affiliate and merchant point of view?

[Decker]

hey guys whats up

i have an interesting question (at least to me hehe)

as a relatively new merchant i constantly try to find more ways offcourse to increase our traffic and income and i find myself trying to decide
if weather to take on a new network affiliate(which most of them charge set up fees and commissions and monthly pay) or try to find a "freelance" or a "private" affiliate (which you have no idea if he/she will have time for it since alot of them have so many clients)

on the affiliate point of view:
i was wondering what do affiliates think of those networks do most of you guys join the network yourself? do you prefer to work alone?
would an affiliate who considers himself a good one will join a network?

on the merchant side:
offcourse the good thing to do is to combine them both but according to your experience who would you rather work with ?
statistically who did/does a better job for you personally?

[Nandakishore]

I don't understand what you mean by affiliate network. Do you mean affiliate management organizations like Brightshare etc.?

[Decker]

Hey Nandakishore

affiliate networks like Cj, Linkshare, Shareasale etc...

[JamieF]

Hi Decker

If you are thinking of running a dual program, one in house and one in a network then you will want to have a mirror of your internal program. If you have that then you will keep things fair for affiliates.

Networks have the advantage of attracting affiliates faster during the launch period. The advantage of an in house program is affiliates can potentially get higher commissions.

[bets@betsfreebets.co]

in my humble opinion, from an affiliate point of view, you have to use both...primarily because some brands only use networks and are worth putting them up