It’s no suprise that through the two year course of authoring this blog that I’ve dealt with my fair share of affiliate networks and affiliate programs. I suppose it’s only fair that if I’m going to post an article detailing the 10 Best Affiliate Networks, there should be some award for the Worst Affiliate Programs and Networks.
NetKlix (www.netklix.com) - You’ve seen the ads on Shoemoney.com and JohnChow.com, that alone should be an indicator that NetKlix is as usless as tits on a bull. Obviously the people behind NetKlix put more thought into where to advertise their new network than to actually supporting the network and creating an interface for publishers. The signup process is horrible, asking you to input pages of data before even sending a confirmation email. After several tries to signup, I still never received a confirmation email and they don’t answer their support email. No problems, Zedomax pretty much summed this one up in the post NetKlix Needs Better Ads….
Exoclick (www.exoclick.com) - Exoclick is primarily a network that claims to handle adult traffic and other traffic that you can’t monetize with Adsense. I assumed it was going to be fairly professional seeing as it was recommended on several forums. Exoclick is so sorry it’s not even funny. From the awkward signup form to the poor publisher interface, Exoclick is one of the worst affiliate networks I’ve ever wasted the time signing up for.
RocketProfit (www.rocketprofit.com) - If you’re the type of affiliate who likes networks that don’t pay on time, always have excuses for not paying on time and are oblivious to publisher support, then RocketProfit might be what you’re looking for. If you’re in doubt about the dubious nature of this network, just have a look at what people are saying about RocketProfit.
Motive Interactive (www.motiveinteractive.com) - Simply no repsonse at all on signing up to Motive Interactive. From what I can see, they’re just another run of the mill DirectTrack affiliate networks so they probably don’t have anything that MarketLeverage, NeverBlueAds or Ads4Dough don’t already have. Self-Confessed “Super Affiliate” Zac Johnson is pimping pimping pimping Motive Interactive so my suspicion is that they’re another greasy palm network. I personally have no time for networks that don’t even bother to call potential new affiliates and see what they’re all about. Their loss, not mine.
ShareASale - (www.shareasale.com) - If you want an affiliate network with no publisher support, poor tracking and lousy offers, go ahead and join ShareASale. I had an absolutely horrible experience with ShareASale. I signed up for their network, got an email saying I was approved and to login and start finding offers. I logged in and added some banners to a few of my sites and then three days and 20K impressions later, I received another email stating my application had not been approved. My login stopped working, so I removed the ads and tried to contact support. Good luck contacting support, they just aren’t into it.
ClickBooth (www.clickbooth.com) - This company is just plain stupid. Worst publisher support ever. I signed up an account with them last year, input all my personal details, was supposedly approved and even emailed my login details. I went to login for the first time and I get an error. Tried to recover password, it sends me the same password I’m already using…Ok, on to contact support… Hahahah, like that is going to happen? Maybe CB owner John Lemp is too busy destroying his reputation trying to sue WickedFire for badmouthing ClickBooth.
Affiliate.com (www.affiliate.com) - This network is operated by Scott Richter’s Media Breakaway. The signup process is far too involved for average publishers and PPC marketers without a website but then again, I don’t know why anybody would want to give their personal information to a company fronted by the guy who paid $7 million to Microsoft for a settlement in a lawsuit alleging illegal spamming. Media Breakaway was also sued by MySpace for allegedly accessing member accounts and using them to send millions of spam messages appearing to be from users’ MySpace “friends”.
ClickBank (www.clickbank.com) - Hands down, ClickBank is the absolute worst affiliate network on the internet. Let’s forget that 90% of the e-books and “get rich quick” schemes marketd through ClickBank are downright scams, forget all the cookie stuffing and cheating that ClickBank ignores, forget their shoddy interface and reporting, forget ClickBank’s lack of support, forget ClickBank. ClickBank may suffice for PPC marketers who only need to cough up a landing page and can wipe their hands clean of visitors. For web publishers, the advertising on your site could cost you visitors, especially if the ads are low quality and for borderline scams.
