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At least once a week I get an email from someone asking me if I know what network a merchant or offer is on. Sometimes it is because I am running the offer or working with the merchant. More often it is because I am seen as the keeper of all secret affiliate marketing information.
I always answer the question but my real secret is that I use various cheats to get the answer. I used to go into every network and search by keyword but I got smarter because sometimes finding the information is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Today I’m going to share my cheats with you!
Three Ways To Find an Offer or Affiliate Link
1. Check the merchant footer: This is the easiest route and the one I try first when someone sends me a merchant link. I just click the link and look for something about the affiliate program in the footer. More than half the time I find it.
These tend to be your most affiliate-friendly merchants and those pages often tell you not only where the program is but who manages it and other information about the program.
So what about the other half the time when the merchant doesn’t give the information away directly on their site? 2. The FMTC Merchant Hub: This has become my second stop. You used to have to have a free FMTC account to access it (which you probably should anyway to try some of their features!), but they just recently made it public. Simply navigate to the Merchant Hub and you can search 20 affiliate networks at once to see where a particular program is. You’ll probably actually be shocked when you see just how many merchants there are!
Here’s a great example of one I get questions about all the time. Is there a Victoria’s Secret Affiliate Program?
Yes, Victoria’s Secret does have an affiliate program on CJ. That doesn’t mean that you can necessarily even find it in the network:
It may be a private or a hidden program. But at least now you have an accurate answer and can move forward with whatever steps you can take to get into the program.
3. Trace the link. This is the trickiest of all of my cheats and one that is especially helpful if you are looking for an offer that is not on one of the major networks. You may not even be sure if it is an affiliate link or rather some kind of paid placement a blogger has. You see a link like this on either a reward site or in a blog:
You right click on it and see that I am redirecting this RewardTV link through Sunshine Rewards, so that doesn’t help you. You pop it into Redirect Detective and get this:
You can see that after it leaves Sunshine Rewards it goes through a domain called “BigCatTracks.com” before it gets to the final destination. You can even see the affiliate tracking in the BigCatTracks link. A little more research will tell you that this offer is being run by the Panthera Network. That last step can be a bit tricky if they are using a domain that is not similar to their actual name. But you can usually still figure it out.
What Else Are You Missing?
If you find this information helpful, I have a lot of other stuff that you will like as well! Here are 2 ways for you to get it:
1. Sign up for my newsletter and get my 30 Tips in 30 Days plus other special information and notifications when I post on my blog.
2. For a limited time, get on the list for my Affiliate Slackers group with Eric Nagel where we will be showing you first-hand how we make money on our sites.
Did you find this post helpful? Am I missing any other great ways to find programs?
Thanks for sharing this is really informative article with so much important information.
Awesome information, Tricia. I would add that FMTC’s Merchant Hub also includes profiles for each merchant, which can include contact information, logos, screenshots, and current deals for each merchant. 🙂
Showoff! 😉
Ha! Totally not trying to show off. I was pointing that out for situations where you find one of those hidden programs that you think your site is a good fit for. Even the ones that aren’t private, I like to send a personal message to the AM to let them know that I’m a real boy.
It’s also handy for displaying programs within multiple networks. We all have our preferred networks, but sometimes the little link at the bottom of the merchant’s site points to the nasty one, so I wrongly assume their program is exclusive to that network.
One more – Google’s site search! For example, search for ‘site:cawineclub.com “affiliate”‘ and you’ll find any pages on cawineclub.com that mention “affiliate” – you can also try partner, referral, etc.
I should have told you everything I was including before I wrote the post so you could have told me to add this one. LOL I’m terrible about remembering to use Google’s site search for things.
But if that was in your original post, I wouldn’t have had a reason to comment!