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The following is my opinion based on personal experience. I will rate the affiliate networks that I have personally done business with and just have a list of those affiliate networks that I have not done business with at the bottom of this article.
I’ve been doing Affiliate Marketing on and off since the mid to late 1990’s. Affiliate Marketing involves placing ads on my website and making a commission if someone clicks/taps on one of the ads and buys something. I haven’t made a ton of money doing this. But it has been fun, a learning experience, I have made a bit of money and gotten some free stuff along the way. In the interest of sharing what I have learned, I will give mini reviews of the allifiate networks that I have dealt with. I will rate them according to these five criteria:
- Selection of Advertisers
- Quality of their Web Site
- Quality of Support
- A short summary of my experience with a given network
- An Overall Grade
Here we go:
FlexOffers, Fort Lauderdale, FL 
Selection of Advertisers: Very Good
Quality of their Web Site: Good
Quality of Support: Good
Summary: I’ve been with FlexOffers for about five years now. They have over 9,500 advertisers. It’s a good mix of advertisers. FlexOffers is basically a sub-affiliate network. They sign up with other affiliate networks and offer advertisers to smaller websites. I have had a good working relationship with FlexOffers.
Overall Grade: A
Impact, Santa Barbara, CA 
Selection of Advertisers: Good
Quality of their website: Good
Quality of Support: Fair
Summary: I’ve been with Impact (or Impact Radius, as the old timers call it) for about five years now. They have a good all around mix of advertisers. Their interface has improved greatly over the last few years. They work on a contract basis between the affiliate publisher and the affiliate advertiser. Either can cancel anytime and the advertiser has the option to renew the contract. I think that’s fair. Two things that I am not that crazy about with Impact is that I cannot quit advertisers that leave me in the pending approval mode forever. And I did have some issues with their support, which eventually got straightened out.
Overall Grade: B
Kutoku, Edmonton, AB, Canada 
Selection of Advertisers: Very Good
Quality of Their Website: Very Good
Quality of Support: Very Good
Summary- This affiliate network only started a few years ago but has grown very quickly. The founder’s name is Nick Coe and he personally interviewed me via Zoom before he approved me. This affiliate network primarilly deals with clothing related advertisers. There a a few advertisers with this network that have some outdoor stuff as well as clothing. So it may not appeal to everyone, but it is an interesting collection of clothing based small businesses.
Overall Grade: B
Triad Media, Las Vegas, NV 
Selection of Advertisers: Fair
Quality of their website: Fair
Quality of Support: Good
Summary: Triad Media has been around since the 1990’s. I have dealt with them on and off over the years. My contact person there is Zak Ray. He has been very responsive to my support requests over the years. The quality of advertisers has improved greatly over what it was 5 years ago. Their interface is an off the shelf product which is functional but not that easy to use.
Overall Grade: B
Partnerize, New York, NY and other locations globally 
Selection of Advertisers: Fair
Quality of Website: Fair
Quality of Support: Good
Partnerize bought out small Affiliate Pepperjam a few years ago. In my opinion, their website is not very intuitive. You have to right click to get URL’s, the selection of advertisers is not that many and there are maybe a few outdoor related advertisers to choose from. Finding images are a challenge. Their support has been responsive.
Overall Grade: C
AWIN, Berlin, Germany and offices around the world 
Selection of Advertisers: Very Good
Quality of Website: Fair
Quality of Support: Good
Summary: AWIN bought out smaller affiliate ShareASale a few years ago. In my opinion, the interface on ShareASale was way better than the interface on AWIN. The interface on AWIN looks like some slick salesperson sold them one of those solutions where they had to change their business model to work with the vendor’s software and not the other way around. While support has been good, I think that they botched the transition of advertisers from ShareASale to AWIN. They said that it would be seamless. But I now have two accounts under my name, the old ShareASale accounts and AWIN. I don’t call that seamless. Not a lot of outdoor related advertisers.
Overall Grade: C
Max Bounty, Ottawa, ON, Canada 
Selection of Advertisers: Fair
Quality of Website: Fair
Quality of Support: Very Good
Summary: Max Bounty was recently bought out by German media company Mrge. They don’t have a lot of outdoor related advertisers. And their turndown rate for publishers applying for advertisers is, in my opinion, very high. However, they have a dedicated support person. My contact there is Ryan MacWha. He has been very good in answering my support issues. As far as their interface goes, you have to bookmark advertisers that you are working with. And they don’t have a great deal of images to go with the URL’s for their advertisers.
