JVZoo Review: How Does This Affiliate Network Rank?

If affiliate marketing is something you’ve always wanted to give a shot to, you’ve probably considered JVZoo as an option. Affiliate marketing is that rare thing, like a Quentin Tarantino movie, that seems to keep everyone involved happy — the publishers, the vendors, the affiliate marketers and the customers (most of them, at least!). There’s something to gain for everyone, whether it’s good income, profit or a great product.

Today, we review JVZoo, a software company that also works as an affiliate marketplace. In our review, we’ll take you through what it is, what it does and whether it’s a good option for interested affiliate marketers to pursue.

About JVZoo

One of the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States (for the years 2016 and 2017), JVZoo, owned by parent company BBC Systems, Inc. is a software as a service (or SaaS). Like many other affiliate sites such as ShareASale, Amazon and ClickBank, JVZoo facilitates the sale of products on its site, along with the promotion, marketing and delivery in a fully automated process.

JVZoo has been around since 2001, the brainchild of Laura Casselman (current CEO), Bryan Zimmerman (co-founder and COO) and Chad Casselman (co-founder, chairman and CIO). Nathan Green serves as the current CFO. The Florida-based company prides itself on providing an easy-to-use network that is extremely beginner friendly and user friendly. Though no one really knows what the JV in JVZoo stands for, the company apparently finds “Joint Venture Zoo” the most apt and appealing option out of all the conspiracy theories on the internet!

JVZoo works by partnering with vendors with the company earning from a sale only when the vendor does. Therefore, they don’t charge a monthly subscription or any kind of membership fee; vendors can sign up on the platform and use the network for free, with 5% of every sale thereafter going to JVZoo.

Network and Offers

Though JVZoo’s main focus is on digital products, there are various categories and niches (over 200 of them) in their Digital Product Library which vendors can choose to sell under and affiliates can choose to promote. Some of the most popular niches on the site are:

• Self-Improvement
• Finance
• eCommerce
• Software
• Health and Fitness
• Business

Most of the products offered under these niches are webinars, games, guides and tutorials. In fact, the company boasts of a “state-of-the-art automated webinar platform” where vendors can put up their already-recorded webinars or create one for free and have affiliates promote them. The site also has a “best-sellers” section where they feature best-selling products on a daily basis; these are also the more profitable products to promote. 

The company doesn’t really seem to have any limitations on how affiliates can promote products in terms of the network models. Affiliates can market products through blogs, websites, YouTube videos, comments (on videos as well as blog pages), forums, through e-mails and other CPA companies. As for their payment offer, they seem to pay on a cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-sale (CPS) basis.

JVZoo Offers

As mentioned earlier, JVZoo has over 200 niches in its Digital Product Library, which means a large number of digital products to choose from. This lets affiliates choose a program of their own liking to promote, whether that’s health and fitness, business, software or e-commerce.

JVZoo pays a different commission amount for different products, ranging anywhere between 30-70%. Unlike other affiliate sites, JVZoo even lets its affiliates earn 100% commission! Generally, products priced above $35 generate substantial amounts of commission. Additionally, some niches are more popular than others, which means there is more potential income there than in less popular niches. However, this doesn’t mean an automatic guarantee of good commission just because a niche is the bestseller of the day; the quality of the product also needs to be up to the required standard. Additionally, some offered products work on a subscription basis, requiring recurring payments (as opposed to a one-time payment). A commission is paid per billing, which means more income when a customer buys the product.

Quality of JVZoo Offers

As mentioned earlier, best-sellers are the best option for earning a good commission, along with niches that are top-selling (the website mentions these separately). However, just because a niche doesn’t figure in the best-sellers or top-sellers list, it does not mean that it’s a waste of time to promote it; it may just be a little less profitable than other popular niches. Additionally, just because it’s on the best-seller list, doesn’t mean the product is always of good quality.

However, given the size of the portal and its free sign-up offer, new programs and products are added each day to various niches and some of them are substandard and plain scams. This means that it can get difficult to separate the good eggs from the bad. Keep an eye out for dubious sellers or larger-than-life promises and you’ll be able to tell the scams apart from the real deal.

