Best ClickBank Alternatives
ClickBank is a great platform for affiliates, but they have received quite a bit of negative reviews in the past years. So, if you have been looking for a number of ClickBank alternatives, you’ve come to the right place.
We’re going to include the pros and cons for all of the following networks in the sections below, so keep on reading!
What are the best alternatives to ClickBank?
First of all, why would you look for an alternative to ClickBank in the first place? Besides its somewhat shady reputation, ClickBank isn’t that bad, but the problem is that vendors can easily create an account.
This means that there are a lot of spammy products ending up on the affiliate platform; what’s worse, there’s no one going through the list and separating the wheat from the chaff, which makes ClickBank rather poorly managed on the whole.
This network does have its fair share of benefits though, since here you can also find products with recurring commissions and the value of the commissions on some of them can be quite high (you can even get 90% of the cost of a digital product).
But you will have to waste a lot of time on ClickBank to make sure that you only select good products. If they end up being spammy, it might backfire. On the other hand, if the product/service you have chosen is very well-known, its name might have massive organic competition, so it will be more difficult for you to rank for that keyword.
JVZoo
We thought we’d start with this one because it was one of the first suggested by other affiliate bloggers. Well, JVZoo does have its pros and cons, like any other affiliate platform, but it’s actually not that great either.
In fact, you can find a lot of spammy products on this network, too, so you’ll basically experience the same thing as you would with Clickbank.
On the upside, though, they do have customer service, so at least you will be able to talk to somebody if you run into an issue. The platform is also easier to use and honestly looks better compared to ClickBank, and we all know how the latter seems to be taken straight out of the 1990s in terms of design.
So, while it might be something worth looking into, we’d say that you have to mull over whether it makes sense to become a JVZoo affiliate or not.
Udemy
While not a network in itself, although you will definitely find heaps of digital products here, Udemy is worth noting since the educational niche will always be successful.
The downside is that most of the commissions you can earn by recommending Udemy courses to your audience are 15%, so you’re clearly not going to become rich by promoting them. Plus, the cookie lasts for 7 days, which can be too low for some affiliates.
Still, if you are looking to diversify your income (especially since it’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket), we’d say that Udemy is undoubtedly worth considering.
Rakuten Marketing
The best thing about Rakuten is that the company works with some of the best-known brands in the world right now, meaning that you are not going to come across any bad products on this platform.
The downside is that they are heavily focused on actual physical products, so it depends on your niche whether this one is suitable for you or not. It is possibly one of the best ClickBank alternatives out there, but it does have some cons, mostly related to the payout.
For example, while ClickBank pays you when you make just $10 in commissions, Rakuten will do so when you hit the $50 threshold. And while they are similar to ClickBank, they actually have fewer choices in terms of payout methods — wire transfers and Payoneer are not supported.
Market Health
We’ve mentioned this one before in some of our other posts, such as the one we wrote on the top affiliate networks out there and the one on the best health affiliate programs.
When it comes to ClickBank alternatives, this one’s pretty great if your blog or website is generally focused on health topics. There are a variety of products you can promote on this particular platform, but many of them are vitamins and supplements.
The good thing about Market Health is that they are considerate when it comes to their affiliates and the vendors, too, so you’ll benefit from support — a luxury that you will not get on ClickBank.
ShareASale
This is one of the massive alternatives to ClickBank that you will come across and it is being recommended by hundreds of affiliate bloggers. What we do have to note about it is that it’s heavily focused on physical products, so that makes the difference between ShareASale and ClickBank.
As with the second, the commissions and cookies largely vary on the vendor, so you will have to do that research yourself. After all, there are over four thousand merchants available on this platform.
CJ Affiliate
This is one of the oldest affiliate networks in the world right now seeing how it was created in the same year ClickBank was born, too. It used to be called Commission Junction but they changed their name back in 2014.
The first and most important reason to consider CJ affiliate would be that they have an extremely user-friendly dashboard. This means that you can discover products and services you can recommend to your readers with as little effort as possible.
The downside is that you have to apply for every individual merchant first, so it might take some time before you are accepted into the programs. However, even though this process complicates things a bit, it also gives you the reassurance that CJ Affiliate is actually legit.
Skillshare
Since ClickBank has recently become packed with digital products, we’d say that Skillshare is a good alternative to keep in mind. Naturally, Skillshare has its pros and cons, in that it’s not an affiliate network per se, it’s merely an affiliate program.
The commission rate is $7 per lead and the cookie lasts for 30 days, but since it’s in the education niche, there is success to be had.
