Embarking on your journey as an affiliate marketer is an exciting step towards building a rewarding online career. To set yourself up for long-term success, choosing the right affiliate network is crucial. With thousands of networks to choose from, finding the perfect fit can be overwhelming, but it plays a vital role in shaping your future earnings and growth. Selecting a network that aligns with your goals, offers diverse opportunities, and allows for effective monetization is the key to thriving in affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based approach where you promote a company’s products or services and earn a commission for each successful sale or action. As an affiliate, your goal is to drive traffic to the company’s website through your unique links. If a user makes a purchase or takes a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter, you receive a commission for your efforts.
For instance, if you promote a product from platforms like Daraz.com or Alibaba, and a user clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. Even if the user does not make an immediate purchase, driving traffic and generating leads through clicks and interactions can still contribute to your overall revenue.
How Affiliate Commissions Work
Affiliate commissions are typically paid by the company or affiliate network based on the actions taken. These actions could include sales, clicks, or lead generation. The amount you earn depends on the type of action and the specific terms of the affiliate program you join.
How to Choose the Right Affiliate Network
Selecting the right affiliate network is one of the most critical decisions you’ll make as an affiliate marketer. Here are some factors to consider:
Alignment with Your Niche
Choose a network that aligns with your niche and interests. Specializing in a niche you are passionate about not only boosts motivation but can also lead to higher returns on investment. Platforms like Amazon Associates and Google AdSense are excellent starting points for beginners, providing a wide range of products and monetization opportunities.
Profitability and Market Demand
Before committing to a niche, conduct thorough research to ensure its profitability. Look for signs of market demand by analyzing SEO sites, competitor blogs, and online forums that discuss the niche. If you find multiple marketers and blogs promoting products in your chosen field, it’s a strong indicator that there is a demand.
Range of Offers
The affiliate network should offer a diverse range of products and services to promote. This will allow you to cater to different audiences and maximize income opportunities. Having multiple options also enables you to diversify your marketing strategies, reducing the risk associated with relying on a single product or service.
Reputation and Payout Structure
Consider the network’s reputation and the structure of its payout system. Networks that offer timely and transparent payment structures help ensure that you get compensated fairly for your efforts. Check online reviews and forums to get insights into the experiences of other marketers.
Tracking and Reporting Features
An effective affiliate network should provide reliable tracking and reporting tools to help you monitor your performance. This includes metrics like click-through rates, sales conversions, and commissions earned, enabling you to optimize your strategies and maximize profits.
Staying Organized: Tracking Affiliate Programs
To keep things organized, create a spreadsheet to track various affiliate program offers. This will help you compare networks based on factors such as commission rates, product categories, payment methods, and payout schedules. By evaluating different options, you can choose a network that aligns with your goals and maximizes your income potential.
Best Affiliate Networks For Beginners In 2024:
Now that you know what affiliate marketing is and how it works, we will take a look at some of the Best Affiliate Marketing Programs or Networks in 2024 and 2025.
- Amazon Associates
- Cj- Commission Junction
- FanFuel
- ShareASale
- FlexOffers
- Impact
- Awin
- NordVPN
- ClickBank
- Rakuten Advertising
1. Amazon Associates:
You may have heard of Amazon associates since it has become so popular. Not only do they provide the most extensive range of courses to make money through this monetization method but also give you a platform to start earning from it.
You will find hundreds and thousands of courses on Amazon associates. But before starting to work with Amazon it is important to consider a few things.
Amazon is not actually an affiliate program but it is rather an eCommerce site. Affiliate networks are the ones that provide a platform to the publishers and advertisers to engage and attain their objectives; however it is a great foundation for beginners and has proven itself useful through its courses.
Pros:
- Amazon has become a popular source of learning about affiliate marketing and actually making money through it. There have been some updates in the commission system however people that expanded their income stream were less affected.
- Amazon will always pay you on time and the most it goes is for 30 days.
- This program is also one of the easiest to use, navigate and implement in your business.
- There is diversity in their products and they have a global reach which is useful in affiliate marketing.
Cons:
- One of the biggest fears of affiliates is to be flagged for unknown reasons and that commonly happens on Amazon. They have really strict policies and you can be flagged for breach of any rules in the policy.
- Amazon Associates have lower payouts due to the sheer number of affiliates.
- There is no supervision or an affiliate manager to help you through any issues.
2. CJ- Commission Junction:
Commission junction is one of the best affiliate programs and is effective for beginners. It is a great network to start out your journey and generate some income from it.
