I am sure that the complication faced by the merchants and the affiliates gave birth to an affiliate marketing network. They need a common platform to share for successfully running their affiliate programs. The merchants do not want to waste their precious time in searching for affiliates. The webmasters too cannot invest much time in searching for rich merchants. Their value for the merchants depends on the traffic on their websites. The traffic does not run smoothly and once it starts declining you cannot get a single advertisement to display. So, it is time which is saved by joining a network.

The merchants need only those websites, which are relevant to their products. For example automobile engineering related websites are best suited for selling engine oil, pistons and other spare parts of cars. Second thing, they have to cross check the traffic claims made by the webmasters. It is found that most webmasters make fake claims only to join an affiliate marketing program. None of the softwares available in the market can judge the traffic of a website. One has to rely on the claims made by the webmasters.

A network performs all these tasks properly for the merchants. It searches most suitable websites among its members for merchants. A network also cross checks the traffic on a website by judging its design and content. The merchants, who are members of a network, get relevant websites with high volume of traffic to display their advertisements. A network also gives marketing tools such as flyers, banners, lead generating forms, news letters and e-mailers to the affiliates.

The affiliates face a common problem of late payments. They allege that the merchants deliberately delay their commissions in the name of cross checking their claims. The affiliates are required keep record of clicks, leads and sales generated through their websites. Some times they have to pursue merchants for releasing their commission after furnishing claims. This problem is sorted out after joining a network.

It is the duty of a network to keep record of all the clicks etc. for furnishing claims on behalf of the affiliates. The merchants give commission to affiliate through the network. As an affiliate you need not to worry about your commission as it is the network, which takes care of your commissions. The affiliates can easily pressurize their networks for faster recovery of their money.

The most important role of the networks is giving liberty to merchants as well as affiliates. A merchant can join as many affiliates as he wants and an affiliate can join as many affiliate programs as he wants only after joining a network. The network assists merchants in maintaining cordial relationship with multiple affiliates. The networks use affiliate tracking software for running an affiliate programs such as Cost-per-Click, Cost-per-Lead and Cost-per-Sale.