Affiliate Marketing Vs Network Marketing. What is the difference between affiliate marketing and network marketing?

 What is the difference between affiliate marketing and network marketing? Which one is good for earning money?

Introduction

This is a very good question as most of the people do not know the difference between affiliate marketing and network marketing. People often confuse affiliate marketing and network marketing as commonly the term network is understood as internet or online. But here network means a group of salesmen aligned in a hierarchical pyramid structure with one at the top, next few uplines and more downlines or Multi Level Marketing ( MLM) also called referral marketing. This network marketing can be both online and offline unlike affiliate marketing which is solely based on online promotions using different online platforms to generate revenue. 

What is Marketing?

Marketing is a term for an action or a strategy or a business by which one promotes products or services by adopting different modes. Marketing can be further divided into two different categories as affiliate marketing(solely Online promotion ) and network marketing both online and offline (direct customer to customer or MLM or pyramid). Both marketing methods are currently adopted by many marketers to earn commissions on selling products or services to consumers either online or directly. These marketing methods are different from one another. Affiliate marketing is based on individual performance and network marketing is based on performances of a bunch of salesmen. 

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

 

 

Becoming an affiliate for online brands or companies or networks like ClickBank, Amazon,      having digital products, physical products or services running affiliate programs is very simple in most of the cases as you need to give your basic details like name, primary email id and bank details for sending commission payments to your bank account once you make a sale to become an affiliate and you are supplied with an URL for promoting the products or services containing your unique affiliate id for tracking purposes as there are many affiliates like you promote the same products or services using different platforms like blogs, websites,paid advertising, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Medium etc., content marketing on forums like product reviews, comparative analysis of the products using tables. 

Affiliate marketing product promotional strategies are restricted to only online advertising using paid advertising, free advertising, driving organic traffic through websites or blogs by adopting SEO ( Search Engine Optimization), SMM ( Social Media Marketing) using social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram etc., with target audience, content writing like product reviews, product comparison, product recommendations on forums, writing comments or writing testimonials on product website’s by leaving your own site’s URL and sharing product details to contact list of subscribers or relatives and friends known as email marketing and creating brand awareness.

What is Network Marketing?

Network marketing operates on commission basis and products are promoted by a chain of salesmen having uplines and downlines like pyramidal one or hierarchical chain. One who is at the top of this pyramid (Upline)makes more bonuses and extra commissions from the spillover sales of salesmen in the downline. If the size of the pyramidal scheme is big the commissions are higher so the prices of the products or services may be higher. Network marketing depends on the performances of all the members of the pyramidal chain to achieve the target and deadlines on time. 

Major Differences between Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing.

Affiliate Marketing : Promoted through online sources and it is a straight chain marketing and performance based on individuals. It is totally online. Prices of products or services remain the same with free to paid plans, clear discount structures. No bargaining. Need a target audience to promote and sell products. No deadline and pressure to sell products. Products and services particularly digital downloadable products, subscriptions, free trials are readily available all over the globe.and anyone can promote most of these products reside anywhere in the world.  

Network marketing: Promoted by door to door campaigns and it is a hierarchical one involving multiple salesmen. It is both online and offline. Prices of products or services may vary from place to place. This is due the size of the sales team if higher the number of salesmen then chances of higher commissions and product pricing. There is a possibility of bargaining. No target audience needed to sell products. Need to complete target deadlines and always under pressure from uplines. It is almost always difficult to offer any extra discounts and though the salesman is familiar with you or not you may not get discounts on product price. 

Final Thoughts

Finally affiliate marketing is more transparent and customers decide on buying the products or services as they can cross check everything online before purchase, on the other hand network marketing is not transparent as the salesman who is good in conversation and influences the customers to buy worthless products. Affiliate marketing is reliable and network marketing is not reliable as consumers have more chances of buying trash products or services depending on the canvassing power of the salesman in that area. If you want to earn legitimately you can always prefer affiliate marketing over network marketing as the former allows customers to make purchase decisions after reviewing many metrics like its performance, needs, pricing etc. available online before any impulsive, emotional or hasty decisions. This type of facility is not available with network marketing and you have to completely depend on a salesman who shows some pamphlets or catalogs with minimal exposure to intended products or services. 

Individuality plays a crucial role in the success of affiliate marketing. As an affiliate marketer you have tons of products or services available online to select the one which is the best suited niche products or services tailor made for your target audience (Your customers who buy products based on your recommendations). Your strategies to promote the products or services determine your online success and you should have to make decisions on your own to be successful. Network marketing involves collective responsibilities of all salesmen involved and there is always high pressure from your uplines to sell the products within the set deadlines.