Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Networks for Affiliate Marketers

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Aside from joining ad networks, there’s is no doubt that affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money with your blog.

On that note, how much can you earn as an affiliate marketer depends on a lot of things – and one of them is the affiliate products you’re promoting. Naturally, you will earn more money by promoting affiliate products that reward higher commission rates.

Now, there are millions of affiliate products out there, both physical and digital, with commission rates from 1% to as much as 90%. And you will find a plethora of affiliate products that are related to your blog’s niche through various affiliate marketing networks (affiliate networks).

So below is our pick of the top 10 affiliate marketing networks that we think you can make a lot of money from. We’ve listed them based on how easy you can join in as a publisher considering cost and other requirements.

We also discussed the pros and cons of each, including what type of products you can promote.

And in case you’re a merchant who wants to promote and advertise your products through an affiliate marketing network, we’ve also provided some valuable information for you below.

Shall we get started?

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1. FlexOffers

FlexOffers General Info

Founded in 2008 by Alex Daskaloff, FlexOffers is a popular affiliate network, especially for new affiliate marketers. Besides being one of the fastest paying affiliate networks out there, it also provides publishers with real-time tracking tools and allows even complete beginners to make money online through affiliate marketing.

Say you’re totally new to affiliate networks and you don’t know anything about being a publisher – no sweat.

FlexOffers publishers get personal account managers (who are also experienced in affiliate marketing) to help you connect with appropriate merchants for your blog’s niche, show you how to navigate within the network, pick the most profitable products, answer your questions and help cater to your publisher-specific needs.

And other than your commissions from affiliate products, you can also earn up to 50% commissions based on the network’s profit for every publisher you refer through the FlexRev-$hare – FlexOffers’ own affiliate program.

FlexOffers Affiliate products – According to its website, FlexOffers have millions of affiliate products (both physical and digital) across a growing collection of over 12,000 affiliate programs spread across more than 20 categories.

FlexOffers provides a list of partner merchants and advertisers available publicly through the Affiliate Program Directory List. It has affiliate products for various niches like:

• Clothing
• Business
• Insurance
• Technology
• Automotive
• Health and wellness
• Entertainment
• Travel
• Legal services

Some of the notable brands include Macy’s, IHG, Skechers, Adidas, AT & T, LEGO, Lenovo, Koehler, Paradox London, and BestSeller.

FlexOffers affiliate products average commission rate – While FlexOffers didn’t specify how much commissions you can earn for their partnered merchants, you can get this information once you get approved as a publisher.

Although, your commission rates will depend on a number of variables including what kind of products you’re promoting and which niche do those products belong. For instance, digital products and insurance affiliate programs pay much better commissions than physical products like clothing or cellphones.

Of course, I’m not saying you can’t earn a good income if your blog is in the fashion or technology niche. You just have to find the more profitable affiliate products to promote on your blog or website.

Payments – FlexOffers pays commissions to publishers on a NET 60 basis (60 days). However, top performers (make at least $5,000 in revenue) can get paid via NET 7 (weekly).

The minimum payment threshold is $25 and payments are made via check, bank transfers, ACH, wire transfers, and PayPal. Please refer to the image below for your reference.

Cost to join as a publisher – Anyone with a blog or a website may apply to join FlexOffers for free.

Publisher application response time – FlexOffers usually respond to your application within a few days, though sometimes, you may receive your application status the day after it is submitted.

Cookie duration – It depends on the merchant you sign up with but I browsed on the affiliate programs and most if them are between 7-30 days.

Cookies in affiliate marketing are used to track your referrals’ purchases and your eligibility to earn commissions.

For example, the merchant you sign up with setup the cookie duration for their products to 30 days. It means that if the person who clicked your affiliate product link made the purchase within 30 days, you are eligible to earn a commission.