CJ has been in this industry for about 20 years. So, with that much experience, you will get to learn a lot of things and benefit from their offers. They operate on a global level and have a variety of offers to provide.
Pros:
- This program is great for beginners. With their global reach, it can drive in a lot of traffic and connect you with some big names in the industry to promote their products and services. Consider this network if it matches your business goals.
- You can easily find profitable programs that are strongly suggested to you
- They provide extensive support and tutorials to help you learn everything
- They have partnered up with some big brands.
Cons:
- The brands are not permanent members so they keep changing
- As compared to Amazon their learning programs are not really extensive
3. FanFuel:
FanFuel is a brand of Wolfson which is a company that specializes in health and beauty. It is considered one of the best affiliate networks in general and for beginners. They focus on the marketing of products by sponsoring various athletes or health and beauty influencers, mostly fitness influencers. As those people have a huge following it is obvious, they drive in a lot of traffic and effectively contribute towards the increase in sales.
Other than fitness products they also promote nootropics that help to treat hair loss and for other cosmetic reasons. This enhances the overall performance of people. Therefore, you will have a lot of products to promote that are popular in many categories. You can earn about 40% commission from their offers which is a very high amount and thus causes a significant increase in your revenue.
Pros:
- Provides offers of various niches to attract large audiences
- Uses influencers and celebrity athletes to help endorse those products.
- Offers high commission
- Their cookie duration is 90%
Cons:
There are no apparent cons to this network which is why it is considered as a clean and easy way for beginners to start their journey, especially the ones specializing in health and beauty.
4. ShareASale:
ShareASale is one of the best and also neglected affiliate networks. One of the reasons people would not use it is because they haven’t updated their dashboard for ages. However, they have some of the best affiliate marketing offers in the industry.
Their offers are not related to huge brand names and sometimes that is not something you need to make the campaigns successful. The offers are more for smaller and profitable companies that are accessible. Their offers are so good that you can even earn $300-$350 per offer. They provide around 5000 offers.
Besides the few flaws such as their dashboard and a wow factor, they are actually pretty good at doing what an affiliate marketing network is supposed to do. However, the dashboard is still functional, and sometimes it is beneficial to have it simpler and easier to use rather than a complex and updated one.
Pros:
- A large number of offers to choose from.
- Smaller but more profitable affiliate programs.
- Faster payouts
- The ‘search for merchants’ option is much better than that of CJ.
Cons:
- Outdated dashboard
- The approval process for the offers can be lengthy and unpredictable.
5. FlexOffers :
FlexOffers is one of the best affiliate networks for beginners. Though they might not be as well-known as CJ and Amazon, they have an amazing management team that will put in all their efforts to help you learn and succeed. As a beginner this is a good start even though you probably won’t get high commission because they get their own cut from each offer.
Which means that you are a sub-affiliate in each offer you get. But you will get a readily available offer. You just need to promote it further and get commission. No efforts required which I don’t think is a bad deal for a beginner.
The best thing about them is that their affiliates are readily provided with offers that otherwise would have declined them. you can get accepted and earn profit from it. This could be a good kick start for you as a beginner.
You can also find out some offers that are not advertised on their homepage but they offer through this network. Another amazing thing about FlexOffers is their Net 7 payments which mean that based on the good performance you can get paid weekly.
Pros:
- Offers readily available offers to start earning
- Less effort required
- Provided offers that can be promoted off the network
- Gives weekly payout based on performance
Cons:
- You will be a sub-affiliate in this network
- They cut a percentage of the commission
6. Impact :
The impact is well known for its updated user interface and amazing dashboard functionality. It is a great affiliate network to start out your journey as an affiliate marketer. They have a well-detailed interface that also has a tracking and reporting system.
It will track your performance and report it to you on a timely basis. This is highly effective because you can get data on your progress and what to improve. This feature is beneficial for those people that want more performance metrics so that they can improve the quality of their work and gear business decisions.
They have partnered up with about 1000 brands and have a large variety of offers in different niches. Impact is a great network for beginners because it provides them with support to start their journey. Their acceptance process is also easy as many brands will accept you in little time.
Pros:
- They have a track system for performance tracking
- Updated interface and functional dashboard
- Has 1000 brands in a wide array of niches
- Have learning articles on their site
- Brands accept in little time
Cons:
- Not as user-friendly to join as other options
- The learning curve to understanding this program is complicated
- Some bugs and other backend issues have been reported
7. Awin :
Awin is one of the best affiliate networks for beginners because of many reasons. This is a great start for newbies because you will be entering a network that already has a lot of advertisers and publishers.
