Obviously if this is part two, then there was a part one, which I hope you check out. Last time I mentioned 3 affiliate programs I’m a part of; here are some more. And, just to remind you, the links are to articles on this blog and not to the sites themselves, but there are links to those sites on some of those other articles.
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Commission Junction is probably the second best known affiliate program I use, but it’s also been the diciest. I can’t say I’ve had great success with it, but it’s given me some of the best options for finding products and links to market to date. If you notice at the top there I have banner ads, and those are from CJ, as I call them sometimes. They rotate, so if you go to a page more than once you’ll see different ads, up to 5.
The best thing about them isn’t the fact that they have lots of different sizes and literally a couple thousand affiliates. The best thing about them is that they allow you to pop up specific products, with a template that’s formatted along with a “buy” button, which I kind of stole as the template for my books there to the left. The first three years of this blog had me adding a product or link of some kind at the end of every post, but I gave that up at the beginning of the year. Sometimes I pop a product in where my image resides. I use products on some of my other websites instead now.
I can say I’ve made money, but it’s been kind of iffy. I’ve talked about the problems I’ve had with some Commission Junction affiliates, which is irritating because I deserve to be paid. They don’t always support the publishers, which is us, and that’s depressing. But I have made some money here and there, to the tune of probably $400 over 3 1/2 years. Not great if you ask me, but more than some other affiliates. I’ve actually made more, but I’m not counting those affiliates that haven’t paid me.
Google Affiliate Network is Google’s version of CJ, with fewer advertisers but they’re getting bigger. Over the years I’ve made some sales, but not tons. That’s probably my fault as I haven’t used them as much as CJ except for Barnes & Noble, who just recently left them. The best thing about GAN, as I sometimes refer to them, is that if you have Adsense money and make sales with this program, it counts towards your monetary total, and thus you get to your thresholds for getting paid quicker.
The bad thing about Google Affiliate Network is that, like CJ, they don’t support the publishers. Instead, they tell you that you have to work directly with the companies, which failed me when Finish Line refused to pay me my commission, then dropped me because they said I didn’t make enough sales. This seems to be a major failing with some of these affiliate networks; they put a lot of affiliates together, but can’t make any of them treat you right. I’ve probably only made $200 in total over a 4-year period, most of that from the sale of books and DVDs.
The final affiliate network I’m going to mention is Linkshare. They’re like the other two networks I’ve already mentioned, the newest one, and they’re starting to add more companies to the mix. They’re the company that Barnes & Noble just moved to, and one of my other former affiliates also moved to. That might mean that Linkshare is the up and coming affiliate network for everyone, or that the terms are better for these companies.
The problem here is that I’ve yet to see a single sale from any of my affiliates, although once again I have to say I think this is probably my fault. Initially I only belonged to 5 programs and haven’t marketed them all that often, and now I’m only up to 9 programs. However, with the move of B&N and the fact that I like mentioning books and movies and thus putting links into some of my posts (in case y’all don’t remember, if you see a blue link that’s an affiliate link of some kind), and I do tend to sell some books and DVDs here and there, I hope that I’ll start making a sale or two over there. Because I haven’t made any sales I can’t say how well they pay.
Something you have to know for all of these is that the companies you link to will kill those links without your knowledge and, unless you’re always checking your old blog pages or your websites, you’ll have no idea unless someone notices one of your pages looking weird and contacts you about it. That’s kind of depressing, as I’ve seen many things go missing from older pages, but there’s really nothing you can do about that.
Three more down, and lots more to come.
I have nearly the same experience from CJ and also the other “big boy” Click Bank. In the beginning of my internet marketing career, I participated with more than 200 affiliate programs, but this was related very closely to the business niche. I think from those 200, there were about 8 which were sending checks or regular basis and at the rest I’ve never reached payment.
Carl, there certainly seems to be a lot of affiliate programs that don’t pay a lot or help publishers make a lot, if any, money. I can’t say I’ve hooked up with 200 of them but I have hooked up with enough of them to have something to write about in these next few posts.
The only reason is that those were specific niche and 1 affiliate program used to target 1 particular product similar with the others, the main reason why those were not paying is that probably have been very popular through webmasters and the possible customers have already join under another affiliate. After that is started becoming a bit mess, those single product affiliate programs start merging with others and made promotion and tracking even more difficult. I am not mentioning the niche, but the main reason, I decided to quit after big success was change in US law in about 40 states in 2003.
Very interesting, I have been a memeber of CJ for over a year and never really logged in, my account is still working and I am able to use it (I just checked). Some people seem to get a raw deal and I dont know why.
One blog I have that makes money does about $200 per month from the company “maxbounty” and they have always been great with me in terms of dealing with my accout. When I by chance had a $700 month over a year ago (never come close since, it was a fluke) they called me twice to try to get me to take on more of their offers.
I will have a look at linkshare but am staying away from anything google after my unjust adsense ban.
Danika, I’ll have to see what maxbounty is all about; never heard of it before, but that’s a pretty good dollar amount for a blog on a monthly basis. You didn’t say what kind of program it is, but I’m sure I’ll learn soon enough. Thanks.
Its a dating site, probably the most militant of all blogs, I made it purely to make money but it is falling a little each month. I wish it was 10x that so I could focus 100% of my time on things like that as I think the potential is there.
Danika, don’t we all! lol
I skimmed over all of the blogs, great information btw I’m sure it will help a lot of people understand that monetizing your blog does not make money over night it takes time. I have a question to ask you. Have you found an ad placement strategy that works good for you. Do you find that people click on the text link ads more than the image links or vice versa. Does ad size have anything to do with whether or not people click.
People seem not to like banner ads as much, though I’m not sure why. But they like big Google ads, especially at the top, and the largest box ad you can put in content without obliterating it. I’ve found that text ads only work if you’re talking about the product and giving it a good review. Every once in awhile a banner ad in the content will get clicked, but not often.
Hi Mitch. I just came back from my holiday, and I see that you’ve updated this series 3 parts more. I’m reading this part 2 and then I’ll move onto the next part. Thanks for sharing this, man!
Mitch CJ was a slice of pita. I spent more time applying to – and being rejected by – affiliates, than I did promoting them!
Again, I was superficially involved, determined as I was to maintain the integrity of my blog as a source of entertainment.
CJ finally gave me the boot, which I deserved. LOL
I actually still have a product link for LinkShare. Unfortunately, the product went to a version that I no longer like, so I don’t promote it. they duly send me my 0 clicks/$0.00 monthly report.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitch, you get sent a monthly report? I don’t; I always have to check in to see anything. Then again, since I’ve yet to make any sales, doesn’t seem to matter. 🙂
At least I used to. I was throwing them in the junk folder, for obvious reasons. LOL
When I went looking for one, I couldn’t find any, so maybe I finally canceled it. {shrugs}
Cheers,
Mitch