The affiliate has a choice. They can either work with multiple merchants, or they can work with an affiliate network. So why should a marketer want to work with an Affiliate Network?
I remember a friend told me a story awhile back. He had built a small website and had signed up to become an affiliate at a stack of different affiliate programs related to the topic of that site. A few weeks after he had set up the site including links and banners from multiple affiliate programs, he turned his attention to other business interests and lost interest in the site.
A few months later, he noticed that a few checks had started arriving from the affiliate programs he had joined up with. Not large checks, but amounts for a few dollars here and there. That was his first problem as he was living outside of the USA, lots of small amounts result in lots of bank charges. (Which makes me ask – Why cant all countries allow affiliates to bank checks at NO CHARGE?)
Nevertheless,
the checks continued to come in, and although some of them were posted on his wall as they were so small he couldn’t bank them, he wasn’t complaining as he was making money...