The Top 10 List of the Best Affiliate Networks

First, if you’re new to affiliate marketing, some preliminary explanations may prove helpful in your quest for becoming a part-time or full-time affiliate marketer.

preliminary explanations may prove helpful in your quest for becoming a part-time or full-time affiliate marketer.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is quite simple to explain: you promote and market a product or company in return for a commission if a sale or lead is made from your marketing efforts. With online affiliate marketing you simply place your affiliate ID embedded links on your web pages and if a customer clicksyour link and proceeds to that designated company’s site and makes a purchase or signs up for a service, you earn a commission.
Affiliate marketing, if done right, can prove to be a very lucrative venture.

Commissions can run anywhere from a few pennies to thousands of dollars for just one click or sale.

Professional marketers develop affiliate relationships with hundreds of companies and build sites to promote these companies and products.
Needless to say, the advent of the Internet has been a golden opportunity for affiliate marketers to really expand their promotions and marketing. As more as more customers choose to buy online, advertising and purchases keep increasing at a maddening pace.
To accommodate all this online ecommerce we have seen the birth of large affiliate networks, operated by large corporations. Make no mistake, affiliate marketing is big business, accounting for billions in sales and commissions.

What is an Affiliate Network?

An affiliate network is a third party facilitator which brings affiliates and companies together. It connects Advertisers (companies with products or services to sell) together with Publishers (those who display and promote these products or services) so they can do business. The affiliate network does all the tracking, accounting and payment of commissions.
The following Top 10 list of the best Affiliate Networks is compiled by an actual full-time affiliate marketer who has worked these programs for over five years. This list is subjective and based on first-hand experience. It should be seen in this light and every marketer probably will have a different list or have these in a different picking order depending on the type and nature of their marketing.

But this list of the 10 Best Affiliate Networks will give you a general rundown on these affiliate networks and how they operate.

1. Commission Junction (www.cj.com)

Now owned by ValueClick, Commission Junction was one of the first affiliate networks. It is also one of the most important with many of the Top Fortune 500 companies listed here.
CJ is an international network with excellent stats and tracking (some of the best you will find), along with regular monthly payments makes this the obvious first choice for anyone wishing to try affiliate marketing.

For those new or old at affiliate marketing, CJ also holds regular seminars and training sessions.
Most merchants offer pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale, one of the best features is the performance bonuses and incentives. As most experienced marketers will know, selling 50k to 100k each month for merchants will bring in the big incentives or bonuses.
Commissions run as high as 50% but most are in 3% to 15% range. You have the option of direct deposit for your payments. One major plus, CJ will tell you which merchantsand ads are earning the most revenue for affiliates so you can easily choose which merchants are worth promoting.

2. ClickBank (www.clickbank.com)

ClickBank is another professional affiliate network withexcellent stats and tracking.

Easy to use and pays every two weeks.
ClickBank is slightly different from the other networks in that it deals mainly with digital download products. The commissions from ClickBank are usually much higher than the other networks, around 40% to 50% or more.
ClickBank has over 10,000 products but keep in mind, info-marketing products will have stiff competition from all the savvy and well established Internet marketers promoting these same products. Consider youself warned!
The most successful marketing tactic here is to first dominate your targeted niche with your blogs and sites, then find affiliate products to match your content or niche subject matter, whether it be gardening equipment, gaming laptops or Mediterranean cruises!.

3. LinkShare (www.linkshare.com)

LinkShare is another excellent affiliate network. It is one of the oldest affiliate networks on the web. LinkShare was recently acquired by the Japanese Portal Rakuten, with a price tag of $425 million.
Very good stats and reporting with their Synergy Analytics system. Many Top Fortune 500 companies are presented here so you will no trouble finding products and services to romote.LinkShare pays commissions as they receive them from merchants - monthly checks.

4. Affiliate Window (http://www.affiliatewindow.com/)

Affiliate Window is an UK based affiliate network which offers top brand companies and good commission rates. Pays once a month and has excellent stats.
Savvy affiliate marketers know promoting in other countries can be much easier than promoting in the American market place. Mainly because these other countries haven’t become saturated with online marketers, little competition means more sales.

5. Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/)

Amazon is another excellent affiliate network to join if you want to sell products from your site or blog. Amazon has excellent stats and the links are very easy to create and place on your web pages.
You also have the option of creating your own store with Amazon aStores. Amazon also now has context link ads and Widgets!
Commission rates are somewhat lower than the other networks but making sales thru Amazon is much, much easier. You will make more sales mainly because Amazon is a well known and trusted online company. Amazon now pays monthly.

6. Shareasale (http://www.shareasale.com/)

Shareasale is yet another easy system to work with good stats and simple to create links. With 1,700+ merchants to choose from, Shareasale is another good affiliate network to promote.
The control panel is easy to use and the reporting is very good. Usually pays the month following your sales.

7. Google (www.google.com/adsense/)

Many won’t think of Google as an Affiliate network but it does run affiliate products thru its Adsense program. Very few products but like everything from Google it is professionally run and top caliber all the way.
Please note, top marketers know affiliate links/products on their content pages will return 10 times what Google Adsense will give them. However, these marketers will also know using Google Adsense on less targeted pages throughout your sites or blogs will give you a healthy return.
Besides receiving that monthly check from a multi-billion dollar company like Google will put a smile on your face every time.

8. LinkConnector (http://www.linkconnector.com/)

LinkConnector is a relatively new affiliate network which launched in 2004. It has Pay Per Click, Pay Per Sale and Pay Per Lead. Good stats and reporting. Worth checking out for their different types of new affiliate technology such as Direct Linking which passes pagerank along to the merchant’s site.

9. CPA Empire (http://www.cpaempire.com/)

Great CPA (Cost Per Action) network especially if you do a lot of email marketing and promotions. Geared towards acquiring leads and sign-ups but does offer other merchants as well. Good stats and reporting.

10. Independents

Individual affiliate deals with different companies which may or may not be listed with the major networks above. Your independent affiliate deals will be some of your most lucrative since you can sometimes work out separate private commission rates and bonuses. Aim for residual income here. Don’t ignore this aspect of affiliate marketing as it will pay the highest dividends.
Keep in mind, all the above affiliate networks are iddlemen,they come between you and the merchant you’re promoting. For affiliates with a proven track record, who have shown they can deliver the customers and sales, a private deal cutting out the middleman/fees can prove very beneficial for both parties. If you’re fortunate enough to become known as a super affiliate, these private deals will become more common and more profitable.
Professional affiliate marketers use all of the above networks to create multiple income streams from their marketing efforts. In the process, they build a healthy monthly income for themselves and their families. There is no reason why you can’t do the same.
The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing.

For the latest and most effective web marketing tools try: Internet Marketing Tools

Or why not try these excellent free training manuals and videos:Free Marketing Courses
copyright © 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Check out : www.Dayearn.com

How to use syndicated content to increase traffic ?

The New Marketing Tool - RSS

Any web marketer worth his salt knows that web traffic is the key to success when it comes to making money online. People often talk about Internet, product and money.

But the circle is not complete without the key aspect: traffic, and loads of it.

To me, RSS is the brand new web marketing tool; powerful because so few use it and popular because search engines simply love it.
When you visit popular websites, you may have come across a simple link at the bottom of the page labeled subscribe to RSS or XML.

So, what is RSS?

Of course you already know it is Real Simple Syndication. But that's only so far as the name goes. To many, there is nothing really simple about RSS. In fact, people feel intimidated by it, which is one of the reasons why it is so under-utilized on the web.

RSS is nothing but a recent flash of news that you send out from your website to people who have subscribed to it. Of course, that's a simplistic definition, but in it lies the key to the power of RSS. So, let us examine it a little closely.

First of all, as I explained, RSS is a simple news flash. That means, you will be using it as a channel of communication between your website and customers who subscribe to it.

For example, suppose you are an avid golfer and you want to share something about the game with other fans like yourself. An RSS feed helps you do just that. You fill in the new piece of information and everyone subscribed to your RSS immediately gets the flash.