Overall Grade: C
Commission Factory, Sydney, New South Whales, Australia 
Selection of Advertisers: Good but local only
Quality of Website: Good
Quality of Support: Very Good
Summary: Commission Factory is owned by AWIN. I originally joined Commission Factory because I wanted to offer goods and services from Australia and New Zealand. However, first I learned that most of their advertisers do not ship globally. And there were only one or two outdoor related advertisers. Then, after the U.S. tariffs were passed I sent emails to some of these advertisers asking if they were still shipping to the US. They said no. So I had to quit this affiliate network. I was really bummed about it. Though I think this affiliate network merits more than a C, I think that unless you are local to this region, that you would not benefit from joining them.
Overall Grade: C
Paid On Results, Glaskow, Scotland UK 
Quality of Advertisers: Fair but mostly local
Quality of Website: Good
Quality of Support: n/a as I haven’t needed to use their support
Summary: Like the entry above this affiliate network has mostly european affiliate advertisers. I have one advertiser through this network that is international but based in Atlanta, GA. They may have one outdoor related advertiser.
Overall Grade: C
Link Connector, Cary, NC 
Quality of Advertisers: Limited but good.
Quality of Website: Good
Quality of Support: Good
Summary: This is a small affiliate network. I’ll guestimate about 150 advertisers. Most of their advertisers are software companies from various countries. They have had some outdoor related advertisers in the past but I don’t believe they have any right now.
Overall Grade: C
Up Promote/SecomApp, Hanoi, VietNam 
Quality of Advertisers: Many but only Good
Quality of Website: Good but too restrictive
Quality of Support: Good in the beginning but poor now.
Summary: When I first signed onto UpPromote (which used to be called SecomApp) it was great. I could freely browse among over a thousand advertisers and it was fun. First they limited searches to only ten advertisers. Then, they limited how many advertisers that one could have at 25. Then, they said that you couldn’t quit an advertiser, you had to contact them and ask them to terminate the relationship. However, if an advertiser goes out of business, it is difficult to contact them. So I have about 15 out of business advertisers on my account that I can’t get rid of. They used to have a support person there named Stark that one could work with and he would do things like remove advertisers from my account that were no longer in business. I don’t think that he is there anymore. The people that they have there now have not been very cooperative. And their system is too restrictive.
Overall Grade: D
Google Ad Sense, Mountain View, CA 
Quality of Advertisers: Good
Quality of Website: Very Good
Summary: Quality of Support: Fair
Summary: I had Google AdSense back in the late 1990’s. They used to be a pay per click affiliate network. This was great. I was getting $100.00 checks from these guys every 6 months to a year. However, you had no control over the advertisers. Fast forward to 2023, one still has no control over their advertisers. What Google now does is steal your cookies and shows you ads based on websites that you have previously visited. And now they place ads on your site whereever they want to place them. So You are not in control as far as ad placement and ad content goes.
Overall Grade: D
Trade Tracker, Almere, The Netherlands 
Quality of Advertisers: n/a I never got to find out.
Quality of Website: n/a I never got to find out.
Quality of Support: n/a I never got to find out.
Summary: I applied to this affiliate network but I never heard back from them. I tried contacting their support. I tried reapplying. Nothing. Maybe they didn’t like me Oh, well.
Overall Grade: F
ClixGalore, Sydney, Australia 
Quality of Advertisers: Poor
Quality of Website: Poor
Quality of Support: Poor
Summary: I was with these guys back in the 1990’s. Their website looks the same today as it did then. They had some interesting advertisers in the past. Not a lot of outdoor related advertisers. I had them for my last domain. When I tried applying with them for my current domain, I got no reply. They probaby have somewhere around 30 advertisers now. And the website appears to be running on autopilot.
Overall Grade: F
Rakuten Advertising, San Mateo, CA 
Quality of Advertisers: Good but was better in the past
Quality of Website: Good but was better in the past
Quality of Support: Poor
Summary: Rakuten Advertising bought affiliate network LinkShare about five years ago. I had LinkShare back in the 1990’s and they were great. After Rakuten bought LinkShare I noticed that the quality of advertisers declined. Not a lot of outdoor related advertisers.
