15+ Best Affiliate Networks For Beginners in 2024

Now that you have decided to start your journey as an affiliate marketer, you may as well do it right!

To start a successful career in affiliate marketing, the most important thing is to choose the right affiliate network that will best suit your requirements and set you on the right path. There are thousands of networks.

Therefore, it can get confusing to choose one. You must always look for a network that can diversify your income, provide many offers, and give you opportunities to monetize and increase your income stream. No matter which industry or niche you choose, there is always a suitable network for it out there. 

What is Affiliate Marketing and How it Works?

First, let’s get a basic understanding of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing Is when you, a marketer, sign up with a company or a network that provides many offers from various brands to sell their products and services. You will get a commission based on every sale or action the users make. 

These desired actions may include clicking on a certain link that leads to a specific product on Daraz.com or Alibaba and purchasing the product. Even if they do not purchase the product, more lead is generated toward the offers, and more leads mean more revenue generation. So, you will be given a commission on every such action. The commission given is usually part of the affiliate marketing company’s budget.

When starting with affiliate programs, choose a network according to a niche of your choice. When you choose a network you want to specialize in and be more interested in, it will result in a greater return on investment according to your business objectives. Some of the best affiliate marketing models include Amazon and Adsense. 

But before you choose the niche, it is better to do some research and find out if it is profitable or not. Whether or not other people have benefitted from the same niche. Find out about other SEO sites and WordPress using the same niche to promote products and services to create more demand. When you find out that other people are promoting in the same niche, it is when you know where to start, and it is confirmed that if it weren’t profitable, they wouldn’t be doing it either. To organize your work, you can also make a spreadsheet of the affiliate program offers to begin ranking your website. 

 Best Affiliate Networks 2023:

Now that you know what affiliate marketing is and how it works, we will take a look at some of the Best Affiliate  Networks in 2023 and 2024:

1. Amazon Associates
2. Cj- Commission Junction
3. FanFuel
4. ShareASale
5. FlexOffers
6. Impact 
7. Awin
8. NordVPN
9. ClickBank
10. Rakuten Advertising

1. Amazon Associates:

You may have heard of Amazon associates since it has become so popular. Not only do they provide the most extensive range of courses to make money through this monetization method, but also give you a platform to start earning from it. You will find hundreds and thousands of courses on Amazon associates. But before starting to work with Amazon, it is important to consider a few things. 

Amazon is not an affiliate program but rather an eCommerce site. Affiliate networks are the ones that provide a platform for publishers and advertisers to engage and attain their objectives; however, it is a great foundation for beginners and have proven themselves useful through their courses. 

Pros:

• Amazon has become a popular source of learning about affiliate marketing and making money. There have been some updates in the commission system; however, people who expanded their income stream were less affected. 
• Amazon will always pay you on time, and the most it goes is for 30 days. 
• This program is also one of the easiest to use, navigate, and implement in your business. 
• There is diversity in their products, and they have a global reach which is useful in affiliate marketing. 

Cons:

• One of the biggest fears of affiliates is to be flagged for unknown reasons, which commonly happens on Amazon. They have strict policies, and you can be flagged for breach of any rules in the policy. 
• Amazon Associates have lower payouts due to the sheer number of affiliates. 
• There is no supervision or an affiliate manager to help you through any issues. 

2. CJ- Commission Junction:

Commission Junction is one of the best affiliate programs and is effective for beginners. It is a great network to start your journey and generate some income from it. CJ has been in this industry for about 20 years. So, with that much experience, you will learn a lot of things and benefit from their offers. They operate on a global level and have a variety of offers to provide. 

Pros:

• This program is great for beginners. Their global reach can drive a lot of traffic and connect you with some big names in the industry to promote their products and services. Consider this network if it matches your business goals. 
• You can easily find profitable programs that are strongly suggested to you
• They provide extensive support and tutorials to help you learn everything
• They have partnered up with some big brands. 