One thing in common about most of these affiliate programs and affiliate networks is the lack of adequate telephone support for affiliates. I guess I’m used to PepperJam Network and NeverBlueAds where I can ring them up on the phone and get an answer within 15 minutes. It just doesn’t make sense to me that an affiliate network would have poor publisher relations or drop the ball on signups. After all, publishers are the bread and butter for these networks and you never know how a publisher will perform in the long run.
Other networks that deserve mention but are just to bad to waste a paragraph on include: AuctionAds, ShoppingAds, WidgetBucks, Clicksor, Obeus, Miva Publisher, Etology, clixGalore, RevenuePilot and Kontera.
If you have any experiences to share about the programs and networks listed here, please leave a comment.
Happy Publishing,
Dave
ShareaSale really stinks. I had over 100K impressions and 1900 clicks without a single commission. Something must be wrong with their tracking.
It seems like the only ones online who DO stick up for Clickbank, or claim to like, ClickBank are the affiliates themselves who are making money off of promoting ClickBank products. Rarely, if ever, does anyone who is not a merchant or affiliate claim that their products are good products that are personally written by the ‘experts’ they claim to be.
I hate Clickbooth just because of what they tried to do to Wickedfire forum owner John. It’s like they want to censor anybody who doesn’t have a good opinion of them.
That’s not right.
So what do you think is actually the best affiliate programs? Azoogle? Commission Junction? I’m kind of new to affiliate marketing since i’ve been in the ecommerce industry for a while now. But, Affiliate Marketing does have its appeal right now to me.
@Travis - In the beginning of this post I linked to my article about the 10 Best Affiliate Programs. Remember, these are just my opnions regarding these networks and programs. You might have a different experience than me using one of them.
@Isaiah - I also didn’t like the whole Clickbooth vs. Wickedfire debacle. Forums are for people to express their opinions freely and anyone who tries to take away freedom of speech from forum owners is not my type of person. On the other hand, it was like watching two geeks fight in the locker room during gym class. Funny stuff.
I do sincerely appreciate anybody commenting here and sharing their experiences bad or good.
I don’t think you’re being fair to Netklix programs. It’s a new network and there is bound to be some bumps in the road. Wait down the line and it will grow into being a competitor to only Adsense.
netflix has its ups and downs, I think its a great product on xbox 360 though. Streaming movies and tv shows into the living room is awesome, most people don’t have media centers so the xbox is perfect.
thanks for this list! great post! I was leaning towards signing up with clickbank good thing I read this post and decided not to continue..thanks again
I have never made any $$ off of ClickBank; clickbooth told me I had to complete a PPC tutorial before I would be approved for their CPA program; affiliate, so far so good. I just joined. good list though.
Thank you, Dave. I appreciate the honest reviews.
Hey Dave,
Clickbooth PR here! I see you had an issue with the login process. I apologize that this did not get resolved but I will be having one of our pub reps contact you today to make sure it is smooth sailing from here on out. If you or anyone else is having any issues please feel free to contact our main line. You can even hit us up on AIM either at Clickboothsupport or mine: CTclickbooth.
Hi Dave,
Completely agree that Clickbank sucks. It’s phase that most internet marketers go through. There are some cracking products in there (Commission Blueprint, MicroNicheFinder to name just a couple) but 99% of it is junk.
TO be honest I think that Clickbank has a limited life span unless they start making changes. Firstly there are now so many affiliates that a lot of people will find a product on your site and then buy via their own affiliate link (especially make money online niche). Secondly, trying to find anything decent is like trying to find a needle in a haystack! At some point they have to start QCing products before they are published in the market place. There are many products on there that I would feel too guilty flogging to unsuspecting surfers.
Thanks,
Andy
[…] Read more from the original source: Worst Affiliate Programs and Affiliate Networks […]
This is how a true review should look like.
I have made 2 sales on clickbank and now my balance is zero as they cut my money every two weeks if there is an inactivity for 3 months
You are completely mistaken in judging shareasale by the one little experience you had. I’ve been with them for years and they are great. I have had no problems with them at all.
