Many webmasters have supplemented or completely built their income with Amazon Associates, but commission rates have been reduced to a fraction or completely wiped out in some niches.
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.
Affiliate Networks
If you are unfamiliar with affiliate networks, they are sort of like Amazon’s 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.
Shareasale.com – Shareasale is one of the largest, longest running, and most reputable affiliate networks. Sign up for an account to access the affiliate programs for many merchants.
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.
There are other affiliate networks, but I think Shareasale & Impact are the best for product catalogs and datafeeds that can help replace Amazon.
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.
Other Alternatives to Amazon Associates:
eBay Partner Program – Affiliate platform that gives publishers access to promote products on eBay’s marketplace.
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.
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.
More Resources for Affiliates
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!
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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