Affiliate marketing can prove to be a very lucrative venture. Commissions can be as high as hundreds of dollars for just one sale.

What is an affiliate network you might ask. An affiliate network plays a middleman between the advertiser (also called merchants, vendors – companies or individuals with products and services to sell) and publisher (affiliates – who promote these products and services).

These networks may help you to easily find and participate in a program which is suitable for you. It provides things like tracking, payment processing, reporting etc.

Most affiliate networks allow anyone to sign up but some of them want you to have a website with your own domain.

There are hundreds if not thousands of similar posts out there, I know. But here is the list of my favourite networks.

Commission Junction

Commonly referred as CJ short. It is an international network with great background. They offer thousands of premium affiliate products for sale. It is not the cheapest solution for merchants to use Commission Junction, so mostly large businesses tend to use their service.

The minimum payout is $50 by direct deposit (for certain countries) and $100 by check (for the rest of the world).

ShareASale

Shareasale is another great system to work with. It has around 2,700 programs and 2,000+ merchants. If you are new to the affiliate business be ready for some exploration work. It’s not because of you but there is a lot of information. Their commissions are competitive.

The minimum payout is $50 by direct deposit or check

MoreNiche

It sounds like this network has a lot of merchants but actually only has 15 programs you can promote. Then… what do I like about this program? Their products are easy to sell, their support is the best in the industry and the commissions are great. You can always learn from them! Get up to $45 bonus just to start with.

The minimum payout is $100 by direct deposit, PayPal or check.

ClickBank

It’s an other well-known network and maybe the most popular among beginners. Clickbank accept every new application, all you need is an email address It’s easy to use and pays bi-weekly.

It deals mainly with digital products. The minimum payout is $10 by check or direct deposit. Payments are sent on the Wednesday two weaks after period end.

LinkShare

It is one of the oldest affiliate networks on the web. With a large selection of brands to choose from you’ll be sure to find something that’s perfect for your website or blog. Finding products and services to promote is easy.

The minimum payout is $1 by direct deposit or check.

Keep in mind, all the above affiliate networks are middlemen between you (as an affiliate) and the merchant you’re promoting. You can try them out for free. It doesn’t require you to have your own business as you will be able to promote an exisiting (large) business.

If you are promoting more than one merchant, all your earnings are going into one account and you can reach the minimum payout faster. Beginners should try affiliate networks first.

Happy earning!

I was logging in my Clickbank account today and was shocked to see a new design of Clickbank’s website! It’s now in bright chirpy red color! Check out the screenshot below:

The old design was there since 2006(?) and I miss that clean one but it doesn’t matter. This new one just looks like a template you can get on HostGator for free

They are even showing the amount of money they have paid to all the Clickbank affiliates in their network. The counter displays a fantastic $1.24 billion what you can see above.

Unfortunately this counter is created by a jOdometer jQuery plugin and it’s not displaying the actual sales. And why would a serious affiliate network put that kind of counter on their site? Maybe it attracts new vendors/affiliates.

New visitors should be able to find their way around easily and the information presented is very well laid out. Someone looking for information on how to be an affiliate or start selling as a vendor can easily find the relevant information.

Fortunately, once you’ve logged in to your account, the functions and links are the same – so it’s still easy to navigate.

There is also a new function called ClickBank HopLink Shield.

HopLink Shield helps protect your affiliate links from prying eyes.  It’s a free tool which masks the vendor and your nickname within the affiliate link.

So http://fatbanker.comblue.hop.clickbank.net/

will looks like

http://bbb0d-epm3r5iba2teqc071m2-.hop.clickbank.net/

It’s not just ugly but looks spammy too. I personally prefer my own redirecting:
http://fatbanker.com/go/comblue.php

Setting up an encoded hoplink is as easy as previously. Type your nickname and your tracking ID (if any), press the button and the ugly encoded hoplink is ready.

What happen if you have some encoded links floating around and can’t remember what product they are for? Well Clickbank also have a decoder for you. And “you” means everyone which brings up my next question, why would I encode a link if anyone can decode them?

It seems that it will add an extra layer of privacy & anonymity and keep affiliates promotional efforts and techniques hidden. But in reality it has no real benefit.

It would be a useful tool if you would be the only person who could decode your hoplinks.

Clickbank mentioned that all older HopLinks are still valid. The question is how long?