The impact? A host of bloggers and publishers are seeing their revenues massively dented, from tiny BBQ grill review sites to the hugest media organizations around. Suddenly, every other affiliate program and network out there is looking more attractive. In fact, multiple affiliate sites I spoke to for this article have seen their partners or revenues nearly double within just a few months. Here are some of the top options available in 2020 to anyone who wants to earn a living or a side hustle by recommending products online. See our full guide on How to Make Money from a Website Top Publications: BuzzFeed News, Vox, New York Magazine Best for: Authors, book reviewers, booktubers
Narrativ
Narrativ offers a dynamic link technology that lets it easily and automatically redirect the links used by any publication partnered with it. This avoids broken links and means that any product link is always pointing to the best possible vendor. Top Publications: Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, The Strategist, Us Weekly Best for: Mid- to large-sized publishers and influencers Top merchants include Adobe, Vimeo, and Nike, among many more. They’re a huge commerce platform, too, working with 60,000 publishers around the globe. Some are big players (Condé Nast, Verizon, Hearst, Meredith, and Time Inc.), but Skimlinks also works with a portfolio of smaller bloggers and content sites. Still, getting into the Skimlinks program isn’t guaranteed: The lockdown hasn’t hurt Skimlinks either. Commissions grew 192% across April, and over 1,000 new merchants joined their network, boosting revenues by 160% since the beginning of April. They’re growing fast. If you have a small but high-quality audience, don’t let the fact that only 20% of applicants are accepted scare you away. Top Publications: Conde Nast, Verizon, Hearst Best for: Bloggers, news publishers
eBay Partner Network
The rates vary by country (you can check them out over here), but overall… they’re only okay, with most US product categories offering commissions of 2-5%, and none higher than 6%. Worse, the eBay network made a big change in 2019, rolling back the length of time that an affiliate link remains active after it’s clicked – this went from seven days to just 24 hours. In other words, a customer who clicks through your eBay link will earn you a commission on any sales only if a purchase is made within the next day. That’s a big deal because of eBay auctions – many customers like to wait until the final hours of an auction to place their bid in hopes of keeping anyone else from upping the price. Best for: Hobbyists, eBay lovers
Other Networks
Affiliate networks aren’t quite the same as affiliate programs, although many use the terms interchangeably (like the eBay Partner Network, which is an affiliate program despite having ‘network’ right there in the name). A network aggregates programs, offering access to a selection of them. They’re also more difficult to get into, but are worth it for access to a wide range of vendors’ affiliate programs: Skimlinks, and Narrativ are networks, which is why they offer a range of merchants but are tough to get into. You can check out even more networks if you’d like (here’s a list of a dozen), and it’s worth looking into if you’re a website large enough to get in. Selling your own products online? See our guide to the Best Ecommerce Website Builders
