Best Affiliate Networks and Platforms to Make Money
Are you looking for the best affiliate networks to monetize your website or blog? Then, read until the end. You are at the right place.
Whether you have a blog, YouTube channel, or social media page with a decent amount of traffic. Affiliate marketing is the best way for you to turn your traffic into passive income by promoting affiliate products.
I created this ultimate guide, especially for beginners to choose the right affiliate marketing network. I’ve collected a list of top-notch affiliate networks and platforms. So you can start affiliate marketing more conveniently.
In this guide, I have covered a lot about affiliate networks. What is an affiliate network? What are the best affiliate networks in the world, their features, things to know, and more?
Before going in-depth, let’s take a quick introduction to what is an affiliate network exactly.
What is an Affiliate Network?
An affiliate network is an intermediary between publishers (blog owners) and companies looking to promote their products and services.
In simple words, an affiliate network connects web publishers or blog owners to those companies looking for someone to promote their products. So that web publishers can get the affiliate links of all those companies from one place. That place is called an affiliate network.
To know how an affiliate network works. See the simple diagram given below to easily understand.
The idea behind this is very simple. You get custom affiliate links from an affiliate network. You promote those product links on your website or blog and earn the commission.
There are a lot of affiliate networks out there providing this facility. And those affiliate networks make it easy for web publishers and blog owners to participate in any affiliate program.
For example, a lot of companies in the world offer an affiliate program. Instead of applying for all those companies one by one or separately. You can simply sign up for only one affiliate network and promote any company’s product.
I hope you have understood.
Now, let’s go ahead and see our main topic.
Best Affiliate Networks and Platforms
Here is the list of the best affiliate networks. But before that, you should have a decent amount of traffic on your website, YouTube channel, or social media page to get started. So let’s begin.
1. CJ Affiliate – Best Affiliate Network
Cj affiliate formerly known as Commission Junction is one the best affiliate networks. They gather merchants from all over the world under one roof. So that affiliate marketers can get all the benefits from one place.
You’ve probably heard about it. It is on the list of the most popular and top affiliate networks. Cj was founded in 1998 in Santa Barbara, California. And it is an older and most reliable network for affiliate marketing.
They have 15 offices and more than 2500 merchants all over the world.
Cj affiliate offers affiliate programs for many of the most popular brands. Some of the brands are Barnes, Blue Apron, Office Depot, Priceline, J.Crew, etc.
Almost every e-commerce company has its affiliate programs on CJ Affiliate. Whether it is for a merchant, manufacturer, retailer, or publisher. Cj provides everything for affiliate marketing. They provide a variety of affiliate programs in various niches.
With Cj, you can promote any product whether it is a digital or a physical product. You can create custom links, and add banners, coupons, and more to your website.
Things You Need to Know about CJ Affiliates Network
Before going for a signup, here are some important things that you should know.
- Requirements for Account Approval: They want you to have a significant amount of traffic on your blog. A blog with 10K+ monthly pageviews can apply for it.
- Commission rates are different for different products according to their merchants.
- Reporting Tools: Their real-time reporting tools give a bigger advantage to affiliate marketers. You can monitor your sales, leads, and progress. And apply for different affiliate programs to earn more passive income.
- Payment Method: They provide three types of payments.
- Direct Deposit
- Payment through Check
- Payoneer (for international payments)
- Minimum Payout: US$ 50$ for direct deposit & 100$ for the check.
- (Note: This is the minimum amount you have to earn to withdraw your earnings).
- Product Types: All kinds of digital products and physical products are available to promote.
Now, you have enough knowledge about CJ affiliates. Now let’s go ahead and see other best affiliate marketing platforms.
2. ShareASale – Popular Affiliate Network
ShareASale has been around for over 20 years. With over 200k active publishers and 16k merchants, it is the best affiliate network for bloggers. It is the most reliable and available in many countries.
It is a Chicago-based affiliate marketing network founded in 2000. Popular brands like Candid, Circuit, Deluxe, Reebok, Etsy, etc offer their affiliate programs at ShareASale.
It is free to join. Every day a lot of publishers and content creators join ShareASale to make money. This network offers many services and reporting tools for both merchants and affiliates.
The quality of the ShareASale affiliate network is tremendous. It is very easy to use, simple, and user-friendly. They have a beautiful and simple user interface so you can find any product of any merchant in seconds.
You can get started quickly right after your account approval. They provide different categories of merchants. You can easily find merchants and their products to promote on your website.
Commission rates are different for different merchants.
Things You Need to Know about ShareASale before Applying
Some of the important things before applying for the ShareASale affiliate network.
- For ShareASale Account Approval
- You should have a decent amount of traffic on your blog or website.
- Use a custom email address related to your domain name like support@domainname.com for fast approval.
- Provide accurate personal information.
- Your application will take 1-3 business days for approval.
- Payment Methods for ShareASale.
- Wire Deposit
- Via Payoneer
- Via cheque
- The minimum payout is 50$ paid on the 20th of every month.
- Product Types: All types of products including both physical and digital products.
- Cookie duration depends on merchants and their products.
3. ClickBank – The Largest Affiliate Network
ClickBank is the world’s most popular, largest, and best affiliate marketing network. It was founded in 1998. They have more than 6 million clients offering products worldwide. Additionally, it is also known as the 87th largest Internet retailer in North America.
Whether you’re an expert or just a beginner, you can get started with ClickBank more easily. And the coolest thing about ClickBank is. They provide a complete guide in the form of video courses and blogs to get started.
