Reputable Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are very popular. The thought of being able to sign up with one and promote somebody else's product and actually make money doing it, is very alluring to many people. Unfortunately, not all affiliate programs are the same. There are some programs out there that fall a bit short of what we would call reputable. However, we don't want to go dragging people through the mud in this article so we will concentrate our discussion on those programs which have proven to stand the test of time.

Probably the most reputable affiliate program on the Internet is Clickbank. The company has been around close to 10 years and has a spotless reputation. They pay people twice every month and in the 4 years that I have been an affiliate for their products, I have yet to not receive a check. Occasionally, they may be a few days later than usual, but they always arrive. Plus, Clickbank probably has one of the largest catalogues of products to choose from, so finding something to sell is very easy.

The great thing about choosing a product to sell through Clickbank is that they give statistics in their marketplace for each product. This way you can see which ones are selling well and which ones not so well. This is very helpful for picking out something to promote. And, unlike a lot of affiliate programs which have high payout minimums, you can set Clickbank's very low.

But Clickbank isn't the only game in town. Another very reputable affiliate program is PayDotCom. While not as large as Clickbank, they do have a nice sized catalogue and there is no minimum payout. You get paid directly to your PayPal account. The one thing you do need to know about PayDotCom is that they do not pay you directly as does Clickbank. PayDotCom affiliates get paid from the actual vendors themselves. So make sure before you sell a vendor's product at PayDotCom that you contact them first to make sure that they are responding to emails. Otherwise, there is a chance that you may not get paid for the sales that you make.

Another reputable affiliate program is Sharesale.com. This company also has a decent sized catalogue. The feature some very popular products such as Amember's affiliate program manager and Infacta's Group Mailer for sending out large numbers of emails at once that all appear to be personalized to each recipient. The one thing you need to know about Sharesale is that they have a rather high minimum payout of $50 and there is no way to change it.

It should be noted that all these programs are free to join. There are certainly other reputable affiliate programs, but these three should be more than enough to get you started. If you want to learn more about affiliate programs, check out the resource in my signature.