It’s a nuisance to be a member of loads of different affiliate programmes where each merchant runs their own in-house. It’s much easier to join some of the big affiliate networks. That way anything you earn from the various merchants you promote is accumulated each month and you get a cheque or, more usually, a BACS transfer once a month. It’s all very easy and most of the big networks are free to join.
Here are the ones I use and recommend:
Affiliate Window is an excellent network. They have loads of great merchants and they pay regularly on time. We’ve had no problems with them over many years.
AffiliateWindow
These days they charge £5 to join but they refund it to you when you start earning commissions. Presumably it’s just a charge to stop time-wasters and keep their admin costs down. Highly recommended!
Affiliate Future is another great one! Again, highly recommended. Lots of excellent merchants and no problems with payments.
AffiliateFuture
Trade Doubler is good but I find their user interface a bit difficult to use and it seems to get more so as time goes on. I’d still recommend it, but it’s not my favourite these days.
Share a Sale is good if you want to target the North American market – the US and Canada. I’ve not earned enough yet to receive a payment, so I can’t personally recommend them. I’ve heard good things about them, though, and will certainly continue with them for the time being.
shareasale.com
I absolutely DO NOT recommend Commission Junction (CJ). They’re known to cheat both their publishers and advertisers. See CJ Sucks!
There are lots of other affiliate networks around, but I think this is enough to be going on with for now. Have fun making money while you sleep.