FlexOffers Pros

• Free to join
• Has a wide collection of both physical and digital products from big and small businesses
• Beginner-friendly and provides publishers with a dedicated account manager
• If you generate a revenue of $5,000, you will get paid with your commissions within 7 days
• Has its own affiliate program where you’ll earn up to 50% of any earnings generated by every person you refer to FlexOffers
• Supports PayPal payment option

FlexOffers Cons

• If you don’t make at least $5,000 in sales revenue, you will have to wait for 60 days to get your commissions paid
• You might be required to provide accurate information about the source of your blog or website’s traffic
• For publishers outside the US, the only supported payment method is PayPal

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join FlexOffers:

• A $500 one-time initial setup fee for businesses located in the United States ($100 of this payment goes to an escrow deposit) and $1,000 ($500 goes to an escrow) for businesses located overseas (more info)
• Approval as a merchant will be based on different criteria like website quality (e.g does not promote hate or violence), website functionality, the quality of the product or service offered, supported currency, language, among other things
• Learn more about becoming a FlexOffers merchant here

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2. ShareASale

ShareASale General Info

ShareASale is one of the most popular affiliate marketing networks out there. It was founded by Brian Littleton in 2000 but in 2017, Awin (another affiliate marketing network discussed below) acquired ShareASale. Nevertheless, Awin and ShareASale still operate independently and have their own set of publishers and advertisers.

On top of its solid rep, another great thing about ShareASale is that it is designed for beginners. Much like FlexOffers, it also has a dedicated affiliate development team for its publishers that recommends the best merchants for you and provides continuous training webinars.

ShareASale also gives you access to real-time tracking tools to monitor your sales and allows you to compare different affiliate programs on its platform based on metrics, including reversal rates.

Reversal rate is the percentage of affiliate commissions from a certain merchant that was reversed for any reason. It could be that the order was canceled, the credit card used to pay by the customer could not be processed, fraud, and other technical reasons so you end up not getting paid.

The reversal rate metric is really useful especially if you’re just starting out so you can easily filter out the less opportune affiliate programs.

ShareASale Affiliate products – To date, ShareASale houses over 3,900 affiliate programs hosted on its network.

Sources also say that over 1,000 of the 3,900 affiliate programs are offered by merchants exclusive to ShareASale e.g., WP Engine and OptinMonster. Therefore if those are merchants you want to promote on your blog, then you can only find them here.

Active affiliates (publishers) – ShareASale is said to have over 700,000 publishers on its network.

ShareASale affiliate products average commission rate – ShareASale has its partner merchants displayed publicly (Preview Merchants section) on its website. And as I browsed through, physical products usually give commissions anywhere between 1%-25% while digital products can pay up to 70%.

However, there are thousands of affiliate products hosted in ShareASale, so your commission rates will depend on what products you are promoting, which niche do those products belong, which merchant you signup with, and among other things.

Also, some affiliate programs will pay you commissions based on a percentage of the sales amount while others on flat rates per sale (fix amount e.g. $10 per sale).

Payments – The minimum payment threshold for ShareASale is $50 via check, direct deposit, or wire transfers. Payments are sent out on the 20th of every month. But if the 20th falls on a weekend, payments will be sent out the following Monday.

Cost to join as a publisher – It is free to become a publisher for ShareASale. You just have to complete a signup form and provide some personal information for verification. Although, ShareASale requires you to have a content-rich blog, website, or social media page that doesn’t contain any hate speech and adult content.

Publisher application response time – It takes approximately 1-3 business days for you to receive a reply on your application.

Cookie duration – Usually up to 30 days but it depends on the advertisers and merchants you signup with.

ShareASale Pros

• Free to join
• Partner merchants and commissions are displayed publicly
• Beginner-friendly and provides regular training and webinars
• You get access to tons of physical and digital products across 40 categories and niches
• Easy to use with real-time tracking tools and useful metrics

ShareASale Cons

• You don’t get a personal account manager
• Some publishers complain that they aren’t notified quickly for abrupt closures of some ongoing affiliate programs

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join ShareASale:

• Merchants have to pay at least $650 to join
• You get access to real-time tracking and statistics
• Merchants can enjoy online training sessions (webinars) to learn the basics of navigating ShareASales’s merchant interface including other advanced topics
• ShareASale has an Affiliate Help Desk who will manage and resolve different issues of your affiliates
• Learn more about becoming a ShareASale merchant or advertiser here

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3. Awin (Formerly known as Affiliate Window)

Awin General Info

Awin is a global affiliate network formerly known as Affiliate Window. It was founded in Germany way back in the year 2000 and owned by Axel Springer and United Internet. In 2017, Affiliate Window acquired the Zanox marketplace and with the union of the two, Awin is born.

