How to Apply & get Accepted by Affiliate Networks

30. Jan 2009 | 8 Comments

We’re currently working on the beta version of our Affiliate Network Reviews & as such I’m currently signing up to every network out there to really get an idea of how they operate.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to outlay some of the key things you should do before applying to a network:

What you’ll need

Name
Email
Other contact details (Daytime & Evening Phone)
Current Address
Business Name
Payment details (Paypal or DD)
Tax Information / SS (Unless outside USA)
Website details including UB’s & niche
How you intend to send traffic (i.e. Email, PPC or SEO)
If Email you may be asked for the IP address of your mail server
Other affiliate networks you’re working with

Domain

You’ll be asked to provide the domain that you’re using to carry out any activities. Make sure the domain is active & isn’t a holding page. Also make sure that this is a reputable domain that has potential to provide leads/sales to the network.

Avoid putting adwords.com or anything similar as your domain because this probably won’t get accepted (depending on the Network, most are fine with PPC only affiliates as long as you specify). If you’re just doing SEM I wouldn’t bother putting any website down.

I submitted Earners Blog as the domain for most of the networks since this is where I’m doing the reviews. Funnily enough I did get one application declined by CX Digital Media because they don’t accept sites hosted on free hosting. I don’t know if they’re retarded over there but it doesn’t take much intelligence to figure out that I’m not hosting on a free blog host.

Email Address

This is a vital part of the equation. It’s best to provide an email address that corresponds with the domain name you’ve submitted above, this helps to cement the fact that you’re legitimate with the network you’re applying to. Try to avoid free email accounts like hotmail, gmail or yahoo.

Verification

Quite a large number of networks will now ask you to verify that you either own the website or ask you to call up & have a chat with them. This is a good opportunity to start up a conversation with an AM before you get accepted. This may give you some insights into how knowledgeable they are.

I was even asked by one network to put up a text link to one of their partner sites as verification. Um no.

What not to do when accepted

Don’t lie about the website that you own
Don’t start trying to get a better payout on offers right away, wait until you start pushing volume
Don’t hassle the hell out of your AM, use them wisely
Avoid brand bidding, you’ll get booted fairly quickly for this
Be careful with incentivized traffic, some offers allow it but most don’t

How you should use your AM

Account Managers are a wealth of information at some Networks, the bottom line is that the better you do, the more money they make.

Ask the right questions, don’t bust balls:

Which offers are converting well currently?
Which landing pages are kicking ass? (most won’t tell you this but it doesn’t hurt to ask)

This should be all you need to really start rolling.

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8 Reviews on "How to Apply & get Accepted by Affiliate Networks"

Denise 13. Mar 2009, 9:07 am

Thanks for posting this – I’ve posted a similiar article on my blog after being disgusted at the number of people who apply to the affiliate program I manage who can’t even fill out the forms correctly. It’s pretty easy to accept and reject people based on simple things like “can they read directions”, or “does the website even make sense for this program”. And, don’t think that affiliate managers don’t know how to spot someone who violate terms. They do, and it usually annoys them. You’ll get kicked off in a heart beat.

Affiliate Dollars 22. Apr 2009, 11:38 am

Getting accepted into affiliate networks is fairly easy. Getting accepted for all their merchants can be tough – eg CJ often decline without explanation.
CPA network acceptance: thats another area altogether!

LeadCreations.com Affiliate Program 06. May 2009, 6:43 am

LeadCreations.com is fairly easy to get accepted, after you sign up for your account it takes less than 24hours to get approved as long as you don’t lie about your site or lie about any of your information. Serious affiliate companies hire serious people! LeadCreations is a CPA and CPL network where affiliates can earn massive profits, some of our programs pay up to $20 per lead.

Kim Adair 07. Jul 2009, 6:43 am

Getting into CPA networks is fairly simple, have a blog/website with good content, more than 5 posts is the norm, and don’t lie about anything, period!

scott 02. Sep 2009, 11:08 pm

Hello
I’ve brought the Zero friction Marketing product don’t know if any of you have read it, it’s good any way some say you pretty much have to lie like a trooper to get in. I really don’t feel comfortable lieing to someone i want to make money with. i want to do CPA offers by PPC and banners. Does anyone know what CPA networks i could join?

sean jay 25. Sep 2009, 11:23 pm

Hello Scott: As far as I know – Hydra is the easiset one to get into.

A few days ago I got a call from a cpa company called Maxbounty to accept my application. It seemed pretty easy to get accepted and I am from the UK not the USA which I thought might go against me somewhat. I guess I had a few things in my favour. This is what I did when applying and during the telephone conversation:

Used one of my high quality sites as an example when filling in the application. My background is pure affiliate marketing sales so I had a lot of sites already.

Used a professional email address – the same as the website I submitted. My site was http://www.clearskinpores.com so i generated an email from that. Its been going for about a year which helps because I read somewhere that the older the domain the better when they look at the site. Also i’ts my best performing site and is at the top of google. Not necessary but helps. (this is not me trying to publicise my site or spread spam – its just so you all can see the type of site MaxBounty liked)

Have a niche that you have a personal interest in. Mine was health related products. This happened purely by accident – as soon as i told them that their ears pricked up.

Know how u r going to get them traffic to their offers and tell them. I listed at length all the methods I use and that I am going to use – I was honest.

In my application I told them about my keyword research. Eg I found a relevant word that has a monthly search of 2.4 million with little competion. i bought all the domains for it and spoke about this in my application.

The affiliate manager gave me some of their highest paying offers to start promoting.

All I can say is that everyone’s experience is different. As long as u know your stuff you will have a good chance – Ive had 2 acceptances and 1 rejection so far!!! Oh and another one that you should be able to get into is CPA bullet. I signed up to Zero friction and according to ZF anyone who joins them is automatically accepted on CPA bounty. trouble is CPA bounty dont have that many offers I notice.

Good luck

Candy Collins 26. Sep 2009, 5:02 am

Sometimes it is pretty easy to get accepted especially if it is startup company.
For example, there new aff. network Revolution202. Also very good one MoreNiche.com.
But almost all of them prefer experienced affiliates – 1-2 years of experience.

bearwood 28. Sep 2009, 8:23 am

as a newbie i thought i would join a few affliates and make some money,, again not as easy as i thought , i have found a great company to do businesss with, and now can if get people to click
the links …. some good info on this site