People buy from people they trust.
That’s pretty much a universal truth.
Just think about it.
Whose opinion would you trust when you’re buying a new web hosting service or purchasing a new online coaching program - a total stranger or a seasoned pro who doesn’t promote any product without testing it himself?
For affiliate marketers, a big part of that trust comes from promoting only the best products that are relevant to the needs of their audience.
Joining a reliable affiliate network is the easiest way to find such products and offers.
According to a combined study by Forrester and Rakuten Marketing, 83% brands and product owners prefer to recruit affiliates for their products using affiliate networks.
Source: Rakuten Marketing
An affiliate network is a platform where product owners list their products and invite affiliate marketers to promote them in exchange for a commission.
It also manages payment processing and customer support and provides advertising material to help marketers promote different products.
Advertisers prefer affiliate networks because they manage everything from recruitment to payouts on their behalf, while marketers prefer them because of their reliability, range of products and ease of use.
There are hundreds of affiliate networks on the internet but not all of them are equal. Some are known for the quality of their merchants and higher commissions while others are infamous for spam and poor support.
To make things easier for you, I’ve listed below some of the best affiliate networks and programs that you can join and start making money right away...
What You’ll Learn In This Post
- How to find the ideal products to promote to your audience
- How to find high paying affiliate programs even if you're a newbie
- How to take advantage of millions of products listed on affiliate marketplaces
- How to find niche specific affiliate platforms
To discover 200+ profitable niche markets click the image below now...
General Retail eCommerce Affiliate Programs
In this category, I’ll share giant internet retail websites and eCommerce stores that run their own affiliate programs. You can earn commissions as an affiliate of these stores by promoting any products of their listed products.
1. Amazon Associates
Amazon is not only the world’s largest eCommerce website but also runs Amazon Associates, the biggest and the most popular affiliate program in the world with more than 1 million registered affiliates.
Amazon is the first choice of most affiliatesbecause it sells everything under the sun. No matter what niche you’re in, you’ll find relevant products on Amazon.
However, since most digital products available on Amazon are fairly low priced, it’s safe to say that affiliates turn to it mainly because of its physical products.
But what makes Amazon truly amazing is its ability to engage its visitors and convert them into repeat buyers.
People trust Amazon which is why studies suggest that Amazon’s average conversion rate for its Prime members is a whopping 74% (there are more than 90 million Prime members). For visitors outside Prime, the conversion rate is around 14% which is still good.
Which means if you refer 100 visitors to Amazon, at least 14 will turn into buyers. And a few of those 100 visitors are likely to be Prime members, since there are so many of them in the US, so the conversion rate is likely to be higher.
Now you do your maths, but that sounds pretty good to me especially if I can scale my traffic numbers.
How To Find Best Selling Products on Amazon
Head over to Amazon Best Sellers and choose your niche or product category from the Department menu on the left of your screen.
You can go as deep as you want to find the best selling products in your selected product category. You can find more details in this post.
Alternately, you can use AmaSuites to find the best selling products for any category in just a few clicks.
Examples of Successful Amazon Affiliates
There are just too many because almost every successful blogger and niche marketer makes money from Amazon Associates.
But here are a few examples.
- Darren Rowse – Digital Photography School
Darren, the owner of ProBlogger, also owns this hugely successful niche site that uses Amazon Associates as its primary source of affiliate income.
- Eric Yang – Gear Patrol
Gear Patrol is another hugely successful site using Amazon Associates as its primary monetization method.
2. eBay Partner Network
eBay is among the world’s biggest and most popular eCommerce websites. However, unlike traditional eCommerce sites where you can simply buy products, the products on eBay are sold through auction.
eBay has a hugely successful affiliate program called eBay Partner Network. It is quite popular among bloggers and marketers but it is different from the usual affiliate programs where you’re paid a percentage of the product’s sale price as commission.
Instead, you get a percentage of the transaction fee that eBay charges on every product sale. The transaction fee rises with the product price which means you make higher commissions on expensive products (yes, they call me captain obvious).
Here’s a snapshot of their commission rates for different product categories.