Nevertheless, sources say that Awin has an easy to use dashboard and lots of useful tools available for publishers. This includes the Link Builder within the interface to create deep-links, Chrome plugin, ability to create a personalized product feed for your site, a publisher API, and more.

Awin Affiliate products – Awin claims to have partnered with 14,600 advertisers (merchants) including big names like HP (Hewlett-Packard), Under Armour, Etsy, AliExpress, ASOS, O2, Viator, Ted Baker London, XE (money transfer), and Marks & Spencer.

Having headquartered in Germany, many of Awin advertisers are from the European countries. Awin have a wide selection of both physical and digital products but the majority of them are in the technology, fashion, sports, beauty, finance, and travel niche.

Active affiliates (publishers) – Awin claims to have more than 205,000 active publishers (during this publication) and ~260 new affiliates are said to be joining its network on a daily basis.

Awin affiliate products average commission rate – Unlike ShareASale, affiliate programs commissions weren’t displayed publicly in Awin. But you will be able to see commission rates through your Awin dashboard.

Nevertheless, your average affiliate commissions will differ depending on what niche you’re in and for every affiliate product you chose to promote.

Payments – You can get paid twice during the 1st and 15th of every month. You can also choose to get paid once per month on the 15th. AWIN pays affiliates through BACS (Bankers’ Automated Clearing System), international wire transfers, or ACH.

Here’s a short video on getting paid with Awin:

Cost to join as a publisher – AWIN requires a $5 deposit to join its affiliate network. The amount will be refunded to you as soon as you reach your first payment threshold of $20. However, if your application to join AWIN is denied, you will lose the $5.

Publisher application response time – Usually take up to 24 hours unless your request is sent on a weekend (or bank holiday).

Cookie duration – It depends on the merchant that you signup with but the common trend is 30 days.

Awin Pros

• Fast application response time
• Access to a huge collection of both physical and digital affiliate products
• Pays twice a month with flexible payment options in multiple currencies
• Low payment threshold ($20)

Awin Cons

• A $5 signup fee is required for publishers and if you don’t get accepted in the network, the fee is forfeited

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join Awin:

• You must have a transactional website from which you sell either a product or a service
• Unlike ShareASale, Awin didn’t specify fixed merchant fees – signup fees, commissions, overrides, and additional fees will be agreed upon when you join the affiliate network
• Awin assigns a personal account manager for advertisers
• Learn more about becoming a merchant/advertiser on Awin here

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4. Rakuten Advertising (Formerly known as LinkShare)

Rakuten Advertising General Info

LinkShare was founded in 1996 by Stephen Messer and Heidi Messer. In 2005, Rakuten acquired LinkShare and was rebranded to Rakuten Affiliate Network and more recently, came to be known as Rakuten Advertising.

Rakuten Advertising has been awarded as the #1 affiliate network for the 8^th consecutive year by mThink and has 16 offices around the world, operates in over 200 countries, and currently provides payments in 25 currencies.

It has an easy to use, intuitive user interface, a great reporting system, provide publishers educational video tutorial (webinars) support via phone and email.

But perhaps one notable feature I like about Rakuten Advertising is the advanced search feature that allows you to easily find the most relevant merchant and affiliate products for your blog’s niche.

Rakuten Advertising affiliate products – Like most affiliate networks on this list, publishers for Rakuten Advertising get access to a decent collection of physical and digital products from household names like JanSport, New Balance, Sephora, Spartan, Dennis Kirk, June Jacobs, Walmart, Best Buy, DialogTech, and JetBlue Vacations.

And if you’re an NBA fan, I’m sure you’ve noticed the Rakuten logo on the Golden State Warriors.

According to its website, Rakuten has more than 2,500 merchants offering affiliate programs across different niches like finance, travel, fashion, apparel, technology, business, and lifestyle.

Active affiliates (publishers) – Rakuten Advertising claims to have more than 150,000 publishers worldwide.

Rakuten Advertising affiliate products average commission rate – It depends on the merchants you signup.

