Top Affiliate Programs

Friday, October 31, 2008
Seems a lot of affiliate bloggers have come out with their top affiliate programs list. So here’s mine. I decided to do mine a little different. Unlike others who supposedly give you a list of top affiliate programs that are suppose to be easy for you to make money with, but secretly direct you to their sales page with their affiliate link, I’m actually going to put out a list of top affiliate programs I believe most anyone can make money with. No affiliate links involved, feel free to click and learn. Most of these affiliate programs are easy to implement so there should be no confusing “systems” to get started.

These affiliate programs are in no certain order, I’m adding them as they come to me.
Ebay

There is so many ways to make money with ebay, it’s almost unreal. I’m not aware of another company with as many ways to make money with their affiliate program like you can with Ebay. Not even Amazon has as many ways. Sure, there’s BANS, but before BANS even came along, many of us were making good coin with the eBay affiliate program. Now there are programs like PHPBay where you can insert ebay auctions into blogs or hard code them into any website. You can also use all the tools on the ebay publisher to customize the way you want to present ebay auctions. The different ways you can make money from Ebay is staggering. If you don’t have an account already, get one and familiarize yourself with their affiliate marketing tools.
Clickbank

Love them or hate them, the bottom line is you can make a lot of money with ClickBank. You simply have to learn to choose a product that others want and then create a site to sell this one product. The biggest mistake I see many ClickBank beginners make is they try and sell everything ClickBank has with just a few pages on a copied website. It ain’t gonna happen folks! Choose a product that you’ve used and one you like. Create a main website or blog about this one product and then build a network of smaller websites and blogs to support the main one, build links to the main site by article marketing, blog commenting on DoFollow blogs and submit the post from all your blogs to the Social Media crowd (for backlinks). Use places such as Mixx, HubPages, Squidoo and Propeller to create pages or submit articles about your one specific product. Use good quality content (with long articles that are keyword optimized) to build you main website and the traffic will come. I know it sounds like a lot of work and it is. I didn’t say this would be a list of get rich quick top affiliate programs!
AdSense

Yeah, I know technically that adsense is not an affiliate program, but it’s still one of the easiest, if not THE easiest way to make money online.

All you have to do is pick a niche that you know something about, write good articles about every aspect of this niche, throw a 336×228 ad block at the top and a 120 or 160 adsense block in the sidebar and sit back and rake in the money. The more content and traffic you have, the more money you make. It’s really that simple!

I typically spend 20% of my time creating content and the other 80% promoting my sites, which basically means building links to them. Once you have your site SEO optimized, the most important next step is to build links, build links and then build some more links back to your site!

Many so called “guru’s” tend to make AdSense harder than it is. Some of this is because they’re trying to sell you their “Get rich quick with adsense” ebook, some of it is because they just don’t know any better.

Look people, don’t over think adsense, it’s not that hard!
Independent Affiliate Programs

Some of the biggest money being made on the Internet isn’t through the Affiliate Networks like Commission Junction or ShareASale. It’s being made through independent affiliate programs. Independent affiliate programs are in-house programs that a Merchant runs their self.

Generally, independent affiliate programs pay a higher commission since some of their money doesn’t have to go to affiliate networks. If you can drive a lot of niche specific traffic your favorite independent affiliate program, you can expect to make more than through the affiliate networks.

There are independent affiliate programs for nearly every sector of the Internet. One I like for a couple of my Outdoor related websites is GunsAmerica. Yeah, you can make money selling guns on the Internet. That’s pretty sweet! You can be your own Internet gun runner! LOL

Sometimes it takes a little more to find these independent programs, you’ll just have to search harder. Many Wedding Affiliate Programs are independent and generally pay more than their affiliate network competition. A lot of Webhosting companies have both independent affiliate programs as well as belonging to an affiliate network. Compare the payouts for each program and you’ll see most pay out more on their in-house programs.
Run Your Own Affiliate Program

Have you ever wished you had a lot of affiliate marketers pushing your product? Well you can!

