I’ve been with MEDEX since March 2009 and we’ve recently launched our affiliate program but we have a long way to go!

I really appreciate the link to Brian’s article. I’ll definitely want to come up with possible solutions to the problems that he has posed before launching with multiple affiliate networks.

Thanks again!
Sharon

Thank you for your kind words. I picked the niches at random. Are you working for Medex?

Re drawbacks for merchants to be on multiple networks: yes, I believe there are several. The main one is connected with unethical affiliate behavior. If a merchant runs a program on affiliate networks A and B, and Network B allows for unethical affiliate behavior (parasitism, forced clicks, stealing exclusive coupons, etc), there is practically nothing an affiliate on Network A can do to fight these (unless the merchant/affiliate program manager is collaborative, and weeds out the unethical affiliates from Network B for good affiliates on both Networks not to suffer).

A good article on the topic was written slightly over a year ago by Brian Littleton, CEO of ShareASale, in the FeedFront magazine. It stresses several things that can go wrong in a scenario when a merchant is running an affiliate program on different networks. You may read it by following this link: “Pros & Cons of Utilizing Multiple Networks”.

Do you find there’s a drawback for merchants to be on more than one network (assuming they can meet the monthly minimums on each)?

We would love to have you!

@Geno, as usual your post is spot on.

“Which network was the highest number of strong affiliates?”

Answer: Probably CJ, but we still don’t work with them. I think that every week the number shifts just enough towards ShareASale and my guess is that within 2 years or so, they should be equal to CJ and LinkShare. I can only base this on feedback from affiliates though.

Thanks for the kind words bud.

I see a number of music-related programs on ShareASale (SaS), Commission Junction, LinkShare, and Google Affiliate Network. There are also indies and “dual” options (e.g.: my friend Matt McWilliams is currently managing the Legacy Learning Systems program — both in-house and on SaS) available out there. Join the above networks and search their lists of merchants/advertisers.

Advice: get the blog up and running first (and have a few posts added to it) and you’ll stand much better chances of being accepted into affiliate networks. If you don’t currently have that blog up, you want to start working on that first.

Thanks!

If you’re going to be blogging, much will be tied to the topic of your blog, and/or the vertical/direction you’re going to be concentrating on. If it’s gonna be software or digital products, you’ll want to look into networks like oneNetworkDirect and ClickBank, if wedding – you’ll want to look at the list quoted below as well as networks like Bridaluxe, if health and beauty- major networks + MarketHealth.com, and so on.

I have listed close to a dozen of major North American affiliate networks here and while that post was directed at merchants/advertisers, you can still get them names of the networks from there. Out of all, at the time of this writing, I especially admire AvantLink, buy.at and ShareASale — the three most proaffiliate networks at this time.

@Ayako: All great points. The reality is that there are very few affiliate networks out there that truly care about the opinion/needs their affiliates may have. The truly listening ones (e.g.: buy.at, ShareASale, AvantLink) will win in the long term. It may take some time, but quality always prevails over quantity.