Payments – There is no fixed payment schedule for Rakuten Advertising. You will only get paid for the sale you make when the merchant has paid the network which usually takes 30-60 days. On a company blog, it says,

“Payment is due to Rakuten Advertising Affiliate Network 30 days after the invoice date. For example, commissions earned during the month of October (which are invoiced in early November) would be authorized by the advertiser by November 30th with payment due to Rakuten Affiliate Network by December 30th. Publishers would then be issued payments by Rakuten Affiliate Network in the following week.”

On the bright side, publishers from the selected markets can now get paid via Paypal. This is on top of the check and direct deposit payment options. The minimum payout threshold remains at $50.

Cost to join as a publisher – It is free to join Rakuten Advertising as a publisher. You just have to complete a signup form and provide your own blog or website’s URL. Your blog must be live (not under construction) and have unique, quality content (not plagiarized) that offers value to your visitors.

Publisher application response time – Rakuten Advertising reviews and responds to your application within a couple of business days.

Cookie duration – It depends on the merchants you signup with. Although sources say that most products have a 30 day cookie period.

Rakuten Advertising Pros

• Free to join
• Awarded by mThink as #1 Affiliate Network for 8 straight years (current record)
• Access to physical and digital products from big brands
• User-friendly dashboard and provides sophisticated tools for publishers
• Educational webinars and training for publishers will be provided
• Merchant numbers may be low compared to other networks but they are well-vetted brands

Rakuten Advertising Cons

• Unreliable commission payment schedule
• Some publishers from other countries like Brazil or Japan don’t have to option to get paid via PayPal
• A smaller affiliate network compared to ShareASale or FlexOffers
• You don’t get a personal account manager
• Takes a couple of days to reply to your application

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join Rakuten Advertising:

• You need to pay $39/month, plus category commission and a 99 cent per item sold fee to Rakuten
• There aren’t a lot of information on how to become a merchant for Rakuten and it seems like they vet merchants applications thoroughly, but for more information, click here or here

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5. CJ Affiliate (Formerly known as Commission Junction)

CJ Affiliate General Info

CJ Affiliate (or CJ) was co-founded by Lex Sisney, Per Pettersen, and Todd Crawford way back in 1998.

It is currently owned by Publicis Groupe and after being in the industry for over two decades, CJ has become one of the most trusted and established affiliate marketing networks with 14 offices worldwide.

The user dashboard is easy to navigate. And with its filter feature, you can find niche-related merchants and products with ease – even as a beginner. You will be able to see all the best-selling products on CJ and access information about the transactions and metrics in real-time.

Here’s a sneak peek of what it looks inside CJ Affiliate:

CJ affiliate products – Most major retailers have affiliate programs on CJ Affiliate, making it another great option if you’re currently looking for physical or digital products to promote in your blog.

CJ has tons of affiliate products for various niches like finance, health & wellness, travel, lifestyle, business, and clothing provided by more than 3,000 merchants.

As we mentioned, many of CJ Affiliate’s partner merchants are household names like Walgreens, GoPro, Barnes & Noble, IHG, Grammarly, Overstock, Priceline, Office Depot, and J.Crew to name a few.

CJ Affiliate affiliate products average commission rate – Your commission rates will depend on the merchants you signup. Once you’re approved as a publisher, you’ll be able to review all available merchants across different niches on your dashboard and see what each of them is offering for compensation.

Payments – CJ pays you via paper check, direct deposit, or Payoneer every 20th day of the month. The minimum payout threshold is $50.

Cost to join as a publisher – It is free to join CJ Affiliate as a publisher. You will need only to complete a signup form, provide a valid URL for your blog or website and wait for CJ to review your applicaton.

On that note, your blog’s URL must contain http://www, https://www., and a valid and a top-level domain (such as .com or .net).

Publisher application response time – CJ typically respond to your application within hours, but there are a few affiliates who experienced having to wait for up to 72 hours.

Cookie duration – It depends on the merchant that you signup with but the common trend is 30 days.

