In the affiliate world, it’s hard to talk about affiliate programs without mentioning Clickbank. There are definitely legit reasons why some people consider Clickbank to be the best affiliate program in the world. I mean, it’s hard to ignore benefits such as 75% commissions, a huge catalog of products and services to promote and timely payments. These are rare qualities for most affiliate networks.
But it never hurts to think outside the box, and check out other Clickbank Alternatives, right? That’s why we scoured the web to find The 8 Best Paying Clickbank Alternatives & Affiliate Networks To. So to make sure you’re not missing out on something better, hang around and check out some of the best Clickbank alternatives!
What Is Clickbank?
As an e-commerce platform, Clickbank.com enables digital content creators (vendors) sell digital products and affiliate marketers promote these products to consumers to make money. Clickbank was founded by Tim and Eileen Barber. It has been around since 1998, and is probably considered one of the largest affiliate marketplace in the world.
How Does Clickbank Work?
Clickbank is sort of a middleman. Vendors can sell digital products such as eBooks, software, apps, courses, games, guides and more within the platform. While Affiliates can choose a category or niche and market these products to customers for a commission.
As a Clickbank affiliate, you’ll pick a niche to promote, use various platforms (website, social page, YouTube, etc) to promote the links to these products. Clickbank will then pay you bi-weekly if you hit the $100 minimum payment threshold. They’ll also train you on how to use the various selling tools and resources via the Clickbank University platform.
Are There Better ClickbankAffiliate Programs Than ?
It’s not always about Clickbank’s high commission rates, size or popularity that determines how good an affiliate network is. You’ll have to account for other important factors as discussed below, that will help you find better alternatives to the Clickbank Affiliate marketplace.
Cookies Period – The longer the cookie period, the better. The extended period will give you a better chance of earning a commission if a visitor decides to buy something at a later date.
Affiliate Marketing Support – With affiliate programs such as Clickbank, you’ll need personalized customer support to ensure you’re standing the best chances of succeeding. It’s even better if you have a personal account manager. Reliable customer service also comes in handy when something goes wrong. In addition, you’ll get direct access to information, trends and guidance that will help you stand out from the crowd.
Minimum Payment Threshold – The higher the payment threshold, the longer you’ll have to wait to get paid, and the harder you’ll need to work to earn your commissions. So joining an affiliate program with a low payment threshold means you’re standing a better chance of seeing the fruits of your labor.
Available Commission Payout Methods – This is perhaps the most important factor to consider. That’s because if you can’t conveniently get paid then you’re probably wasting time. PayPal, in my opinion, is the best option owing to their processing speed and availability. But other options like direct deposit, checks, Payoneer, PayZa and Skrill also tend to be acceptable options as well.
How Much Money Can I Make With Affiliate Programs?
The phrase “sky’s the limit” applies here. Since you’re getting paid in commissions, with no commission caps, how much you can make is literally up to you. Well, of course other factors such as the size of the niche, commission rates, your marketing skills and hard work will come into play, but affiliate marketers make anywhere from a few cents to millions every month.
Best Clickbank Alternatives
Clickbank may be arguably the biggest affiliate network, but there are definitely better alternatives. Check them out below!
Rakuten Marketing AKA Linkshare
URL: https://rakutenadvertising.com/publishers/affiliate/
Cookies Period: Varies with Advertisers
Commission Rate: Varies with Advertisers
Minimum CommissionPayment Threshold: $50, Net 60
Available Payout Methods: PayPal, Check, Bank Transfer
Rakuten Marketing is one of many affiliate networks that have changed their names over the years. They started out as Linkshare back in 1996, and was later acquired by Rakuten in 2005. They have over 1000 advertisers in their platform including big players like Macy’s, Lego, Microsoft and Old Navy. Their offers include paid per sale, per lead and paid ad placements. After signing up, you’ll then need to apply to individual advertisers subject to their Affiliate Program Terms.
What We Like About Rakuten Marketing
Ideal for newbies – Their user interface is friendly for both new and experienced marketers in addition to reliable customer support. Creating affiliate links and banners is straightforward as well.
Big names on board – Rakuten has leveraged well established advertisers. So it will be easier for you to build and market your business around them.
Rakuten Marketing Complaints
They don’t display Earnings per Click – Some find it strange that Rakuten Market doesn’t display EPCs for any of their advertisers. You’ll instead need to find out on your own by reading the terms for each company.
Delayed Payments – Some affiliates say their payments were delayed way past the 60 days.
