Tutorials on making money with foreign advertising alliances: Introduction to advertising alliances

I. Classification of the Union

1. By size of alliance

Based on the strength of an alliance, we categorize alliances into two tiers: top alliances and regular alliances.

Top League: These refer to quality affiliate platforms that are widely recognized and have a good reputation, such as CJ Affiliate (founded in 1998, with a history of more than 20 years). These affiliates are often recommended in Baidu or Google when searching for keywords such as "top foreign affiliate platforms". In addition, on overseas platforms such as quora, many affiliates also consistently recommend these affiliates, showing their reliability.

Roadrunner Alliance: These affiliate platforms are less well-known, less known, and usually have a shorter operational cycle (they may close down in 3-5 years). Despite the large number, for example, ofAdWords NavigationMore than 1,000 can be found on it, but at least half of them are unreliable platforms that can be blocked or run at any time.

Pros and cons of top leagues:

vantage::

• Strong advertisers
• Strong payment capacity
• high commission
• Affiliate Reputation
• Stable payments
• no deduction

drawbacks::

• Almost no CPA offers
• CPL has fewer offers
• Mainly CPS offers

Common top leagues: CJ, AWIN, FLEXOFFERS, IMP, LS, SAS, etc.

Advantages and disadvantages of common leagues:

vantage::

• More offers for CPA/CPL

drawbacks::

• Weak advertisers
• Lower single number payments
• Many offers come from other affiliates (mostly second or third hand offers) with lower commissions
• Poor affiliate reputation, may be blocked or docked for no good reason

2. By degree of strictness of the Union

Based on the strictness of the alliance, we have categorized them into two groups: strict in and lenient out and lenient in and lenient out.

strict entry, broad exit: It's harder to apply for an affiliate account, but the payments don't card people.

lenient entry, strict exit: It is easy to apply for an affiliate account, but the payment is stuck to the person. For example, CJ affiliate accounts are easy to apply for and do not require manual review, but payment is very difficult. We applied for more than a dozen CJ affiliate accounts last year, and none of them were successfully paid, even the account registered with my identity failed to pay.

Note: CJ League is not recommended for newbies.

In addition to these two types of alliances, there are some alliances that are wide entry and wide exit. For example, the SAS alliance, the account through the rate of 90% or more, the 20th of each month on time payment, no survey letter or identity survey, this type of alliance is very suitable for newcomers to the operation, known as the "long-term meal ticket".

Affiliate Selection Recommendations:

A wide-in, wide-out coalitionis the optimal choice, but there are fewer such alliances. Secondly, it is not recommended to be a wide-in, wide-out affiliate. It's hard to receive payments from wide-in, wide-out affiliates, especially CJ affiliates, which often send out survey letters that are hard to get through.

If it's a strict entry and wide exit alliance, it's harder to apply for an account, but at least the collection is guaranteed. When applying for an account, you can get help from a friend with good English or buy an account directly.

3. By country

We mainly operate two types of affiliates: American affiliates and European Union. For the most part, we operate offers geared toward the U.S. market, unless we specialize in some European alliances (e.g., the German market).

It can also be divided by language: English-speaking and other languages. The United States is the most developed country for affiliate marketing, with a large and powerful number of advertisers and the largest advertising expenditures. Therefore, when choosing an offer, if it does not include the US market, the application is generally not considered.

4. Extension (National Self-Building Alliance)

This kind of affiliate is not in our selection and is only popularized as a basic knowledge in the course. Some smart nationals build their own affiliate platforms (usually pretending to be overseas platforms), get offers from foreign affiliates or advertisers, and put them on their own websites for nationals to operate.

These types of affiliates usually have only one type of offer: sweepstakes (sweepstakes). They mainly make money in the following ways:

• training fee
• "L" fee (for selling goods)
• Offer commission spreads or just don't send payments.

Sweepstakes offers are usually found in ordinary foreign affiliates, but there are almost no such offers in top affiliates, we don't operate this kind of offers because the advertisers are weak, the performance audit is strict and the probability of payment is low. In addition, sweepstakes offers also involve some foreign blackmail.

