If you participated in ValueClick, Commission Junction, or Be Free affiliate networks as an affiliate marketing publisher or affiliate advertiser between April 20, 2003, and July 22, 2008, you may be entitled to a settlement claim from a class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit contends that the affiliate networks failed to adequately monitor or prevent third parties from engaging in the theft of commissions from advertisers and publishers, and that they failed to make sufficient disclosures regarding the existence of non-compliant software and commission theft.

Basically, thieves were using malicious software to hijack sales and steal commissions, resulting in losses to both advertisers and publishers.

The public court hearing for the approval of the proposed settlement claim is scheduled for January 5, 2009.

The proposed settlement requires the defendants to pay $1,000,000 into a common fund. After lawyer fees and other costs are deducted, the remaining balance of the common fund will be allocated 70% to a publisher fund and 30% to an advertiser fund.

Publishers and advertisers will then receive a percentage of their relative fund that is based on the percentage of commissions they either paid out or received between April 20, 2003, and July 22, 2008.

For instance, if you as a publisher earned 1% of the total commissions paid on the Commission Junction network during that period, you will receive approximately 1% of the publisher fund.

If you wish to accept the terms of the proposed settlement claim and participate in the settlement reward, then you should do nothing, as you will automatically be included in the settlement claim if you do nothing. However, if you wish to hire separate counsel, object to the settlement, or exclude yourself from the settlement, then additional actions are necessary.

If the settlement is approved, you will either receive your percentage of the claim as a commission credit through your current affiliate account or you will receive a check if you no longer have an affiliate network account.

Visit cjsettlement.com for more information and details on this affiliate marketing network class action lawsuit, the proposed settlement claim, and any other details you may need if you wish to take additional actions.

We’ve compiled a list of the 35 best affiliate marketing product categories that offer the top affiliate marketing programs with the highest affiliate earnings for online publishers and Internet marketers.

These affiliate marketing categories have the best affiliate programs available for Internet publishers to promote on their websites.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the the process of marketing products or services on your website where you receive compensation from a business based on the amount of visitors or customers you refer to their website or products.

The best affiliate marketing strategy to maximize your profits is to promote top paying affiliate programs that have a high earnings potential and a strong consumer market.

This list of the best affiliate marketing categories is based on 3 factors:

1. The amount of overall top sales producing affiliate programs available in each product category.

2. The amount of high paying affiliate programs in each category.

3. The highest Earnings Per Click (EPC) averages for programs in each category, which is the affiliate earnings per customer click-through ratio that indicates the potential performance of each product on your website based on the number of customers you refer to an affiliate program.

Based on a combination of these affiliate performance factors, we’ve compiled a list of the top affiliate marketing products by category, listed in the order of their overall ranking.

35 Best Affiliate Marketing Categories:

1. Computer Software
2. Shoes
3. Women’s Apparel
4. Web Hosting and Web Services
5. Consumer Electronics
6. Personal Insurance
7. Mortgage Loans
8. Credit Reporting and Repair
9. Computer Hardware
10. Internet Service Providers
11. Credit Cards
12. Vacations
13. Hotels
14. Sports
15. Productivity Tools
16. Automobile Parts and Accessories
17. Matchmaking Services
18. Jewelry
19. Banking and Trading
20. Outdoors Recreation
21. Men’s Apparel
22. Exercise and Health
23. Books
24. Gardening
25. Furniture
26. Entertainment
27. Airline Travel
28. Cars and Trucks
29. Vision Care
30. Online and Wireless Services
31. Music
32. Employment
33. Photography
34. Pets
35. Children’s Apparel

These affiliate marketing product categories have the highest amount of lucrative affiliate programs available for online publishers to promote on their websites.

If you want to monetize your current website through affiliate marketing or are considering creating a niche website for online affiliate marketing, then these affiliate product categories offer the most potential for profitable affiliate marketing.

Diversify Your Affiliate Marketing Products

One great way to increase your affiliate marketing profits is to perform cross-marketing campaigns with products that may also interest your readers.

For instance, the best affiliate marketing products are in the Computer Software category, but websites that are based around computer software could also promote Computer Hardware, Web Hosting and Web Services, Internet Service Providers, or Books on computer software, as their readers may be interested in these products as well.

Diversifying and cross-marketing your advertising product base allows you to increase the profitability of your affiliate marketing campaigns as long as you choose products that are relevant to your readers.

Signing Up for Affiliate Networks

If you already have a website and want to start affiliate marketing, then you’ll need to sign up with an affiliate network, which is a company that provides a network of affiliate programs and products that you can promote on your website.

Affiliate networks are basically the middlemen between your website and the products and services that you promote.

They provide you with affiliate marketing links to products and services that you place on your website, keep track of your sales, and pay you your sales commissions.

The 3 top affiliate marketing networks are CommissionJunction, LinkShare, and the Google Affiliate Network, which was formerly known as the DoubleClick Performics network before being recently acquired by Google.

Sign up for one of these affiliate networks to promote one of the top 35 affiliate marketing product categories on your website, and you’ll be on your way to profiting from online affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing on Your Website

Read our article about Marketing Credit Cards on Your Website to learn more about affiliate advertising methods and using different types of product advertisements on your website, as the same online marketing methods can be used for a variety of affiliate products.

Start promoting the best affiliate marketing products to monetize your website and make money from affiliate marketing.

GoDaddy.com is currently offering a 10% discount with the GoDaddy.com promotional code MILE1.

Save 10% at GoDaddy.com on domain names, website hosting, personalized email, and website building services by entering the GoDaddy.com discount code MILE1 during your checkout.