Cons:

• The brands are not permanent members, so they keep changing
• Compared to Amazon, their learning programs are not extensive

3. FanFuel:

FanFuel is a brand of Wolfson, which is a company that specializes in health and beauty. It is considered one of the best affiliate networks in general and for beginners. They focus on the marketing of products by sponsoring various athletes or health and beauty influencers, mostly fitness influencers. As those people have a huge following it is obvious, that they drive in a lot of traffic and effectively contribute towards the increase in sales. 

Other than fitness products they also promote nootropics that help to treat hair loss and for other cosmetic reasons. This enhances the overall performance of people. Therefore, you will have a lot of products to promote that are popular in many categories. You can earn about 40% commission from their offers which is a very high amount and thus causes a significant increase in your revenue. 

Pros:

• Provides offers of various niches to attract large audiences
• Uses influencers and celebrity athletes to help endorse those products. 
• Offers high commission 
• Their cookie duration is 90%

Cons:

There are no apparent cons to this network which is why it is considered a clean and easy way for beginners to start their journey, especially the ones specializing in health and beauty. 

4. ShareASale:

ShareASale is one of the best and neglected affiliate networks. One of the reasons people would not use it is because they haven’t updated their dashboard for ages. However, they have some of the best affiliate marketing offers in the industry. Their offers are not related to huge brand names and sometimes that is not something you need to make the campaigns successful. The offers are more for smaller and more profitable companies that are accessible. Their offers are so good that you can even earn $300-$350 per offer. They provide around 5000 offers. 

Besides the few flaws such as their dashboard and a wow factor, they are pretty good at doing what an affiliate marketing network is supposed to do. However, the dashboard is still functional, and sometimes it is beneficial to have it simpler and easier to use rather than a complex and updated one. 

Pros:

• A large number of offers to choose from. 
• Smaller but more profitable affiliate programs.
• Faster payouts
• The ‘search for merchants’ option is much better than that of CJ.

Cons:

• Outdated dashboard
• The approval process for the offers can be lengthy and unpredictable.

5. FlexOffers:

FlexOffers is one of the best affiliate networks for beginners. Though they might not be as well-known as CJ and Amazon, they have an amazing management team that will put in all their efforts to help you learn and succeed. As a beginner, this is a good start even though you probably won’t get a high commission because they get their cut from each offer. Which means that you are a sub-affiliate in each offer you get. But you will get a readily available offer. You just need to promote it further and get a commission. No effort is required which I don’t think is a bad deal for a beginner. 

The best thing about them is that their affiliates are readily provided with offers that otherwise would have declined them. you can get accepted and earn profit from it. This could be a good kickstart for you as a beginner. 

You can also find out some offers that are not advertised on their homepage but they offer through this network. Another amazing thing about FlexOffers is their Net 7 payments which means that based on good performance you can get paid weekly. 

Pros:

• Offers readily available offers to start earning
• Less effort required
• Provided offers that can be promoted off the network 
• Gives weekly payout based on performance

Cons:

• You will be a sub-affiliate in this network
• They cut a percentage of the commission

6. Impact:

The impact is well known for its updated user interface and amazing dashboard functionality. It is a great affiliate network to start your journey as an affiliate marketer. They have a well-detailed interface that also has a tracking and reporting system. It will track your performance and report it to you on a timely basis. This is highly effective because you can get data on your progress and what to improve. This feature is beneficial for those people who want more performance metrics so that they can improve the quality of their work and gear business decisions. 

They have partnered up with about 1,000 brands and have a large variety of offers in different niches. Impact is a great network for beginners because it supports them to start their journey. Their acceptance process is also easy as many brands will accept you in little time. 

