Best Affiliate Programs For Beginners

Making money on the internet highly depends on the type of content you write and the affiliates you choose to monetize your content/blog or website with.  Targeting relevant products and high paying affiliates will determine your success online.  But if you have just started your online money making journey, then selecting a affiliate network can seem like a daunting task.  Also, many affiliate networks require that you should have a established website. 

So what are the best affiliate programs for beginners?  

Here's a list of best affiliate programs which are easy to integrate with your blog and content and also are decent paying.  The affiliate programs mentioned below will accept you almost immediately.

Google Adsense:

Obviously, you must be aware of the Google Adsense program.  It is the program that most people first monetize their site with and it continues to remain the main source of income for many online writers.  

Honestly, with Google adsense you can easily monetize your site.  Google provides the publisher with every tool, right from correct ad placement(heat map) to google adwords tool.  Publsihers can use these tools to their benefit.  

Note:  Google is very strict when it comes to fraud clicks.  So never click on your own ads and also do not encourage your friends to do so.  You may lose your adsense account and you will never get it back.

Apply for Adsense.

Tips To Effectively Using Adsense:

• Make sure you sign up for the google adwords account.  You can then type in the search query you are  targeting and see how many exact searches that particular query has and how much the advertiser is paying for that search term.  You will get 68% of the given amount.
• To target highly relevant ads make sure you have your keyword in title, and twice or thrice in the body of the article.  Don't keyword spam, sprinkle your keyword naturally.

 Chitika:

I have recently started using chitika on my blogger blog and I was surprised to see some dollars accumulating in my account each day.  My blog is not even optimized for it but still I am seeing returns.  So I can definitely recommend it.  

Chitika delivers ads based on the keywords by which visitors enter your site.  These ads do not compete with adsense and hence adsense and chitika can be used together on the same page.  And since it is search based, these ads are well targetted.  

But honestly, I don't see it as main source of income and is good for little extra cash.  Also, to be a success at chitika, your blog should get lot of search engine traffic.  Also, I have taken a closer look at chitika's ad inventory and it looks like they have more technology and product based ads.  So, if you have some website or blog on these niche, you may find it more profitable.

Join Chitika.

Shareasale:

If you planning to promote third party products on your site, Shareasale would be the first affiliate network I would recommend to beginners.  Shareasale is easy to use affiliate network (not daunting like PJN or CJ) and it also has some big merchants and very good products to promote.

Also, you can find merchants specifically for big holidays like Christmas, Halloween, Fathers Day etc.  These can help you find the hot product which people are buying for particular holiday.  Then you can target those products on your blog.  This trick is more effective than keyword research and is more profitable.

Join Shareasale.

AllPosters.com:

I have recently joined the Allposters.com affiliate and as of now I am loving it.  It has solved my problem of finding images which are not copyrighted.  Also, it has the largest collection of images (More than 1,000,000) and you can find images for almost any category and topic.  So, you can use this affiliate on your site irrespective of the topic.

Also, Allposters.com is a preferred place to buy posters and frame.  So, it is not that difficult to make a sale through Allposters.com.  I have just written one article promoting Allposters.com and have already made a few sales.  You can check the article here: Fathers Day Posters 

The payout threshold is $20 for local affiliates and $100 for international affiliates.

Join Allposters.com

Zazzle:

Zazzle is quite popular especially among artists.  You can either create your own Zazzle store or promote products by other seller.  Though sometimes it may seem daunting to select the specific products from so many similar choices but once you get around using it, you will find the process easy.

Zazzle is a reputed site and it is not that difficult to convince people to buy through Zazzle.  Certainly a affiliate worth looking into.

Join Zazzle. 

Amazon:

Amazon is my absolute favorite.  Whether you are experienced marketer or just a beginner, you should definitely join Amazon affiliate network.  It is the largest online retailer and it is easiest to make sale through Amazon.

Also, I will like to tell you how to use Amazon to your maximum benefit.

Just take a look at their bestseller list in the category you want to write about.  See the top 40 product selection.  Check if there is any product that has just made it into bestseller list.  Preferably, look for products which are there in bestseller list for 100 days or less.  Then do a quick search on google for that particular product and if the top 5 results are pages that are not optimized for that particular product, write on that.  You will easily attain good ranking for that.

This strategy has really worked for me.

Apply for Amazon.

These are some of the best affilaite programs that every beginner to making money online should join.  There are some other affiliate network too which are worth joining too, but I feel for the time being these would suffice.  If you have any query related to any of the affiliate networks mentioned above, feel free to ask it in the comment section.  I wish you all the best in your journey to make money online.