Just visit GoDaddy.com to make your purchases and save 10% off your order when you enter the GoDaddy coupon code MILE1 during your checkout or mention the code when ordering by phone at 1-866-GoDaddy.

This 10% GoDaddy discount code is not applicable to any product renewals, domain transfers, reduced-price or bulk-priced domain names, MOBI purchases, gift cards, or Bob Parsons posters, and it cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

Visit GoDaddy.com today to take advantage of this 10% GoDaddy promotional code.

Marketing credit cards can monetize your website, whether you want to advertise credit cards on your niche blog or market credit cards on your website directory, and it’s simple to advertise credit cards, plus it’s absolutely free.

Marketing credit cards can be profitable, as commissions for a single sale can be as high as $150 or more, plus everybody needs credit cards and there is a credit card for every need, so whether your website is about relationships, football, college life, or puppies, you’ll be able to market credit cards that fit your audience.

You can also market Credit Card Directories if you have a shopping website or financial blog and want to add a section for credit card listings from various issuers.

If you don’t have a website already, there’s even a program that will give you your very own credit card website for free.

Just follow these basic steps to market credit cards on your website.

Join a Credit Card Affiliate Network.

Credit card affiliate networks are the middle-men between the credit card issuers and your website. They provide you with marketing materials to promote credit cards, track all of your sales, and pay you commissions. All you have to do is place the advertising links on your site.

If you have a niche website and want to market a particular credit card category (e.g., Airline Rewards Credit Cards or Hotel Rewards Cards), then you’ll want to make sure the affiliate networks you join offer the particular credit cards you need.

The following credit card affiliate networks offer a wide range of advertiser credit cards to promote on your website, so they are likely to offer credit cards that will fit into your particular niche, and they offer multiple issuers if you want to create a credit card directory.

It’s absolutely free to join these networks and start marketing credit cards.

iCommissions.com

iCommissions.com

iCommissions offers a wide range of credit cards and other financial products.

CommissionSoup.com

CommissionSoup.com

CommissionSoup offers a wide range of financial products including credit cards, as well as many different types of consumer products.

CardOffers.com

CardOffers.com

CardOffers.com offers an extensive selection of credit cards with many different variations of marketing content available.

Nationwide Card Services

NCSReporting.com

Nationwide Card Services offers a user-friendly interface with a wide range of credit cards as well as other financial products.

AcclaimNetwork

AcclaimNetwork.com

AcclaimNetwork offers many different credit cards as well as other products.

Sunspot Web

Sunspot Web

Sunspot Web offers a variety of credit card programs.

Credit.com

Credit.com

Unlike the other affiliate networks listed here, Credit.com doesn’t provide credit card advertising for specific credit cards. Instead, they provide general credit card and financial product advertising links, which direct customers back to Credit.com product directories, and you then earn a commission on any resulting sales.

So if you want to advertise credit cards to your readers, you can suggest they review various card offers from Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and More, and when they click on the link, they will reach a Credit.com directory where they can compare credit cards and apply online.

Some larger affiliate networks offer credit card advertising as well, including CommissionJunction, LinkShare, and Performics, but unless your website can produce thousands of sales a month, you’re more likely to be approved to market credit cards through the smaller credit card affiliate networks, although you can still sign up for these larger networks to market alternative affiliate products.

Your website or blog will need to be approved before you can start marketing credit cards, but as long as your website is basically professional, you shouldn’t have a problem being approved.

Once approved, you’ll receive access to an online account where you can select various marketing materials to promote credit cards on your website.

Advertising Credit Cards on Your Website

You can market credit cards on your website using banner advertisements or text links.

Banner advertisements are a simple and effective way to advertise credit cards on your website, especially for niche website marketing, as banner advertisements attract attention to a credit card that is directly targeted at your viewers.

If your website is about how to save money despite current gasoline prices, then a large banner like the following one would attract a lot of attention from your readers.

Text links can be integrated directly into your website content or used as supplemental content links on your website to provide advertising that interests your readers.

For example, if you are writing about nightlife in New York City, then you can mention the IN:NYC® Card from American Express, which offers VIP-access to entertainment events as well as discounts at various hot spots around New York City.

Several affiliate networks offer marketing content for promoting credit cards, including bullet points, credit card reviews, and various other text formats that can be used to build Credit Card Pages, or the content can be imported directly into your website through various data feeds, content downloads, or template formats, depending on the particular affiliate network, although some of these may require a little more technical knowledge to implement.

Once you have added banner advertisements or text links to your website, you will be paid for actions taken by consumers when they click through your links. In most cases, you will receive a commission when a customer is approved for a credit card, but other credit cards pay a commission for each application that is submitted.

Get Your Own Affiliate Website

If you don’t have your own website or blog, there are several build site affiliate networks available that will provide you with your own website for marketing credit cards.

SiteMighty.com

SiteMighty.com

SiteMighty.com offers you your own website with built-in credit card advertisements for online marketing, plus their websites include a blog, an article submission directory, and an RSS feed.

It’s free to sign up for a basic SiteMighty.com site that will include all of the above-mentioned features, which can be seen in action at Credit Solutions.

BuildOffers.com

BuildOffers.com

BuildOffers.com provides affiliate websites with built-in credit card offers as well as other financial products.

Start Marketing Credit Cards on Your Website

That’s how easy it is to market credit cards on your website, or even to get your own credit card website for free today.

Just select credit cards that fit your website, join a credit card affiliate network, and start adding credit card advertisements to your posts, articles, and website pages, which will hopefully provide helpful information and attractive advertisements to your readers.

Thanks and enjoy maximizing your money.