@Sherry - I’m just expressing my opinions based on my experiences. No two affiliates are alike, so no two affiliates will ever have the exact same experiences.
I have read through this whole thread and I find it really interesting. There was a time I came across an article comparing Paydotcom with clickbank, and that article seemed to lean more towards the benefits of paydotcom, but please does anyone here use Paydotcom, I’d like to know and for a newbie which Affiliate program provider will be best for me. Thank you
Good critiques. Maybe if a few of these programs read this commentary they will get their act together. Most of what is mentioned is communication problems. Nothing mentioned about ripoffs or scams (except Clickbank). Communication problems can be easily fixed.
@samo: I am an affiliate of paydotcom and have yet to make any money from it.
Check out my blog to find out how I make money. Read here…http://www.webmoneysuccess.com/2009/02/great-way-to-make-money-from-home-gbg.html
http://www.webmoneysuccess.com/2009/02/my-1st-utter-is-gbg-good-secondary.html
One of those is an audio post, you click on the player to listen.
I being new to affiliate marketing and after buying all the books that “referred me to use clickbank as the route to my fortune” I took up promoting a tattoo design web site Ive sent hundreds of highly targeted leads over and still nothing. I did the same thing a year or so ago when I was testing the waters but using less targeting at that time I made some sales (but spent the same amount on advertising ) but I made sales, there seems to be a major bug in the system that is clickbank
I wanted to join up with RocketProfit but they don’t like the country where I live, so ah well
NeverBlue Ads is much better though
Having looked at some of these, I’ve got to say I’m not a fan of any of them. But then, most affiliate programs make me itch a little bit!
One fine day, when I logged on to my Clickbank account I discovered I never earn a single penny for that month. I felt disgusted and was mad at myself for that.
ShoppingAds deactivate my account and ban me from login to my acct. They say they have redefined the requirements of quality and traffic volume for the publishers.
Why no warning to publishers and terminate like this? I smell a scam.
Good call this post, what i do not get is why are they not good at the support side..
Also why do most above make it almost impossible to sign up for new users..?
Why can’t they simply allow signups and when the user has made some commisions then ask for the forms to be filled out, that way people can try them out etc, etc and if they do not like cancel there account. Signing up for them is too much like a job interview when they are the ones needing members..
Most people would agree that is the number one marketing flaw in most affiliate marketing networks.. What do you think..?
Thanks for this post and also your Top 10. I am signing up with Pepperjam and keeping an eye on ShareASale and Affiliate.com now that I know you had problems with them.
Hi Dave:
I wanted to just say “thanks” for this great posting about the best and the worst affiliate programs. I have tried unsuccessfully several times to make Click Bank work for me, but it just doesn’t happen.
I appreciate you sharing your experience with the rest of us.
Take care,
Janie
Sitting here scratching my head wondering what inspired you to write this?…
I won’t say you are wrong about Motive Interactive not calling but I have actually found them to be a network that I didn’t have any problems with. I joined in December made a few bucks, added a few more banners in jan made a few more, and still no contact with them, but they were pretty accurately keeping track of clicks and earnings. In feb I started using them a lot (replaced all of MY CB and Rocket Profit banners with Motive’s) I made a lot more money, in feb then I get a call and email first part of this month. I apparently hadn’t sent in my W-9 and they were seeing if there was a problem. Too late to get a check on their printing schedule by the time I did, but they seem to honest and actually want to pay their affiliates. I can’t say the same thing for some other networks I have dealt with.
While you are also right about them having most of what other people have, i have noticed more than a few programs where they pay more than other networks that I belong to.
Clickbank is the worst ever for me. I had some sales in the beginning but they slowed down. Month to month in my account Clickbank reduced my commissions until I had nothing left. I never got one payment for all my work :-(
Clickbank did the same thing to me Sue! I made one sale, and over a period of several months, they said until I made five more verifiable sales, they would not release my commissions. I thought that was a bunch of crap. The last time I checked, my $39 commission was down to $15. However I just joined Ads4Dough and Primary Ads, they are doing really well this month and its my first month with them. Both so far are around the $500 mark.
