Independent Programs vs. Affiliate Marketing Networks

Affiliate marketing helps merchants in selling their goods to a fairly large number of people without putting in tiresome efforts. Usually they have to open large showrooms, storage houses and employ an efficient sales team to sell their goods. It is not possible for a merchant to open showrooms in every city or country but today Information Technology has helped the merchants to reach nearly every small town and city. You can log on to their website anytime you want and buy their products. The merchants will deliver the product at your doorstep once the sale process is finished.

The affiliate marketing programs are very popular right now. The main reason for this popularity is quite simple: it is advantageous to both, the merchant as well as the marketer or affiliate. Presented below are some benefits that merchants enjoy:

Instead of having a sales force of one or two people in his team, a merchant can have a sales force of thousands or more if he is using affiliate marketing. Their products or services will be seen by hundreds of visitors every day, instead of only those that they themselves would be able to promote.
With affiliate marketing, the merchant does not have to worry about manpower handling tasks like hiring, firing etc.
One major advantage of affiliate programs is that the merchant wouldnt pay anything to the affiliate unless the actual product sale is made. So in this type of promotional activity, there is no expense since you only pay for your sale.

When the merchant wants affiliate marketing for his products or services, he has two options. One is to select an independent affiliate or choose an affiliate network. An affiliate has his own site where he promotes the products and services of the selected merchant. Since this is an independent program dedicated to only a single company, the affiliates total attention is only towards that companys products and services. His only goal is to promote them. All his resources are working only for a single companys products and services. The merchant needs to install the affiliate software program on his server and put some ads. Thats all! All other promotional activities are carried out by the affiliate.

An affiliate marketing network works as a link between the merchants and the affiliates. Herein the merchants products and services are open to many affiliates. There are some popular networks that charge a substantial amount as joining fees. The exposure that the company gets from these networks website is quite tremendous. But in order to receive and manage that visitor flow the merchant needs to have a powerful and excellent website of his own. Otherwise all the traffic will be diverted to the competitors site.

To conclude, a small company with local base can effectively use the services of independent affiliate programs. While in case of big companies, having a larger customer base, wanting to expand to newer markets, an affiliate marketing network is a better option.

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