And it looked like I was on their “poopie list” because they weren’t approving me for anything. I wasn’t getting any sales. So I tried buying something for myself using one of my affiliate URL’s. Now, some affiliate networks have no issue with this. And some advertisers disapprove of this. But it varies. So I bought something using one of my affiliate URL’s. I didn’t see the sale on my stats the next day. So I called support. At first, they said, that maybe it was this, maybe it was that. So I got angry and told the support person to look at their sales and let me know if there was an issue of some sort. They then told me that the advertiser gave the sale to another affiliate publisher. I was so angry that I quit this advertiser immediately.
Overall Grade: F
Commission Junction or CJ, Santa Barbara, CA 
Quality of Advertisers: Very Good
Quality of Website: Very Good
Quality of Support: Very Good
Summary: You may be wondering why I am giving these guys an F with all of these very good ratings. Here’s why. Also called CJ, Commission Junction was bought by Conversant in the early 2000’s. Shortly afterwards, they instituted a policy whereby if an affiliate publisher (me) generated less than $10 in a year in commissions, which was probably between $200-300 in sales, any commissions earned would be taken by CJ as a service fee. I didn’t care back in the early 2000’s. But when I set up my last website in 2017, I needed to make money. So after 11 months I had $9.83 in commissions. 12 months rolled around, I was below $10 and they took my $9.83 as a service fee. I was so angry that I quit them immediately. So unless you are a high volume affiliate publisher, I would not recommend CJ.
Overall Grade: F
Amazon, Seattle, WA and Arlington, VA 
Quality of Advertisers: Good
Quality of Website: Very Good
Quality of Support: Fair
Summary: I had Amazon as an affiliate when they were selling books only back in the late 1990’s. They approved everyone and they even had a letter from Jeff Bezos saying that I was an authorized affiliate, that you would get the same prices and service, etc, etc.
Fast forward to 2023. Now that they are one of the world’s largest retailers, they approved me but said that I had to generate a sale within 90 days and I couldn’t buy anything myself through my affiliate code. I didn’t sell anything within 90 days and they closed my account. Also, Amazon reduced their affiliate commissions lately so that’s another strike against them. If you are a high traffic website, you will probably be successful with Amazon. I have been told that dealing with Amazon traffic is like standing in front of a fire hose.
Overall Grade: F
Trade Doubler, Stockholm, Sweeden 
Quality of Advertisers: Fair
Quality of Website: Fair
Quality of Support: Poor
Summary: I joined TradeDoubler in the summer of 2024. I got a few advertisers from these guys. There were some U.S. based advertisers but the majority were European based. I obtained additional advertisers from them as the year went on. In July, 2025 I researched their payout method. They said that they did either ACH or payment through a service called Payoneer. I asked their support which one they recommended. I didn’t hear back so I applied and got accepted by Payoneer. About a week after I got approved by Payoneer I got an email from Trade Doubler saying that my account was being canceled due to lack of activity. I admit that I had no sales. But their selection of advertisers was not that good.
Overall Score: F
AvantLink, Park City, UT 
Quality of Advertisers: Very Good
Quality of Website: Very Good
Quality of Support: Fair
I won’t go into detail but it took me five years to get accepted by AvantLink. I was very happy. They had a great mix of outdoor advertisers. All was good. Until there was a security issue within their network. Their solution to this security issue was to close my account even though I was not responsible for this issue. This same issue occured when I was with AvantLink in the early 2000’s. I was told that I could reapply and get a new account. But I had worked hard to aquire 85 advertisers this go around, I didn’t want to go through that again and I didn’t trust the security of their network. So I decided to remove all of those advertisers from my network.
Overall Score: F
The following are smaller affiliate networks. Some I have dealt with in the past. Some I have never dealt with. And I may have an advertiser on one or two of them:
ejunkie, Click Bank, Vig Link/Sovrn, getambassador.com, Avangate, Skimlinks
Affiliatly, Offer Vaullt, Shopify Collabs, Fiverr, Refersion, GoAffPro, Tapfiliate
So I hope that I have been successful in transfering my knowledge and experience about Affiliate Marketing to the reader. It is not easy. But there is money to be made.
Mike C
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