Sue and Teasastips - ClickBank has the policy that they will not release your earnings until you close sales with five unique credit cards, one of which has to be a Mastercard. They deduct $1 from your account beginning the first 60 days you haven’t closed a commission and then $5 per pay period after 120 days. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
It’s a shame there are still so many hucksters out there selling people on the idea they’ll get rich using ClickBank and Adwords or other PPC networks. Big mistake.
I tried etology and found it to be very unreliable. Sometimes ads just don’t show or sometime they vanish and reappear making my site look very messy. The payout was so low too. I don’t bother with them anymore.
ShoppingAds and AuctionAds were pretty bad. I think they were owned by the same company. I lost over $100 in those two.
Hey Dave, Thanks for the great input ! AND THANKS TO ALL THE REST OF YOU WHO COMMENTED ALSO ! ! !
As a total newbie who has yet to make a dime online - this kind of info is really great. ESPECIALLY all the comments and confirmation about CB.
Until reading these posts today, I thought they were about the best place to be not the worst. Shame on all those hucksters that have pointed me to that thinking throughout my learning curve.
Clickbank is on the best, and the worst, affiliate lists.
I could not trust clickbank. I made a choice for etology but it was also unreliable.
I have never used click bank but I’ve heard about them, I guess I will avoid them in the future, thanks for the info.
Thank you, Dave, for the list of affiliate networks you find worst. Luckily, I have not dealt with any of the above and now I won’t for sure. Also, I would really appreciate information from other users on their bad experience so that many of us stay safe.
You should of put a detailed list about Clicksor too, they ripped me off and didn’t pay either ;(
I forgot about Clicksor. They ripped me off a while back also. Another crap network was Performancing Ads. Those losers really ripped everybody off.
Then there was that “scratchback” widget started by Jim Krukal (note last name “crook all”) who is some self-proclaimed marketing guru who speaks at conventions like Shoemoney but just like his buddy Shoemoney, he just scammed countless bloggers. Funny, that the promoters of those nerd conventions (like Shawn Collins) could care less if they have scammers speaking about how they made money.
Thanks for the warnings. I’m on Neverblue and I agree they’re great.
Clickbank — well, I like that you can choose absolutely any product. But the hoplinks are not very secure. Maybe they’re fixing that, I don’t know.
Affiliate.com — I sent in my application, they sent me some additional questions and told me I had 5 days to get back to them. 12 hours later they rejected me, because I hadn’t answered their questions yet. I wouldn’t have even waited 12 hours, except that I live in Japan and they sent me that mail at like 2:30 am local time. Lame.
It looks like several people have posted comments to the effect that, “I didn’t make any money on Clickbank, so they suck.”
That’s a piss poor way to look at it. Yes, Clickbank has some policies about releasing commissions that can be a hurdle. Yes, I have dealt with my Clickbank account being suspended for no reason, commissions being held, etc. But at the end of the day, I’m still making money promoting a few products from their publishers - not in the make money niche.
If you aren’t making sales, maybe you should consider that the problem could be in your own efforts. Or maybe even in your selection of products to promote.
With that said, I have absolutely no experience with any of the other affiliate networks on this list. “I haven’t made any money with them - so they suck!”
Best of luck, folks!
clickbooth is so hard to get accepted. I had a nice site but denied me. I am not sure what they want.
ok time to take clicksor ads off my website.
I have dealt with my Clickbank account being suspended for no reason, commissions being held, etc. But at the end of the day, I’m still making money promoting a few products from their publishers - not in the make money niche.
I spent the best part of two years showing Netklix text ads on my sites, and had reached the £100 payout level, only to be told that I would not be paid, as I had “been encouraging individuals to click on the adverts”. This is a totally unfounded allegation, as not one of the ads was accessible via a paid link.
When I asked them how they arrived at the conclusion that I had cheated, they did not even have the decency to reply with an explanation.
I shall think twice before adding similar context-driven text ads to my sites in future.