This is partly a continuation to my last post. Basically I spoke about the initial conceptual steps of making money online; finding that one idea that you’ll run with and follow through with until it succeeds.

Depending on your idea, you can probably use the help of an Affiliate Network.

Here’s a great definition of Affiliate Network defined by my  best-friend Wikipedia

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and (merchant) affiliate programs. It allows publishers to find affiliate programs, which are suitable for their website and it helps websites offering affiliate programs reach its target audience.^[1]

For merchants, services can include providing tracking technology, reporting tools, payment processing, and access to a large base of publishers. For affiliates, services can include providing one-click application to new merchants, reporting tools, and payment aggregation.

If, let’s say, your idea was to make commisions off of selling televisions online, an Affiliate Network can help you tap into tons of merchants that provide many TV’s, each merchant giving you a percentage of the sale. Some merchants will not only give you a commission for one purchase, but they may also reward you, normally with a lower percentage, with a commission on all purchases that the user you referred makes in his/her lifetime, regardless if the rest of the purchases were made from your affiliate links or not. You plant the seed and watch it grow. Although not always the case, it’s a good idea to look for “Recurring Commissions/Sales”

Another great thing about Affiliate Networks is that they help you manage many merchants that you are affiliated with under one big view. So you are not only able to see the sales you made with one store, but all stores. Depending on the Affiliate Network you choose you’ll have a large range of statistics about your commissions, merchants and performance.

Our Affiliate Networks section has a few different networks listed. More will be added over time, along with tips, tricks and advice for using each specific network.

The alternative to an Affiliate Network is a single Affiliate Program offered directly by a merchant. If all you need to promote is the products of one merchant than that’s great, but I guarantee you that over some time you will be dealing with many affiliate programs and you’ll soon see that they become quite a handful to manage. It is inevitable though, even with Affiliate Networks, you may be forced to manage multiple Affiliate Programs because not all merchants join these networks. There are many great affilliate programs out there that have solid products that you won’t find in any affiliate network and they’re quite worth the management. We will be opening up a category listing Affiliate Programs, reviews on them, tips and strategies using them and much more soon.

Stay tuned and of course feedback is always welcome!