Affiliate Programs
Earn money from your website by getting sponsors and advertisers
Affiliate Programs: Free Sponsors and Advertisers for Your Website
If you are looking for advertisers and sponsors for your website, one way is to join the affiliate programs of the companies that are looking for sites that will host their advertisements. The list below include some individual affiliate programs as well as a number of affiliate networks (which will allow you to join the affililate programs of many companies, while handling the tracking and reporting of sales for them). The programs listed below are free (unless explicitly stated otherwise), that is to say, there is no charge for joining them (in fact, they pay you). Note though that it is not always easy to join since some networks and programs require you to have a minimum number of visitors to your site, and many of them require you to have your own domain name.
You can get more information about the terminology used on this page as well as how to get started from the following articles:
- How to Start / Make a Website: The Beginner's A-Z Guide
- How to Make Money from Your Website - basic primer plus some good tips
- Increasing Your Revenue from Affiliate Programs - more tips on improving your revenue
You should probably be aware that not all affiliate programs are equal. Some are scams — you advertise for them, but somehow you never seem to get paid. A few change their Terms and Conditions after a period of time (when they already owe you a large amount) to suddenly exclude your site and conveniently not honour payments for the sales they previously made through you. I've already been victims of three such schemes. Needless to say, those programs are no longer listed on this page.
If your intention is to sell goods or services from your site, and not merely to obtain advertisers, you may also be interested in my article on How to Accept Credit Card Payments from your Website.
If you don't have your own domain name, and are considering one, check out the following articles:
- How to Register Your Own Domain Name - includes a list of registrars and reviews
- Important Precautions to Take When Buying a Domain Name
- How to Choose Your Domain Name - there's more than meets the eye here
- Is it Possible to Create a Website Without Buying a Domain Name? The High Price of "Free".
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of all the sites listed below. (You can see their advertisements elsewhere on this site.) That said, I don't earn anything from your signing up with them.
Affiliate Programs: Sponsors and Advertisers for Your Website
- Amazon.com Associate Program
Fancy selling books on your website? If so, the well-known Amazon.com provides an affiliate program that pays you referral fees on books sold. The usually heard complaint about this program is that visitors would usually just note the book on the Amazon site, or bookmark the Amazon site itself, and return at some later time to buy the book. When that happens, the purchase is not registered as having come through your site, so you lose the referral fees on that sale. There's no referral program. Note that it is apparently not easy to earn much from this scheme, and many sites report disappointing performance (as compared to other affiliate programs).
- Google AdSense
This program displays advertisements on your site relevant to the content of the page you placed the supplied code on. You are paid according to the number of clicks the ads (PPC - pay per click) on your page receive. It also provides you the ability to filter out competitors' ads. I also have a beginner's tutorial on how to join this program: How to Add Google Advertisements (Google AdSense) to Your Blog or Website. Specific tutorials for putting AdSense into your site in different web editors are also available for Dreamweaver, KompoZer and Nvu. Blogger users can also read my Blogger-specific AdSense tutorial.
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Affiliate Programs: Free Sponsors and Advertisers