RSS helps you in many ways:

1-It establishes your credibility as an expert in your field.
2-A regularly updated RSS feed keeps your website fresh and green.
3-It increases efficiency. You can send out new announcements and reach your customers effectively and quickly through RSS feeds. So it can be used as an advertising or marketing tool.
From the point of view of subscribers, there are even more advantages:
4-It increases productivity. Customers can hook up to your RSS and enjoy the benefits of having fresh content on their website. As and when you feed new content, their websites get updated too.
5-The information you provide is something that your clients want. They asked for it, so they look forward to receiving it. Little wonder RSS feeds can pull high volumes of loyal targeted traffic, which is great for your search engine rankings.
6-Most importantly, RSS is spam free, unlike emails. Unsubscribing is hassle free too.

RSS, as originally designed by Netscape, was initially used by websites that needed to update their content regularly (news websites, for instance) and Blogs. Today however, it is widely used as a marketing tool to increase search engine traffic. This unforeseen development led to its popularity.

Using RSS feeds to increase search engine traffic:

RSS feeds can enhance your website traffic dramatically. Search engines love cross-links and they pay particular attention to websites that are richly linked from the outside.
Additionally, RSS directories, where you can list your RSS feeds, also drive loads of search engine traffic to your website. RSS directories collate RSS links and place them in different categories and sections.

This is something similar to web hosting, but instead of websites, you have RSS links in these directories. Clicking on a link will take you to the source of that feed.
RSS feeds have another advantage. In any business, you would like to know how your competitors are doing. You would also like to check out how your own product or business is performing.

An RSS directory helps you find out how many people are interested in your services or products.
Posting to RSS directories may be a little costly, but as you can see, the advantages far override the investment. If you are starting out, you may use free services and move on to paid services as your site starts picking up.
RSS has made it far easier to disseminate information. That is why it has become an effective and respectable means of reaching out to large slices of customers.

Check out :http://affiliatemarketingprofits.net/traffic/info/

Adsense Art: I Want A Website, Not a Stupid Blog!

Adsense Art: I Want A Website, Not a Stupid Blog!

Make Money With Every Visitor In Your Blog

You can make your blog one of the busiest blogs online when you apply the tricks and techniques on how to get more people to visit your blog. All it takes is a little creativity and start to make money with your blog.

Enticing more people to visit your blog is pretty much like marketing in itself. First, you have to know what your readers will want to read and know about. Then, you have to respond to these needs to give them a primary reason to visit your blog for the first time. Just because you hooked them in does not necessarily mean they’ll stay with you. With the number of blogs out there, your visitors will just go on to the next one and forget about yours. This is where creativity plays a key role.

It will help you keep them coming back. It is only by building a loyal base of readers that your blog will truly succeed and you can make money off it.
You can only make money through your blog if it gets visited by a lot of people. As you create your blog and every time you write your posts, keep this in mind. As mentioned, creating a successful blog is like creating an answer to a need, and of course, you need to know what those needs are first. How do you find out what your readers need?

Naturally, you have to ask them. Create a survey. Keep it brief and stick to questions that are relevant but fairly easy to answer. If the survey takes a lot of time to answer, people will not want to answer it, unless you’re willing to pay them for taking the survey, which, as someone who is just starting to make money through your blog, you would not initially want to do.

The trick is to carefully phrase your questions so that you will get real and useful information out of them. Once you know what your readers want, choose which one you can use as the main topic for your blog. You would want to write about something you’re pretty knowledgeable about, because otherwise, you won’t have much to share that would be of interest to others. Also, make sure your blog has one main topic around which your posts will revolve. This will help you build a community of readers.
After deciding on a topic for your blog, start writing your posts. When you’ve got some spare time, or you’ve got a topic in mind, write down spare posts so you can easily update your blog even if you you’re busy. Readers who notice that you haven’t been posting lately might stop visiting your site, thinking that they probably wouldn’t read anything new anyway. During the first few visits, the secret to hold on to them as your readers lies in the content of your blog. However, as time passes, their interest may fade, especially if they don’t learn or see anything new and entertaining on your blog.

When you’ve reached this point, don’t fear. It’s your chance to make something big out of your blog. Not to mention, make money out of it. Keep this in mind: all it takes is a bit of ingenuity to make them come back for more. Be innovative. Come up with new and exciting treats for your readers. Post pictures. Launch online games. Ask them to participate in your blog. Give them a chance to be part of your blog, and not just be a passive reader. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Through this, you will be able to build a community of readers that can be additionally enticing for new visitors and for old readers as well.