CJ Affiliate by Conversant
URL: https://signup.cj.com/member/signup/publisher
Cookies Period: Varies with Advertisers
Commission Rate: Varies with Advertisers
Available Payout Methods: Payoneer, Check, Bank Transfer – Monthly
Minimum CommissionPayment Threshold: US$50 (Payoneer, Direct Deposit), US$100 (Check)
CJ Affiliate is another one of our clickbank alternatives to consider. They have been in business since 1998. Commission Junction works with over 3000 advertisers including well known products to promote such as J.Crew, Barnes & Nobles, and GoPro. Similar to Linkshare, you can earn per sale, per lead and paid ad placements doing affiliate marketing. Again, you’ll need to apply for individual affiliate programs within their platform once you sign up. Similar to Clickbank, its sheer size makes it one of the best affiliate marketing programs around with millions of both digital and physical products to promote. .
What We Like About Commission Junction
Tons of marketing resources – In addition to working with well established companes and products to promote, they’ll give you various digital marketing resources including real time reporting, special events banners and more.
Great if you have the traffic – If you have tens of thousands of traffic to your website each month, then CJ Affiliate is great. In fact, if you have over 10k visitors per month you can join their Content Certified Program and automatically connect with over 600 creme-de-la-creme brands. So these are some of the reasons that make CJ.com one of the top clickbank alternatives.
Commission Junction Affiliate by Conversant Complaints
Not ideal for newbies – Cj.com may not be a good option if you’re just starting out. That’s because Commission Junction Affiliate will most likely not approve your application if you only have a few visits each month. They’ll in fact kick you out if you don’t show results within 6 months of approval.
But did you know there’s a way you can get unlimited free traffic? You can just use industry proven tools, strategies and training to get high value free traffic from Google. Wealthy Affiliate can help you with this and it’s free to get started.
Market Health
URL: https://stats.markethealth.com/signup/
Cookies Period: 30 Days
Commission Rate: Up to 60% per sale
Available Payout Methods: Check, 1st & 16th every month
Minimum CommissionPayment Threshold: $20
Market Health is one of the leading health and beauty affiliate programs, having been around since 1998. They manufacture and sell their own physical products ranging from cosmetics to healthcare supplements They’ll also give you access to resources including landers, banners and more. So its another one of many clickbank alternatives to consider if you’re in the health niche.
What We Like About Market Health Affiliate Program
High Commissions – Most of the health products you can promote can earn you a 50% commission rate and $30 to $70 CPA in addition to CPS and CPL. Given the wide range of inventory and the company’s reputation, chances of succeeding are really high.
You don’t need a website – All you need to start earning commissions is their affiliate marketing link. Given that most other affiliate programs require you to have a website, this may be a great let-off to some of y’all
Market Health Affiliate Program Complaints
Late Payments – It seems this company has earned a reputation of not paying affiliates in time, or sending unexpected amounts. But we dug deeper and it seems the payment periods vary with commission types and sources. .
Amazon Associates
URL: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
Cookies Period: 24 Hours
Commission Rate: Up to 10%
Available Payout Methods: Direct Deposit, Amazon.com Gift Certificate, or Check
Minimum CommissionPayment Threshold: $10, 60 days after the subject month
Everyone knows Amazon and they have products in every category. So it’s definitely one of the top clickbank alternatives to consider. Some would argue its the most popular affiliate network on the internet. Amazon will pay you to promote their physical products and digital products they sell. (They do have exceptions though). The application process is pretty simple. After filling out your information and passing the approval process, you’ll get access to Amazon’s backend for affiliates.
What We Like About Amazon Associates Affiliate Program
All purchases earn you a commission – You’ll earn affiliate commissions even if a visitor ends up buying something else other than what you’re promoting through their affiliate marketing program.
It’s the world’s largest online retailer – Numbers don’t lie and given their large customer base, chances of making sales are higher compared to its competition.
Outstanding customer service – Amazon is known for its world class customer service, easy returns and efficient aftersale services, easing up your work as a partner.
Amazon Associates Affiliate Program Complaints
Short cookie period – Cookies expire after just a day, cutting your chances of making a sale if a visitor doesn’t buy something within that period.