CJ Affiliate Pros

• Free to join
• Fast application response time
• Has plenty of affiliate products (many are from big brands) for you to choose from
• You can register multiple websites you own into CJ and manage all of your affiliate products within a single dashboard

CJ Affiliate Cons

• You don’t get a personal account manager
• Other features and advanced reporting tools require a learning curve to get used too
• Many CJ Affiliate publishers complained about the network’s unreliable customer support; there is no way to contact them through email, only thru phone and an online contact form
• Inactive publishers or those who didn’t manage to get good results within their first 6 months may get their accounts deactivated

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join CJ Affiliate:

• Like Awin, CJ also does not have a standard fee when you join as a merchant and you will have to discuss your the fees, commission rates and among other things with them
• CJ doesn’t have a dedicated blog that gives a detailed discussion on becoming a merchant/advertiser by you can learn more here

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6. Avangate Affiliate Network

Avangate General Info

Avangate Affiliate Network focuses on software and digital goods. It was founded in 2006 by Radu Georgescu, an entrepreneur who sold a previous anti-virus software company to Microsoft.

Now, if you’re wondering why Avangate is often associated with 2Checkout, its because, in 2017, Avangate acquired 2Checkout (a global payment processor). But to avoid confusion, AvanGate Affiliate Network is the platform you want to join to become a publisher.

Avangate is another user-friendly platform and a good option for affiliate marketing beginners. It also has a dedicated customer support team that is said to work around the clock to resolve any issues you might encounter as a publisher.

And like Rakuten Advertising, mThink has awarded Avangate Affi­liate Network the Blue Book badge as the #1 Software and Digital Goods Affiliate Network for six years in a row.

Avangate affiliate products – The network claims to have a steadily growing database of 22,000+ software, SAAS (software as a service), advanced marketing tools, and other digital products that you can choose from.

Some of the merchant partners of Avangate include IOBit, Bitdefender, Movavi, and Kaspersky. And aside from digital products, Avangate also houses a few physical products for business, finance, security, home, and education niches.

Active affiliates (publishers) – Sources say that Avangate has over 50,000 affiliates that focus on promoting software and online services products.

Avangate affiliate products average commission rate – What I like about Avangate is that you can easily check and browse its entire merchant marketplace without joining the network yourself.

So I spend some time on the products and it appears that merchants offer commission rates anywhere between 15% up to 75%. However, many of them offer 30-50% commission rates.

Payments – Avangate will pay publishers 20 days from the end of every month for which the commission is due. The minimum payout threshold is €100 (100 Euro or ~$111.31) via PayPal, direct deposit, or via a branded (Avangate) MasterCard.

Cost to join as a publisher – It is totally free to signup as a publisher for Avangate. You just need to complete an application form and you must have a fully functional blog or website.

And unlike CJ Affiliate, there are no hidden performance targets to reach so you won’t have to worry about getting your account deactivated for lack of sales.

Publisher application response time – New Avangate publisher applications will be reviewed and replied within 48 hours.

Cookie duration – Upon browsing through their partner merchants, it appears that most in Avangate set their cookies anywhere between 30 to 180 days.

Avangate Pros

• Free to join
• Transparent and informative website
• Supports multiple payment options including PayPal
• Lucrative commission rates on affiliate products

Avangate Cons

• Minimum payout threshold is 100 euros
• No personal account manager
• Focuses on digital products only so if you’re planning to sell physical products, you might get very limited options
• Takes around 2 days to get a reply for your application

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join Avangate:

• Avangate favors merchants selling digital products
• If you plan on selling tangible (physical) goods, you need to let Avangate know if you keep your own stock and inventory
• For start-ups with no processing history, a $10,000 – $30,000 worth of product volume is required
• Learn more about becoming an Avangate Merchant here and a complete pricing list here
• You can also learn a step by step merchant sign up process here

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7. Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates General Info

Well, you’re probably thinking we’re past halfway of the list and you still don’t see a familiar name, so here it is.

Amazon Associates is the affiliate network by Amazon.

I may not have to tell you this but Amazon is founded by Jeff Bezos way back in 1996. It is currently the world’s largest online retailer company for physical products and has been rapidly extending its scope in other areas such as digital products, subscription services, and web services.

Amazon Associates affiliate products – With Amazon Associates, there’s plenty of affiliate products you can choose from spread across different categories like books, luxury items, beauty, music, videos, kitchen wares, home, automotive, computer, video games, toys, baby products, and a whole lot more.

