Fl2.us

• The affiliate merchant losses control over his affiliate campaign

• The affiliate merchant has no control over money in the campaign as payments are done by the affiliate network provider

• In most cases affiliate merchants have to pay hefty setup fees

• A merchant company will have to pay a small percentage of money on all the commissions paid by the network.

• Generally a network service provider may need the affiliate merchant to deposit money in an escrow account

If an affiliate merchant decides not to use an affiliate network service, he has to invest huge sums of money in purchasing and running an affiliate tracking software in his server, tracking leads on his own and making payments. But in this case the investment is one time and the merchant has total control over his money.

So it seems that both functions have their pros and cons and it's the affiliate merchant who after analyzing the long term results has to make a decision as to which way to go.