One of the best parts about JVZoo is its instant payment of a commission (provided the payment is done through PayPal). It also automatically delivers bonuses and lets you recruit affiliates (and every time they make a sale, you also get paid for it). It also has global vendor cookies or affiliate cookies, wherein you’re automatically “cookied”, for life, for all the requested affiliate links of a particular vendor that you have promoted; something you can’t even assure with most marriages and relationships!

Payout Terms and Options

As mentioned earlier, the payouts on JVZoo are instant; as soon a sale is made, the commission is credited into the affiliate’s account. Commissions are paid by the vendors of a particular product and transferred to affiliates via PayPal; however, there are also the options of JVZoo pay, checks by post and manual payments. Again, affiliates can earn anywhere between 30-100% of the sale price as the commission (this rate is decided by the vendors). There are no transaction fees charged by either JVZoo or PayPal on the commission transferred if it is 100%, as this means that the vendor is then paying these fees for the affiliate. Or, it could also mean that the vendor is paying 100% of what is left over after paying the transaction fees.

Sometimes, commissions can be delayed by 90 days; sellers hold the amount for 90 days before paying a commission in case there is the need to refund a customer.

JVZoo Reputation and Trustworthiness

JVZoo is no doubt one of the biggest and best platforms to earn money, whether it’s as an affiliate or a vendor. Apart from customer complaints about certain products being a scam, there are no complaints about the vendor-affiliate network. JVZoo also does one better and lets buyers and vendors communicate directly, so there is no need for a customer care service. However, they do have a reliable knowledge base and hosting support, where you can either raise a ticket or directly get in touch with the support team that’s available all the days of the week (except for certain holidays).

JVZoo is extremely user friendly, as the company claims. It’s easy to navigate, has an extensive knowledge base and is perfect for those just learning the ropes as well as those who know their way around it pretty well. Another thing that makes it extremely trustworthy is the instant payment of commissions, lending to it an appeal that attracts millions of affiliates to its many programs.

What Makes JVZoo Stand Out

Apart from the instant commissions and trustworthiness that it offers, JVZoo stands out for the following reasons, to name a few:

• Broad and varied categories and niches of competitively-priced products
• Great for affiliates to earn
• Competent statistics system including EPC, funnel sales, conversion rates and overall sales
• Dynamic and interactive sales pages
• User friendly and great user interface
• Extensive knowledge base for beginners
• Good customer care
• Easy sign-up process
• No fees charged to be a vendor or affiliate in the system
• Second-tier commissions
• The ability to promote webinars with a customized introduction

However, not everything is as rosy as it seems. JVZoo has a huge product database, as mentioned several times already, with new products being added on a daily basis. The problem is, there aren’t many rules and regulations in place to regulate these additions, which could explain the numerous scam complaints about the website. JVZoo itself doesn’t seem to take accountability and verify products, meaning that the onus of doing so falls on the customer’s shoulders. Even the site’s “Product of the Day” doesn’t necessarily translate into a quality product; it seems to be an arbitrarily-handed title to the top money-making products. Even if products make it to the site’s “Daily Best Sellers”, “Yesterday’s Best Sellers”, “Weekly Best Sellers” and “Monthly Best Sellers” lists, do your homework!

Application Process

Applying to be an affiliate on JVZoo is as simple as it gets. All you need to do is sign up on the site for free and request to promote a particular product. In order to become a Premium Affiliate, you need to make a certain number of specified affiliate sales with a low rate of refunds. You could also, alternatively, send a request to JVZoo’s Support Desk to become an affiliate. This request will be passed on to the management who will determine if you have the credentials to be a Premium Affiliate.

Conclusion

So, there you have it — everything that entails being a JVZoo affiliate. Remember, the key to everything is good research. Ensure you check the authenticity of the products, should you choose to promote them. Check other affiliates’ reviews and look for product reviews themselves on sites such as MunchEye and JVNotifyPro. Also, check out refund rates of products. If you really want to understand the pros and cons of a product, go ahead and buy it. However, if you’re still debating whether to join JVZoo as an affiliate, ensure you go through their programs in detail. However, from a top-down view, JVZoo looks like a deal you shouldn’t easily be passing up on!