The golden question! At least you’d think so, the amount of times I get emails asking me about this. Especially since the last time I posted a picture of a cheque I made a few months back. Before I go further I’d like to make one thing very clear, I’m not one of those super affiliates you read about making thousands and thousands of dollars. Not yet !

Over the years I’ve dabbled a bit with affiliate marketing, since my focus was in another direction I didn’t really see any real results. But as mentioned in a previous post, I’m more dedicate now and the results are starting to show in the income I’ve already made this month.

So what’s an affiliate program?

Also possibly called a revenue sharing program, a partnership program, or any other variation of the term, an affiliate program is a program in which you typically sign up with a merchant to sell or advertise their products and then they give you a commission based on the sales you generate.

So what’s an Affiliate Network? - Similar to an ad network, but dealing with companies offering affiliate programs. These companies take a commission from all sales. The affiliate managers often give affiliates tips and rewards for performance.

The main benefits of getting approved to be part of an affiliate network are :

- you’re assigned an affiliate manager who’s there to assist you.

- you have a variety of affiliate programs under one roof to promote.

- you have the stability of the network to ensure that you get paid and on time.

- you may have access to many promotional and tracking tools.

- in most cases you will get weekly or monthly updates via a a newsletter or blog highlighting the top paying and converting offers.

Affiliate Networks I recommend to my friends (I’ll rank them according to my view of their network)..

Option 1.

Advaliant - Maybe not as well known as some of the bigger networks, but my affiliate manager “Geoff” is very helpful and a driving force as to why I’ve decided to make affiliate marketing a success after all these years. Click here to join Advaliant.

Option 2.

Hydra.  I just started really getting more involved with using Hydra and I like what I see so far. Tons of great programs to promote, with excellent tracking/reporting, weekly updates with high performing offers and good payouts. Click here to be part of Hydra.

Option 3.

Neverblue - This network is HOT! I especially like the tools they provide for affiliates. Being that I also publish several websites their banner rotation tool is excellent. There’s a lot of excellent programs to promote (probably the most in all the networks I’m involved with) and so far I’ve had no problems with tracking and payments etc. Click here to join Neverblue Ads.

Option 4.

CX Digital Media. The first network I started using when I decided to make some real money with affiliate programs. You have to also check out their rewards program. Tons of cool prizes to win, along with the fat commission cheques you can generate with some effort. Click here to  join C X Digital media affiliate program.

FYI. You’ll be required to complete their application form and then a rep will be in contact with you. You’ll then be asked a few simple questions..

- if you publish a website or blog

- do you own an ezine or list

- your experience with affiliate networks

- what type of offers you’ll be interested in promoting

basically how you plan to make this work.

My suggestion…

If you don’t have any experience or don’t publish a website, mention to the caller that you’re now learning how to market affiliate programs and you’re looking for hot new products to promote. Say that “your” network came highly recommended and you’d like to make them part of your learning curve. And finish off by saying that you’ll be using pay per click and social ads to help generate your business.

In the next post (hopefully you’d have sent in your applications to each network mentioned above) we’ll start looking at simple ways you can start generating some traffic to your affiliate links, so you can get paid.

I suggest you apply to all 4 options mentioned above as to increase your chances at getting approved for at least 1 of them. Yes they are FREE to join.