As an additional incentive, new affiliates get double commissions for the first 3 months.
Like Amazon, eBay is also a trusted site especially in the US which is why people prefer buying from them. Its conversion rate is almost good as Amazon, so your job really is just to promote eBay products that are most relevant to your audience.
You can choose from a huge list of product categories.
How To Find the Best Selling Products on eBay
Go to eBay Top Products page and click on your product category to find bestselling and trending products
Examples of Successful eBay Partners Network (EPN) Affiliates
- Shannon Mahoney - PurseBlog
PurseBlog publishes fashion-related content and uses EPN as one of its main affiliate networks
- Mary Kincaid - Zuburia
Zuburia publishes roundup posts of vintage products on eBay and makes an annual income of more than 6-figures from affiliate sales.
3. Jet
Jet is a relatively new eCommerce site that went live in 2015 but quickly gained momentum because of its surprisingly low prices and a product range that’s easily comparable to Amazon.
However, since their USP is a real-time pricing algorithm which ensures that consumers get the cheapest prices on every product, it’s not the most attractive platform for affiliates.
On top of that, their standard commission rate for all product categories is 2.5% which is lower than most product categories on Amazon other than video games, video game consoles, PCs and PC components, and DVD and Blue Ray.
So if you’re in those niches or simply want to diversify your income sources and reduce reliance on Amazon, I don’t see why you should become a Jet affiliate.
How To Find Best Selling Products on Jet
Simply go to any product category and sort the results by “Top Rated”
Examples of Successful Jet Affiliates
Despite searching extensively, I couldn’t find any sites monetized with Jet.com affiliate program.
4. Target
Target is the second largest discount retailer in the U.S and has massive brand recognition. People love buying from Target and trust it as a reliable retailer.
Target Affiliates, their affiliate program, is a pretty good alternative to Amazon because of its huge product base and generous commission structure that varies with sales volume.
Right now, you can earn commissions as a Target affiliate in the following categories.
Other than these four categories, the commissions are either very low or not applicable at all.
Despite their massive product range, Target still doesn’t have the same variety that you can find on Amazon.
But if you’re operating in one of their main niches like apparel or home goods, you’ll enjoy working with them as an affiliate.
How To Find the Best Selling Products on Target.com
You can find the most popular products on Target by using the “most popular” search filter and by exploring the “Trending Products” category.
To discover 200+ profitable niche markets click the image below now...
Examples of Successful Target.com Affiliates
I couldn’t find any Target specific niche sites but I found several leading blogs and publication promoting Target products in their content.
5. Walmart
Walmart is the last of these “General” product retailers I’ve included in this post.
And I’ve done it mainly to give you more options if you’re looking to diversify your affiliate income.
Walmart has always been known for its massive product stocks and prices that are significantly lower than market rates.
This makes it a really attractive retailer for consumers, but it also means affiliates like you and me don’t make much money from it.
Low prices combined with very ordinary commission rates for most product categories means Walmart should rarely ever feature in your list of favorite affiliate programs.
However, if you’re running niche sites about toys, contact lenses or personal checks (don’t know what that is), the commissions are better than Amazon.
How To Find Best Selling Products on Walmart
There’s a popular products filter in every product listing page from where you can find the best selling products
Other than that, you can visit the Popular Products and Top Selling Products pages to find products across all categories
Examples of Successful Walmart Affiliates
Here are a few examples
Affiliate Matchmaking and Marketing Platforms
In this category, I’ll list down affiliate marketplace websites and platforms that connect product creators with affiliates.
Unlike Amazon and other retail eCommerce affiliate programs, these platforms do not have fixed commissions. Instead, every product listed on these platforms has a separate commission structure.
6. Clickbank
ClickBank is one of the oldest and the most popular affiliate marketing platforms on the web. It has hundreds of thousands of digital and physical products in different categories.
Marketers in all niches have made millions of dollars promoting ClickBank products.
You can join it as an affiliate for free and without any screening or approval processes which is great if you’re just starting out since most platforms do not approve affiliates without a background check.
