By Toni Allen | Last update: March 26, 2024
Many website publishers have supplemented or completely built their income with Amazon Associates, but in recent years commission rates have been reduced to a fraction… or completely wiped out in some niches.
In the early 2000s, Amazon Associates was one of my biggest income sources. It was easy to sign-up, get links, and the payouts were generous. But, Amazon Associates is no longer easy or generous in my opinion.
Here is my list of best alternatives to the Amazon affiliate program including advertising networks and top affiliate programs with the best marketing tools for their partners.
Alternative Affiliate Networks
If you are unfamiliar with affiliate networks, they are sort of like Amazon’s Associates affiliate program…except with many different online brands (aka merchants).
Each merchant uses the networks interface to interact with affiliates (you), who have an audience they can help market the merchant’s products and services to. Much like amazon associates, affiliate networks use special links to track clicks and sales.
I think Shareasale & Impact are the best networks with product catalogs and datafeeds that can help replace Amazon:
Shareasale Affiliate Network
Shareasale.com – Shareasale is one of the largest, longest running, and most reputable affiliate networks. Much like Amazon, you can find just about any type of product through Shareasale. Sign up for an account to access the affiliate programs for 1000s of merchants.
Impact Affiliate Network
Impact (aka Impact Radius) – is one of the biggest affiliate networks online with some of the biggest brands across a range of industries. If you aren’t already a Impact affiliate, it’s worth signing up as they are one of the biggest & oldest networks around.
More Affiliate Networks
Other large affiliate networks to look into include:
CJ.com – formerly known as Commission Junction, is a popular affiliate marketing network with a vast selection of advertisers for publishers to choose from. With a user-friendly interface and robust reporting tools, CJ is a solid option for website publishers looking to monetize their traffic beyond Amazon Associates.
FlexOffers – FlexOffers is another top affiliate network that connects publishers with a wide range of advertisers across various industries. The network offers competitive commissions, advanced tracking technology, and real-time reporting to help publishers optimize their campaigns.
Rakuten – Rakuten Advertising, previously known as Rakuten Marketing, is a global network that provides publishers with access to top brands and offers in multiple countries.
eBay Partner Program – Affiliate platform that gives publishers access to promote products on eBay’s marketplace.
It may also be worth researching niche affiliate networks or individual affiliate programs depending on the sort of products and services your audience is interested in.
Affiliate Network Advantages
Similar to Amazon, one of the nicest things about going through an affiliate network is that payments from many merchants are consolidated into monthly payouts via the network. It makes accounting much easier to get paid from one source vs 50 merchants each paying you separately.
Additionally, using networks like Shareasale & Impact gives website publishers access to a variety of helpful marketing tools like datafeeds, product catalogs, and coupons.
Also, networks provide real-time stats of merchant performance — so you can see which brands are selling & converting well vs duds.
Other Alternatives to Amazon Associates
Beyond the affiliate model, which is generally a CPA or CPS model (cost-per-acquisition, cost-per-sale), some alternatives you might want to consider for replacing your dwindling amazon revenue include:
Google Adsense – also not as good as it used to be; Google Adsense! However, it is incredibly easy to implement and can be a passive-income generator for content-heavy websites.
Media.net – Similar to Google Adsense, offers contextual advertising services for publishers, enabling them to monetize their traffic through relevant ads.
Skimlinks – Automatically transforms website links into affiliate links, allowing publishers to earn commissions on sales generated through their content.
Fiverr – You can sell your advertising space (or soul) on fiverr, a marketplace that puts all sorts of services and buyers together — have a look at what others are doing in the cannabis-space for ideas.
EzoicAds – AI-driven platform that helps publishers optimize ad placements to maximize revenue and enhance user experience.
More Resources for Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing 101 – A quick guide to help understand the basics of affiliate marketing as a method of monetizing your content.
Tools for Affiliates – Growing list of website services, seo tools and helpful links including the one’s I use on this site or on my other projects.
Cannabis Affiliate Programs (full-list) – If you are looking for more programs check out this guide with every legitimate cannabis affiliate program I can find.
Amazon Associates has been cutting back on their affiliate program for almost a decade, and it’s just not the great partner it used to be.
How are your amazon earnings doing compared to previous years? Which networks or affiliate programs do you recommend? Leave a comment and let me know, thanks!
Hi Toni,
I’m at liberty to say I haven’t made a dime from Amazon Associates and I’ve been an associate marketing their products for over a year. I don’t have the money to advertise but Amazon makes claims to putting you before it’s customers so your at advantage to be the storefront that might get a customer? What? Really? Native ads are a joke as well and if you’re not registered as an agency your content isn’t going to go from post to feed to eyeballs at all!
If you’ve got a media degree know how to do your own ads and make them yourself, know SEO it doesn’t matter because I’m that gal… my content when I make ads sits and isn’t seen by anyone because of shadow banning and let’s face it it’s AI putting boundaries up and if you haven’t gotten your foot in before right now you’re not getting in period! I’m very lucky to have an established domain but garnering my own damn followers to migrate on over and check out my cannabis blogspot where Amazon is front and center as far as advertising and promoting products goes. I gathered the html for the integration of the ads myself and put it into the Godaddy API. You think it mattered?
It didn’t! Google Adsense has not done a penny of anything either and it’s ID is set in the api as well!
I’m not young I don’t claim to be a wiz at computers but I am a reader and I read everything I can to learn the tech of today. I’ve taught myself all of this business and affiliate marketing, I’ve grown my own following over a 13 year period and mind you it was slow but I had no rhyme or reason other than build a page with the name Who does that and just feel it out along the way. I didn’t understand advertising when I made it I just knew there was something to this and I needed to get in it to win at it. I’m frustrated. I’ve spent two years of my life getting over a man and saturated myself in building a website and promoting products. I’ve lingered in Shopify which imo sux so bad it’s pitiful to suggest it to anyone! I abruptly left it after being taken by two of their publishers peddling 27.00 website creations with 20 preloaded products to get you started. Got so mad I didn’t even care to strip down the site to bare nothings and scout out the code to see it’s structuring because I DID NOT KNOW THAT WAS A THING MY 50 old self could even do! Now I know. Point is they lied and I shouldn’t have been scrambling to integrate the 20 products! It should have been done as it advertised! I guess they paid for the leading lie dunno it seems quite questionable to me!
All of this is a crock to some extreme and agencies are contracting work to us affiliates for Pennie’s! Also redirects are a pain in the ass for any affiliate because it’s someone stealing your data and directing you elsewhere and your ledes their way to their links! I’m figuring out a lot and Lord don’t let me get an arsenal going that spits back fire to those thieves redirecting from affiliates links to their own!!! Safe is not what their content or their traffic will be it’ll just be mine! After all ISNT that the Internet way? Seems plausible to me from the experiences I’ve had and that’s a lot!
There’s an honest review! Something that’s rare in internet realities of today! Reviews are bought and sold on Fivver everyday by influencers masking their sites! I’m quite knowledgeable and lord help the one that screws me!
Hi,
May I ask for the names of CBD companies who offer drop ship please . Thank you so much for your response. If you need to charge me for this information, I am willing to pay within reason.
Ann
Hi Ann, yes there is a short list of CBD dropshipping services here:
https://thcaffiliates.com/b2b/wholesale-cbd/#cbd-dropshipping-services