It depends...

First of all, many affiliate programs that are participating in affiliate networks won't let you join directly (or don't have their own programs), so if you want to promote their stuff you HAVE to sign up through the affiliate networks.

Second, if you are a member of an affiliate network, you'll want to make lots of sales, so if an affiliate program you like to promote is a member there, by all means, join it in there. Also, sometimes the commissions are actually HIGHER when you join through the network.

Hope this helps.

An affiliate network is basically a digital marketplace that brings together vendors and affiliates. They make it easier for affiliates and vendors to make money with affiliate marketing. They also take care of all the payment processing and pay the affiliates,of course they get a piece of the action as well. The affiliate network,vendor, and affiliate benefit. Most of the risk is with the affiliate because they only get paid when they make a sale. The vendor essentially gets free traffic to their offers.

Joining an affiliate network gives you a lot of security. By joining a good affiliate network like clickbank you are assured of receiving your commissions.

Whereas joining a vendor's affiliate program personally would mean you have to rely on the integrity and honesty of the vendor, hoping that they would not cheat you of your commissions.

Also, with an affiliate network you will find other related products to promote, whereas within an affiliate proram from a person might have only ONE product to promote.

If you are willing to join a vendor personally, i suggest you to first contact your vendor, and clarify these issues and some other questions you might have, before proceeding.

Thank you all for your answers, all well written and now I understand the benefit of the affiliate network. again thank you all, very good info.

KK

Affiliate networks will combine commissions you earn from merchants where often in in-house affiliate programs there are payout monthly minimums. So if you make $25 in a month from a merchant with an in-house affiliate program but they have $50 minimum payout - your payment balance will be carried over into the next month balance & you won't get paid until the month your balance reaches $50+.

As smonline stated - "security" of receiving commissions is a big plus. Affiliate networks are in charge of tracking & they also get paid commissions on sales you generate. I also have had a couple of in-house affiliate programs where I literally had to request my commission payments because they obviously didn't take their affiliate program serious.

I have had in-house affiliate programs discontinued by merchants but they didn't have enough integrity to inform affiliates they were dropping their affiliate program. Apparently they felt they should continue to receive free traffic from affiliates & not reward them. This has happened "too often". Affiliate networks will notify you that a merchant is dropping their program (hmmm... does Clickbank notify us though?)

It's much easier to keep track of affiliate commissions dealing with a handful of affiliate networks plus easier access to links, banners & marketing materials as previously mentioned.

I still promote a variety of in-house affiliate programs (primarily IM/digital products niche) but for things like clothing, jewelry, decor, etc... I want to deal thru an affiliate network. I may make an exception every once in a while but that merchant better have a track record.

You have to understand that this is a game of numbers. If the vendor will pay out more to their affiliates than the actual affiliate network then it would be a good idea to do business with the vendor. And vice versa.

Because the vendor might be working with the affiliate network as well. They are not just asking random people to promote for them.

Some programs would require further approval even after you've joined the affiliate network and of course some give you access if you are a member of the network itself.

You see good programs have some eligibility criteria for affiliates and the aff network does the screening during the application process. That automatically satisfies the criteria for many vendors on the network.
The support is better too. If you join through a network and have an issue with a particular vendor - reporting issues, scrubbing and stuff like that, you can always talk to your affiliate manager (who's from the network) and they can do the talking with the vendors and solve your issues.

It will put your all affiliate programs under one roof, which will help you to monitor your sales and commissions. All of your payments are come in timely manner.

For vendors, it provides better security, get more qualified affiliates and convenience of handling affiliate payments.

For affiliates, you also get better security, guaranteed payments and easier management if you run a lot of offers.

Of course, there are also the cons, like how you have no control over what gets refunded or not (affects both product owners and affiliates).

It just makes things easier for me. I have a hard enough time remembering the affiliate networks I'm a part of and the products I'm promoting there. I'm pretty sure I'll lose a lot of login information if I join every affiliate program directly with the vendor.

But anyway, I like the variety I get from the affiliate networks. Each niche has more than one product to choose from, and when you're building a niche site, having multiple product choices at the same place makes things easier. If one does not convert, you can easily replace the links with the next product's.

Also, the number of people you deal with is reduced, and so does the number of approvals you need to get before you promote a product.

Affiliate networks like Clickbank and Amazon let you get links for every product in their marketplace. You never have to talk to the vendor, and I prefer that.

One word: security.

The affiliate network is also making money if you sell a product, which means they keep a close eye on the vendor, hence you will lose fewer commissions for dubious reasons.

Yeah, is depend what you need. i prefer joining Affiliate Marketing. Only thing you need to do is promoting their product, you no need to hold and own the products.