To make money out of your blog, don’t underestimate the power of social networks and online communities. Word of mouth plays as much role online as it does in the actual world we live in. Yes, you need to advertise as well. This is a given if you want to make money and be successful online. But the key to your success as a blogger lies in your readers. They can spread the word and give good reviews about your blog. They can ask others to check out your site. The more people you get talking about your blog, the more chances you have to make money out of it.
If you are thinking of setting up your blog, go ahead. It certainly pays to blog. Just remember all the things mentioned above because they will surely help you be a successful blogger and to make money out of blogging.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

It Makes Sense to Add AdSense to Your Blog

Google AdSense is easy to install on a web page or blog and constitutes additional source of income without spending anything. You have to apply on-line for Google AdSense Program and generally approval comes from Google within two days. Those having AdWord account can use AdWord e-mail address and password for AdSense account also.

After acceptance of application, Google confirms creation of your Adsense account thru e-mail. You get a code for AdSense text ads and another code for AdSense search.

These codes are to be installed on web page or blog and within minutes the page will start displaying ads from Google, and a Google search bar. AdSense is available in dozen languages worldwide.

The code for AdSense can be placed on any of your web pages. I think placing it on your blog will give you distinct advantage because blogs have several points in their favor. They are easily indexed by search engines. Recently two of my simple blogs were indexed by Google within 2-3 days of submission of URL's which I think is quite fast. With Yahoo! it is even easier - just add the URL of your blog to your My Yahoo page and Yahoo! will start accessing it immediately. GoogleAlert is a free tool that can be used to know when your blog is indexed by Google.You can have your blog up and running in minutes free of cost from several sites that provide this service. I personally use blogger.com. With blogs you do not need to worry about designing websites, registering domain name or hiring web site hosting service. You simply write your content on the blog and it is ready for publication.

An excellent article by John Taylor on creating blog is re-published here:

http://sanjay-j.com/art1ab33.html With AdSense wide range of options is available - number of ads for display, shape and size of display, color schemes.

More than 200 colors are available from which you can choose color for border, background and text.

24 pre-set color palettes are readily available; in addition you can have your own custom-palette to match with the appearance of your web page. Similarly, color schemes are available for Google search bar. When the web page is opened, Google ads are placed which match with the content of the page and are highly relevant. Google finds right ads for the web page from 100,000 AdWord advertisers.

Several options are available for the ads that you would like to be displayed on your page. Ad filters can be activated which will block up to 200 URL's of your choice which you do not want to show on your page.

You may like to filter away ads from your competitors. You can even choose your own default ads for display. Google uses sensitive content filters to prevent display of sensitive material. If you find that your page is not really getting relevant ads, it may be time to look critically at the content of the page, particularly the keywords used in text, links and tags. Little SE optimization of the page should resolve this problem.

Sometimes Google places public service ads when no target ads are available. To suppress public service ad, it is possible to specify your own image ad or HTML page ad which will appear in place of public service ad. This ensures that some ad is always present there. Or, if you like, the space reserved for Adsense ads can be made to collapse.

AdSense tracker is another useful feature which tracks the ads on your pages and generates report for you. The reports can be customized based on requirement. Typically reports can give page impressions displayed, number of clicks and click-thru rates. It is also possible to check earnings any time. Web page owner can make use of all these facilities and try to get best results. With the help of Ad tracker lot of useful information can be obtained - which ads are doing well, which color combination gets better results, which location of the web page is best for showing ads and so on. This analysis can be used to improve traffic as well as click-thru rates.With AdSense you have virtually nothing to lose. If you have not yet installed AdSense on your website you can perhaps give it a thought. Any free space which can be created on your website to accommodate AdSense can be used to generate additional income.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com
AUTHOR
Sanjay Johari

http://www.sanjay-j.com/empowerism.html

Mailto:sanjay-johari@sanjay-j.com

Myths and Facts about Google Adsense

Myth 1: Since wide ads (336x280, 300x250 and 250x250) are effective in many websites, it must also be doing the same thing in my website.

