Free to Join Affiliate Programs

Essentially there are 2 different types of affiliate networks; pay per sale or pay per lead or action.

Pay Per Sale networks are free to join affiliate programs that pay their affiliates a commission when someone they have referred makes a purchase. These commissions range from 1% to 75% or higher depending on the product or service.

Pay Per Lead or Action (CPA) networks are free to join affiliate programs that pay their affiliates a set amount when someone they refer completes an action. Generally these actions create a lead for the company paying the affiliate a commission. These pay per action or CPA affiliate networks are becoming very popular because instead of a referral having to make a purchase, they pay their affiliates a commission simply for referring someone that fills out a form.

We will dive in to more detail on these affiliate networks in just a moment.

These free to join affiliate programs are generally run directly by the owner of the company or the website. These companies or websites form their partnerships directly with their affiliates and then pay commissions based on one of the two models discussed above, Pay Per Sale or CPA. You can sign up for these affiliate programs directly with the website owners.

Now that we have covered the basics, let's go in to further detail on each one of the types of free to join affiliate programs we have already covered.

These are probably the common programs available to affiliate marketers. These free to join affiliate programs contain marketplaces with thousands and thousands of products. The majority of these products or services are digital information products that can be downloaded instantly by the customer. A very common example of this type of model is an ebook that is purchased and downloaded immediately. These are great products because they offer instant gratification and there are literally thousands of niches to sell to.

Besides ebooks and information products, you can deal with many large, nationally known companies through pay per sale affiliate programs. These networks allow you to form a relationship with these companies and begin promoting their products through banners or links you post on your blog or website. Here are my top recommendations of each type of free to join affiliate programs
that are pay per sale:
Information, Digital, and Ebook Products:
1. Clickbank.com
2. PayDotCom.com
3. Click2Sell.com
4. Plimus.com

Large Company Affiliate Programs (books, cars, music, dating, and much more). These will pay your a percentage of the sales you generate through your affiliate link.
1. Commission Junction - www.cj.com
2. Amazon.com
3. Linkshare.com
4. Affiliatebot.com
5. Shareasale.com
6. Ebay Partner Network

CPA networks have really taken off over the last year or so because some of the top affiliate marketers have been revealing their secrets to making cash. These programs can be quite lucrative because they simply pay you for leads or actions. Some examples are as follows:

You can enter your email to get a chance to test and win a Free Dell or Apple computer

You can enter your zip code to get a chance to win a $250 Grocery Gift Card

This offer would pay you when someone pariticipates in a 7 Day Free Trial of this Work at Home offer

As you can see by the above offers, someone does not even have to buy anything and you can still make money just by generating leads. Someone is much more likely to enter their zip code or provide their email address if they might get something for FREE just for answering some questions or getting a FREE trial. Some of the top CPA networks are listed below.

These are typically more difficult to get accepted to, but once you are in, the money may just start flowing. One tip, before applying make sure you have a website or blog set up with content on it because they will either ask you to make changes to your site or will want to see that you have a site before accepting you in to the program. Many will actually call you and ask you some simple questions before accepting you in to the program. Here are some of my favorites:

    1.  MaxBounty.com
    2.  Copeac.com
    3.  Rocket Profit.com
    4.  Affiliate.com 
    5.  CoProsper.com

Now that we have covered Pay Per Sale and CPA, the last type of free to join affiliate programs are direct affiliate programs. So let's review them in a little more detail.

These types of free to join affiliate programs are usually run directly by the product or website owner. There are literally thousands of these types of programs available on the internet. So how do you find them? Well

Well, first you have to decide what niche you want to work with. It could be anything; cars, boats, sewing, scrapbooking, skateboarding, golf, etc. You get the idea. Once you have figured out what it is you want to sell, you go to Google and do a search for affiliate programs. Here is an example:

Let's say you are interested in scrapbooking and you want to offer supplies or books, etc. Well then you would go to Google.com and type this in to the search box...

scrapbooking + affiliate programs - when doing this you will see a list of about 586,000 opportunities to offer scrapbooking products through an affiliate program. Pretty cool huh? So for any niche, just put in... "niche + affiliate programs" and you will get a list of offers.

Well, as you can see there are literally hundreds of thousands of free to join affiliate programs available. To see some of my personal favorites, visit my blog to learn more about FREE TO JOIN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS.