Top Four Affiliate Programs Reviewed by Work at Home Grandma

ClickBank, JVzoo, Wealthy Affiliate, Amazon

In today’s world of affiliate marketing the choices can be quite exhausting.  Many online marketers find themselves face to face with opportunities all the time.  Currently four affiliate marketing programs seems to be the most commonly in the forefront.

In order to help you decide which one is best for you I’ve compiled a brief overview of each one to help you make your own choice.   For myself I have participated in all of these and find them all beneficial in various ways.

Largest and Most Common Affiliate Marketing Arena

As of right now and probably well into the future, Amazon has made itself a household name among marketers and consumers across the internet.

I personally use it for all my shopping.  As crowded stores filled with screaming toddlers and impatient mothers, along with long shopping lines are not my cup of tea, I do 98% of my shopping on line.  This includes my own personal items, household goods and yes – even my groceries.

I find the online world inviting, easy, thrifty and totally painless.

My first instinct when product searching is of course Amazon. 

• There are very few items you can’t find on Amazon.

 

• I type what I need in the search area and invariably something always pops up.  Amazon even gives me listings of other places the item is available and the price choices.  It even tells me the amount of the product still available.

 

• This always reminds of the movie entitled “Miracle on 34^th Street” where Macy’s Santa passes along all the bargains to shoppers whether or not it be at Macy’s or another store.  At first the management is furious but they soon realize the service Santa has provided far exceeds anything other stores are offering and the referral system actually increases Macy’s business.

 

• This same marketing strategy is used by Amazon every day except in their case they get a kick-back on every referral so they still make money whether or not the product is purchased from them or an outside vendor.

 

• In the same fashion Amazon uses their affiliate marketers to advertise their products and in turn the affiliate earns a commission of up to $15 per item they sell from their website.

 

• Amazon’s array of product lines can be synchronized to your own specific product or sold as a completely separate item.  They provide you banners, links and whatever ad materials you need for an effective campaign.  An example of a campaign link would be  Hot Books on Amazon.    
  

  Good Books on Amazon

 

• The only drawback is that if you find yourself coming up with zero commissions after a 90 day window, they may discontinue your affiliate id and make you sign up all over again.  This can be a hassle if you have several banners and links built into your site.

 

• The upside is that Amazon will always renew your affiliate status and give you another chance to earn commissions. The possibilities with Amazon, especially when you have a niche website, are endless. They also have an additional affiliate source if you promote books like I do.  It’s called AbeBooks and is a source for books no longer in regular print but are still in demand.  It’s just an added tool to earn more commissions.

Let’s Talk About ClickBank

This is another common affiliate marketplace most of you have dabbled in.  I have heard the horror stories about this affiliate but have not yet found them to be substantial.

There are marketing gurus who will tell you to pick a product, do a YouTube video about the product and presto you’re in the money.  No so my friends.  There are few important things you need to know about ClickBank to make it a successful tool for your business.

• ClickBank is extremely easy to maneuver.

 

• First and foremost you need to sign up to be an affiliate.

 

• Secondly, you need to spend a few hours reviewing the system and the best way to make it lucrative for your purposes.

 

• In order to profit from ClickBank you need to start by selecting a niche to promote that has a track record of profitability without being such a high priced item that very few sales will result.

 

• You must do a little research to select the niche you will be promoting.

 

• First you must go to the categories and select one.  The example we will be using today is Employment and Jobs.  You will be brought to a page where different products are listed within that category.  Around each of these products, you’ll find various numbers and statistics.  You’ll want to pay particular attention to a number called ‘Gravity’.

 

• The ‘Gravity’ of a product is a number that ClickBank developed.  It basically tells you how well a product is selling.  The definition of ‘Gravity’, in this case, is as follows:

 

• “One point of gravity is awarded when a unique affiliate makes his/her first sale (refreshed weekly).  A point is only awarded on the first sale and not on subsequent sales.” So, gravity is really a minimum.  It’s not taking into account the fact that some affiliates are making a lot of sales.  Still, it’s a way to gauge how well a product is selling.  Just to reiterate, a gravity of 51 would mean that 51 unique affiliates have made a sale in the last week.  A good technique is to only choose products with a gravity of 20 or above.  If you go any lower than that, it becomes harder to sell a product.

 

• Once you select your product you will get what’s called a “hoplink”.  This will include you own affiliate ID marker which will tell the vendor and ClickBank who sold the product and to whom to pay the commissions.  This is vital that you make sure your affiliate id is in any link you use to market the product otherwise you will not get paid for your efforts.

 

• You can use the link along with a YouTube video, a blog entry or in the sidebar of your site.   Just remember when marketing products you do it in such a manner that your potential buyer sees it as a part of your presentation and not just a “please buy this so I get paid mechanism”.

 

• CB Engine – Find products to promote on Clickbank is a resource for finding products to promote.

 

• One downside to ClickBank is that the vendors themselves capture the emails when prospects click on the promoted link.  Thus, you do not have an opportunity to grow your email list.

 

 JVZoo – Another Affiliate Marketing Tool  

JVZoo works much like ClickBank but with one important difference.

 

• When seeking to promote a product within JVZoo you cannot automatically receive an affiliate marketing link by requesting to promote the product as you do with ClickBank.

 

• JVZoo first requires that you go through an approval period where the vendor itself must consider your application to promote their product.  Once approved, the vendor then sends you the links they wish used for the promotion.

 

• This process may just take 24 hours and sometimes as much a two weeks.  This can be frustrating if you review the product and find it very substantial but have to wait to promote it.

 

• JVZoo also has restrictions as to payment for your commissions.  There is usually a waiting period for new affiliates.  Sometimes this can be by-passed but in most cases until you qualify yourself as an active affiliate, commissions are delayed.

 

• On the upside, JVZoo allows you a Get Response free account for 30 days upon enrolling.  This way you will be able to capture emails of prospects interested in the products you promote.  This will allow you to experience an online auto-responder and also give you an opportunity to build your email list.

 

An Affiliate Marketing Opportunity that pays you in knowledge and money.   

When examining ways to earn money online I cannot end the review without mentioning a way to get more than just commission for being an affiliate. Find out here how you change all that

 

• Wealthy Affiliate is one of the only online affiliate marketing mechanisms that not only allows you to earn money while promoting them, they actually give you two free websites in which to do it.

 

• Briefly, Wealthy Affiliate is unique in that they allow affiliates to get two free domains along with extensive online training without even asking you for a credit card.

 

• With their system, anyone can try out being an affiliate and get two websites set up for them completely free of charge.  You never have to pay a dime.  It’s one way you can experiment with affiliate marketing and learn about how to build your own money-making website and you can do it for free.

 

• If you are interested in making money online and don’t know where to begin then, Wealthy Affiliate is something you’ll want to check out.

 

• Perhaps you already have a website but don’t know how to convert your marketing into sales.  Wealthy Affiliate is a way to learn the ropes.  The amount of knowledge you will glean from just one week in the training will put you well on the road to a money-making website.

 

I know we’ve covered a lot of ground on this blog and if you’re still needing more information be sure to sign up for my Newsletter.  I pass along tips and tricks every month as well as mail out important news as it happens in the online business world.

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Until next time.  Have a productive week.