Top 5 Book Affiliate Programs

I've been working with different book affiliate programs over the past two years. Book affiliate programs typically sell books and sometimes other things like video games, and in Amazon's case, everything else.

I started looking for an Amazon associate alternative at the end of 2010 when Illinois changed their definition of affiliate and Amazon decided they were going to drop all of the Illinois Amazon asscoiates.

Not every book program is the same, they have different percentages, and different conversion days for sales. My reviews below include Amazon, using Amazon through Squidoo, Borders through Commission Junction, Barnes & Noble through Google Affiliate Network, Powells Books, and Abe Bookstore through Google Affiliate Network.

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The Amazon Associates program is one of the best affiliates in the industry. Buying books is one of the backbones of Amazon.com, however, they do sell almost everything else you can buy on the internet. So, additional products are easy to incorporate into your website or blog.

Amazon.com runs it's own affiliate program and have different payment options including cash and Amazon.com credit. Amazon.com has a graduated commissions rate starting at 4% which increases to 6% after selling 7 items and can go as high as 8.5%. Some items such as electronics have a fixed commission of 4%, so read the commission rates when you sign up.

If you live in Illinois, Colorado, North Carolina, and Rhode Island, you will need to look below a few Amazon Associates alternatives. These states have changed the way they collect taxes on affiliate programs that have associates in their states.

Another option if you don't want to join the Amazon Associates program directly, you can sign up and Create your own articles with Hubpages. I live in Illinois and have been removed from the Amazon Associates Program, so I have been trying one of the other book programs below.

Barnes & Noble books is another book affiliate program through the Linkshare network. The first step to becoming an affiliate with Barnes & Noble is to apply to the Linkshare network, which usually means you need to have a website or blog already active and know the number of visits the site is receiving. The second step is to apply to the Barnes and Noble program individually. Linkshare has many other advertisers besides B&N, so once accepted you can go explore their network.

Barnes & Noble has a 6% commission, however, the link is only a session link, which means once the visitor leaves the BN site, they have to come back through your site to reestablish the session.

Powells runs its own affiliate program. I used Powells for over a year and didn't sell too many books. I think that is because of the low brand recognition. However, as the brand continues to gain popularity, this may be the one program that will outshine the other three.

Powells has a 7.5% commission rate and a 90 day cookie are the best of all the programs.

Abe Books is another book program you can join thru Impact Radius. Abe books offers a unique perspective in it sells rare books through its group of booksellers.

Abe Books has a 5% commission rate and a 90 day cookie.

Borders its Affiliate Network at the end of July 2011.

Unfortunately, Borders filed for chapter 11 and when no suitable offers came on the table, decided to close as a company. The affiliate program closed as of July 2011.

Learning about the internet for your business or wanting to find out about other ways to earn money while working at home, the following sites can help you learn a bit more.

My favorite book affiliate program was Amazon until they discontinued Illinois associates. I am now trying Borders as I haven't had much success with Barnes & Noble and Powells.