Fact: Not really. Every website has its own characteristics; you cannot just follow what people said and then hope that your CTR will drastically increase. Try to do your own experiments with various ads and placements. Perhaps ads unit that are not effective in another website are your most profitable ads.

Myth 2: It's profitable to develop website that's targeting high paying keywords.

Fact: Perhaps, if you really are a Search Engine Optimization expert. It is correct that when these high paying keywords are clicked, you will get a huge amount of money. But do you realize how many people out there who also think the same thing? I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands; and you will face bloody competition to reach the top position in SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages). Without top position in SERPS, there will be no visitor; without visitor, there will be no one who clicks on your ads. I have another suggestion for this approach, read it in How to Increase Your Google Adsense CTR.

Myth3: High Traffic + High CTR = High Income.

Fact: It is a perfect equation if only there is no smart pricing. High income depends of several factors, such as smart pricing and what type of website you run. Some types of websites (such as forum) have high traffic but they do not generate many incomes from Google Adsense. Smart pricing also affects it. I have seen many websites with high traffic, high CTR, but totally low income.

Myth4: Be careful if your traffic suddenly increases (perhaps because a popular website features one of your articles), Google might think you are doing spamming.

Fact: Nonsense. Google is able to detect your visitors from their IP addresses (if you are not net savvy, just imagine IP address as your phone number; every time you make a phone call, it will be recorded on your phone company).

If you're doing spamming, there is big possibility that all these IP addresses will be exactly the same. Beside that, Google is able to detect who your referrer is (where your visitors know your website from). If they find out that a popular blog/website is linking to your website, they will surely understand. So, don't worry about this.

Myth5: If Google suddenly bans your Adsense account, there is no chance you will be able to defend yourself.

Fact: Some people agree with this, but some other give contradictory facts. Many webmasters complained that Google never gave them warnings and suddenly terminated their accounts. In fact, Google even didn't give them any explanations what their fault was. Strangely, some other webmasters gave contradictory facts.

Firstly, Google always gives two warnings before they finally close an Adsense account. Secondly, if you can prove that you never break Google Adsense TOS (Terms of Service) such as doing click fraud, then they will reactivate your account.

Myth6: Google Adsense will make you millionaire within a couple of months.

Fact: Wake up! It's not time for daydreaming! You must treat Google Adsense as a real business. And just like another real business, it takes times and efforts to be successful.

Myth7: Repeating visitors will stabilize your Google Adsense incomes.

Fact: Big mistake. In fact, repeating visitors even easily suffer ads-blindness. Since they regularly visit your website, they know where exactly you put your ads (except you rotate those ads everyday), and will avoid them. Getting new visitors everyday is more effective for your Google Adsense incomes.

Myth8: The only way to monetize your Google Adsense account is by placing their ads in every website/ blog you owned.

Fact: Fortunately, no! There are many ways to use your Google Adsense ID (known as “Publisher ID”) now. One of them is by using it for “revenue sharing”. What is that? There are some forums that ask you to enter your Publisher ID when you register in their websites. They will use this ID to generate Google Adsense ads that will be displayed in every thread you participate in. If these ads are clicked, they will split the income: 50% for you, 50% for them. One of the forum that provide this facility is forums.digitalpoint.com

Myth9: People who got tens (or even hundreds) of thousands dollars from Google Adsense must own a single website that is visited by millions of visitors a day.

Fact: Not all of them. In fact, many of them even admitted that they got those checks by developing many small websites. For them, it is easier to generate $40,000 from 40 small websites than generate $40,000 from a single website.

Check out : http://wiredglitz.blogspot.com/

Top 25 Google Adsense Tricks

Google Adsense is perhaps the easiest way to attract advertisers from across the globe to your blog. Just submit your blog to Google for approval. If Google likes what it sees, it will place contextual ads linking to products likely to appeal to the readers. Each time a reader clicks a link, the advertiser pays Google a small fee, and Google splits that with you.

The next interesting question - How to Make Money with Google Adsense ? Here are The best Google Adsense Tips and Tricks for making more money (profit) from Google adsense program.

1. Strictly follow the rules mentioned in Adsense policies. You will always earn more revenue from Adsense by playing it clean.

