Commission Junction

1. The first kind is managed and run exclusively by a merchant. Amazon Associates is a good example of this. The only way you can sign-up to be an affiliate for Amazon is through their associates program, and if you sign-up, you’re only an affiliate for Amazon.
2. The second kind is an affiliate management portal. These are basically companies that manage affiliate programs for merchants. Commission Junction (CJ) is an example of this kind of program. When you sign-up for CJ, you’re not actually an affiliate for any merchants. Within the CJ site, you then apply to be an affiliate for various merchants. CJ will then manage the relationship between you and the merchant, and pay you any commissions that are due.

If you’re just starting out, I suggest you get an account with Commission Junction. This way you’re all setup and prepared to apply to be an affiliate for merchants as soon as you’re ready. CJ manages affiliate programs for some major merchants (eBay, WalMart, etc.) so it’s a good one to be signed-up with.

When you sign-up for the first time you have to provide your web site address. So you’ll want to create a web site somewhere. A free site or blog is sufficient to get started, so you can just do that.

Once you’re signed-up and apply for various merchants, they’ll review your sites (you can add more sites after you’ve created a CJ account) so you want to develop some good ones later on, but just to get a CJ account, any old web site should do.

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