Suggestion: Stay away from sweepstakes offers and alliances. Identification method: If the background amount of the alliance is displayed in three colors, the probability is that the alliance is built by nationals, and it is recommended to skip it directly.

II. Coalition Judgment and Selection

1. How to judge alliances

When screening unfamiliar and unfamiliar affiliates, we usually do so by checking the affiliate information and making a preliminary judgment of their strength based on the data obtained. Here are some specific steps:

• preliminary screening::
  • A randomly selected affiliate can be evaluated on affpaying.
  • NOTE: When choosing an affiliate, it is recommended to consider carefully if the domain name does not end in .COM. If you come across domains such as .club, you can usually just ignore them.
• Google Search::
  • Search for affiliate domains using Google to see how Google is indexed and ranked:
    • Looking at the number of search result pages, if there are very few results, it may be a minor league and may not be a U.S. league.
    • Compare the number of search result pages of CJ Affiliate and SAS Affiliate to determine their size.

• LinkedIn Search::
  • Check the company's LinkedIn information on Google:
    • If you can't find company information, consider it with caution.
    • If you have company information, check the number of employees, if there are dozens or hundreds of people, this affiliate can still be considered. You can compare the number of employees of the SAS affiliate to judge.
• Whois information of a domain name::
  • Check the Whois information of a domain name:
    • The longer the registration time, the better, usually recommended at least 7 years or more, 2-3 years or less of the affiliate can basically give up. You can compare the domain name registration time of CJ Affiliate.
• Company Information Inquiry::
  • Search Google for company information such as valuation and financing:
    • Companies with financing information are usually stronger.

Summary:

1. Affiliates whose domains do not end in .COM need to be considered with caution, but also be aware of some ccTLDs (e.g. .fr for France, .de for Germany).
2. Affiliates with domain name registrations shorter than 2-3 years old can basically give up.
3. Affiliates whose company information cannot be found on LinkedIn or who have no employees need to be considered with caution.
4. Affiliates whose company information is not found on Google need to be considered carefully.
5. Affiliates with sketchy website interfaces need to be considered with caution.
6. After applying for an affiliate account, log in to check the number of offers, if the advertiser does not have the strength or can not check the information of the alliance will not be considered.
7. Alliances from certain countries (e.g. India) need to be considered with caution.

2. How to choose a coalition

1. In principle: only operate the top foreign alliances, it is best not to even do the ordinary alliances.
   • However, since the top affiliates have almost no CPA and CPL type offers, you can only go with the regular affiliates if you mainly operate these two types of offers.
   • This course focuses on teaching how to operate CPS type offers, and we also only operate at the top affiliates.
2. Screening is based on the characteristics of the coalition:
   • The ease of operation varies from league to league.
   • A combination of factors such as the number of offers that meet the criteria, the offer confirmation performance time and the affiliate's payment cycle need to be considered to judge and select an affiliate.
   • Need to accumulate more experience in the alliance, the following fourth point will introduce some of our familiar alliances for your reference and learning.

III. Introduction and characteristics of common top-level alliances

Separate documents will be created subsequently about the affiliates we operate, and we will continue to share the features and experiences of each affiliate platform. Below is an overview of some of the common top affiliates and experiences shared.

1. CJ Alliance

• Web site entrance
  

  CJ Affiliate

  The famous CJ (Commission Junction), the world's largest marketing alliance.

• Established: 1998
• specificities: One of the top leagues in the world with about 3,000+ offers.
• vantage::
  1. There is no need to review your account, just sign up.
  2. Strong advertisers, no pressure to pay out tens of thousands of dollars on a single account.
  3. Advertisers go live infrequently and performance reviews are lax, but approval requests are slow and can involve a 2-3 month wait.
• drawbacks::
  1. New accounts have difficulty collecting and may send out letters of inquiry, but if the letter of inquiry can be resolved or if collections are made more than three times, the follow-up will be very consistent.
  2. Traffic is heavily scrutinized, regular traffic whitewashing methods are ineffective, and it is easy to send out traffic survey letters.
  3. CJ's AM scrutinizes account data, traffic sources, etc., which can easily lead to an account being investigated, but advertisers basically don't care, and AM approval is sufficient.
  4. Offer approvals are slow, rejection rates are high, and the website category needs to match the offer.
• reach a verdict: It is not recommended for newbies to start out with CJ, it may be difficult to collect money. However, if you are already making tens of thousands of dollars a month in other affiliates, you can consider CJ.