The process of creating an account on ClickBank is pretty straightforward. So no need to worry about that.
One important thing I found while doing the research is that. ClickBank is not available in some Asian countries. So don’t be confused. In that case, you can choose any other affiliate network. Because ClickBank is not the only best affiliate network.
They have a lot of products in different categories that you can promote. Products like health and fitness, educational products, software, and more. You can place banner ads on your blog. Or you can write a blog post and promote the products by adding custom links.
Thousands of websites are making millions of dollars using ClickBank.
Tip: Always choose low-competition products to promote.
Things You Need to Know about the ClickBank affiliate platform
- ClickBank Account Approval
- You just have to sign up and you’re in. They have no further requirements.
- It’s open to everyone.
- Payment Methods
- Direct Deposit
- Wire Transfer
- Cheque
- The minimum payout is 50$.
- Product Types: All physical, digital, online courses, hosting, etc are available to promote.
- Cookie duration depends on merchants.
4. Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates is another unique, easy-to-use, and beginner-friendly affiliate platform. It was started in 1996. The cool thing about Amazon is, they don’t use any third-party affiliate network. Because they have their own reporting tools that do the whole job for the affiliate marketers.
Amazon helps publishers, bloggers, and content creators to monetize their traffic with affiliate links and ads. Amazon provides millions of physical and digital products to promote.
The major benefit of choosing Amazon Associates is its popularity and reliability. Everyone trusts Amazon. You have seen that the products of amazon always rank well on Google.
As I said earlier, Amazon has its own reporting tools. That means you can track your clicks, commissions, bounties, and sales of your referral products. No need for any third-party best affiliate network. Amazon associate provides all the tools that you need.
With this, you can search for any product. And you can create custom links, ads, and banners for those products to promote.
Things You Need to Know Before Signing Up
- Amazon Associates Requirements for Account Approval
- It’s free to join and get started. But you have to sell 3 products in under 6 months to get approved.
- Your site must have original content.
- You should have at least 10 blog posts on your website.
- Payment Methods
- International Direct Deposit is available for 52 countries (you can receive earnings in your local bank account).
- Amazon Gift Cards
- Paypal
- Cheque payment
- The minimum payout is 100$.
- Commission rates range from 1% to 10% depending on product type.
- The cookie duration is 24 hours. That means any person buys in the next 24 hours, you earn the commission.
- Product Types: Any type of digital and physical products are available in the amazon affiliate network.
Read more about how to sign up for the Amazon associate program.
5. Rakuten Advertising – Another Best Affiliate Network
Rakuten advertising is Japan’s best affiliate network founded in 1996. With over 20 years of experience, it is on the list as one of the oldest affiliate marketing networks.
Rakuten started in the very early days of affiliate marketing. It was formerly known as LinkShare. Then, it transformed into Rakuten.
Like other affiliate marketing networks, they have unique features too. The deep linking feature is best that driving customers from the link to the checkout page.
They do not have a large list of merchants like Cj affiliates and ShareASale have. But it is still one of the most popular and reliable affiliate networks in the world. Over 150K publishers are using Rakuten from all over the world.
Rakuten gives access to top-notch brands of the world. So you can promote their products on your website. Most popular brands like Udemy, Fargo, DialogTech, Walmart, JetBlue Vacations and Ecco, etc are using it.
The beautiful user interface, easy-to-use, and flexible layout. They also provide a complete guide to starting affiliate marketing. So everyone can easily get started.
Things You Need to Know about Rakuten Advertising before Signing up
If you’re wondering to join this affiliate marketing platform. Then, this information might be helpful.
- Account Approval Requirements
- You must have to add your own website, blog, or social media page URL.
- The domain should be TLD (Top Level Domains). (Don’t use free domains).
- Your site should not be in under construction.
- You must have a decent amount of traffic to join.
- Payment Methods
- Direct Deposit payments are available in 74 countries. (This is cool!)
- Paypal payment
- Cheque payment
- The minimum payout is just 50$.
- Both digital and physical Product types are available to promote.
6. Avangate Affiliate Marketing Network
In the collection of the best affiliate networks and platforms, Avangate is another popular affiliate network. They focus on digital products instead of physical products. Digital products like software, hosting, anti-viruses, malware, and more.
Top-notch software companies like Kaspersky, Bitdefender, IObit, and Movavi offer their affiliate programs on Avangate.
This affiliate platform is well-established and reliable for both publishers and advertisers. It is an award-winning best-affiliate network for many years. Avangate is best for those who are looking for digital products and software to promote.
This is a better choice if you have a tech reviews website. You can earn a lot of money by promoting digital products.
Digital products are always higher in price than physical products. That’s why you can earn more commission as compared to physical products.
Things You Need to Know about Avangate Affiliate Network before Joining
- Account Approval Requirements
- Content must be unique and original.
- You should have a decent amount of traffic.
- Don’t use free domains.
- Payment Methods
- Cheque
- PayPal
- Wire Transfer
- The minimum payout threshold is 100$.
- Cookie duration depends on merchants.
- Product Types: Digital products only.
All these networks are the most popular and best affiliate networks. These platforms are also well-ranked on Google.
That’s all for now. I will add some more networks and keep this list up to date for you. Hope this guide will be helpful to you.
Also, tell us which affiliate marketing platform you like and use. We will check that and add that to our list.
Don’t forget to share it with your friends.
Topic: Make Money Online
