What is the highest paying affiliate program of 2013?
-k
There is no such thing as highest paying program. The diversity is so big that you have to really pay attention before picking up a merchant.
Some will pay more, but will be harder to sell, some will pay less, but you can make a lot of sales. Pick up some business and think about whether you can sale it good or not. Check what the internet has to say about it and start promoting. Sign up for an affiliate network such as Linkshare, ShareASale or CJ and start browsing.
At MochaHost for example, we offer a 50% commission on all sales delivered. Now…this can be A LOT and can be less at the same time. If the person orders one year shared hosting plan you may, not get a lot, but if he/she orders a 3 year dedicated server, this might mean thousands in commission. The question is, whether you feel you can sell good.
Clickbank has many vendor that offer a high commission rate. Last month I got $100 commission from promoting one product.
May I suggest you are asking the wrong question. The rate of payment (I assume you mean the percentage commission rate) is not particularly important. What you should be looking for is an affiliate programme whose products are most likely to appeal to your target audience. The company should ideally have a wide range of products (so that you can promote different products on different pages of your site); it should have good customer service; and it should preferably be a well-known brand that your visitors can trust and will be happy to buy from.
You also need to look in detai at their terms and conditions. For example, how long their cookie lasts (to enable you to capture sales from returning visitors), how quickly they pay their affiliates, whether they pay commission on affilates’ own purchases, and so forth.
Mike
While you may be looking only for the best return base wise you want to also consider where your level of expertise is. In order to successfully promote any product you need to have a good knowledge of it and have confidence in the product. I say this because you will need to promote your site to drive traffic to it in order to gain clients for your affiliate products. When you have faith and know how to promote the products you offer then you are able to write good content which will drive potential sales to your site.