Basically, as a publisher for Amazon Associates, you can promote and earn a commission on pretty much anything sold at Amazon.com.

Active affiliates (publishers) – Amazon Associates is by far the biggest and the most popular affiliate program in the world with more than 1 million registered publishers in the network.

Amazon Associates affiliate products average commission rate – The reason we decide to keep Amazon Associates at the bottom half of this list is aside from the fact that you can only promote mostly physical products (complete opposite to Avangate, lol), its because the commission rates for Amazon Associates affiliate products are very low.

No matter which category your blog niche belongs, you can only hope to earn anywhere between 1-10% commissions. Please see the image below for reference:

Payments – Your commissions earned from Amazon Associates will be paid approximately between 30-60 days following the end of each calendar month. The minimum payout threshold is $10 and payments can be made by direct bank deposit or via Amazon gift card.

If you prefer a check, you need to earn at least $100.

Cost to join as a publisher –  It’s free for website owners and bloggers to join Amazon Associates. You will however need to answer some questions like how you drive traffic to your blog, how you use your website or apps to generate income, how you usually build links, and how many visitors your site brings in each month.

Publisher application response time – Your application will be reviewed by Amazon’s internal team after submission. Usually, you will receive an update of the status of your application within 12-24 hours

Cookie duration – Only 24 hours. However, for products that people added to their cart within that time period, you can still earn commissions up to 90 days. But perhaps what makes Amazon Associate attractive to many people despite the low commission rates and the very short cookie duration is this…

As a publisher, you will earn commissions from all the products purchased by the person that came to the Amazon platform via your affiliate link.

For example, you are promoting pet foods on your blog (your blog is in the pet niche) but the person who clicked your link bought a $1,000 gold watch instead, you still earn a cut as long as the purchase is made within 24 hours.

Amazon Associates Pros

• Free to join
• Fast application response time
• Amazon’s interface is user friendly and good for beginners
• You get access to millions of physical affiliate products that you can promote for almost all possible niches
• You earn commissions from all the products (even the ones your not promoting) purchased by the person you refer to Amazon
• Low payout threshold

Amazon Associates Cons

• Sells mostly physical products
• Very low commission rates
• Cookie last only for 24 hours
• If you’re looking to promote services or digital products in your blog, you better look somewhere else

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join Amazon:

• There are two options to start selling at Amazon at the moment, the Individual plan (you’ll pay $0.99 every time you sell an item), and the Professional plan (costs $39.99 per month, no matter how many items you sell)
• Amazon will also collect a referral fee (to pay the publishers) on each of your sale, which is a percentage of the total transaction and varies by product category (please refer to the affiliate commission image above)
• Here’s a step by step process on how to start selling in Amazon
• You can also choose to aim big and learn how to start an Amazon FBA business here

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8. eBay Partner Network

eBay Partner Network General Info

Much like Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network (EPN) is no less than eBay’s own affiliate marketing network. And like the former, you can earn commissions with this network by promoting all products and items listed on eBay.

eBay Partner Network may be considered new since it only started in 2008, but it will still give you access to a ginormous collection of products across a wide range of niches. Ginormous I say?

Well, eBay has over 1.4 billion listings. Take your pick.

As an affiliate network, eBay Partner Network is a little different from the others on this list in the sense that you don’t get fixed commissions. Instead, you get a percentage of the transaction fee that eBay charges on every product sales. Wait, Jack, isn’t this no different to the others?

Well, listing and products on eBay are sold through auction. Therefore, there is no guarantee how much can you earn per product that you promote since there is no fixed selling price.

eBay Partner Network affiliate products – Basically, you can have access to over a billion listing on eBay. Auctioned products and items on niches like motors, fashion, electronics, arts, collectibles, home & garden, toys, sporting goods, tools, equipment, and many more.

What I like about EPN is that it gives chance to bloggers who are in really unique niches to generate an income. For instance, how many popular affiliate products do you know that caters to blogs in the paintings niche?

