Affiliate Resources

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketers send traffic to merchants who sell goods or services on the Internet. When a sale that initiated from an affiliate’s site is completed, the affiliate earns a sales commission.

When you join an affiliate network, you select merchants whose products you want to advertise and become their affiliate. The merchant takes care of the ecommerce end of things and your sales commissions are tracked through their program. Although affiliates typically earn commissions based on sales, some merchants pay for leads.

Always research a network prior to joining it. Read their information, check forums and perform a general search for reviews of their program. Note: A few states in the US have begun to tax affiliates and this has had a negative impact on some businesses. Check with the national associations listed on this page for the pending legislation in your region. See our Articles for more detail on affiliate marketing. See our Resources below.

Major Affiliate Networks

ClickBank
ClickBank is a large affiliate program network for digital products, such as eBooks. They provide secure online payment processing for more than 12,000 digital product vendors.

Commission Junction
A well-known and large affiliate network that may be better for more experienced affiliates as there is a lot of competition to get merchants to become partners and to sell the goods.

Link Connector
Unlike some other affiliates, you can see all the merchants without signing up.

LinkShare
LinkShare has a good reputation for on-time and prompt payments. They feature several options, such as weekly payments and their site is clean and easy to navigate.

OneNetworkDirect
This affiliate marketing network is focused on digital products and software applications.

Share A Sale
ShareASale has a good reputation with a very wide range of products. It’s easy to get links and banners and they have a decent tracking system.

Site Build It!
Site Build It! is one of the premiere affiliate merchants offering an easy way to build web sites. Customers use their sites to build affiliate marketing, eCommerce, membership and many other types of sites. They also provide lots of support to affiliates.

Affiliate Help, Tools and Training

ABestWeb
This large affiliate marketing forum states that it has over 50,000 participants. In addition to the general discussion, they have specific forums for some of the more well-known affiliate networks. You may want to check out what others are saying about a network, before joining one.

Affiliate Marketing SUPER Boot Camp

Well-respected online affiliate marketing training by expert, James Martell, provides just about everything an affiliate needs to know to get started and succeed. The online course consists of 26-weeks (2 hours a week for 6 months) of professional development training, a forum, and live question and answer sessions. Each lesson is in three formats: video, podcasts, and written transcripts. You can check it out with a free trial offer.

Affiliate Marketing (Intro)
This brief introduction to affiliate marketing has some excellent tips that are worth reading. You can also sign up to become a Site Build It! affiliate through this site. Also, download their free eBook on the right.

Affiliate Marketing Insider
This is an informative podcast about the affiliate industry via interviews with experts in the field and hosted by an expert in the industry, Linda Woods. Also available through iTunes.

Affiliate Summit
These are the premiere conferences about web mastering and affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Thing
You can learn about affiliate marketing, search engine marketing and social media from this podcast.

ClickBank Engine
There is an associated but separate product you can purchase to use as a storefront for ClickBank’s products, called CB Engine. You can also use the CB Engine site to browse ClickBank’s products and see statistics, such as which products sell best.

FTC Guidelines
On October 5, 2009 the FTC published guidelines for website publishers and advertisers that could affect how you advertise on your website or blog. The guidelines are not difficult to understand, so read and decide how you can implement them. Don’t take a chance with your Internet business.

JROX Affiliate Manager (JAM)
If you join a lot of affiliate merchants and networks, it’s difficult to track all the data. This software lets you manage your own affiliates and memberships all in one place.

Lurn Affiliate Classroom
Lurn Affiliate Classroom teaches how to become a successful affiliate. Their online course has a low-cost trial charge.

Affiliate Trade Associations

Affiliate Voice
Along with the Performance Marketing Association, this is another association that seeks to represent the affiliate marketing industry. They are particularly interested in developing standards, building stronger relationships among stakeholders in the industry, improving their public image, and establishing a platform for legislative initiatives.

Performance Marketing Association
This national association is a trade association for the performance marketing industry (otherwise known as affiliate marketing). Their mission is to represent the performance based marketing industry as one voice, cultivate a positive image, and encourage participation in this marketing channel.

Related Articles:
Is Affiliate Marketing For You?
Affiliate Marketing In Action