LinkShare Affiliate Network and Referral Program

About LinkShare

LinkShare Affiliate Program

Since 1996, LinkShare Affiliate Program has been a pioneer in online affiliate marketing, and today runs the largest pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet. LinkShare is the trusted third-party that brings together both merchants and affiliates. We track and report on every ad or placement in our network, send monthly payments to affiliates, and offer services and tools that help merchants and affiliates optimize their performance.

What is affiliate marketing?

A merchant, also known as an advertiser or retailer, is a web site or company that sells a product or service online, accepts payments and fulfills orders.

Affiliates (also called publishers) place merchants’ ads, text links, or product links on their web sites, shopping engines, blogs, etc. or include them in e-mail campaigns and search listings in exchange for commissions on leads or sales.
Merchants acquire new customers and pay affiliates only when a sale or other qualifying action is completed. Also known as CPA or performance-based marketing.

LinkShare is a free to join affiliate program that has been online since 1996. With over 500 reputable online merchants as advertisers, owners of blogs and websites can sign-up as LinkShare affiliates and easily begin selling products and services offered by these merchants in just a few clicks. Like any other well established affiliate network, LinkShare has ready made banners or standard and non-stardard sizes including various text links ready to go. By a matter of simply copying and pasting these HTML codes on their sites, publishers can begin earning from any sales generated through these merchants from their own sites. To take part in the LinkShare Affiliate Program, you will need the following:

PayPal account (To recieve your commissions due)
LinkShare Affiliate (To participate in the program)
Blog or Website (To publish banner or text advertisements)

Banners and sign-up links to the above requirements can be found at the end of this article.

The LinkShare Affiliate Program sign-up process is slightly more cumbersome to some as it does requires a bit more infomation as compared to other affiliate programs available. This is probably to make sure that enough information is collected from both advertisers and publishers alike to curb the risk of fraudulent purchases that may result in disputes at a later stage. Upon approval of the LinkShare Affiliate Program, the only affiliate sales availble to you is the LinkShare Referral Program. By participating in the LinkShare Referral Program, you will be paid a flat rate of $1.50 for every valid referral that registers as an affiliate with LinkShare and generates at least one click-through within 30 days of registering. This is one of the fastest ways of generating an income quickly. Banners to promote the LinkShare Referral Program is available in various sizes to suit individual needs.

To start publishing and earning commissions from the other merchants listed on LinkShare, affiliates need to select and apply to each merchant. This is to ensure that publishers and sites stay within the terms of each merchant or advertiser. Generally, approval is rather straight forward and completed either immediately or within 48 hrs. As a general rule, blogs or websites with more traffic and search engine rankings will normally be approved without much fuss. There maybe the occasional non-approval from the rare merchant.

One key area in enabling you to maximize your income potential with LinkShare’s Affiliate program is that you are able to rotate advertisements for a number of merchants with just one banner code. Some merchants may have elected to take part in a general banner rotation exercise. If any of your approved merchants are within this program feature, all you have to do is to select a standard banner size (usually 468×60) and check the banners that you will like to have rotated with a single HTML code. Copy and paste the code on your site an begin publishing multiple advertisements thus increasing your income potential. This ensures that blog and website owners are able to maximize advertising space especially so on sites that have a number of other banners and links leading to other affiliate programs. Found below is an example of a 468×60 banner that has been configured to publish different merchants in rotation. Click “refresh” on your browser to see a new banner for a different advertiser.

LinkShare also allows you to rotate different banners of the same type ie: 468×60 banners from a particular advertiser should they have more than one standard banner type of your preferred dimensions. The only restriction is you can only place ONE rotating banner code on a single page. Placing more than one rotating code will mean that the first HTML will work but following codes will not. Apart from the merchants mentioned above, below are some of the other merchants that are generally well received and programs that generate consistent click-through and sales.

To get started on the LinkShare Affiliate Program, sign-up for a PayPal account (if your don’t have one). Click on the banners below in sequence to begin signing up. You will be automatically registered for the LinkShare Referral Program. For web hosting, I recommend it nsHosting or FusedNetwork.