Bloggers who have a passion for painting can promote this on their site and get a chance to generate an income. There are plenty of other listings on eBay that caters to almost all kinds of niche – both physical and digital products.

eBay Partner Network affiliate products average commission rate – EPN affiliate commissions range anywhere between 50% to 70% of eBay’s revenue share. And since your affiliate products could get sold for a really high price, your potential income is through the roof. Of course, there’s also a chance that your products won’t get a lot of bids and you’ll just earn peanuts.

Another thing I like about EPN is that for each sale completed by a New or Reactivated Buyer (someone who hasn’t purchased on eBay in the last 12 months), your commissions will be doubled.

Payments – EPN will pay your commission on or around the 10th of every month. The minimum payout amount is $10 and you will be paid via direct deposit or PayPal.

Cost to join as a publisher – It is free to join eBay Partner Network. You just need a blog or a website.

Publisher application response time – It depends on the quality of your site. Some affiliates claimed to be approved within 24 hours while others have to wait days.

Cookie duration – Like Amazon Associates, EPN cookies will only last for 24 hours. However, you can still earn a potential commission for an item up to 10 days to end as long as the person you referred placed a bid within the first 24 hours.

eBay Partner Network Pros

• Free to join
• Get access to a seemingly endless listing of products you can potentially promote on your blog
• The dashboard is user-friendly and easy to use
• Supports payments via PayPal
• Low payout threshold
• 50-70% commission rates although the amount you earn still depends on the bidders’ winning offers

eBay Partner Network Cons

• Application approval could take a while
• The amount you earn is unclear, it’s kind of a hit or miss
• Cookies only last for 24 hours
• Listings on eBay are usually physical products so if you’re planning to promote digital products or services, you might want to take a look at other networks on this list
• According to EPN, one browser cookie is only tracked within the specific browser, so if the user opens a different browser and completes an action there, it will not be tracked and you won’t earn a commission

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join eBay Partner Network:

• Signing up as an eBay seller is free, however, you will be charged to pay a fee for every item you list and for every sale you make
• It’s easy to create a seller account on eBay but here’s a step by step guide to walk you through

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9. Target Affiliates

General Info

Target Corporation is an American retail corporation founded by George Dayton in 1902 and established its online presence in 1999.

It is the 8th largest retailer in the United States and much like Amazon and eBay, Target offers an affiliate program for bloggers to earn commissions by promoting the products on Target.com. However, you can only earn commissions from this program from the physical products of Target.

Target Affiliates is a beginner-friendly affiliate network. It is easy to join as a publisher, has a comprehensive FAQ page, and has an affiliate marketing team to help you tackle any publisher-related issues you may encounter.

Target Affiliates affiliate products – Target is an internationally trusted name that sells millions of products from household brands like Apple, Beats, Mizuno, Dickies, Dove, Timex, and Swissgear.

Some of the most popular product categories include outdoor living, fashion, apparel, accessories, health & beauty, furniture, and baby gears. If your blog falls into these categories and you want to promote physical products, this might be the affiliate network for you.

Target Affiliates products average commission rate – Target offers commission rates of 1-8% (lower than Amazon) on their products. On the plus side, Target only stocks brand-name products while Amazon with the FBA now has “knockoff” products from companies you’ve never heard of.

Cost to join as a publisher – The Target Affiliates program for publishers, like most affiliate networks on this list, is also free to join. However, a fully functioning blog or website is required and you must have existing traffic that must be predominantly from the United States.

Publisher application response time – Target will reply to your publisher application typically between 1 to 3 working days.

Cookie duration – Unlike Amazon and eBay, Target Affiliates cookies last fr 7 days. And like Amazon, you will also earn commissions from all the products purchased by your referral (including products you’re not promoting) as long as the purchase is made within 7 days.

Target Affiliates Pros

• Free to join
• You get access to plenty of products across different popular niches
• Target may be US-based but it accepts bloggers from anywhere in the world that can help them bring more people to purchase their products

Target Affiliates Cons

• You can only promote physical products
• Unlike Amazon that only has around 500 physical store outlets, Target has more than 1,800 stores in the US so people might prefer to visit on rather than buy through your blog
• Target mainly has a presence in and ships to the United States only, so it’s only suitable for US traffic
• There is no information on the payment methods, including the minimum payout threshold for affiliates

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want sell on Target:

• If you want to sell on Target, you can do so by becoming a supplier here

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10. ClickBank

General Info

ClickBank (CB) is another popular and massive affiliate network that focuses on digital products like Avangate. It is founded in 1998 by Tim and Eileen Barber.

