AdityaSpeaks

Well I have been working with a lot of affiliate networks from past few months and had positive as well as negative experiences with them. So I made a quick list of what an affiliate network should have to be called good !

1. Good affiliate networks have a difficult signup process - They wont simply approve you right away after a day. You will probably be rejected in all good affiliate networks at once unless you talk to them and explain them why they should choose you. Your past performance in affiliate marketing and what sort of performance they should expect from you. Your knowledge level and dedication to the work. They don’t want people who have idle accounts after the first months payments.

2. Level of interaction with the affiliates - They must not take hours to respond to emails or IMs and must not keep you on hold when you call them. They should be keen to maintain a good relation with their affiliates and answer their questions and concerns promptly.

3. They must be flexible with payments - So I requested my affiliate network that if they send me frequent payments (weekly / bi-weekly) by wire then I would be able to pay back my CC Bills and scale up faster. They agreed to it. This is a example of flexibility. I want a custom tracking pixel placed on the conversion page, and they did it ! They should also be able to negotiate payouts for certain offers if you think it is less.

4. Individual affiliate managers assigned to affiliates for better interaction over IM. They should be able to disclose which offers on their networks are performing well and better.

5. They should offer payments by Wire / Paypal (Almost all networks offer cheque payments. Some don’t offer wire and paypal like CJ/Clickbank which actually sucks).

Affiliate Networks I Really Love -

1. NeverBlueAds  :- I love this affiliate network a lot. Their special feature is that you can place a custom pixel on the conversion page of the advertisers. So infact you can place your Google Adwords / Adcenter / Adbrite / Yahoo pixels on the conversion page which allows you to know which keywords are converting directly in your PPC account. This feature is offered by other networks as well but only when requested by larger affiliates. NeverBlue provides it directly in their tools section. Their interface is damn cool and they keep a one on one touch with their affiliates through IM. They will even agree to send you bi-weekly payments on Net 15 basis provided you can do volumes upto 1000 - 2000$ per day.

2. Incent-A-Click or CX Digital Media :- Few of their programs are currently bringing me 200% ROI with traffic from second tier search engines. They also were convinced on increasing the payout to make it more profitable. Some exclusive offers they provide are not provided on other networks and are extremely well converting for PPC traffic. They also allow you to place your pixel on the conversion page, but thats not available in the affiliate panel. You have to request them personally to get the pixel placed. Excellent Affiliate support and awesome gifts !!!.

3. Azoogle :- One of the oldest among all networks and a huge list of programs to promote. Very hard to get into unless recommended by someone or until you convince them that you will bring large volumes of sales. Moreover they won’t ask you to make 20K USD to send a wire. You can get a wire transfer even if you make 50$. All they want is a W8 form sent by Courier which sucks. They don’t want any faxes. Some of their offers (Especially In Insurance Niche) have a lower payout compared to other networks. Most famous for their Flycell ringtones program. I personally know people doing 10000$ - 20000$ per day with azoogle. Excellent quality support and flexible payout system.

4. RocketProfit :- New Affiliate network with great programs but a bit poor payouts and poor interface. They seriously need redesign. Easy to get into. Automated approvals. They approve anyone who applies. Though they have a very good support but payments are not flexible. They pay only by paypal and check. You need 5000$ for two months to get a wire payment which sucks for many people.  The payment is Net 15 based and monthly. No chances of increase in payment frequency. No negotiations on the payouts. Still, I like them since some of their offers performed well for me. They also allow you to place your pixel on the conversion page, but thats not available in the affiliate panel. You have to request them personally to get the pixel placed.

5. Hydra Media :- Large list of programs to promote and good support offered by them. Flexible payment methods include wire / paypal and check. I am new to this network but i still like them since some of their programs did absolutely magic for me in the past week. 200% ROI on some exclusive programs offered by them on their network. Very good support over IM / Phone and flexible payouts. They also allow you to place your pixel on the conversion page, but thats not available in the affiliate panel. You have to request them personally to get the pixel placed.

Affiliate Networks which suck -

1. CJ and Clickbank :- Why ? No way to connect to them easily except emails which takes days for reply. Permanent hold when you call their phone. No personal touch with affiliates. Apply for each program (CJ) to get approved and most will be instantly declined for non-US affiliates. This makes split testing of offers very difficult. No facility to place pixels on conversion pages. No Flexiblity in payout. You cannot negotiate payouts for offers. No Flexibility in payment methods (Clickbank checks suck me dry !! I hate waiting 30 days to get payments !) The above networks release paypal or wire payments which means cash in your hand in 2 days).