What is your best paying affilitate program?
When using the internet as an income, it's always nice to know what programs and affiliates are going to be truly worth your time. You have some programs that offer plenty of earnings, but buried deep in the TOS, they'll take earnings if you don't earn a certain dollar amount each month, which means you'll more than likely never really earn. But, on the other hand there are affiliate programs that are actually profitable.
Google Adsense
Advertisers pay Google to display ads linking to their sites. You sign up with Google Adsense, who provides you with an HTML code that you paste on your website, and the ads will show on your page. You can alter the appearance of the ads as well as where you would like to paste them.
But, don't think that Google pastes any old ad on you website. You won't get dog ads on a car related page, or vice versa. They match the ads to the information on your website or page.
Every time an ad is clicked on your site, you will receive a certain percentage of what Google receives from the advertiser. The percentage varies from $.02 to as much as even $1.00 or more. If you have multiple clicks in one day, it is impossible to know how much a particular ad made you, but you can estimate by dividing the percent you earned by the number of clicks.
Once your account reaches $100, you'll receive a check in the mail, or direct deposit.
Amazon
The Amazon Affiliate program is one of my favorites. It's easy to put on your blog or website, and the cookie holds for 48 hours. There are many different widgets, banners, and ads that you can choose from, and you can customize them to make them blend better with your website.
The Amazon program has two different fee settings that you can choose between. In my opinion, the best is the Referral Fee rate, which depends on how many items are shipped out on your cookie, what items were shipped, and where the items were from. See the chart below to get the rates for this pay schedule. This schedule can earn up up to 8.50% per item, except electronics which will always be a set 4%. If you opt for the Classic payout schedule, you'll earn 4% no matter how many items get shipped on your tracking cookie.
You are paid at the end of each month for two months prior. For example, you will be paid in March for January's earnings, and in April for February's earnings, and so on.
You can choose to have direct deposit, which is the fastest and easiest method to get paid. Otherwise, you can choose Amazon gift certificate or check. If you opt for check, there is a $15 fee, and your earnings must be at least $100.
Ebay Partner Network
Formerly ran with Commission Junction, the Ebay affiliate program is still being updated and kinks figured out as needed. There are nearly constant changes with this program, but even still it's a good one to have if you own the website or blog. If you're using a third party website, you won't be approved for an account, unless otherwise specified.
Hubpages is allowed to feature Ebay ads, but not all third party websites allow it. If you have a Blogger or Wordpress blog, you have to have a special ad-on in order to use EPN.
When someone clicks on a product, a 7 day cookie is placed on their computer.
You will earn a percent of the ebay sale. You will also earn for each ACRU that you have, but what you will earn for each ACRU will depend on what Ebay determines your worth to them is. The better traffic they feel you're sending, the better off you will be.