Pros:

• They have a track system for performance tracking
• Updated interface and functional dashboard
• Has 1000 brands in a wide array of niches
• Have learning articles on their site
• Brands accept in little time

Cons:

• Not as user-friendly to join as other options
• The learning curve to understanding this program is complicated
• Some bugs and other backend issues have been reported 

7. Awin:

Awin is one of the best affiliate networks for beginners because of many reasons. This is a great start for newbies because you will be entering a network that already has a lot of advertisers and publishers. it has been estimated that they have about 16500 advertisers and 225,000 publishers on their network. Their publishers have earned as much as $1 billion in commission and it continues to grow. In 2020 they managed to generate sales of about 182 million. 

And it’s not only big in terms of these numbers but it is also an experienced network. Awin was established in 2017 but its roots go back to Zanox and Affiliate Windows which are some of the oldest networks existing in the 2000s. 

Awin acquired another successful network ShareASale a few years ago but they operate as separate entities each with its affiliates and offers. So you can sign up for both. Another good thing about Awin is its fast payment. You will get paid right on time when your work is done. 

Pros:

• A wide variety of affiliate offers
• Easy-to-use network
• Partnered up with big brands
• Fast payments 
• Tracking is easy through dashboards

Cons:

• The competition is tough
• Operates globally but focuses more on the EU and UK. 

8. NordVPN:

NordVPN is originally a security service that was established by friends back in 2012 with a single VPN server. Now they have developed into offering thousands of servers to millions of users globally. 

VPN is a competitive niche that is growing every year. It experiences 11% growth every year. You might be asking what makes it so special compared to other networks.

Well, besides the apparent numbers that indicate their success, they are endorsed by some popular influencers which adds up to their popularity and success. The big influencers take this offer because they get big money from it. NordVPN offers about 40% commission to its marketers/ endorsers.

Pros:

• Offers large commission
• Endorses huge influencers
• Is a reliable network
• Has 11% growth every year. 

9. ClickBank

ClickBank is considered one of the oldest or you can say the oldest affiliate marketing network that has been operating since 1998. Their story is very interesting as they grew from rags to riches. A group of friends started with this idea in a small garage and later turned the idea into a money-making machine source. They started earning $3 billion every year. 

While everyone else was trying to figure out an efficient way of shipping goods, ClickBank shifted its dynamic towards selling digital goods and its profits skyrocketed yet again. With digital goods, they could deliver instantly, with no overhead, and no labor expenses. Instead of all these expenses, they diverted towards forming direct relations with digital creators. 

You can find all of their products easily on ClickBank Marketplace and they also have some physical products these days. 

Pros:

• The best network for working as an affiliate without a website
• For promoting most programs, you would not need approvals
• You can promote many offers with repeating commissions
• Creating an affiliate link is the easiest for them

Cons:

• The marketplace website is very outdated and hasn’t been updated in 19 years. However, it is still functional.
• Many programs can result in refunds and the rates of those refunds can be high. 

10. Rakuten Advertising:

Rakuten Advertising is a Japanese affiliate network. Originally, they weren’t an affiliate network but they started these activities after acquiring LinkShare back in 2005. Rakuten LinkShare has had significant growth and success since its emergence and has won many awards. Now, you must be asking, Is it good for beginners?

The simple answer is, yes! There are many reasons why it is one of the best networks for complete newbies. They have an easy-to-use interface; they have partnered up with more than 1000 brands and companies, and they have a huge variety of products and services offered. Overall, this is a good start for beginners as they will have the guidance, the right platform, and the right offers with many choices to begin. 

Pros:

• Partnered up with big brands
• One of the experienced affiliate networks
• User-friendly and informative interface
• Deals with $100 million in sales per year.

Cons:

• The interface is outdated
• They lack metrics data. 

Conclusion:

Now that you know about some of the best affiliate networks for beginners, it might be easy for you to choose one. Choose according to the niche that you specialize in. Always make sure that the network meets your requirements.

If you are a complete beginner, it is best to choose a network that gives you a significant learning experience along with proper and detailed reporting and tracking systems and has readily available offers to give so you won’t have to go through a challenging approval process by the advertisers or brands that you desire to promote and also generates the most revenue. Overall, the decision is yours and we wish you the best of luck in your future ventures!