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I just thought I'd do a quick run-down of affiliate and advertising programs beyond Adsense and Amazon that I'm aware of and have had personal experience with. There's a lot out there, and some have better deals than Amazon.
First off, a word about Linkshare -- they currently pay every week and they pay for any amount over $1. I honestly think this is the best deal among any of the big affiliate companies.
Linkshare is an affiliate *network* and they handle affiliate sales for a number of major companies. You have to be accepted by each affiliate individually but Linkshare handles the payments in most cases and you only have one site (Linkshare) to log in to and one interface to make your ads in. (Edit to clarify that Disney, iTunes, etc. linked below all go through Linkeshare.)
-- Disney -- though they're picky, they just accepted me and Firefox News has been around two years in a pro format.
-- iTunes -- 5% per download, which isn't much, but iTunes is an "impulse" buy for a lot of people. Spending $.99 for a song is a lot like buying a candy bar. It's instant gratification and pocket change. iTunes has, besides the obvious, movies, audio books, and TV episodes. If you're blogging about a TV show or movie it might make more sense to link to iTunes than Amazon.
-- Netflix -- $9 per person you manage to convince to sign up last I checked.
-- Lego! *Grin*
-- KB Toys
-- Walmart
-- And a huge number of other name-brand companies. That's only a tiny sampling.
Next is Allposters. I will say I've never sold anything from Allposters. (I also haven't tried that hard.) However, the ads have very pretty pictures that are much larger than Amazon's little ads, with unobtrusive links to buy the posters. Lots of celebrity photos, movie posters, etc. You might make the occasional poster sale and they're pretty pics to put on your site in the interim that are royalty free. I'll probably be making more use of them in the future on my site ... Allposters.com. They pay 25%. Their prices have come down a bit, so sales may be more possible through them.
Buy.com also has an affiliate program similar to Amazon, but their prices on merchandise are sometimes better.
Commission Junction (cj.com) has a program similar to Linkshare, with bunches more "name brand" retailers.
Now, fo pay per click or pay per view ads, besides Adsense:
-- Yahoo has a similar program called Overture -- it has some stricter criteria to get in, but I did get an approval for my site. You can't run Overture and Adsense together, but some people claim Overture pays better. Some people say it's worse. I suspect it's content-dependent.
-- Adbrite.com -- lets you sell ads directly. i.e. an advertiser wants to buy a spot on your blog; you can sell an ad to just that advertiser on Adbrite, and control exactly where the ad appears. They also have a contextual network that sucks (and can't be used with Adsense) and inline links (that also suck). If you have an advertiser who wants to buy ad space on your site, however, they might be a better choice than Adsense, because you can better control the ads. (Or you can just sell the ads directly, but then you have to deal with things like, oh, collecting payment.) I'm not a big fan of Adbrite but they have their uses.
Kontera.com -- I like Kontera. It's a nice supplement to Adsense. They just do inline links (highlighted words) in your text. Payout varies depending on content but Firefox News has been averaging around a buck a day from them and I'm in a low-paying niche. Payout is at $100 like Adsense but if you've got a busy blog it might be worthwhile. Kontera's customer service is fantastic.
Now ... if I could just find an affiliate that sells anime and manga other than Amazon.com ...
First off, a word about Linkshare -- they currently pay every week and they pay for any amount over $1. I honestly think this is the best deal among any of the big affiliate companies.
Linkshare is an affiliate *network* and they handle affiliate sales for a number of major companies. You have to be accepted by each affiliate individually but Linkshare handles the payments in most cases and you only have one site (Linkshare) to log in to and one interface to make your ads in. (Edit to clarify that Disney, iTunes, etc. linked below all go through Linkeshare.)
-- Disney -- though they're picky, they just accepted me and Firefox News has been around two years in a pro format.
-- iTunes -- 5% per download, which isn't much, but iTunes is an "impulse" buy for a lot of people. Spending $.99 for a song is a lot like buying a candy bar. It's instant gratification and pocket change. iTunes has, besides the obvious, movies, audio books, and TV episodes. If you're blogging about a TV show or movie it might make more sense to link to iTunes than Amazon.
-- Netflix -- $9 per person you manage to convince to sign up last I checked.
-- Lego! *Grin*
-- KB Toys
-- Walmart
-- And a huge number of other name-brand companies. That's only a tiny sampling.
Next is Allposters. I will say I've never sold anything from Allposters. (I also haven't tried that hard.) However, the ads have very pretty pictures that are much larger than Amazon's little ads, with unobtrusive links to buy the posters. Lots of celebrity photos, movie posters, etc. You might make the occasional poster sale and they're pretty pics to put on your site in the interim that are royalty free. I'll probably be making more use of them in the future on my site ... Allposters.com. They pay 25%. Their prices have come down a bit, so sales may be more possible through them.
Buy.com also has an affiliate program similar to Amazon, but their prices on merchandise are sometimes better.
Commission Junction (cj.com) has a program similar to Linkshare, with bunches more "name brand" retailers.
Now, fo pay per click or pay per view ads, besides Adsense:
-- Yahoo has a similar program called Overture -- it has some stricter criteria to get in, but I did get an approval for my site. You can't run Overture and Adsense together, but some people claim Overture pays better. Some people say it's worse. I suspect it's content-dependent.
-- Adbrite.com -- lets you sell ads directly. i.e. an advertiser wants to buy a spot on your blog; you can sell an ad to just that advertiser on Adbrite, and control exactly where the ad appears. They also have a contextual network that sucks (and can't be used with Adsense) and inline links (that also suck). If you have an advertiser who wants to buy ad space on your site, however, they might be a better choice than Adsense, because you can better control the ads. (Or you can just sell the ads directly, but then you have to deal with things like, oh, collecting payment.) I'm not a big fan of Adbrite but they have their uses.
Kontera.com -- I like Kontera. It's a nice supplement to Adsense. They just do inline links (highlighted words) in your text. Payout varies depending on content but Firefox News has been averaging around a buck a day from them and I'm in a low-paying niche. Payout is at $100 like Adsense but if you've got a busy blog it might be worthwhile. Kontera's customer service is fantastic.
Now ... if I could just find an affiliate that sells anime and manga other than Amazon.com ...
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