Affiliate Network

What is an Affiliate Network?


An Affiliate Network provides the function of an intermediary involving publisher, known as affiliates, and business affiliate programs and offer tracking, maintenance services to both. Permitting, more easily, the website publishers to locate and take part in affiliate programs that are best-suited for their websites, in order to make revenue from those programs, Affiliate Networks also allows websites offering affiliate programs to get in touch with a bigger audience by encouraging their affiliate programs to all of the publishers participating in the affiliate network.

The merchants, who have joined a traditional Affiliate Network, offer a share of the generated revenue to the publishers. This revenue is generated due to the visitors to the publisher's website. This method is known as the Revenue Share Model. Another way of sharing the generated revenue between the merchant and the publisher in a traditional affiliate network is known as the Fee-per-Action Model. This offers a fee for each visitor on the publisher's website that completes a particular action, such as making a purchase, registering for a newsletter, etc. However, the majority of merchant programs follow a revenue share model, as opposed to a fee-per-action model.

What are the benefits of joining an Affiliate Network(s)?

Affiliate Networks are often referred to as ASP’s (Affiliate Solution Providers). If the merchants use an Affiliate Network, no additional software is necessary for them to run it. As signing-up for an Affiliate Network is free of cost for the affiliates, a multiple of these can be joined. Affiliate Networks allows the marketers to find a multitude of companies and products available at one place, so no hassle of finding them separately. Due to the availability of thousands of companies, one can find appropriate products his/her particular niche. In addition to letting one choose his/her merchants, by presenting a multiplicity of merchants, working with an Affiliate Network may also reduce the start-up time, as affiliate marketing may have an application process during which merchants review the publisher’s website. If an affiliate faces a problem with a merchant, then Affiliate Networks provide intervention between the two and help assure business-like managing for things including accurate tracking, on-time payments, and the latest advertisements.

How many Products to Promote with an Affiliate Network?

Affiliates can either promote several products with an Affiliate Network, or just a single one. However, affiliates judge multi-product retail-type online stores better, but it does not mean that starting an affiliate network advertising program with a single-product or a single-service online business is unprofitable.
Which are the best Affiliate Networks to join?

To promote affiliate products, in order to make money, finding the best relevant affiliate network is of utmost importance. A few major Affiliate Networks are mentioned below:

•    Commission Junction
•    Share A Sale
•    Link Share
•    Google Affiliate Network
•    Click Bank

However, the merchants in the program are going to be a big part of one’s decision of whether to join a particular network, as well as reviews. Therefore, besides just analyzing the networks, one may also consider to choose the appropriate merchant.