Amazon Affiliate Program Alternatives and a Day of Self-Reflection

First things first. I posted the other day about the Amazon affiliate program being pulled out of some states. I promised I would give you a list of alternatives today. I went to work digging through some of the best affiliate networks, breaking everything down by network, category and company. Then, I started second guessing the decision to post that here. I am not sure if that would go against any of those affiliate network’s disclosure agreements, and I don’t have time to go reading them all. So, I have decided against. However, I won’t leave you totally in the dark.

Here are the top networks in order of those with the majority of the biggest retailers in books, appliances, electronics, home, garden, media, etc. Sign up. Find the category you are interested in, and start applying. I was surprised to see some of the retailers available. You may be, too. Barnes & Noble is also encouraging any misplaced Amazon affiliates to join their program.

• Google Affiliate Network
• Commission Junction
• LinkShare
• ShareASale

You can also sign up for VigLink and operate under their Amazon Associate Account.

Next on the agenda: Self-reflection and Realization.

I have been following No Job for Mom since the first of the year. The residual income that she has built up is astounding, to say the least. I also follow her because like myself, she has several of her own sites in addition to what she writes for revenue sharing sites. That situation is a little difficult to find. Many people are on either side of the fence, not both.

As most of you know, writing is not my full-time gig. My Virtual Assistant business does not involve any writing. My personal clients are a wide variety of everything but creating content. So the writing I do is on my time and for my own agenda. Getting things hammered out for that agenda since the beginning of the year has led to its own quandry.

• Where should I focus my time?
• Who do I inevitably want to control this content?
• Do I focus on my sites, or somewhere else?
• What sites do I think are going to be around 3 years down the road when this content reaches its peak performance?

I have had more questions than answers. I spent my first month of the year focusing on putting up content on sites that aren’t mine. Then when Month Two rolled around, I realized that I had done little if anything on sites that I own. When No Job for Mom posted Serenity Now the other day, it really hit home. She is having some issues with those sites that other people own that contain her content. She knows that she cannot change that. The only sites she can control are her own.

That is something I not only tell myself constantly, but others as well. So what have I been doing not taking my own advice? It is certainly not because it is easier to create content for someone else. It is much easier to log into one of my sites and create a post then use another system. I finally narrowed my problem down to my own fears and avoidance of responsibility. If my goals are not met by giving my content to someone else, then I can blame them. If it is on my site and I do not follow through on my commitment, I have no one to blame but myself. Who wants that? Regardless, from here on out, my blogs come before all other residual efforts.