Increase Your Online Sales With Third Party Affiliate Networks

Third party affiliate networks such as Commission Junction,

LinkShare, Shareasale and ClickBank are essential resources

for the serious online affiliate marketer. They provide the

affiliate marketer with products to sell, website content,

hourly stats, complete tracking and collecting services. More

importantly they send out your monthly commission checks.



If you're new to online affiliate marketing, perhaps a brief

explanation is needed. Any webmaster or marketer can join an

affiliate program and place affiliate links on their websites

or blogs; if a visitor to your site clicks on one of your

affiliate links or banners and goes to that company's site and

buys a product or signs up for a service - you earn a commission

for having referred that customer. A commission can run from

a few cents to hundreds of dollars or more, depending on the

product's price and your percentage of the sale.



Third party affiliate networks are like Mega Affiliate Sites.

View them as malls for the online affiliate marketer - there

are thousands of companies under one roof or control panel. An

affiliate can join a third party network like LinkShare and

once accepted, you will be able to access and promote thousands

of high profile companies like Apple, Dell, RadioShack...

The affiliate then uses the merchant's banners, online coupons,

or text link codes to promote their chosen merchants.



The main advantage of using a program like LinkShare and those

mentioned above, you can easily join and control all your

affiliate links and codes through one site. Its acts like an

agent for marketers - it will work on your behalf for a small

percentage of the commissions. Only drawback, expect to earn

slightly less than if you dealt directly with the merchants

involved because these third party programs do take their cut.



I have been working all of the above programs for years, mainly

with my main marketing website www.bizwaremagic.com. The

following are some pointers you may find helpful if you're

planning on trying any or all of these programs.



First, like most people starting an online business, my

skeptic's thinking was in overdrive - I had many doubts and

misgivings. I have a background in art and even as a very minor

fine artist I have had a lot of experiences with art dealers

and gallery owners. Most of my artworks were sold on consignment

and sometimes just getting your commission checks was either a

constant pain or a very long wait, usually two to three months.



I expected the same with working on the Internet, I had

preconceived ideas that have been proven totally false. To

my complete surprise all of my dealings with these companies

have been very professional and pleasantly rewarding. These

companies do send you your commissions and most send them on a

regular and timely basis. Anyone who is used to getting a

regular paycheck every two weeks may also be surprised, like

I was, to get 10 - 20 regular checks each month. For the

first couple of months I was operating in a 'shock and awe'

mode.





Commission Junction



One of the first affiliate programs I used was Commission

Junction (www.cj.com). It was acquired by ValueClick in 2003

and they have around 1300 companies from which you may choose

to promote. Most merchants offer pay-per-sale or pay-per-lead,

many merchants offer performance bonuses. You also have the

option of direct deposit for your payments.



They pay monthly and they pay regularly. The way their control

panel or monthly stats are handled does take some getting used

to at first, but once you start working CJ, things run very

smoothly and they have the best reporting and tracking of all

these programs.



One major plus, they tell you which companies are earning the

most money for affiliates... you can then judge which merchants

are worth promoting on the Internet. Commissions are different

for each company, some go as high as 50%.



Linkshare



LinkShare (www.linkshare.com) is one of the oldest affiliate

programs on the web. It has just been taken over by the

Japanese Portal Rakuten, with a price tag of $425M. I expect

the quality of Linkshare to go up in the coming months with the

recent appointment of Steven R. Denton as President.





Linkshare's Statistics and reporting are very comprehensive

with their SynergyAnalytics system. Top brand merchants make

this program worth your while. It has a large number of Fortune

500 companies that provide the affiliate marketer with well

known products to promote. Some of my checks from them have been

very slow in coming but they do arrive but this area in my opinion

has to be improved upon. Hopefully, the Japanese takeover

will improve things.



Shareasale



Shareasale (www.shareasale.com) is also a very easy system to

work. It has good stats and joining merchants is a breeze.

It has around 1,700 Merchants to choose from. I only have a

few programs with Shareasale so my experience is limited,

but they do send their checks out on time , usually the month

following your sales. The control panel is easy to use and

reporting is also excellent.





ClickBank



ClickBank (www.clickbank.com) is a little different in that

it deals mainly in digital download products. The commissions

from ClickBank are much higher, usually around 40% to 50% or

even higher. Personally, although I have a marketing website,

I have found selling marketing-info products to be the toughest

niche to crack. Mainly because you have stiff competition from

the best Internet Marketers who have large contact lists and

know exactly what they're doing. To further explain, these

top marketers will often offer a whole array of their own

bonuses when marketing a high ticket item - this tactic

will quickly eat up a large share of customers who want

to buy any given product.



Other niche products through ClickBank sell better. The same

principle holds true for all these programs, little known

niches will offer quicker returns for the beginning marketer.

Needless to say, you will have better success if you tie in

your affiliate companies or products directly to the subject

or topic of your website or blog. Whether it be home

entertainment systems, gardening equipment or Mediterranean

cruises - you will have a better conversion rate (number of

sales/compared to number of visitors) if you pick products

directly related to your site's content.





ClickBank has over 10,000 products that a marketer or webmaster

can promote. ClickBank also pays every two weeks. They will

hold back a small percentage to cover charge-backs, but you

receive this hold back a little later. Small price to pay for

getting your checks every two weeks. ClickBank has the least

user-friendly online stats of all these programs, although it

now offers a search engine to help you find your products to

market. I have always found it difficult to check which product

has sold, so many nicknames for the different products, I find

it hard to keep track of what products are selling. Although

you can buy software programs to solve this problem.





Amazon



Amazon is another online company that also handles some

third party orders. ToysRus is one of their merchants. Very

good stats and easy links to place on your sites. Commission rates

are rather low, I sell laptops through my main site, an average

priced laptop will bring in around $25 in commissions. A

commission from Independent affiliate programs like Alienware

or Rockdirect would be double or triple that amount.



On the other hand, I found the conversion rate for Amazon to

be higher, mainly (I believe) because people are used to buying

from Amazon online, it has earned their respect and has a well

earned reputation for service and quality. Consumers feel

comfortable ordering from Amazon. You may earn less per sale

but you make many more sales so it evens out. Note that

payments are only done quarterly, but if you work Amazon to

any extent, those checks can be quite large.



My Number One Tactic For Using These Affiliate Networks



Keep your eyes open and watch carefully to see which companies

are doing a lot of advertising (tv, radio, newspapers) in the

real world! Many times all this advertising will point to a

popular trend or item that's selling rapidly. Pick those same

products or companies from any of the affiliate programs listed

here and place the affiliate links on your sites.



For instance, Dell does a lot of TV commercials... when people

go online and come across a Dell product on your site, changes

are good that they have already just watched a commercial for

the same product and may be in the mood for more information

or even in the market for that product. Pick companies that do

a lot of advertising, are household names and very familiar to

your website visitors. The Internet is still a very scary

place in most people's minds, a well known and well advertised

product or company will help break down this barrier. It will

make your job as an affiliate marketer just that much more

easier. And help make those monthly commission checks just a

little bit bigger.





.....

The author runs a modest Internet Marketing web site where you

will find helpful online guides on RSS/Blogging, Laptops, SEO,

Affiliate Programs, List Building, Internet Fax and quite a

few Free Marketing Tools. Including the very popular Free Desktop Calendar & Planner
Copyright © 2006 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely

distributed if this resource box stays attached.