Hey, it’s Wess. You guys know I love being a part of the Amazon Associates network, but I also advocate diversifying your blog income strategies. With that in mind, this is a guest post from Casey Meehan that gives some great alternatives to Amazon Associates. Enjoy! Oh, and here is a list of tools and networks that I use personally.
7 Top Viable Alternatives to Amazon Associates
The days of big payouts for Amazon Associates program members are slowly coming to an end. Because of this, an increasing number of site owners are looking to diversify their sources of affiliate income.
Amazon seems to be removing rewards for high-volume affiliate sellers, writes Sonya Mann at Inc., and introducing a new flat commission structure that would benefit fewer of their affiliate members. This means a significant cut in commissions for affiliates with a large volume of sales, including video games and books.
The affiliates most affected by this change, including those in the electronics, digital video games and luxury beauty categories, are now willing to look for new alternatives to replace their lost income.
The Solution: Amazon Affiliate Program Alternatives
As an affiliate, you can find many other programs that enable you make more money than offered by Amazon Associates.
This doesn’t mean that you should opt out of the Amazon affiliate system entirely, although many decide to do just that, but rather diversify your monetization strategy by including other programs.
If you would like to try some new affiliate programs, here is a detailed list of 7 such alternatives.
1. Walmart
Even though the Walmart affiliate program does not have the international reach of Amazon, it is the best affiliate program for those in USA, Canada and Mexico. Their cookies last 3 days, with other benefits including:
- Free newsletters on how to increase your reach and maximize your revenue
- Contests and extra affiliate opportunities
- Free banners
2. Clickbank
For nearly 20 years, ClickBank has partnered with digital markets and now boasts one of the biggest marketplaces for digital products.
Expect commissions of up to 75 percent and a monster cookie length of 60 days. Starting is painless: you register, choose one or more affiliate products (some with automatic upsells) and start selling. Moreover, you can find plenty of guides on the Clickbank forum on how to advertise your affiliate digital product.
3. ShareASale
Offering a wide range of products, both digital and physical, from thousands of unique vendors, ShareASale is a large marketplace that enables you to maximize your revenues and get the best deals for your efforts. ShareASale has great reviews online and is considered a top affiliate program due to the simple interface, easy approval process and the wide variety of products and services you can promote.
4. CJ Affiliate by Conversant
Previously known as Commission Junction, CJ Affiliate by Conversant is another well-known affiliate marketplace and a viable alternative to Amazon Associates. The website has gone through several changes over the last few years, and the company has experienced numerous rebrandings. However, the outcome is one of the most professional and high quality affiliate marketing companies on the market.
5. eBay
eBay has a huge selection of affiliate offers, having its own impressive market share. People buy and sell virtually anything on this platform with regular commissions as high as 70 percent. Incentives for new affiliates include a double commissions bonus during the first three months, capped at $5,000.
You should note, however, that eBay has the same cookie length of 24 hours. Zack Rutherford at SaleHoo wrote a very good piece on how that policy affects auctions that last more than 24 hours.
6. Buy.com
This platform belongs to the huge e-commerce marketplace Rakuten in Japan. Anyone with a US website and mailing address can be a Rakuten affiliate program member. Commissions range from 1-6 percent, and no cookies are used. Affiliates have tools that include:
- A link builder
- Feeds for deals, featured products and top sellers
- Product catalogs that are updated daily
- Text links and banners
7. Avangate
Avangate offers a wide range of merchant services and products in the digital commerce realm, including a digital commerce platform, channel management, subscription billing, and global payments for software, SaaS and online services companies.
Commissions for affiliates range up to 75 percent with special bonuses often available for high performers, including payment for license renewals. Tools include deep linking, a dedicated support team, automated listings, localized shopping carts and more.
About the author: Casey Meehan is a writer at Stock Hax, a blog about personal finance and investment strategies. He is also the founder of Epic Presence, a digital marketing agency in Chicago.