So while you are not going to get rich by promoting Skillshare courses, it is still an option when it comes to diversifying your income sources.
Coursera
This one is slightly better than Skillshare since unlike the previously mentioned platform, it works on a pay-per-course basis, not on a monthly subscription where you get access to all the educational materials.
In fact, if you begin promoting Coursera digital products, you can earn anything from 20% to 45% of each one’s value. The cookie also lasts for thirty days, which is worth writing home about. Plus, there are over four thousand courses available on the platform right now, so you’ll have lots of options you will be able to recommend to your blog readers.
Moreover, they even have an affiliate team and lots of promotional tools, so the whole experience is a breeze.
Treehouse
This is another good alternative to consider, especially since it is geared toward people who want to learn how to code. Let’s face it, programming is perhaps one of the most important assets that people can learn these days, so this site offers a variety of online courses for any skills and backgrounds.
The commissions vary depending on the exact digital product that you choose to recommend to your blog readers, but there are three hundred courses available and they also give you the necessary tools to promote them.
Awin
This network is another user-friendly choice that might have to be jotted down on your list. The company has been around for more than two decades during which it’s acquired a rather favorable reputation. They even have a plugin available, which you can conveniently use to convert regular links into affiliate links.
There are a number of cons to using Awin, though, and the first that we have to note here is that you have to pay $5 to become a member. You do get this sum back if you are approved, but if you are not, you basically lose the $5 forever.
When it comes to Awin and ClickBank payment options, there are several differences between the two networks. For example, with ClickBank, the payment threshold is just $10 while here you’ll have to get $20 in commissions before being able to get paid.
The only way you can get paid if you use Awin is PayPal, so if for any reason you get your account deleted or something happens in this sense, you’ll have no way of getting your money.
FlexOffers
This is another network that should be right up your alley, especially if you never want to run out of things to promote. There are over ten thousand merchants available on the FlexOffers platform, so that’s one less thing to worry about.
The interface is particularly easy to use so in this sense, it might be better compared to Clickbank. Naturally, the commissions and cookie durations vary from one vendor to the next, so you’ll have to do that research yourself.
What we have to note is that you have to acquire at least $50 in commissions before being paid (which is different from ClickBank). There are quite a bit of options when it comes to payout methods, so you can receive your money through Paypal, bank transfers, wire transfers, or even cheque, if that’s what you tend to use.
Pepperjam
There are several reasons to choose Pepperjam over ClickBank, such as the fact that they have a dedicated affiliate team that will assist you through the process of starting to use the marketing tools available on the platform.
However, we do have to note that they have a somewhat complicated payment process and that only Paypal is available at the moment of you signing up. The threshold is $25, which is better compared to the other ClickBank alternatives that we might have mentioned in this article.
Peerfly
Although fairly less known compared to ClickBank or some of the other affiliate networks that we have noted here, Peerfly is definitely worth looking into.
Unfortunately, it also focuses on physical products, so if you’re looking to recommend educational services or courses to your audience, this is not the right place for you.
They do have several digital products on the platform, but it’s not the wide variety that you will find on ClickBank. In terms of payment options, they can pay through Payoneer, Paypal, wire transfers and cheque, and the payout threshold is $50.
Sovrn//
We’ll make a separate article about this affiliate network so that you know all the pros and cons, but what we’d like to note is that it’s basically VigLink rebranded under a different name
While we aren’t crazy about tools like Skimlinks or VigLink simply because they convert product links into affiliate links, we’d say that this one is at least worth considering.
However, there is a significant drawback that you have to mull over and it’s the fact that the platform actually takes 25% as a share from your earnings. Unfortunately, that makes it considerably less appealing and in a way, worse on the whole compared to ClickBank.
Mindvalley
This is another affiliate program that’s in the educational space, so to some extent, it is quite similar to ClickBank. The site offers a broad range of digital products from courses and services to actual software.
On the downside, they have a somewhat complicated and lengthy approval process, so you will have to go through that to be able to promote the Mindvalley products.
Since this is a program and not a network per se, we can tell you what earnings you can expect. The commission is 30% of the value of all courses and the cookie lasts for 30 days. Another reason to become a Mindvalley affiliate is that you get a dedicated affiliate manager, so you have someone to talk to if you run into a problem.
Final thoughts
As you might have noticed, there are many Clickbank alternatives out there and it all comes down to what you feel comfortable with, what products you want to promote, how and when you can get paid, and a number of other such subjective factors.
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Craig Campbell
I am a Glasgow based SEO expert who has been doing SEO for 22 years.
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