Affiliate Program Comparison Chart |
| Name |
Description |
Costs |
Pays |
Size
of Program |
Notes |
Special Features |
| Amazon.com |
"Founded in
1996, Amazon.com Associates is the online affiliate marketing leader. Our program is free
and easy to join." |
Free sign-up for
publishers; minimum account balance of $500 for advertisers |
Up to 15% in
referral fees, which you can receive one of three ways: Direct Deposit, Amazon.com Gift
Certificate, or check. Amazon’s latest payment structure gives you two choices: 1) "Classic": 15% of book sales and between 2.5% - 5% of
other products (see their agreement for full details).
2) "Tiered": Between 4.5% - 8% of qualifying
revenues, depending on how many units you sell for a quarter (see their agreement for full
details). |
A lot of people.
"Over 900,000 web sites," according to amazon.com |
Amazon makes it very
easy to place links on your site, with a link-generating tool that can make various types
of ads for your site...different button, banner or other graphics sizes, or just plain
text, for example. |
It was the first
one, and just about anyone can use it if they can find books relevant to their site
content |
| Commission Junction |
"A leader in
pay-for-performance marketing"; The company earns revenue on a per-transaction and
subscription-fee basis. |
Free sign-up for
publishers; minimum account balance of $500 for advertisers |
Depends on the
affiliate programs you sign up for, and what they decide to pay out |
eBay, web shoe store
Zappos.com. ("64% of Top 50 Web properties are Commission Junction clients,"
according to CJ’s site). |
You can sign up to
be either "advertiser" (must be large, established retailer), or
"publisher" (independent party or web site) |
"Open
Marketplace" concept shows performance of participants; they bill this as being
unique in the affiliate world. |
| ClickBank |
"Partner with
ClickBank and you'll have an instant affiliate network promoting your digital products.
Among our top selling products, over 50% of all sales are generated by affiliates. The
company earns revenue on a per-transaction and subscription-fee basis." |
Signup is free |
Sales commissions
from 1% to 75%; many pay out at 50% |
Over 10,000 items in
their catalog. |
lets you accept
online credit card payments without getting your own merchant account and handles the
whole ordering process for you. Handles many ebooks, "info products," software
or downloadable products |
Their
"hoplinks" are relatively easy to use, as the format in the link is your
affiliate nickname next to the partner’s affiliate nickname. |