The low entry barrier on ClickBank means there are lots of crappy products on it as well. But in between them, you can find some really high-quality products.
Most affiliate marketers promote ClickBank products through email marketing instead of relying solely on blogging. However, you may find certain affiliate sites that are created around specific ClickBank products.
But that’s rare.
You can also sign-up for their joint venture program to set up JVs with vendors and earn much higher commissions.
Clickbank also has a pretty extensive knowledgebase that covers everything you need to know about using ClickBank and promoting products as an affiliate.
But if you’re looking for even better training, you can join ClickBank University (a paid program) which has detailed training from professional and seasoned affiliate marketers.
How to Find the Best Selling ClickBank Products
Finding hot products on ClickBank is easy.
Just head over to ClickBank Affiliate Marketplace and choose your product category.
Once you’re in the product listings, you can sort them by popularity.
Every product also has a “Gravity Score” which tells you how many people are promoting this product. A high gravity score is a pretty good indicator of product quality.
Examples of Successful ClickBank Affiliates
Marketers mostly promote ClickBank products directly to their email subscribers or by featuring relevant products in their blog content. However, you can also find small niche sites created around different ClickBank products. This article shares some great advice on promoting ClickBank products the right way
7. JVZOO
JVZoo has quickly become one of the fastest growing and most popular affiliate marketing platforms on the web. Stuart himself has made a ton of money on JVZoo and has some great lessons to share.
JVZoo has products in dozens of niches and sub niches but the most popular products are mostly in the internet marketing niche.
Despite making big claims about zero-spam tolerance, JVZoo marketplace does have its share of crappy products. So you need to be careful while choosing products to promote.
Unlike ClickBank though, JVZoo doesn’t allow affiliates to start promoting products right away. To promote a product or join a product launch, you need to be approved the product vendor himself.
Real money, however, is always made during product launches and JVZoo has lots of launches happening all the time.
It does give you some really powerful tools to promote products as an affiliate. For example, you don’t need to have a separate website to create squeeze pages for a promotion. You can create and host landing pages on JVZoo.
Similarly, you can add personalized videos when promoting webinars for a vendor. For certain products, you can even recruit second tier affiliates to increase your reach.
Plus, your primary affiliate link is sufficient for all products in a sales funnel. You don’t need to create separate links for one-time offers, upsells, downsells, cross-sells, etc.
For advanced training and walkthroughs, you can join JVZoo academy for a small one-time fee.
How To Find the Best Selling Products on JVZoo
You can find the top selling products on JVZoo by visiting their Top Sellers page
You can see the top sellers for that day, yesterday or even the past 30 days in just a click.
Examples of Successful JVZoo Affiliates
As I mentioned, Stuart is a pretty successful JVZoo affiliate and has made a lot of money promoting products and winning launch prizes.
Ana Hoffman is another well-known affiliate marketer who’s had a lot of success with JVZoo products.
8. Warrior Plus
It might not be the prettiest website in the world but WarriorPlus is still a pretty good place to find products to promote as an affiliate if you’re in the IM niche.
Most products listed on WarriorPlus are low cost “get rich quickly” kind of info products with upsells and one-time offers. As an affiliate, you make money not on the original low-cost product but also on all the products in the sales funnel.
WarriorPlus sends instant payments if you have a PayPal account. However, in case of a refund, the amount will be deducted from your account.
After signing up as an affiliate, you can find offers and product launches to promote on WarriorPlus Affiliate Marketplace.
To promote a product, you need the vendor’s approval first (which is rarely declined)
However, WarriorPlus is infamous for mainly attracting freebie hunters due to which the number of refund requests is pretty high on many products.
So don’t promote a product without testing it first and checking its refund rate.
How To Find Best Selling Products on WarriorPlus
You can sort the product list in the affiliate marketplace by the number of sales or average conversion rate to find the top products.
But you can also find the best products on “Deal of the Day” page.
Examples of Successful WarriorPlus Affiliates
Harsh Agrawal – ShoutMeLoud
Art Flair – Art of Marketing
9. VigLink
VigLink is not an affiliate program itself. It’s an innovative platform that connects thousands of merchants (including many big brands like Amazon, AliExpress etc.) with relevant affiliates.