It has been estimated that they have about 16500 advertisers and 225,000 publishers on their network. Their publishers have earned as much as $1 billion in commission and it still continues to grow. In 2020 they managed to generate sales of about 182 million.
And it’s not only big in terms of these numbers but it is also an experienced network. Awin was really established in 2017 but its roots go back to zanox and affiliate windows which are some of the oldest networks existing in the 2000s.
Awin acquired another successful network ShareASale a few years ago but they operate as separate entities each with its own affiliates and offers. So you can sign up for both. Another best thing about Awin is their fast payment. You will get paid right on time when your work is done.
Pros:
- A wide variety of affiliate offers
- Easy to use network
- Partnered up with big brands
- Fast payments
- Tracking is easy through dashboards
Cons:
- The competition is tough
- Operates globally but focuses more on the EU and UK.
8. NordVPN :
NordVPN is originally a security service that was established by friends back in 2012 with a single VPN server. Now they have developed into offering thousands of servers to millions of users globally.
VPN is a competitive niche that is growing every year. It experiences 11% growth every year. You might be asking what makes it so special compared to other networks.
Well, besides the apparent numbers that indicate their success, they are endorsed by some popular influencers which adds up to their popularity and success. The big influencers take this offer because they get big money from it. NordVPN offers about 40% commission to its marketers/ endorsers.
Pros:
- Offers large commission
- Endorses huge influencers
- Is a reliable network
- Has 11% growth every year.
9. ClickBank:
ClickBank is considered one of the oldest or you can say the oldest affiliate marketing network that has been operating since 1998. Their story is very interesting as they grew from rags to riches.
A group of friends started out with this idea in a small garage and later turned the idea into a money-making machine source. They started earning $3 billion every year.
While everyone else was trying to figure out an efficient way of shipping goods, ClickBank shifted its dynamic towards selling digital goods and its profits skyrocketed yet again.
With digital goods, they could deliver instantly, with no overhead, and no labor expenses. Instead of all these expenses, they diverted towards forming direct relations with digital creators.
You can find all of their products easily on ClickBank Marketplace and they also have some physical products these days.
Pros:
- The best network for working as an affiliate without a website
- For promoting most programs, you would not need approvals
- You can promote many offers with repeating commissions
- Creating an affiliate link is the easiest for them
Cons:
- The marketplace website is very outdated and hasn’t been updated in 19 years. However, it is still functional.
- There are many programs that can result in refunds and the rates of those refunds can be high.
10. Rakuten Advertising :
Rakuten Advertising is a Japanese affiliate network. Originally, they weren’t an affiliate network but they started these activities after acquiring LinkShare back in 2005. Rakuten LinkShare has had significant growth and success since its emergence and has won many awards. Now, you must be asking, Is it good for beginners?
The simple answer is, yes! There are many reasons why it is one of the best networks for complete newbies. They have an easy-to-use interface; they have partnered up with more than 1000 brands and companies, and they have a huge variety of products and services offered.
Overall, this is a good start for beginners as they will have the guidance, the right platform, and the right offers with many choices to begin.
Pros:
- Partnered up with big brands
- One of the experienced affiliate networks
- User-friendly and informative interface
- Deals with $100 million sales per year.
Cons:
- The interface is outdated
- They lack metrics data.
Conclusion
Starting your journey as an affiliate marketer is a promising way to generate income online, but success hinges on choosing the right network. Take the time to research and compare affiliate programs that match your niche and objectives. A well-informed choice will set you up for long-term success and allow you to grow your affiliate marketing career effectively.
Frequenty Asked Questions(FAQs)
What is the best affiliate network for beginners?
Platforms like Amazon Associates and Google AdSense are great starting points for beginners due to their user-friendly interfaces and broad range of product categories.
How do I know if a niche is profitable?
Research market demand by analyzing SEO trends, competitor blogs, and online forums. If multiple marketers are promoting similar products, it indicates demand and revenue potential.
How much can I earn through affiliate marketing?
Earnings vary based on factors such as the affiliate program’s commission structure, the product’s price, and your marketing efforts. Some affiliates earn a few hundred dollars monthly, while others make six-figure incomes.
Are there any upfront costs to joining an affiliate network?
Most affiliate programs are free to join. However, investing in tools like a website, email marketing software, or paid ads can help improve your results.
How can I track my affiliate marketing performance?
Most affiliate networks provide tracking tools to monitor clicks, sales, and conversions. Additionally, using analytics tools like Google Analytics can help you measure website traffic and campaign effectiveness.
