SolveYourProblem Article Series:
Affiliate Marketing Strategies

What Is LinkShare? Do I Need It As An Affiliate?

Online affiliate marketing is one of the most effective, cheapest and fastest ways to promote merchandise. With millions of people getting access to the Internet everyday, there’s a great chance for a merchant to introduce his products and services to a wider market, thereby, maximizing his revenue.

Likewise, affiliate marketing is an excellent way to generate full-time income for a home-based affiliate marketer. For someone who hates going through a grueling eight-hour 9-5 work routine, affiliate marketing offers a great opportunity to earn big without wearing yourself out—physically, mentally and emotionally.

In affiliate marketing, both parties benefit since as the merchant earns revenue from each item sold, and the marketer likewise earns a commission.

If you are interested in affiliate marketing but are finding it hard to look for quality affiliate programs, affiliates or merchants, you can start by checking websites of various affiliate networks. Many affiliate programs on the Internet are being offered through an affiliate program network, which acts as a middleman between the merchants and individual affiliates.

Among the most popular is LinkShare. It is through Linshare that merchants and affiliates meet. LinkShare maintains and manages affiliate marketing programs for a great number of merchants with various kinds of businesses, products and services. It also has over 6,000 affiliate site members in its network. It gains profit from the set-up fees, monthly account maintenance fees and commissions.

Joining networks like LinkShare (another big one is Commission Junction) can be of great help in establishing your online marketing business. Whether you are a merchant or an affiliate marketer, you need to research your potential partners in order to choose what's best for you.

LinkShare provides the facility of acquiring access to a large network of advertisers (merchants) who offer their affiliate programs to publishers (affiliates) who are willing to promote their products. In the same manner, it gives merchants access to a large network of affiliates who are searching for affiliate marketing opportunities. Everybody wins.

LinkShare is especially beneficial for an affiliate when choosing merchants to work with since they are all in one location. It is easier to compare products, commission rates and other benefits given by the merchant.

To help you decide whether to use large affiliate networks such as LinkShare or not, let's try to look deeper into the positive and negative angles. The primary advantage of LinkShare to you as an affiliate is convenience.

As mentioned earlier, you can find different pieces of information about your choices simultaneously all in a single location, so you save time and effort looking for affiliate programs or merchants.

It’s also easier to track your business partner’s performance through monthly reports and statements, as well as sales and commission rates, so you know whether the affiliate program is still worth continuing. If you have signed up for several affiliate programs, you can check all your statistics for each merchant you are affiliated with by logging in just once.

LinkShare helps you manage and maintain all records of your visitors’ click-throughs and sales transactions. It takes care of your commissions and gives it to you monthly in a lump sum. When you have more than one merchant partner, it's easier for you to manage your accounts and track your earnings when you are affiliated through a marketing program network.

Furthermore, all information you get is accurate and secure, so you are protected from all the risk you might encounter. Above all, you can enjoy LinkShare’s benefits for free. Simply go to their site and register your affiliate website. Instantly, you get access to a great variety of affiliate programs.

So, what’s the negative angle? Although it is indeed helpful to join affiliate marketing networks such as LinkShare, there are some disadvantages, too.

For one, merchants offer lower commissions to affiliates who partner with them through the third party program network. This because they have to pay for the use of service and the technology provided by LinkShare.

Direct partnerships with a merchant cuts the costs of advertising through a network and so an affiliate has the potential to earn more. Moreover, it is possible that your payment may be delayed for a month or more since program networks pay you only after the advertiser or the merchant has paid them.

Do you need to use LinkShare or other networks? It depends, actually. You can opt for a direct partnership with the merchant, but this choice is not applicable all the time. There are a lot of merchants who offer their affiliate program only through affiliate program networks and thus, you have no choice other than joining the network to get into the affiliate marketing program.

So you are faced with “take it or leave it” situation. But LinkShare and other program networks are not that disadvantageous. After all, whether you join it or not, earning big will depend more on your promotional strategies and persistence.

# # # # #

SolveYourProblem.com : 2007

> Home > Affiliate Marketing Articles: Main Page