Instead of limiting you to just one merchant, VigLink dynamically changes the source of your affiliate links and chooses the merchant with the highest conversion rate and commission.
However, you still need to be approved by individual merchants even when your VigLink account is approved, which is kind of strange.
Still it’s a second lifeline if you’ve been banned by Amazon or any other merchant
How To Find Best Selling VigLink Products
You can find the best selling products across all merchants on VigLink on the Trends page. You can choose your product category to get niche specific trends or directly search for a product from the search bar.
Similarly, you can use their Merchant Explorer to find the right merchants for your site.
Examples of Successful VigLink Affiliates
VigLink has some of the biggest publishers on the web on board like MSN, CNET, MarketWatch etc. Here are a few comparatively smaller niche sites that are doing well with VigLink
10. SkimLinks
Skimlinks works on a very similar model to VigLinks. It dynamically monetizes your content with affiliate links from 20,000+ of merchants.
Unlike VigLink, however, Skimlinks doesn’t require you to seek the approval of individual merchants. Once you’re approved by Skimlinks, you’re free to use any affiliate program on its platform.
How To Find Best Selling Products on Skimlinks
Skimlinks doesn’t give you a list of trending or best selling products across all networks. But it does give you a powerful search engine using which you can find the ideal merchants for your niche and see their bestselling offers.
Examples of Successful Affiliates Using Skimlinks
- BuzzFeed (read case study)
- GearPatrol (read case study)
TheJeansBlog and TheDailyTekk have also found success using Skimlinks
11. Affiliate Window
With more than 6000 active merchants, Affiliate Window is a pretty big affiliate network.
It is based in Europe and was primarily targeted towards European affiliates. This has changed however and it now has hundreds of US and global brands including HP, Hyatt, StubHub, AliExpress etc.
You can find relevant brands using their Advertiser Directory
Signing-up to AWin as an affiliate isn’t very newbie friendly though. They require a $5 payment on sign-up which is added to your AWin account balance
The approval process also takes time (usually 24 to 48 hours). You need to apply separately to each program you want to promote.
They do have a newbie friendly pay-out threshold of $20 paid twice a month.
How To Find Best Selling Products on Affiliate Window
Affiliate window doesn’t give the list of individual products trending among its advertisers. However, you can use their “Program of the Month” page to find trending programs.
Examples of Successful AWin Affiliates
12. Rakuten Linkshare
Rakuten Linkshare is one of the world’s top affiliate marketing platforms that has been operational since 1996 and has been ranked as the number 1 affiliate network for the last 6 yearson mThink.
It has more than 1000 advertisers on board which includes global brands in all categories. It also claims to have facilitated more than $100 million worth of orders in the last 12 months.
It is, however, not for newbies or even intermediate level affiliates. To become a Rakuten affiliate, you need to be a seasoned affiliate with a proven track record.
Dynamic banners are one of the key affiliate marketing advantages of Rakuten LinkShare. When you sign up for an affiliate program through Rakuten, you can simply assign an ad unit slot on your site. Rakuten will dynamically switch between all the banners available in that program based on performance and conversion.
To discover 200+ profitable niche markets click the image below now...
How To Find Best Selling Products on Rakuten LinkShare
Rakuten LinkShare works differently to Amazon or other retail affiliate programs. It doesn’t give you any trending products or programs.
Instead, it connects you with some of the leading brands in the world who have their own affiliate policies and promotional needs.
Examples of Successful Rakuten LinkShare Affiliates
13. FlexOffers
FlexOffers is another giant platform that connects big budget advertisers and brands with bloggers, content creators and other types of publishers.
They have more than 12000 affiliate programs divided into dozens of broad and hundreds of sub-categories.
You can see their full category list here
They also have an affiliate program of their ownin which you can earn as much as 50% of the FlexOffers earnings generated by any affiliates referred by you.
Plus, you get a dedicated relationship manager to help you with any issues.
