New To Affiliates....

Hello ALL.

I have been optimizing websites for quiet some time now, but it's always been for clients whom sites I also design.

I am interested in getting into the affiliate market now. Anyone have any suggestions on where is a good place to start?

I hear - Commission Junction is GREAT?

Thanks

CBR

I don't know if I'd call CJ great or not, but it is a good place to start, as they have a lot of different aff programs to choose from. The other thing I do is simply search in Google for "my subject matter affiliate" (without the quotes) and find affiliate companies that aren't listed in cj. There are also other places like cj, but its a good place to start. Do a search and you'll end up finding the rest.

Hi Critter,


Although not the best in some people's opinion, CJ is probably the easiest place to start. I know many SEO's who started doing affiliate marketing to supplement their SEO income and ended up making alot more with AM. The key is finding the good, honest,
parasite-free programs that will actually track sales and pay well. Also start with something that you know about or are interested in as that will make it easier to build content and stay committed until the money starts to come. Feel free to review my programs to see if any look like a good fit. Let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything I can help you with.

If you're looking to get the most you can from your sales, I would strongly recommend searching for programs that run their affiliate programs in house. Program solutions such as Commission Junction, LinkShare, and other are excellent sources for finding affiliate programs. However, what some affiliates may not realize is that the affiliate managers are limited to what they can pay their affiliates due to the fees these solutions charge to the merchants. For example, CJ charges their affiliates 30%. If I wanted to pay an affiliate $1.00, I would end up paying a total of $1.30. I would rather pass along that extra $0.30 to the affiliate that does all the hard work.

I think that you'll see this becoming a growing trend in the affiliate industry, more affiliate managers taking their programs in house. It allows managers to develop closer relationships with their affiliates, have more control over their programs, creatives, bonuses, and also offer higher commission rates.

I strongly encourage you to check out companies offering private programs. As was stated before, searching in Google and Yahoo is an excellent place to start. For example, if you want to promote life insurance, search life insurance affiliate program. The affiliate program directories are also good sources as well. I recommend www.associateprograms.com, www.refer-it.com, and www.which-affiliate.com.