2. SAS Alliance

• Web site entrance(acquired by AWIN)
  

  ShareAsale (SAS Alliance)

  SAS is a company gathered by small advertisers in the U.S. ShareAsale Affiliate Marketing Platform registration official website, sas affiliate registration portal.

• specificities: Weaker than CJ Affiliate, with about 800 offers that meet the operational criteria, average advertiser strength, and not a high amount of single account operations.
• vantage::
  1. Payment is stable, on time on the 20th of each month, advertisers need to confirm the performance of the payment.
  2. Accounts blocked on the 20th will still be able to collect, but those blocked on the 19th will not be able to collect.
  3. High down number rate, loose operation, no traffic source or website category check.
• drawbacks::
  1. Risk control upgrades will begin in the second half of 2023, and traffic sources will need to be optimized.
  2. The account acquisition process is relatively cumbersome, and some offers have upgraded their wind control.
• reach a verdict: Still suitable for newcomers to the game, with stable payouts, and can be used as one of the main operating leagues.

3. IMP Coalition

• Web site entrance
  

  Impact

  IMP Affiliate, very fast development, high quality advertisers

• specificities: SaaS platform with single-offer accounts and global numbers.
• vantage::
  1. The number of offers is large and strong, the amount of single-account operation is high, and the payout is stable.
  2. The down number rate is high and consistent, and survey letters are sent infrequently.
  3. Older numbers are more stable than newer ones.
• drawbacks::
  1. Real ID verification is required, PS will not pass.
  2. Offers take a long time to review.
  3. Long-lasting IP and real cell phone number are required to register an account.
• reach a verdict: Suitable for newcomers to the game, but the cost of identity verification is high. The rate of the next number is stable and not easy to register on a large scale.

4. AWIN Alliance

• Web site entrance
  

  Awin

  With 6000+ merchants, one of the largest alliances in Europe

• specificities: The No. 1 CPS affiliate in North America, with rapid development, a large number of offers and business covering many countries.
• vantage: Many advertisers, high single account payout, easy to place accounts.
• drawbacks: You need to apply for an account by paying $1 with a virtual card, which has recently been heavily scrutinized for running google ads for branded terms.
• reach a verdict: It is not recommended to operate multiple accounts for the time being, but can be tested in small quantities and wait for the wind to pass before operating in multiple numbers.

5. FLEXOFFERS Coalition

• Web site entrance
  

  FlexOffers

  Top affiliate that can pay out large amounts, 12,000+ advertisers, lots of powerful advertisers.

• specificities: CJ Affiliate's lower level affiliate with strong offers and stable payouts.
• vantage: Can apply for offers that CJ can't apply for.
• drawbacks: Extremely low down rate and difficult to apply for an account.
• reach a verdict: Top quality affiliate with stable payouts, but accounts are hard to apply for and not suitable for newbies to operate.

6. PPJ Coalition

• Web site entrance
  

  Pepperjam

  PPJ Affiliate is one of the favorites of small advertisers

• specificities: The number and strength of advertisers is average, but payouts are stable.
• vantage: Accounts are easy to apply for, can come with operations, and do 2-3k USD per month.
• reach a verdict: Suitable for incidental operations and stable payouts.

7. LS Alliance

• Web site entrance
  

  Rakuten Advertising

  A place where all kinds of awesome advertisers gather

• specificities: A top league on par with CJ, later acquired by Rakuten.
• vantage: The number and strength of advertisers is comparable to that of CJ, the account is immediately approved, not audited and easy to pay out.
• reach a verdict: A league suitable for novice operators.