Following on from the last tutorial which provided a step-by-step guide for advertisers on launching an affiliate program, in this class we review the five largest and best-known affiliate networks in the USA. This may assist you in determining which networks to consider launching your affiliate program on.

There are numerous other networks in the United States and it is essential you investigate them too before picking your preferred network(s). It is often the case that smaller networks provide a better level of service than the elephantine companies below.

The review of each network includes the Alexa ranking and number of posts in the network’s section on ABestWeb.com. The former is a third party tool to determine how popular a website may be. It is not wholly accurate, but the best independent tool out there. ABestWeb is the world’s biggest affiliate marketing forum.

Commission Junction
Alexa Ranking: 434
Posts on ABestWeb: 95,546

CJ is the largest affiliate network in the world. Its headquarters are in Santa Barbara, California and it has offices in Europe and throughout the world. ValueClick bought the company for $58 million in 2003.

In 2001, CJ made a revolutionary move by publishing the performance metrics of all advertisers, publishers, and ads. This approach provided both advertisers and publishers for the first time a way to gauge the value of their existing and potential relationships based on two key metrics – average earnings per 100 clicks (EPC) and network earnings.

Some of the world’s best known brands host their affiliate programs on CJ, including the likes of eBay and Yahoo. However CJ’s size is both an asset and a liability. Smaller advertisers have regularly complained of poor service from CJ.

"CJ charged us $3,000 to launch an affiliate program and our monthly fee is $2,500. They are a big network with a global reach, but I haven’t received as much service from the network as I would have liked. Our affiliates are often complaining about CJ’s ill-thought-out ‘innovations’ which cause them problems." Anon.

 

Linkshare
Alexa Ranking: 345
Posts on ABestWeb: 32,841

A pioneer in affiliate marketing, LinkShare was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Denver, and Chicago. It is owned by Rakuten, Inc., the number one portal in Japan for shopping, online finance and travel, and the seventh largest internet company in the world.

LS boasts it has created the largest network of affiliate partners of any program provider -- over 10 million partnerships -- in addition to becoming the first affiliate network provider to achieve sustained profitability.

Fees are higher than other networks, around $5,000 to launch an affiliate program and then a monthly minimum of $2,500 or so. One of the negatives of LS is they insist on exclusivity which means you can’t also have your affiliate program on other networks.

"LinkShare is by far the most expensive network, both in terms of upfront costs, ongoing fees, and nickel and diming for things that others include. They're also the least open about their pricing, so you'll have a hard time finding out unless you contact them. That said, I think they're very negotiable on many of the fees, especially with large brands or OPMs that deal exclusively with LinkShare." Michael Coley, Amazing-Bargains.com

Shareasale
Alexa Ranking: 788
Posts on ABestWeb: 19,061

Shareasale has around 2000 merchants, and every month around 60 new merchant join the network. SAS, as it’s commonly referred to, tends to attract less ‘brand name’ advertisers than the other big networks.

SAS set-up fees are a lot less than CJ and LS, only $350. The commission override is 20%, which is lower than their rivals.

SAS tends to receive less criticism than other networks on affiliate forums. It has a cleaner interface than other networks and provides many features which are accessible with one click.

"I think they have good potential to as an ad network but need to spend the money and time to recruit a higher echelon of affiliates! Shareasale is good for a first program in the sense that you can tweak ads and rates and really see if it will work or not. I think the pay per lead with rules is a good way to keep traffic running. Some affiliates one other networks can burn you in a heartbeat with incentivized traffic." Haiko de Poel, ABestWeb.com

 

Performics
Alexa Ranking: 11,055
Posts on ABestWeb: 3,771

Owned by Doubleclick and based in Chicago, Performics has over 300 affiliate programs on their network. These include America Online, Cingular, Motorola and Staples.

"Performics' dedication to our account is exemplary. We are certainly not their biggest, nor their most profitable client, but we receive very good value for our investment. Performics' tools for managing our initiatives and additionally, their reporting suite are very good." Anon

The interface is not the best in the business, but they have some advantages over other networks. This includes not locking advertisers into a long term contract (there is a 30 day out clause). Performics also specialize in search engine marketing and often engage in PPC and SEO for their clients.

Clickbank
Alexa Ranking: 278
Posts on ABestWeb: 1,086

Clickbank is not like the other networks because it specializes in digital products which can be sold online such as ebooks and software. Clickbank is also unique in that the payment for products is made via their own payment mechanism.

