Hi englishpaulm2-ga,
Online advertising has gained a massive amount of interest from
webmasters and companies alike and has been around for many years. The
type of company you are describing falls into the category of an
"affiliate network" - there are no shortage of these online.
I have identified five companies based on the criteria you've provided:
#1 - Commission Junction
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URL: http://www.cj.com/
"Commission Junction, a ValueClick company, provides advanced
performance-based marketing solutions that help marketers increase
online leads and sales.
By facilitating strategic relationships between advertisers and
publishers, Commission Junction leverages its proven expertise in
affiliate marketing, partner marketing and search marketing to drive
measurable results for its clients."
Commission junction has many high-profile clients, and the list of
options to choose from are quite extensive. Some of the featured
companies they represent are shown here:
http://www.cj.com/clients/adv.jsp
Payment is described in their affiliate FAQ:
"How do CJ Marketplace publishers get paid?
Commission Junction aggregates each publisher's total commissions
earned each month from all advertisers that publisher partners with in
the CJ Marketplace, and if this amount exceeds the minimum payout,
Commission Junction sends a paycheck (or direct deposit) in the
publisher's designated currency. For this reason, each advertiser is
required to keep a minimum balance in its Commission Junction account
so that publishers can be paid by Commission Junction. When Commission
Junction issues a check to a publisher, it is for the previous month's
transactions. Until a publisher's account balance reaches the minimum
payout, Commission Junction rolls over the previous month's earnings
into the following month. This means that after a withdrawal is made
to process a check, the money that has been earned during the current
month will remain in the account. Publishers may choose to receive
their payments through a check in the mail or, if they are a resident
of the U.S. or Canada, through direct deposit to a designated bank
account. There is no charge for this service. At this time, direct
deposit is only available to U.S., U.K., German and Canadian
publishers."
http://www.cj.com/solutions/faq.jsp#affiliate
#2 - LinkShare
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URL: http://www.linkshare.com/
"LinkShare hosts a password-protected website that offers affiliates a
choice of hundreds of merchant programs. On the site, affiliates can
join new programs, get links to put on their sites, and then see
reports about how their links are performing and how much they have
earned."
http://www.linkshare.com/affiliates/offers.shtml
LinkShare has an extensive list of high-profile clients, as seen here:
http://www.linkshare.com/clients/index.shtml
They also offer a centralized reporting mechanism for affiliates:
"Among the greatest benefits LinkShare provides for affiliates is
comprehensive reporting. Affiliates can use their reports to do a
quick check on how much money they are earning, and to figure out
what's working and what isn't. There are up to sixteen different
reports that can be run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The reports are an invaluable tool for affiliates who want to get the
most out of their programs. That's why it's important that LinkShare
affiliates have access to all of their reports in one centralized
location. With one username and password, LinkShare affiliates can log
in and learn about their performance with individual merchants, but
they also can compare merchant offers, links, payment structures,
individual products, sub-affiliate sites and more."
http://www.linkshare.com/affiliates/centralized.shtml
#3 - ClickBank
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URL: http://www.clickbank.com/
"With ClickBank every link on your web site can be a source of
revenue. Use the ClickBank Marketplace to find sites that will be of
interest to people who visit your web site. Next to each site listing
you'll see a percentage. This is the commission you can earn for
referring a paying customer to ClickBank to purchase that product."
http://marketplace.clickbank.net/
This service doesn't boast very high-profile merchants, but the upside
to this is that you can find merchants willing to pay higher
commissions. If there is a suitable fit with the content on your site,
it's quite likely you can offer a niche service to your site's
visitors.
#4 - Performics
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URL: http://www.performics.com/
"Performics is a leading provider of Affiliate Marketing Services and
facilitates billions of dollars in e-commerce transactions for more
than 300 advertisers. Affiliate marketing is a proven, cost- effective
channel for direct-response online advertising."
http://www.performics.com/our_capabilities_files/capabilities_affiliate_marketing.htm
They have several high-profile clients:
"More than 300 clients, including America Online, Blair Corp., Bose,
Cingular, CompUSA, Eddie Bauer, Fairmont Hotels, HP Shopping, J. Jill,
Jos. A. Banks, Kohl's, L.L. Bean, Motorola, OfficeMax, PC Connection,
RedEnvelope, My Sony, Quickbook, Staples, Verizon Wireless, and
Wyndham Hotels."
http://www.performics.com/our_company_files/companyinfo.htm
http://www.performics.com/our_customers_files/advertisers.htm
They also have a comprehensive tool for tracking marketing activity:
"Performics provides a complete solution for tracking online marketing
activity. Consumers seamlessly move from Publisher sites to Client
sites through this solution, which reliably tracks the data in real
time. Publisher sites may include search engines, affiliates, loyalty
sites, shopping comparison engines, and more. Client sites include any
online vendors offering products or services.
At the heart of this affiliate network solution is a software
application called ConnectCommercesm. Developed by Performics,
ConnectCommerce captures online activity data without interrupting the
consumer's Web experience."
http://www.performics.com/our_customers_files/affiliate_programs_distrbution_partners_technology.htm
#5 - clixGalore
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URL: http://www.clixgalore.com/
"clixGalore is one of the larger affiliate networks with over 4500+
Affiliate programs for you to join."
Unlike many of the other affiliate networks, this company allows you
to search their entire database of companies seeking affiliates.
An additional twist they provide is a tutorial site for using and
optimizing results with clixGalore. This information is mainly in the
form of articles but can be beneficial in correctly using their
network:
http://www.clixgaloretutor.com/
Additional resource:
--------------------
In case you are interested in an exhaustive list of affiliate
networks, I came across this one which is fairly comprehensive:
http://www.associateprograms.com/search/affiliate-networks.shtml
Overall, I would suggest sticking with the big players - either
Commission Junction or LinkShare. They are proven to be reliable and
offer the most recognized "branded companies".
Hopefully this information will help you decide on the affiliate
network you will work with to earn revenue from your site. If you are
unsure about any of the information above please post a clarification
and I will respond promptly.
Cheers!
answerguru-ga |