How To Find Best Selling Products on FlexOffers
You can search for best performing affiliate programs on FlexOffers using their advertiser search
Examples of Successful FlexOffers Affiliates
14. ShareASale
ShareASale is another major affiliate platform with 4000+ advertisers including several big brands. It has been around for a long time and is among the most popular affiliate platforms on the web.
Some of their programs pay up to 80% commissions, but generally, you’ll find them in the range of 5% to 20%. Affiliate programs are divided into 40 major categories
Every category has hundreds of different brands and advertisers listed with their commission offers. This is also a great place to unearth new profitable niches.
There are 1000+ affiliate programs that are exclusively available on ShareASale which makes it a pretty attractive platform for affiliates.
How To Find Best Selling Programs on ShareASale
You can find the bestselling programs on ShareASale in the “Popular Merchants” category
Examples of Successful ShareASale Affiliates
15. Commission Junction (CJ)
Commission Junction (CJ) is a leading affiliate platform that has been around since 1998 and has 3000+ leading advertisers and brands on board.
You can find hundreds of brands and advertisers in every category
It is a great place to start for newbies as well since their approval process is fast and doesn’t require any fees.
For niche bloggers and marketers, CJ offers a seemingly unlimited range of digital and physical products to promote depending on your audience needs.
Like other similar networks though, their physical product range isn’t as extensive as their digital and software collection.
Commission Junction (CJ) not only makes it easy for you to find the right advertisers but also gives its advertisers the right data to find and recruit relevant affiliates.
For example, advertisers can find affiliates based on their primary promotional strategy.
Top performing affiliates can also enrol in CJ Performer Program to get additional support from CJ in finding and promoting high converting offers.
How To Find Best Selling Products on CJ
You can find the best selling products by using CJ’s search database and sorting the results by EPC
Examples of Successful CJ Affiliates
16. Avangate
If you have a tech blog or you're looking to recommend SaaS products to your audience, Avangate is the place for you.
Avangate caters specifically to eCommerce solutions, software and other forms of digital products in a wide range of industries. You won’t find any cheap or scam products here.
Overall, it offers more than 22000 digital products from some of the leading tech companies in the world like Kaspersky, HP, AVG, and Bitdefender.
As an affiliate, you also have the option to create unique discount coupons for your audience by reducing your commission and give them rates that no one else is offering.
You can also create deep affiliate links and send referrals directly to the checkout page of a product.
How To Find Best Selling Products on Avangate
I couldn’t find any way to view the bestselling products on Avangate Affiliate Marketplace but there is an option to find the products with the highest commission offers.
However, you can find the top selling products on Avangate Store.
Examples of Successful Avangate Affiliates
17. LinkConnector
LinkConnector is not as well-known as some of the other networks on this list but it is still a reliable affiliate platform where you can find dozens of exclusive brands and earn via CPA and CPS offers.
LinkConnector is particularly famous for its strict affiliate approval and screening processes. They only approve established and reliable affiliates that have their own websites and audience. As a result, they have more merchants than active affiliates
LinkConnector was recently awarded as one of the top 20 CPS Affiliate Networks by mThread.
However, their platform has terrible user-experience and an outdated look & feel to it.
How To Find Best Performing Programs on LinkConnector
There doesn’t seem to be an option to find trending or best-performing programs on LinkConnector.
Examples of Successful LinkConnector Affiliates
18. MaxBounty
MaxBounty is a leading CPA (cost per action) network with more than 1500 active CPA, CPL and Pay Per Call campaigns.
Unlike regular affiliate sites that pay when you make a sale, CPA networks pay you when your referred traffic performs a certain action. This could be anything like filling a survey, entering an email address or making a phone call.
MaxBounty has a pretty good reputation because of its strict monitoring and approval processes. They’re quick to ban any affiliates involved in spamming or any other activities against their terms & conditions.
How To Find Best Selling MaxBounty Campaigns
Despite a lot of research, I couldn’t find much information about finding trending MaxBounty offers.
Most CPA affiliates are tightly lipped about their campaigns and it seems the only way to find effective campaigns is by testing them.
