subject: Affiliate or Affiliate Network? How to Choose? [print this page] I am putting my Pros and Cons for both the cases below out of my personal experience.
As as Affiliate
Pros
You have lot of choices to get the offers and run them for your own. If you don't get an offer from one network you can always get it from some other Network
You don't have to bother much about the Fraud leads, Conversion Ratio,CTR etc. The maximum loss would be you that you will not be paid for those leads or campaigns. This can be compensated later.
You have the liberty to work at your ease and at your convinience. You do not have to take out your personal time and follow a time sheet to do the jobs. When ever you feel like getting on the work you are good to go.
You can change the promotion modes you do when ever you feel like. I mean, today I feel that Automotive Campaigns are not converting good enough compared to the Education Offers, I can start a new Education based website and start promoting the Education Offers there.
Not much experience is needed to be an Affiliate. You could kick start in the business right from day one.
Cons
The main problem being an Affiliate is that you have generated good leads all through the month and at the end of the month when you expect your Check, your Account Manager says that all your leads are Fraud and so your account is suspended. There is not much you could do in that situation.
You really can not know how much genuine the reports and Stats that are shown in your Affiliate Account. You just have to rely on your Network for that.
Some times you can not decide which offers you can run in your website. Say you have a Movie based website and your Network is good to give you Movie based offers. You feel that even, Music and Entertainment offers also converts good for you. But you Account Manager do not agree with you and do not give you access to those offers.
Lack of support from the Network. There are Networks out there who really do not care about the Affiliate Communication. No matter what the problem is and you approach them (via email or phone), you do not get a reply.
You see the Affiliate Business only from the Affiliate Perspective.
As a Network
Pros
You are The Network. So you can run the show like you always have dreamt of. There would be the things you might have imagined to do when you start your own Network out of your experience. All those things can turn into reality.
You got to see more Affiliates from the Market and you can pick up the right ones.
You know about more ways of doing the business as you see many affiliates doing it in many ways. You start to see the whole picture of the business as you see both the faces of the coin.
You meet more people and New business contacts grows for you which in turn will help you in your future businesses.
Oh Yeah! High Revenues.
Cons
More Responsibility, More Time, More Work. When you run a Network you have to maintain strict Working hours as there will be those daily routine jobs to be performed on the Network, no matter what.
One person can not run a Network. You need to hire staff (Account Managers, Revenue Staff, Support, Tech Team etc.) which increases the over heads.
You are responsible for the Fraud your Affiliates do. You are the only one answerable to the Advertisers. If an Advertiser removes his Campaigns due to Fraud your whole revenue for that month might get effected.
One wrong calculation (either in Hiring, in Strategies or in Tracking Technology), will lead to a disaster which can not be revoked back. You might even be losing Hundreds of Thousands of $s some times in just couple of days.
You have to do the Affiliate Payments out of your pockets as you will have a regular Payment terms with your Affiliates. But the Advertisers will not pay like that. There is no garuantee that the advertisers will pay the equivalent amount to you as that you have paid your affiliates.
You always must have experience in the Affiliate Industry to start your own Network. I would say atlas 2 Yrs.
So based on the above factors, its You always to choose whether you want to be an Affiliate or to run your own Network.