PeerFly
URL: https://peerfly.com/affiliates
Cookies Period: 30 Days
Commission Rate: Unknown
Minimum CommissionPayment Threshold: $50, Net 30, Net 15, and Weekly
Available Payout Methods: PayPal, Bitcoin, Amazon Gift Card (US Only), Payoneer, Postal Check (US Only), ACH (US Only), or Bank Wire
We included Peerfly for those of ya’ll who prefer faster payments. It’s a custom CPA-based affiliate network with over 2000 offers to choose from. You’ll need to be approved though and make it through a tough approval process. However if you get accepted you’ll probably profit from your efforts pretty easily. They also offer free training and marketing tools to get you going. It’s not clear how much you expect to earn per action, but they claim to guarantee to match or pay out more than any other network.
What We Like About Peerfly Affiliate Network
Accelerated Payments – This is one of the best few affiliate programs where you can get paid weekly. And with a low payment threshold, it’s a great advantage especially if you’re just starting out and your revenue sources are squeezed.
Peerfly Complaints
Strict approval process – Don’t consider Peerfly a low-hanging fruit based on what you’ve just read. Chances are you’ll not get accepted, as the case has been for most publishers. They also pride themselves as a small independent network, perhaps why they’re so stringent.
More Clickbank Affiliate Program Alternatives
Maybe none of the above affiliate programs tickle your fancy, or you just want to know whether there are more options available. Either way, here are a couple more options you can check out as well.
MaxBounty
Perhaps you would prefer an affiliate program that doesn’t require you to sell physical and digital products and services to promote for you to earn commissions. Well, MaxBounty offers Cost Per Action (CPA) offers like sign ups, trials, answering surveys and more, besides actual sales. You can sign up for MaxBounty here.
ShareASale
ShareASale has a wide variety of both physical and digital products to promote. So you’ll have flexibility when choosing the companies to promote, and chances are you’ll find better options than the ones we mentioned in this list. You can go here to join ShareASale.
JVZoo
Similar to Clickbank, you can also promote digital products and services with JVZoo. There are tons of options to choose from as well, and it never hurts to weigh your options instead of just choosing one on the fly. You can go here to sign up for JVZoo.
How Can I Make More Money With Affiliate Marketing Programs?
Blogging – Perhaps the best and easiest way to make money selling both digital products and physical products as an affiliate is blogging. You can come up with interesting topics around the promoting and build a targeted audience. But you’ll need to create content that ranks well on Google. If you haven’t figured your way around doing that, you can join Wealthy Affiliate and learn all about building a successful blog using industry proven tools and strategies. Even if you already have a blog, you can always use more traffic and Wealthy Affiliate can teach you how to get more organic and targeted traffic from Google. Best of all it’s free to get started.
YouTube – I bet you’ve seen all sorts of affiliates doing their thing on Google and posting links in the description. You can get in on it too. All you need is a good camera. Then you can create content like product reviews and features around the products and services you’re promoting through affiliate marketing. They could be digital products or physical. This FREE Webinar can teach you how to get around doing that including how to build, run and market a successful affiliate vlog on YouTube.
PPC – If you’re not all about blogging or making videos, you can use PPC to get targeted traffic from Google immediately by paying for it. All you need to do is create landing pages with your affiliate links with content relevant to what you’re intending to promote. You can then pay Google to bring up your landing pages based on certain keywords to the targeted traffic. If you want in on this, consider joining Wealthy Affiliate to learn the strategies that will help you go about how to successfully market your affiliate links using PPC.
What is Better than Clickbank?
It all depends on the affiliate and your needs. Some may say Amazon is better than Clickbank and have their reasons to back up their claim, while others may prefer CJ Affiliate to Amazon. So it all depends on what your intentions are with the program. Either way, you should always consider factors such as cookie life, commission rates and a low payment threshold. In addition, a better Clickbank alternative should have excellent customer support and a reliable personal account manager if possible.
What is the Highest Paying Affiliate Program?
Different affiliate program have different rates, as they base their commission rates on a bunch of factors like number of advertiser offers available, your traffic quality and quantity. Other factors like the size and nature of the niche also determine how much money you can make with as an affiliate.
Is ClickBank still Profitable?
Clickbank is one of the most profitable affiliate programs, owing to its size and experience in the industry. Clickbank has been around for over two decades, with presence in over 200 countries. They have paid over $4 billion in commissions to affiliates.
Well, those are my best picks for better alternatives to Clickbank. I hope you’re now in a better position to pick what’s best for you in addition to leveraging the power of affiliate marketing using various marketing channels.
And finally, do you agree with the list? Feel free to chime in your thoughts in the comments section below!
Until next time
Eddy “with a Y”