Money for webmasters

By Kay McMahon, 24 February 2004

Part 1: Affiliate Networks

Many of our friends have websites, but not all that many who have content-based sites (like this one) are maximising their potential to make money from their efforts.

Dealing with individual advertisers can be very time-consuming and I’ve not found it to be a productive use of my time. I’ve found the best solution is to join a few affiliate networks’ programmes. These networks act as an interface between merchants and publishers. The great beauty of them is that they are free to join, you choose what you want to advertise, where and when, and the network operator accumulates all your commission and sends you a cheque. All you have to do is place the merchants’ links on your site, sit back and watch the money grow.

This is much better than earning pennies (or pounds if you’re lucky!) with a dozen or more individual programmes and having to wait until you’ve accumulated whatever each merchant decides.

Here are the programmes which we use on British Expat and which I recommend. If you do decide to join, please do so using the links here – your earnings are unaffected, but we’ll earn a tier commission on whatever you bring in. Every little helps!

(Don’t forget to read all terms and conditions carefully.)

Affiliate Window is the top-earner amongst our affiliate networks. This UK-based network has a wide range of merchants whose products and services you can sell. Categories include travel, food and drink, dating, and much more.
Affiliate Window

Affiliate Future is very similar, with a large range of merchants.
AffiliateFuture

Trade Doubler is another similar one. They are Europe-based and have a large list of merchants, many travel-related and also a large selection of others. Their merchants include: Air France, Avis Car Hire, Opodo, Boots, Dell, Curry’s, and loads more, from condoms to golf breaks to cameras.
TradeDoubler

Another affiliate network we like, which is particularly good for the US and Canada, is ShareASale – they have a huge variety of merchants.
ShareASale

We don’t recommend Commission Junction, for various reasons. You can read some of them here:
CJ Sucks!

Don’t forget – if you do decide to join any of these, please do so using the links here as we’ll earn a tier commission at no cost to you.

Part Two: Other advertising