Top 7 Affiliate Networks To Market {Use Sales Funnels, Build List, Smash Profits}

Affiliate networks usually act as the intermediaries between publishers “who are also known as affiliate marketers” who sell services and products and merchants who create the products, services as well as the affiliate programs. For the merchants, the types of affiliate network services provided mostly include tracking, reporting, refund processing and payment, affiliate management, and important of all, the access to a huge base of publishers. And for the affiliate marketers, the network services usually include a specific database of numerous affiliate programs which are usually organized by popularity and category to select from, a simplified registration platform for the programs analytics, reporting tools, and payment processing.

While an affiliate marketer will easily be able to join a specific affiliate network without paying, merchants typically have to pay some small fee to join the network. Most affiliate networks normally charge a setup fee for every merchant and this is subsequently followed by a recurring membership fee. It is also common for affiliate networks to charge the merchants a certain percentage of the commissions paid out to the affiliates. This percentage is referred to as over-ride and is usually paid on top of affiliate commissions. Even if you are looking for a giant bean bag chair, there is an affiliate network that can offer you anything, even a giant beanbag chair.

Irrespective of the type of services or products you are looking to promote, it is possible to find a huge and reliable affiliate network that will suit your needs. Here is a list of the top 7 affiliate networks to market with and crush it.

1. CJ Affiliate

Previously Commission Junction, CJ affiliate is viewed as the largest affiliate platform on the internet and if you have, at one point, worked in the affiliate marketing arena, you have probably come across this network. This affiliate network specializes greatly in pay-for-performance programs and almost every retailer has their affiliate programs on this network. This network operates on a global scale and it is home to affiliate programs belonging to some of the most specialized and recognized retailers, like Apple, Home Depot, Zappos, and TurboTax. This affiliate network is particularly for its high-end and powerful reporting tools in addition to reliable and prompt payments.

2. ShareASale

ShareASale is also one of the biggest U.S. affiliate networks and it currently has more than 3,900 merchant programs and a staggering 700,000 affiliates being part of the network. This network is based out of Chicago and has been operating for close to two decades with a great reputation for honest and fair business. This is the right affiliate marketing network if you are looking to venture into affiliate marketing for purposes of promoting physical products.

3. Rakuten Network

Previously Buy.com, this is yet another huge affiliate network for e-commerce and which mostly focuses on physical products. While this network is relatively smaller compared to some of its rivals in the business with close to 1,000 partners, they are among the oldest affiliate programs and are fully dedicated to premium technology. This network offers hundreds of creative and as such, optimizing sales becomes easier through the use of technology like flexible linking options and rotating ads. This network deals with more than 90,000 products from close to 38,000 shop owners and has a staggering 18 million customers.

4. Clickbank – Affiliate Network

Clickbank is undoubtedly huge and has been in the affiliate networks game for more than 17 years now. Being the large as well as long-standing affiliate network it is, Clickbank focusses on product launches, digital information, and many other marketing products. This network markets more than 6 million unique products which have been created by some of the most passionate entrepreneurs. Clickbank boasts delivering products which transform the lives of more than 200 million customers across the globe.

5. ReviMedia

If you are an individual who is so much into lead generation, then this is an affiliate network you want. This affiliate network is known to specialize in industries like home services, insurance as well as the financial verticals of the global market. They boast a full-scale platform which focuses on utilizing superior technology for purposes of automating the whole lead generation process. And with the lead verification and scoring technology, ReviMedia makes it possible for you to maximize your revenue with higher conversion rates of your leads. The payment methods for this network are usually PayPal, Wire Transfer, and Check.

6. Amazon Affiliate Network

Amazon is arguably the largest and most used online retailer in the United States hence it should not be a surprise that they own one of the largest single affiliate programs where you could advertise thousands of products to customers. One of the greatest attractions of this affiliate program is its level of ease of use as well as the variety of physical goods which you can market. Research has shown that close to 80% of all the affiliate marketers in the world are in Amazon and surprisingly enough, a majority of them achieve 5-figure monthly income levels despite the relatively low payout percentages.

Ultimate Amazon Affiliate Guide

7. MaxBounty

This is considered to be a CPA network, and this implies that an advertiser has to pay for a particular action. This action could be a download, sale, form submission or any kind of action that has been performed by a visitor who can be tracked and then paid for by the person advertising. There are specific web services, like file sharing or software downloads which can generate higher affiliate incomes when utilizing a CPA network as compared to premium affiliate networks like ShareASale or CJ. And if you are a pro in conversion rate optimization, this is the affiliate network you need to join. MaxBounty has been operating for more than a decade and is continuously viewed as one of the top CPA networks.

Best Affiliate Training 

Most affiliate networks are known to have various payout models but the two most popular ones are Cost-Per-Sale and Cost-Per-Action. The former payout model usually pays a particular commission to an affiliate marketer after they refer a lead which converts to a sale. Most marketers like this model because they will only pay a small percentage after they are paid by the buying customer. Cost-Per-Action, on the other hand, pays affiliates after a specific action has been taken by the lead or referral. This payout model does not necessarily entail a direct sale and some of the most popular actions include opt-ins, registrations, sign-ups, impressions, form submissions or clicks.