ClickBank claimes that for over 20 years, it has partnered with millions of affiliates around the world and made sales to over 200 million customers.

And while other affiliate networks on this list pride themselves by partnering with big brands and household name merchants, ClickBank prefers to cater to the smaller and less popular ones. Thus, you get access to a massive collection of affiliate products to promote.

It is very easy to join ClickBank even as a new affiliate marketer (there is no approval time) and the website provides publishers a comprehensive knowledge base. The dashboard is also easy to use and navigate, and you get access to advanced tracking tools for your online business.

ClickBank is also one of the few affiliate networks that offer weekly payments to publishers.

ClickBank affiliate products – With ClickBank, you get access to millions of digital products such as Internet marketing tools, ebooks, online membership subscriptions, services, and online courses from various merchants like Kajabi, AWeber, Payoneer, BlueHost, and Pitch Magic.

The current product major categories include e-business, e-marketing, games, languages, home & garden, arts, and more. However, ClickBank still caters to merchants selling physical products.

And while ClickBank gives chance to startups and small businesses, the downside of this approach is that many of the affiliate programs offered through this network are very low quality.

Some are even borderline scams because ClickBank doesn’t impose a strict vetting procedure for merchants, which is why ClickBank is at the bottom part of this list.

Nevertheless, ClickBank is a legitimate and definitely one of the top affiliate networks today. You just have to do proper research on an affiliate product you want to promote through this platform.

Active affiliates (publishers) – Sources say that ClickBank has over 1.5 million affiliates and that around 100,000 of them are said to be active publishers.

ClickBank affiliate products average commission rate – ClickBank offers affiliate commission on their products up to 90%!

However, this will still depend on the products you promote and the merchants that you signup with. Not to mention that you have to filter out the products you want to promote so that you can guarantee that they actually provide value for people’s money.

Payments – ClickBank will pay you per week, once per two-week or on a monthly basis depending on your preference. The default setting is $100 but you can set your minimum payout threshold to $10.

You can get paid via direct deposits, wire transfers, and checks.

Cost to join as a publisher – Anyone can become a ClickBank affiliate for free, even those who don’t own a blog or website.

Publisher application response time – There isn’t any approval time and you can immediately join the platform after completing the 4-part signup process.

Cookie duration – It depends on the merchant who owns the products that you are promoting. However, you can create HopLinks for vendors’ products to get a 60-day cookie.

Learn more about the technicalities of HopLinks here.

ClickBank Pros

• Free to join and instantly approves your application
• Access to millions of digital products
• Flexible and fast payment schedules
• HopLinks allows you to earn a commission from affiliate product sales within 60 days
• Offers some of the most lucrative affiliate commissions
• Low payout threshold

ClickBank Cons

• No personal account manager
• Does not support Payments through Paypal
• You have to filter lots of crappy products on the marketplace
• Finding a legitimate affiliate product that actually gives your customers value might take ample time and research
• If you’re looking to promote physical products on your blog, you might get very limited options
• There are lots of negative reviews and complaints about products on ClickBank

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Information for merchants (advertisers) who want to join ClickBank:

• Whether you join ClickBank as a vendor (merchant) or as an affiliate (publisher), the process is basically the same. The only difference is that vendors will be required to pay a one-time activation fee amounting to $49.95 and a period processing fee of $2.50
• Watch the video below for a step by step guide on creating an account with ClickBank or you can click here

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So there you have it. Our list of top 10 affiliate marketing networks. Did you find a few that interests you? We sure hope so.

But whichever affiliate networks you decide to join above, do proper research on the products that you are planning to promote. After all, one key to earning a lot of money through affiliate marketing is by promoting products that actually help other people.

Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this article. You may be interested in our Affiliate Marketing Success Formula. It is one of the best value article posted on Income Stream Builders. Hope you enjoy that.

If you have any questions or clarifications regarding this topic, feel free to leave a comment below.

Your friend,

Jack