Affiliate Networks - How do they work ?
By Arnab November 23, 2006 filed in Internet Marketing, Affiliate Mktg
What is an Affiliate Network? What are some well known Affiliate Networks?
Affiliate network is a third party that provides such services as aggregation and tracking to the affiliates as well as the merchants. It comprises of a group of merchants and affiliates where the affiliates promote the products from the merchants in exchange of a commission. The merchant also gets an easy access to a wide network of affiliates. It is not necessary for an affiliate to generate a sale amount for one particular merchant but for the entire range of affiliates before getting the compensation. The affiliate network also has other advantages for both the affiliate merchant and affiliate. An affiliate has much more trust in a network rather than an independent affiliate program. The merchants also pay an overall commission to the network. The commissions are based on pay-per-lead (PPL), pay-per-action (PPA) or cost-per-action (CPA), pay-per-sale (PPS) and pay-per-click models. The network then distributes the money among those affiliates who have made a sale.
Affiliate networks and programs are becoming very popular in affiliate marketing. More and more merchant vendors are using these for promoting their products. The advertisers take the help of affiliates to publicize their products and in turn pay handsome fees. Listed below are some of the well known Affiliate Networks:
CLICKBANK affiliate network – www.ClickBank.com is an online distribution centre for more than 10,000 digital products and services which are delivered completely over the internet (through files, emails and web pages). All the merchants promoting their digitals products place a special “Buy It at ClickBank†button on their website and give the authority to ClickBank to sell their products directly. All the products are advertised through a network of about 100,000 affiliates. Each merchant decides on an affiliate commission for his products in advance. The affiliates promote the product and guide the potential customers to the vendor’s website. This website explains the product to the would-be buyer and refers him directly to ClickBank to buy it. When ClickBank closes the sale, it pays the vendor as well as the affiliate.
SHAREASALE affiliate network – Shareasale is another popular affiliate network that charges a reasonable fee of $350 to get your affiliate program activated. Once the program is up and running, you can concentrate on your merchant banners and product prices. Shareasale will provide assistance when there are large product listings. After this, Shareasale will advertise your product on the affiliate log in area of the site and the affiliates who are interested will sign up and start promoting your products and services. This is a great site for merchants and one of the simplest and modestly reasonable affiliate networks in today’s market. It is also a good option for small and medium sized businesses; besides they have a good tracking technology, data feeds and statistics.
CLIXGALORE – Clixgalore is one of the largest affiliate networks that have approximately 4500 affiliate programs. The “instant website builder†tool that is located in the Clixgalore member area helps you to instantly create web pages containing the promotional products. You can use these pages to advertise the products and in turn earn a commission.
CPAEMPIRE – This is yet another well known network. It is extremely popular for its versatility and comprehensive services. The website has a wide variety of merchant promotions and if you sign up new affiliates form your site, you will be rewarded with a 5% override on their sales every month! It is especially good for the pay-per-lead experts. However, not all their programs are well accepted; but the organization of the report format is very effective. It is also one of those sites that stay in touch with their affiliate members.
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