2. Never modify the Google Adsense HTML code.

3. Don't ask your friends or visitors to click on your Google ads. Do not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. Don't label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements.".

4. Don't click on your own ads - Google is much smarter than you think. You should not reload your pages excessively. If you are testing your website layout with Google adsense, follow some precautions. Or you can use the unofficial Google Adsense Sandbox Tool that is accessible from Firefox, IE and other browsers to see what kind of Google ads will be served based on content (website address URL) or keywords.

5. Don't place ads in pop-up windows, error pages or even empty pages.

6. Don't start a "adsense asbestos" or "home equity loan rates" website merely to make money from accidental clicks (accidence). You will never make money out these "made-for-adsense-only" websites. Instead, write on topics what you are passionate about. Don't waste your money on high-paying adsense keywords lists.

Check out : http://wiredglitz.blogspot.com/
7. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content

8. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content - visitors read the long content and then they are looking for more resources.

9. Use Text Ads instead of Image Ads as users get more options. If you still want to display image ads, consider ad formats that support image ads - Choose either the 300x250 medium rectangle or the 160x600 wide skyscraper - or both, if you display multiple ad units on a page.

10. Google Ads without background color and borders always perform better. Make the border color and background color same as your page background color.

11. Always put ads above the main fold. Make sure that the ad unit with the highest clickthrough rate is the first instance of the ad code that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the best placement on your page.

12. Try setting the ad link URL color to a lighter shade. If your text is black, you may make the adlink as light gray.

m. Go Wide - The large rectangle is the best paying adsense format (336x280) - The Google Adsense Publisher team also feels that the best formats are the wider ones - the ad formats that contain the widest individual ads. Try using the 336x280 large rectangle, 300x250 medium rectangle, or 160x600 wide skyscraper.

13. Placing images next to ads or above ads does help in attracting user attention.

14. Blend AdLinks with other navigation links or place horizontal adlinks at the top of your webpage. AdSense publishers are permitted to click on link unit topics on their web pages, provided that they do not click on any Google ads on the resulting page.

15. Organize an Adsense Party for your friends and colleagues - Request them to navigate your website, watch their activity - it will provide vital clues about which regions on your website draw more user attention. Try putting ads near those areas. (Thanks Darren)

16. You can put upto 3 adsense units on a page. Try putting a large skyscraper on the right navigation sidebar of your website. That area is close to the browser scrollbar. You can also add 2 AdSense for search boxes, 1 adlink unit and 1 referral button per product (i.e., 1 AdSense referral button and 1 Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral button).

17. The first few lines of your content are an important factor for determining what Ads are served on your webpage. That's the right place to put keywords in bold (strong or tags) or header tags (h1, h2, etc).

18. Always select the setting to open Google Adsense search box results in a new browser window, so you won't lose your visitors. Click the Open search results in a new browser window checkbox and this add target="google_window" to your form tag.

19. Maximum people think the search box is on the top right corner. So you know where to put it.

20. Don't syndicate full content. If people can read everything from the newsreader window itself, why would they visit your website where your ads are.

21. Use URL channels to determine performance of individual pages. I track my most popular pages with Google Analytics, Statcounter and create a channel for each of the URL. You can even track Adsense Clicks with Analytics

22. For low CTR pages, try changing titles or adding more content to get better focused ads

23. Block low paying advertisers with Filters. Why to loose a visitor for 0.01 cents. Use Overture or Google Adwords Keywords tool to discover keywords that are less popular with advertisers.

24. The AdSense for search Top Queries report shows you what your users are looking for, by listing the 25 most common searches conducted through your AdSense for search boxes. Use this report to identify additional topics to add to your site, or to keep track of your most sought-after information. Focus and improve that content.

25. Not everyone has a RSS reader. Use RSS to Email services like FeedBlitz, Bloglet or Rmail to let users subscribe to your blog by email.

Remember, you are the best judge when it comes to choosing ad formats. Even Google doesn't offer the best advise always. For instance, in the visual heat map, Google suggests that webmasters are best served by positioning ads on the upper left-hand side of a Web page. But on the Google homepage, you will find ads on the far right.
Check out http://wiredglitz.blogspot.com/