Should You Deal Independent Affiliate Programs?

That’s the question many ask in forums about affiliate marketing. Obviously, the big boys of affiliate marketing are CJ, LinkShare, Google, and Shareasale. But many smaller companies have their own affiliate programs with their own interface and a dedicated affiliate management team. Does that mean that these guys are not worth working with?

Absolutely not! Based on my experience, some of these independent affiliate programs are way more successful than their counterparts on CJ and LinkShare. Being affiliated with a network does not necessarily make you a good or bad merchant. There are many useless merchants on CJ and LinkShare that do not really perform for affiliates. So at the end of the day, you should work with smaller affiliate networks and independent advertisers, if possible. I have had phenomenal success with affiliate programs such as Yugster. And they are not listed on CJ, LinkShare, or anywhere else for that matter.

Highly regulated industries will not have many independent advertisers as companies in these industries rather deal with a third-party to reduce legal risks. But if you are working in the Internet industry or a similary loose industry, you should absolutely consider working with independent affiliate programs. You’d be surprised how well some of these programs perform…