AvantLink Affiliate Program Review

AvantLink was launched far back in 2005; the company makes it a point to provide much description about their tools, features, and even their merchants so as to let interested affiliates be conscious of what exactly it is they will be signing up for.

Are you a website owner in need of the means to leverage your steady traffic and monetize your blog? If you are a newbie in the world of affiliate marketing, you are certainly in the right place. In this honest review, we will be looking into one of the most beginner-friendly networks in the industry these days – AvantLink!

Besides this, they also promise an impressively deep caliber of merchants (big and small) to partner with, a broad range of categories, and a very robust set of features and tools. There is no better place to start your journey as a budding affiliate marketer than AvantLink and, if you continue reading my full, in-depth review, you will learn exactly why that is.

What You Might Like About the Affiliate Program

Great for Beginners

Do not be confused by its advanced tools and features; this affiliate marketing network is excellent even for beginners. If you are still a newbie in the affiliate marketing world and still a bit skeptical to venture into affiliate marketing, then this network’s user-friendliness will definitely entice you.

As earlier mentioned, they make it a point to give as much detail as possible about all of their features so you won’t find them difficult to use. Also, they provide detailed information about merchants and their individual affiliate programs so you will always be aware of what it is you will be signing up for.

Ease of Use

Signing up as an AvantLink affiliate is simple and straightforward. All you have to do is go to the Affiliates tab and choose Affiliate Application in order to get started after which you are redirected to an application page where you’ll be required to fill out an online form.

Enter your login credentials, contact information, website information, company information, accept their terms and conditions, and you are set to go. Note, however, that your website must meet their standards in order to get approved and become one of their affiliates, similar to most affiliate marketing networks.

In the same vein, their website is also extremely easy to utilize and beginners absolutely like the fact that they make available as much detail as they can about each feature and tool that they offer.

Moreover, they as well give a detailed summary for every merchant they have which provides you with enough information about their affiliate programs such as the commission percentage, cookie lifespan, average order size, special promos, and many more. This makes it extremely understandable for anyone to decide which merchants and their corresponding affiliate programs will suffice.

AvantLink is an affiliate network that is based in Utah, United States. AvantLink is focused on working with established and new organizations that see eye-to-eye with their company values, innovation, integrity, excellence, quality over quantity, and customer services.

AvantLink was established with the aim of being an exclusive network that brings merchants and affiliates together while offering real-time analytics to both sides, facilitating them to keep track of sales and clicks as visitors are on the page.

It gives support to affiliates by making their websites more advertiser-friendly as well as altering their sites layout and design in order to promote ad placement and ad visibility. By utilizing the accessible tools, affiliates can create a more salable product which can be offered to a comprehensive network of merchants in the AvantLink system.

AvantLink facilitates the idea of affiliate marketing and strengthening relationships between merchants and affiliates which is mutually helpful to both sides in marketing.

The Good

• Monetization
• Real-time Analytics

Monetization

AvantLink is a great place for affiliates who are on the lookout for ways to monetize their websites. It offers incredible tools that assist in opening up advertising placement in areas most likely to attract viewers’ attention.

AvantLink is free to join, which is one of the major benefits for new users and new websites. All that is required of you is to prove your site as a legitimate website void of offensive and abusive content, and you are welcomed to be a part of the network.

Real-Time Analytics

AvantLink offers both the affiliate and merchant up-to-date real-time information and analytics that help them in tracking progress and understanding what is effective and what is not.

As earlier mentioned, AvantLink is an affiliate network that brings both businesses and marketers together. Merchants seize the advantages of affiliate marketing to enhance their brand in terms of both reaches and increased sales and profit.

The central advantage of affiliate marketing is the ability to reach out to a vast number of customers which is not achievable by traditional marketing efforts.

AvantLink hosts various global affiliate networks that are country-specific, including the USA, Canada and Australia networks. This company welcomes merchants from a vast variety of industries, which in turn is capable of attracting potential affiliates.

How It Works

AvantLink offers an online interface where merchants and affiliates can work together. This interface is utilized in stimulating common marketing efforts. Merchants have to present information concerning their affiliate program, establish commission percentages, and detailed information about their products. Thus, affiliates can relate this provided information and details further to market products that are part of the affiliate program.

When a user visits AvantLink, he must indicate whether he is a Merchant or Affiliate.

Merchants

Merchants are to sign up on the site and agree to which network they would want to become part of.

There are three options to make a choice from. These are the United States, Canada and Australia. Merchants must also select the region they would want their marketing efforts focused on. Businesses can utilize the advantage of the technology, transparency and the huge affiliate base the network has in order to attain a high return on investment via affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a model that is a bit more favorable to merchants than affiliates. This is due to the fact that merchants have an option to pay just for certain results, such as sales.

In addition, more traditional marketing models are always billed on impressions or click basis. Unfortunately for affiliates, impressions or clicks on ads, most times, do not result in sales which have a tendency to render some online marketing campaigns ineffective.

