Affiliate Marketing and Aggregators II

There are several companies who bring together dozens, even hundreds of companies that offer affiliate programs that you can use. SBI! owners shared the following "user feedback" about some of the larger aggregators…

Commission Junction (CJ)

Commission Junction is one of the global, very large companies that some SBI! owners like, and others don't. Here's the good and the bad…

CJ has a low monthly payout threshold ($100), along with a choice of direct deposit or check, but they have long wait times for payments (60 days or longer). They'll also drop you if you don't have a sale in 6 months.
Searching for products is easy, but you can't add additional search parameters. You can search for individual products, even ones in companies you aren't affiliated with yet. But you can't find particular products from any one merchant if that merchant has over 1000 products.
You have to find product links and add the code separately for each product you want to promote. You are limited to text links and image banners, which are very time consuming to use. The graphics are poor for many products. You might want to get the graphics from the affiliate company's site, as they often create low-resolution graphics for the aggregator's site.
The reporting systems are fairly good, making it easy to track performance. It also has an immediate summary of money earned since your last payment.
There are very few options to adjust the formatting of affiliate links.
There are lots of affiliate companies but no way to easily sort by currency or country. It's easy to add more companies, but you need to remember to use different ID codes per company, especially if you plan to use PopShops.
There is a good mix of advertisers that approve immediately and others that approve manually. Some advertisers take a long time to approve you as an affiliate.

ShareASale

ShareASale is another popular, large aggregator. Again, some like it and some don't…

It has a low payment threshold and allows direct deposit (to Canada, UK and US), but charges $5.50 per deposit. It has an immediate view of money earned to date.
It's not easy to find products.
Some pay per click (PPC) programs are available after you receive your first check.
There is some variety in affiliate link types, but not much in the way of customization. But it is very easy to create your own custom link to any product of advertiser.
Fairly good reporting options are available, but you may not always get what you expected (ex., a blank screen).
It offers datafeeds and merchant-provided videos to add to your site
It has lots of graphics, which can be used as images on your site while also being used as links to products.

LinkShare

LinkShare is not as popular as CJ and ShareASale, but it is a very large aggregator…

It has a very good selection of affiliate companies and products, including excellent deep link options (to individual products).
It often has very poor conversion rates (sales via your links).

Clickbank

Clickbank is an aggregator of affiliate products, not an aggregator of affiliate companies.

Clickbank's customer support is not consistent.
You must have purchases through your affiliate links from 5 different credit cards before you will be paid (PayPal doesn't count). They hold back a percentage for several months, in case of fraud and chargebacks. They also charge a fee for inactivity.
If you have a product in the marketplace, and have no sales for 30 days, they remove your product.

Investigate the above aggregators on your own to see if your individual assessments are similar or different. Testing, tracking and evaluating possible affiliate programs is how you find the best possible income streams for your affiliate marketing e-business.