When you run your own affiliate program, you split the money with the affiliates and that’s it. No one else has their hands sticking out.

This is generally the most lucrative for you plus it leaves you free to keep producing other services or products to sell.

“But I don’t have a product or service to sell” you say.

Fear not, there are places where you can have products made for you or you can buy products with Master Resell Rights, brand them with your name and then resell them under your own affiliate network.

Have you ever wondered how the big name Guru’s are able to turn out ebook after ebook or software program after software program? Simple. The hire it done.

Many use the services of eLance or RentACoder. Others have writers or developers at their fingertips. All it takes is a small investment to have someone write you a professional ebook or software program. You then can market it yourself and keep all the profits or split it with your affiliates.

Another easier and cheaper way is to buy products or services with Master Resell Rights or Private Label Rights (PLR). You can find many products and services with Master Resell Rights or Private Label Rights at websites like BestChoiceForEbooks. Once you find a product or service you like, buy it and brand it with you own name and begin marketing it.

You could even start your own store with all the ebooks, software and other products they offer.

What? How Come I Didn’t Mention Amazon.Com?

I know many of you may be wondering why I didn’t list Amazon.com in this Top Affiliate Program post.

It’s simple really.

Although I make some coin from Amazon.com as do others, it doesn’t convert as well as other programs in many instances. Every website I’ve had plus those of many affiliate marketers I know that run Amazon, have higher conversions with other affiliate programs. It takes a load of traffic to make Amazon work and many people starting out do not have the hoards of traffic needed to make Amazon pay off. And if you do have the traffic, then chances are there’s a higher paying affiliate program you could be using. Heck, even AdSense generally pays off more than Amazon.

Okay, so this is your top affiliate programs. Maybe not what you wanted to see. I know many of you wanted specific affiliate programs. But the truth is, nearly any affiliate program from the affiliate networks can be a top affiliate program if you have passion for it, believe in the product or service and are able to drive targeted traffic to your site. That’s the real “secret” behind affiliate marketing. It’s a proven fact that you’ll be able to sell a product better if you use it and love it!

Seems a lot of affiliate bloggers have come out with their top affiliate programs list. So here’s mine. I decided to do mine a little different. Unlike others who supposedly give you a list of top affiliate programs that are suppose to be easy for you to make money with, but secretly direct you to their sales page with their affiliate link, I’m actually going to put out a list of top affiliate programs I believe most anyone can make money with. No affiliate links involved, feel free to click and learn. Most of these affiliate programs are easy to implement so there should be no confusing “systems” to get started.

These affiliate programs are in no certain order, I’m adding them as they come to me.
Ebay

There is so many ways to make money with ebay, it’s almost unreal. I’m not aware of another company with as many ways to make money with their affiliate program like you can with Ebay. Not even Amazon has as many ways. Sure, there’s BANS, but before BANS even came along, many of us were making good coin with the eBay affiliate program. Now there are programs like PHPBay where you can insert ebay auctions into blogs or hard code them into any website. You can also use all the tools on the ebay publisher to customize the way you want to present ebay auctions. The different ways you can make money from Ebay is staggering. If you don’t have an account already, get one and familiarize yourself with their affiliate marketing tools.
Clickbank

Love them or hate them, the bottom line is you can make a lot of money with ClickBank. You simply have to learn to choose a product that others want and then create a site to sell this one product. The biggest mistake I see many ClickBank beginners make is they try and sell everything ClickBank has with just a few pages on a copied website. It ain’t gonna happen folks! Choose a product that you’ve used and one you like. Create a main website or blog about this one product and then build a network of smaller websites and blogs to support the main one, build links to the main site by article marketing, blog commenting on DoFollow blogs and submit the post from all your blogs to the Social Media crowd (for backlinks). Use places such as Mixx, HubPages, Squidoo and Propeller to create pages or submit articles about your one specific product. Use good quality content (with long articles that are keyword optimized) to build you main website and the traffic will come. I know it sounds like a lot of work and it is. I didn’t say this would be a list of get rich quick top affiliate programs!
AdSense

Yeah, I know technically that adsense is not an affiliate program, but it’s still one of the easiest, if not THE easiest way to make money online.

