Question about affiliate programs

I am a member of clickbank but they don't have some of the products that I would like to promote.
Amazon does have links to most of the products but I am not aware of how their affiliate program works.
If anyone has experience with Amazon could you please share.

I only want to promote porducts that I have used and like to my customres but a lot of the companies do not have affiliate programs but they are well known name brand things.
How should I go about promoting them? Should I just use Amazon or are there other good affiliate networks out there?

Thanks for the input

Meenu

What kinds of products are you talking about? Physical products or digital? For physical products there's Amazon (their affiliate program is SUPER simple to navigate), Commission Junction, Pepperjam Network, and I'm sure lots of others. CJ for one has hundreds of vendors selling everything from industrial equipment to comic books, so that's where I would start.

For digital products there's Clickbank, eJunkie, and probably a few more. And a lot of digital product vendors run their own affiliate programs as well.

Meenu,
Amazon is the main affiliate program I use. But they are not the only affiliate program I use. I have joined a few affiliate networks like Pepper Jam, Share A Sale and Google Affiliate Network.

As for promoting products, it's best to do reviews, case studies and integrate the products in your content and also when linking don't use banners/buttons as much. You'll have a better conversion rate using text links within your content.

Happy to answer any other questions you might have.

Thanks for the help guys,

I am going to be promoting physical products. My main focus will be skin care and makeup lines.
I know Amazon offers the products I like but I was just wondering if there are any other sites. I purchase a lot from Sephora.com so I looked at their website and they do have an affiliate program but it states I have to fill out and submit an application. They will then review my website before they let me know if they have accepted me as an affiliate.
So I'm not sure how that is going to work as I don't have a finished website yet.

I will check out CJ to see what they offer.

Meenu

Traffic first, selling later. Set this aside, and focus on getting hundreds of visitors a day. Imho.

Unless the application asks you for site statistics and other information, they are probably just checking to make sure it's not a spam, scam, or illegal site. There's no harm in applying... if they turn you down you can re-apply later.

Amazon, Pepper Jam, Google affiliate network are some of the affiliate programs that are frequently used. It is better to integrate your content with the product in order to promote sales.

These affiliate Web sites post links to merchant site and are paid as said by particular agreement. This agreement is generally based on number of people the affiliate sends to merchant's site, or number of people they send who purchase something or perform some other action.