point to start from and be able to set your goals and towards achieving them. It should have all the information required in affiliate marketing and have customer support to enable your progress to an affiliate marketer. Lastly, the affiliate program should teach you marketing content, setting up a website, Google ad words, search engine optimization and driving traffic. With that in mind, here is a brief description of some of the leading affiliate programs;

1. Linkshare

Currently ranked the largest affiliate network ,having over 10 million affiliate partners ,Linkshare was awarded the number-one spot in the 2012 blue book of top 20 affiliate networks with its strong areas being platform strength, support quality and international capabilities.

1. Commission junction

This California based company branded the leading affiliate marketing network in north America but it operates globally, having been given the number –two position in the 2012 blue book of top affiliates networks with a strong point at balancing the relationship between the merchants, the network and the affiliates.

It offers affiliates, media, tracking services and provides an option for either self-management or company-management for affiliate relationships.

1. Sharesale

Taking the number three position in the 2012 blue book of top 20 affiliate’s networks with a stand out in overall leading performance in marketing network in the world today is Sharesale. It has over 2500 merchant programs and features brands such as HootSuite and PS print.

1. Amazon associates

Ranking 4^th in the 2012 blue book of top 20 affiliate networks, with a strong point for having a system that “far surpasses other big networks”, having some of the largest and most diverse affiliate programs available.

1. Google affiliate network

With regard to the networks overview page,”Google affiliate network helps advertisers increase online conversions on a performance basis and enables publishers to monetize traffic with affiliate ads.”

Google affiliate is a pay-per-action network that pays commission to its affiliates for driving conversions i.e. sales and leads.