From a merchant’s point of view it is easy to use. If you want to sell any product their setup fee is only $50. There are currently more than 10,000 products available on the network and over 100,000 affiliates have the opportunity to promote your products.

"Yes, CB is full of programs not worth their weight in bits or bytes. Anytime you have a system where the products are digital and can be written by anyone, you are going to have junk… [but] I am convinced that CB is a good and reliable organization." Wayne

 

Despite having undergone a desperately-needed interface revamp in 2006, Clickbank suffers from a reputation of specializing in ‘Get Rich Quick’ type ebooks with ten page long sales pitches plastered full of exclamation marks!

 

Although not as large as the Big Five, PrimeQ is definitely worth investigating if you are looking into launching an affiliate program. The network has several plus points.

One of them is fees are considerable less than the big networks reviewed above. Whereas PrimeQ charges a mere $250 to launch an affiliate program and a $50 monthly fee, the likes of CJ and LS take several thousand dollars in set-up fees and then a fat monthly fee to keep your account going.

PrimeQ also provides a level of support to advertisers which is often lacking with big companies with hundreds of staff members.

You may find out more about PrimeQ’s ad network here. Should you have any enquiries about launching an affiliate program with PrimeQ you may call +1 949-707-8500.

The next class for advertisers will provide a breakdown of the biggest affiliate networks in the UK.

Nadeem Azam, PrimeQ
Public Relations Manager
nazam@primeq.co.uk

Online Shopping Spikes on Black Friday

Traffic to retail sites was high on Black Friday with e-commerce spending spiking 42 percent over the day after Thanksgiving last year. Additional data from Nielsen//NetRatings and Hitwise show increases in visits to shopping sites for both purchase and research of gift items.

Reports from comScore find consumer online non-travel retail spending to be up 23 percent in the first 24 days of November over the same period last year. That's $8.31 billion spent prior to Thanksgiving, compared to $6.75 billion in 2005. Black Friday spending grew 42 percent, over the same day last year, when online sales reached $434 million. Traffic to retail sites was great enough to cause outages as popular retailers like Wal-Mart.

Consumers went online to buy and to research products and prices. Visits to online shopping engines increased 21 percent on Black Friday compared to the average number of daily visits in November. ShopLocal.com experienced a triple-digit increase in visits over traffic levels for the prior three days.

Nielsen//NetRatings' Holiday eShopping Index noticed a 12 percent uptick of online visits from home on Black Friday. While known as a big day for brick-and-mortar stores, the day racked up a unique audience of 19.2 million across the index's 120 representative online retailers. Last year the unique audience was 17.2 million on the same day.

The fastest growing category was consumer electronics, with 211 percent growth from November 17 to November 24. Apparel (117 percent); home and garden (87 percent); shopping comparison and portals (79 percent); and beauty (78 percent) topped the list on category growth. The overall average unique audience to all categories was 32 percent for November 17 to November 24.

The top sites for unique audience were eBay, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy. The greatest week-over-week growth was experienced by Best Buy (316 percent), Circuit City (211 percent), Wal-Mart (191 percent), JC Penney (158 percent), and Overstock.com (155 percent).

Courtesy Clickz Network

Search Advertisers Want Sales Not Branding

Corporate advertisers are allocating search engine marketing budgets mostly for direct sales rather than building brand awareness, according to preliminary findings from a survey for the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.

Early data from the sample of corporate advertisers shows 59 percent see direct sales as their primary objective in SEM programs, the 2006 SEMPO market survey said.

Brand awareness as an objective has lost its top spot from last year, with only 53 percent of respondents seeing that as their prime reason to use SEM. Forty-eight percent cited lead generation.

But even as corporate advertisers shift their priorities, survey findings show that SEM no longer is taking dollars away from other marketing channels. It has now gained credentials as part of the overall marketing mix.

Forty-two percent of those advertisers responding to date told SEMPO their SEM budget is a new allocation. Print budgets are losing most from this shift, the survey found.

Also, nine out of ten senior management executives now claim they are very involved or moderately involved in SEM programs. This is a huge jump from last year, when less than half surveyed said they were very involved.

That said, early survey results show that organic search engine optimization continues to be the most popular form of SEM. Of those advertisers sampled to date, 83 percent report organic SEO is their No. 1 choice, with paid placement a close second at 80 percent.

Courtesy DM News

 

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