Examples of Successful MaxBounty Affiliates
- Brian Dean (Backlino)
- HowToWebmaster
19. PeerFly
Peerfly is one of the fastest growing CPA networks on the web. It is not only famous because of its wide range of offers and very competitive payouts, but also because it is quite generous in approving completely new marketers as well.
It is working with brands like Agoda, Target, Fiverr, CBS and many other big names. You can find offers and promotions in dozens of verticals in just a few clicks.
Peerfly also has its own referral program which pays you 5% for everything your referred affiliates sell in their first year.
To discover 200+ profitable niche markets click the image below now...
How To Find Best Selling Offers on PeerFly
Simply go to “Find Offers” from your main dashboard, search for offers in your niche and sort the results by Conversion rate (CR)
Examples of Successful PeerFly Affiliates
- Tyler Cruz
- PeerFly Case Study (Warrior Forum)
- Luke Kling
- Zac Johnson
20. MindValley
Mindvalley is an innovative learning platform that offers high-quality courses, coaching programs, apps, and events in the personal growth and entrepreneurship space.
Their primary product is MindValley Academythat hosts HD training programs by some of the best trainers in the world.
Naturally, most of their training programs are priced in the $500-$1000 range. At 50% commission, this makes it an enticing offer for affiliates who have engaged audiences.
Every course on MindValley Academy has a detailed and conversion optimized landing page which makes sure every referral you send has the highest probability of converting into a paid customer.
MindValley also provides awesome affiliate support in the form of banners, posts for your blog and social media accounts, and different guidelines for making the best of this partnership.
They also organize annual retreats and events and also have a premium membership package that you can promote to earn a commission.
However, they’re very choosy about who they recruit as an affiliate so don’t bother applying if you don’t have an engaged blog audience in a relevant niche.
How To Find the Best Selling Products on MindValley
Their premium course library isn’t very large right now and all the courses seem to be selling well. So you can choose any as long as its relevant to your audience.
Examples of Successful MindValley Affiliates
21. Udemy
Udemy is the biggest hub of paid and free online courses on the web. With more than 55000 published courses, it has training and content in every niche possible.
As an affiliate, you can choose to promote relevant courses from dozens of primary and secondary categories.
Unlike Mindvalley, Udemy courses are easier to sell because of their prices and more personalized content. The average course price on Udemy hovers between $50-$200. However, the rates vary with the complexity of the courses.
The landing pages of Udemy courses are also pretty well optimized for conversions with multimedia course previews and testimonials.
The 7-day cookie duration, however, is a turn-off.
How To Find Best Selling Udemy Courses
You can find top rated, best selling, and trending courses on the home page of Udemy
You can also find the most popular courses in individual categories.
Other than that, you can use the search bar to find trending topics
Examples of Successful Udemy Affiliates
How To Find Affiliate Networks in Your Niche
I’ve already listed some of the best and most reliable affiliate marketing platforms in this post. No matter what niche you’re in, you should be able to find relevant and high-quality products for your audience on these networks.
However, in case you’re looking for more options, there are hundreds of niche specific affiliate platforms in every industry.
In fact, there are just too many to list here.
So what’s the best way to find them?
Google, of course.
For example, if you’re looking for affiliate platforms that only cater to new mothers and babies, you can find them using a simple search
Simply enter the “[product/niche keyword] + affiliate network” to find hundreds of niche specific affiliate programs.
One of the key benefits of niche-specific networks is that they often have exclusive programs that are not available elsewhere.
Plus, they sometimes have better commission offers for the same programs listed on other networks.
Either way, it’s always good to double check before enrolling in
Are You Ready To Make Money as an Affiliate Marketer?
This post has more information than most people can handle.
I’ve given you every reliable affiliate network I knew and it’s now time for you to go out there, sign up for the right network and start promoting relevant offers to your audience.
As I always say, remember that the key to making money as an affiliate is value creation. The more value you can create for your audience and subscribers the more chance you have of making money.
Stuart has already published some great content on how he makes big bucks with affiliate marketing so be sure to check that as well.
Have any questions?
I’m waiting for you in the comments section