Rakuten affiliate network is one of them while the affiliate networking has already been proven one as one of the best business models in the world. To venture into owning an online business looking for the piece of the pie, more people look to the internet to read reviews such as Rakuten LinkShare. It’s normal that the consumers are forever spending more money shopping online. If you want to create extra income and brand product merchants who really do want your business, so Rakuten LinkShare seems to capture the minds of many entrepreneurs. When you want to get into affiliate marketing probably Rakuten LinkShare is a good choice for you. But, it’s important to find out which of these many companies is at the top of their game if you’re looking to connect with an affiliate network.
Besides, you can make the best promising choice for you and your affiliate marketing business that way. So, this is the post where we’ll learn why do we say that the Rakuten affiliate network is at the top of their game? Also, what are their faults and what can they offer publishers? We’ll discuss all the details of the Rakuten affiliate network in this post in details. As a result, read this content up to the end so you can decide if this is right for you.
Quick Notes of the Rakuten Affiliate Network
- Name: Rakuten Marketing (Rakuten Affiliate Network)
- Established: 1996 as LinkShare and becomes Rakuten in 2005
- Type: CPS (Cost Per Sale)
- Website Link: Rakuten
- Price: FREE
- Owners: Executive Board Members
- Overall Rank: 70 out of 100
Rakuten Affiliate Network Overview
Rakuten Affiliate Network formerly was known as LinkShare which was founded in 1996 by Stephen and Heidi Messer. When it was purchased by Rakuten in 2005 and became Rakuten LinkShare. They brand it as Rakuten Affiliate Network in 2014. Rakuten is the New York-based third-party global affiliate marketing network who has offices in London and Tokyo as well. The publishers and advertisers choose it as the for #1 in 2018 for the 7th time chosen best CPS (Cost Per Sale) affiliate network according to mThink. They are the largest pay for performance advertising in the internet world. Moreover, they have the partnership with over 1000 of the world’s largest and top name brands. The brands include Office Depot, Walmart, Dell, Apple Store, Lego, Guess, Sephora and many more.
How Rakuten Affiliate Network Works
As you know that Rakuten Affiliate Network finds the advertisers such as Sephora and Lego, they’re someone who has brand products or services. Say you want to sell their products at wholesale prices. But, because they consider you a small internet marketer they won’t let you. Usually, when you have no large store and are unable to carry a sizeable inventory. But, this is where Rakuten steps in. So, while they work with these brand names, they come up with an agreement allowing you (Publisher) thru Rakuten. This avails the opportunity to market the name-brand Advertiser products.
If we see the things there as the following:
- Rakuten is the third party to find brand name companies.
- The advertiser is the name-brand companies with products and/or services.
- The publisher is you promote the Advertiser on your blog posts. You publish ads on your blog/ site.
As the Publisher, you refer traffic (your readers) to the Advertiser blogs/ sites publishing their affiliate links. For this, you receive a commission when they make a purchase as a result of that advertisement. Because the Rakuten Affiliate Network keeps track of the traffic, so they pay you to commission when the purchase transaction is completed. You get to select your payment options when you first log in. Because of this not selecting means no pay. Similar to the website structure, you have to enter the information into the Account Profile. Define how you would drive traffic to your Advertiser and who your target audience is. By find Advertisers who want to do business with you, this is how Rakuten helps you. They will invite you to advertise on your site if they’re interested. Also, these Advertisers go thru your information.
The Commission Structure of the Rakuten Affiliate Network
Rakuten Affiliate Network pays you by direct deposit, PayPal or cheque which one prefers. There is a minimum payment threshold for some countries. For the Publisher, they have 4 payments monthly which sound quite impressive. But, they give you an example of when you could get paid in their Quick Start Guide. Rakuten sends an invoice early October to their Advertiser, the big brand companies if you earn commissions in September. So, the Advertiser authorizes the invoice by October 31st with payment due date to Rakuten November 30th. Also, you’d get paid in the following week while providing the minimum payment threshold has been met. To see actually the money in your bank account you could potentially end up waiting at least 2 months or longer.
Who is Rakuten Affiliate Network For?
Rakuten is something you might want to look into when you have an already well-known website with a reasonable amount of traffic and interest in promoting other companies products. Or, there are services that are promoting their ads on your blogs. As Rakuten is doing the hard work getting brand product companies so you don’t have to spend time researching and carry inventory. What you have to do is that a well-established website; generate traffic where you write quality readable and relevant content while placing the Advertiser’s ad.
Easy to Manage Reporting System
Rakuten Affiliate Network comes with the most of us hate the idea of learning new technology. We dread the idea of getting used to a new phone or computer. But, Rakuten system is easy to manage, even for the most technologically challenged among us, they have made sure that. You’ll find all of the most important metrics and information right at your fingertips upon logging in to the dashboard. This is including top advertisers and information about payment. Besides, the easy-to-navigate control panel gives you access to your link codes, account settings, and more. With the option to make them Quick or Advanced you can even create the customizing reports.
Comparison with Top Affiliate Network
So, is Rakuten Affiliate Network really at the top? Let’s see who else is hovering around number one, and why? Now, we’d like to discuss how the top affiliate networks, Rakuten, CJ Affiliate, ShareASale and PepperJam, compare and contrast in five different areas. So, you’ll be able to tell which is best for you.
Merchants
- Rakuten: 1,000
- CJ Affiliate: 3,000
- ShareASale: 4,500 (1,000 exclusive)
- PepperJam: 1,000
Here, we obviously can see who has the biggest amount of merchants. But, quantity isn’t as significant as quality. Rakuten and CJ Affiliate Both boast partnering with some of the most well-known brands in the world. These include Apple, TurboTax, Home Depot, and others. Also, you’ll find plenty of options for publishers across many different sectors. While ShareASale’s merchants may not be as well known that’s being said. So, they do span across an incredible variety of niches. There aren’t as many well-known names on the list but 1,000 advertisers is still a good number. They still manage to include a few big brands and they’re growing quickly even though they’re a relatively new network.
Customer Support of the Rakuten Affiliate Network
While giving a contact form as the main method for getting in touch CJ Affiliate fails hard in this regard. But, they offer no general help, including an FAQ. Also, they have very partial personal customer support. Besides, Rakuten affiliate network improves on this while giving you an email and phone number. Moreover, their customer service is available in different languages. Also, they consist of an incredible education center for publishers.
Final Thoughts on Rakuten Affiliate Network
You’ll decide which affiliate network is best for you that is depending on what you value and the features you’re looking for. In this case, we’ve shown you the best and the worst points for Rakuten affiliate network review. Moreover, we’ve seen how it stands out from other affiliate networks, and where it lags behind. In the world of affiliate marketing, this network is absolutely one of the top contenders. You can be a part of growing network that’s giving out millions of dollars in commissions every year. As most of the Advertiser’s commissions are quite small 3-11%, it’s best to promote high tech product ads if you’re looking for a higher commission. This is because Rakuten Affiliate Network pays you a good amount of commission than others.