Once they join the network, merchants will have to provide information about their products in the system.

Affiliates can thereafter join the program and pick up information on the available products. They can then, on their own, market these products via their blog, websites or other channels. This means that affiliates might post links of your product sales page on their blogs or websites.

If a visitor clicks on any of those links while reading the blog and is made to make a purchase of that product, then the affiliate will be awarded a certain commission based on the price of the product. Merchants do not pay if there is no sale. This is what makes this model outstanding to businesses.

On the side of affiliates, affiliates find values and make a huge amount of money through passive income by working on promoting products they feel good about. The network only welcomes well-established retailers that have quality products to offer.

When merchants login to the network, they are provided with a merchant panel. This is where everything can be set up. At the top, there is a home menu, affiliates menu, tools, account settings, reports and support tab.

Affiliates

To sign up for the network, affiliates need to use the “getting started” link on the homepage. They are to also choose a sub-network they would prefer to join, depending on their region of choice.

Upon getting to the network, affiliates can search through the affiliate programs available and join the ones that suit their niche. This is based on the kind of online presence they possess.

Generally, a blogger would match up his blog niche with products he promotes on the blog. Websites dealing with sport might agree to promote sports products and gear. In making the marketing campaigns helpful, this match between the target audience and the product is extremely significant.

This network ensures that each merchant on the network is of high quality. Detailed tracking technologies are enforced, as well as  the provision of great support for affiliates. You, as an affiliate, can utilize the provided reporting data to adjust their marketing strategies in order to boost revenue.

When affiliates login, they have access to the affiliates panel. This panel is the interface they will leverage to converse with the merchants and network. On the top of the screen is a header menu with the links that lead to home, tools, merchants section, account settings, reports and support. Each section encompasses relevant options and settings.

Plans and Pricing

There are three available service levels merchants can select from. Each plan comes with a month charged fee.

1. Basic – Program Coach

This plan comes with three months of coaching, featuring ways to set up your affiliate program so as to gain optimum results. This plan is suitably designed for business owners who have a dedicated affiliate manager that is deeply involved in the training. With this, he will get adequate training in affiliate management and discover new tricks.

2. Advanced – Program Manager

This program has all the benefits that the most advanced program offered — Expert Program Manager — just with the condition that it covers only 3 months. After 3 months are elapsed, all the duties are handed over to your in-house affiliate manager.

3. Expert – Program Manager

This is the fully-outsourced affiliate program solution. AvantLink handles everything pertaining to your affiliate program and optimizes the campaigns to yield optimum results and the return on investment. This plan is suitable for those without their own affiliate manager but who want to start a robust affiliate marketing program.

A note is also listed on their website claiming that clients who go for this program usually see a positive return on investment in 2 to 8 months.

You also have the option to email AvantLink (partnerships@avantlink.com) to request a custom plan befits your individual needs.

How to Get Started

Go to the homepage of their website and click on the “Get started” button in the top right-hand corner. You are able to choose either to join the network as a merchant or an affiliate.

If you want to become a merchant, choose “merchant” and then you will have to select which of their networks you would like to join (USA, Canada or Australia). Provide your company with the necessary information and hit the signup button in the footer to get started.

If you want to become their affiliate, you should choose “affiliate” upon signing up and enter details about your site as well as personal and contact data.

The benefits

• Instant acknowledgement to a huge base of potential affiliates – This is a significant advantage over affiliate software solutions out there as it has the ability to help you start a program and trigger it to generate traffic and make sales faster
• Fully-managed plan purposefully designed for merchants who do not have a dedicated affiliate manager
• A network focused on different country-specific regions
• Provision of effective training for new merchants or for their intern affiliate managers
• Support for affiliates
• Available affiliate programs are listed on the site. You can see the details without signing up.

Downsides

• Affiliate networks charge several fees, which include the network fee and transaction fee for each sale. If you want to avert these extra costs and prefer fixed priced solutions, check out affiliate software possibilities.
• Lack Of FAQ Section: While it seems great that AvantLink tries its best to provide as much detailed descriptions about their features and tools as possible, a lot of people might still nurse some questions that could have already been given answers to if this affiliate marketing network provides a FAQ section.
• Having said this, they have a forum. Yet, browsing a FAQ section and quickly getting the answers to your queries is far more helpful. Another thing that many people might dislike is that this affiliate marketing network does not offer live support.
• If you nurse any inquiry and are looking for an answer, the only means to reach their customer support team is through an online contact form. If you are hoping for more support channels, you will be disheartened to realize that they do not have a phone, fax, email, or live chat support.

Conclusion

While AvantLink truly helps you get started with affiliate marketing, I would like to introduce you to a better and more helpful affiliate marketing platform in the entire industry whereby you get 24/7/365 support from both the co-owners and the community members. You also have access to the most useful resources when it comes to striving to become a successful affiliate marketer. Learn more about this platform through this link.