Best Affiliate Programs To Start With!

What Are Affiliate Programs?

In concept, affiliate programs, which are also called affiliate networks, are pretty simple. All they do is provide a third party platform that allows merchants and affiliates to find and work with each other.

Merchants and affiliates can then sign up for the platform, find each other, and start to work together.

As an affiliate marketer, you’ve got one thing on your mind: performance. To get the best performance for your affiliate campaigns, it’s worth trying out a few programs to see what works for you. Whether you are a beginner just starting out, or more advanced with some experience behind you, here are some great affiliate marketing programs for you to check out. See what kind of offers are available on the most popular platforms to help you achieve your best conversions and even build a steady long-term income.

How Do Affiliate Programs Work?

When doing affiliate marketing, think about how much data gets exchanged between one affiliate and one merchant. Someone needs to track each and every action taken by the potentially thousands of customers that a single affiliate can bring in.

And when you multiply that by the thousands of affiliate marketers who are working with the merchants on the platform, you begin to see how vital these affiliate marketing programs really are.

For example, affiliate programs might help track:

• How many people see a banner ad
• How they end up completing a purchase
• Clicks on a link on an ad or site gets
• Revenue generated by an affiliate for multiple merchants and offers.

The Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners

Let’s dive in, starting with one of the biggest affiliate programs out there:

1. ShareASale

ShareASale is one of the most popular affiliate networks out there.

Whereas Amazon Associates is focused entirely on Amazon products, ShareASale houses affiliate programs for 4,500+ merchants, both big and small.

From one spot – the ShareASale dashboard – you can sign up to all these merchants, generate links, and view your statistics.

2. Awin (Formerly Affiliate Window)

Awin, a shorter rebrand of the original Affiliate Window, is another popular affiliate network that gives you access to over 13,000 different merchants.

It actually acquired ShareASale back in 2017, though the two are still run as separate entities and have different merchants.

With 13,000+ merchants, you’ll find a lot of options for both physical and digital products at Awin.

3. Amazon Associates

If you want to promote physical products on your website, Amazon Associates is a good option.

With Amazon Associates, you can earn a commission on pretty much anything sold at Amazon.com.

What makes this program even more valuable is that you earn a commission on everything new that someone you refer purchases, even if it’s not the product you linked to.

4. CJ Affiliate (Formerly Commission Junction)

CJ – formerly known by the lengthier name of Commission Junction – is another affiliate network that brings together thousands of different merchants under one roof (a lot like ShareASale).

Along with ShareASale, CJ is one of the biggest affiliate networks out there, which means that you’ll be able to connect with thousands of both big and small merchants. Currently, the exact number is 2,696 different merchants.

5. Rakuten Marketing (Formerly LinkShare)

Rakuten Marketing (formerly known as LinkShare) is a popular affiliate network that includes a lot of big merchants. Notable merchants are:

• Walmart
• Best Buy
• Macy’s
• Papa Johns

They also have some smaller merchants, though their network isn’t as large as ShareASale, CJ, or Awin (it’s “only” around 1,000 merchants).

So if you want access to a huge variety of merchants, you might be better off with one of the other networks. But Rakuten is a good option for getting access to the big guns, and they also have some nice features like the ability to rotate ads without the need for an external solution