Free Affiliate Programs
If you're a Web site owner who has managed to attract a sizable number of visitors, at some stage you may wish to monetise your site. Affiliate programs are an ideal starting point for those who wish to begin making money online. Many of the affiliate networks we review here allow you to choose which advertisers to place on your site, so you can target your adverts to your site's audience. For example, if you review electrical products, you would be able to place advertisements dealing with TVs, games consoles, computers, etc. Please submit any other affiliate networks you are aware of. Also, if you happen to stumble across an outdated link, we'd very much appreciate it if you could report it. Thanks very much!
Affiliate Window
A large UK-based affiliate network and among the best you'll find anywhere online. If you are serious about earning money from your site, make Affiliate Window your first port of call. It enables you to earn money by participating in the wide variety of affiliate programs from popular (and also lesser known) advertisers. Banners, text links, e-mail promos and more are all ready made, so all you have to do is promote. A user dashboard provides extensive reporting options and an account overview, so it's easy to keep track of your progress. (Highly Recommended)
buy.atA high quality and popular affiliate network that's packed with brand name merchants. If you wish to add advertisements to your site and earn an income, you won't go far wrong with buy.at. The network provides a high standard of customer support and updates regularly with new campaigns.
> buy.at has recently updated its affiliate control panel, and there is now a significant improvement in usability.
An excellent UK affiliate network, offering hundreds of advertising programs that you can select to increase revenue for your site. This network is free to register with and regularly updates with fresh merchants, all offering something different, so you're sure to find programs that perform well. Affiliate Future provides real-time tracking and reporting that's useful for monitoring your top performing campaigns.
> The network has released a new, improved version of their affiliate control panel. Aside from the aesthetic improvements, the interface is more user-friendly and now allows you to manage your finances more effectively.
> If you're based in the UK and wish to generate money via your Web site, then we highly recommend this network.
> Affiliate Future now processes payments directly into your bank account, so there's no longer any need to pay in cheques! (A common complaint of many affiliate marketers!)
Owned by the large display advertising company, AdLINK Group, Affilinet is a Europe-wide affiliate network offering high quality campaigns (over 1,500), including those for the UK, and also European countries. Their reporting tools are particularly advanced and provide an excellent snapshot of revenue, trends, etc.
ClickbankOne of the largest and most popular affiliate networks, Clickbank has a worldwide reach and allows webmasters to monetise their Web site with a huge range of campaigns (over 10,000). The network features a large number of Web and software products, including "ebooks", downloads and more, which you can add to your sites to earn regular monthly commissions.
SilvertapThis affiliate network, based in Norwich in the UK, offers a more bespoke service to many of the larger networks, whilst still offering a varied range of merchant campaigns. Whatever the topic of your site, you are sure to find suitable campaigns to monetise it here. Their account management team is reportedly very helpful and responsive at Silvertap.
Link ShareHere's a an excellent program for earning extra revenue via Web site adverts. With over 400 different offers for you to promote, Link Share is one of the Web's biggest affiliate networks. A large selection of banners and buttons are provided to help you promote each offer, plus text descriptions and newsletter articles. The control panel displays total earning, reports, banners, etc.
Commission JunctionCommission Junction (often referred to as just "CJ.com"), is a large affiliate program network, listing hundreds of schemes that you can add to your Web site. All earnings made are tracked and updated in the CJ control panel, which also allows you to search for other programs using keywords or advertiser names. Updating your information once registered is also very simple.
> CJ, a network that has been online for over 10 years, is now a brand of the Internet advertising company, ValueClick.
Floppy Bank is another popular affiliate network, offering a range of schemes, particularly CPC (Cost Per Click) and CPA (Cost Per Action) offers (many are U.S. and Canada targeted). Web publishers can register online, then begin adding various text links or banners in order to earn commissions. If you refer other members to the network, you'll receive $1 per referral. Registration is completely free.
TradeDoublerTradeDoubler is a large UK and European affiliate program network providing a wide variety of "merchants" to earn commissions from. They offer a varied selection of campaigns to promote and update regularly with new offers, which you can implement on your site by using a mixture of banners and text links. They also provide numerous e-mail creatives for using in newsletter mailings.
> We have been generally impressed with TradeDoubler. Their communication with affiliates is of a high standard and technical support e-mails are usually answered on the same working day.
> Payment is made via BACS into a UK bank account of your choice. International affiliates will receive a cheque unless other arrangements are made.
> The affiliate control panel takes a while to get accustomed to and we feel it would benefit from a revamp to make the system more user-friendly.
An American CPA (Cost Per Action) affiliate network containing hundreds of schemes that you can use to generate income from your site. If you're serious about making money then we can't recommend ValueClick Media highly enough. They are faultlessly reliable and provide banners, text descriptions, buttons and more that you can use to generate money online.
> Many of the offers here are applicable to U.S. and Canadian residents, although there are a number of UK, Australian and New Zealand campaigns available.
> Payment is made by a cheque in U.S. dollars, and is reliable and accurate.
The MaxBounty.com affiliate program network has a wide variety of merchants available, which you can implement as adverts on your Web site's pages in order to generate revenue. This affiliate program also provides real-time statistics (so you can track your earnings online), a generous Webmaster referral program and has an excellent list of merchant offers.
WebgainsHere's a high quality affiliate network from Ad Pepper Media, a renowned advertising broker for Internet properties. Webgains offers excellent customer care and features a range of merchant programs that you can implement on your site to increase revenue. Once registered, you'll have access to an online administration panel, where you can control all aspects of your account.
Direct LeadsDirectLeads is a veteran CPA affiliate network (mainly for the U.S. and Canada), offering an abundant collection of programs that you can choose, then add to your Web site. They are a good, reliable company that pay out on time and have a good selection of click-per-lead offers. This service also features a unique banner rotator that will stop your adverts becoming stale.