All you have to do is pick a niche that you know something about, write good articles about every aspect of this niche, throw a 336×228 ad block at the top and a 120 or 160 adsense block in the sidebar and sit back and rake in the money. The more content and traffic you have, the more money you make. It’s really that simple!

I typically spend 20% of my time creating content and the other 80% promoting my sites, which basically means building links to them. Once you have your site SEO optimized, the most important next step is to build links, build links and then build some more links back to your site!

Many so called “guru’s” tend to make AdSense harder than it is. Some of this is because they’re trying to sell you their “Get rich quick with adsense” ebook, some of it is because they just don’t know any better.

Look people, don’t over think adsense, it’s not that hard!
Independent Affiliate Programs

Some of the biggest money being made on the Internet isn’t through the Affiliate Networks like Commission Junction or ShareASale. It’s being made through independent affiliate programs. Independent affiliate programs are in-house programs that a Merchant runs their self.

Generally, independent affiliate programs pay a higher commission since some of their money doesn’t have to go to affiliate networks. If you can drive a lot of niche specific traffic your favorite independent affiliate program, you can expect to make more than through the affiliate networks.

There are independent affiliate programs for nearly every sector of the Internet. One I like for a couple of my Outdoor related websites is GunsAmerica. Yeah, you can make money selling guns on the Internet. That’s pretty sweet! You can be your own Internet gun runner! LOL

Sometimes it takes a little more to find these independent programs, you’ll just have to search harder. Many Wedding Affiliate Programs are independent and generally pay more than their affiliate network competition. A lot of Webhosting companies have both independent affiliate programs as well as belonging to an affiliate network. Compare the payouts for each program and you’ll see most pay out more on their in-house programs.
Run Your Own Affiliate Program

Have you ever wished you had a lot of affiliate marketers pushing your product? Well you can!

When you run your own affiliate program, you split the money with the affiliates and that’s it. No one else has their hands sticking out.

This is generally the most lucrative for you plus it leaves you free to keep producing other services or products to sell.

“But I don’t have a product or service to sell” you say.

Fear not, there are places where you can have products made for you or you can buy products with Master Resell Rights, brand them with your name and then resell them under your own affiliate network.

Have you ever wondered how the big name Guru’s are able to turn out ebook after ebook or software program after software program? Simple. The hire it done.

Many use the services of eLance or RentACoder. Others have writers or developers at their fingertips. All it takes is a small investment to have someone write you a professional ebook or software program. You then can market it yourself and keep all the profits or split it with your affiliates.

Another easier and cheaper way is to buy products or services with Master Resell Rights or Private Label Rights (PLR). You can find many products and services with Master Resell Rights or Private Label Rights at websites like BestChoiceForEbooks. Once you find a product or service you like, buy it and brand it with you own name and begin marketing it.

You could even start your own store with all the ebooks, software and other products they offer.

What? How Come I Didn’t Mention Amazon.Com?

I know many of you may be wondering why I didn’t list Amazon.com in this Top Affiliate Program post.

It’s simple really.

Although I make some coin from Amazon.com as do others, it doesn’t convert as well as other programs in many instances. Every website I’ve had plus those of many affiliate marketers I know that run Amazon, have higher conversions with other affiliate programs. It takes a load of traffic to make Amazon work and many people starting out do not have the hoards of traffic needed to make Amazon pay off. And if you do have the traffic, then chances are there’s a higher paying affiliate program you could be using. Heck, even AdSense generally pays off more than Amazon.

Okay, so this is your top affiliate programs. Maybe not what you wanted to see. I know many of you wanted specific affiliate programs. But the truth is, nearly any affiliate program from the affiliate networks can be a top affiliate program if you have passion for it, believe in the product or service and are able to drive targeted traffic to your site. That’s the real “secret” behind affiliate marketing. It’s a proven fact that you’ll be able to sell a product better if you use it and love it!

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