Affiliate networks are the perfect platform from where one can launch an internet marketing campaign. For someone who does not know what to do and whom to approach to market their goods or services on the Internet, joining an Affiliate Network will solve a majority of their worries. These Online Affiliate Networks offer various advertisers a wide variety of choices among various affiliates and different types of affiliate programmes.

Affiliate Marketing Networks are intermediaries that help in bringing the merchants and the affiliates together. Affiliates and merchants acquire the membership of these Online Affiliate Networks, which is free in a majority of cases. Once they are listed, affiliates can find suitable programmes posted by the merchants and merchants will not have to trouble themselves with looking around for suitable affiliates. In return for a fixed percentage on every sale, the affiliates undertake the task of promoting the merchant's wares and direct traffic to their websites. The affiliate networks too charge a commission from each for the services provided.

All other supporting services like negotiating and finalising the deal between the affiliates and the merchants, along with fixing the payment type (whether it would be PPC or PPS or others) and the network's own commission, is all done by the Affiliate Marketing Network. The advantage of using the services of an Online Affiliate Network is that both the affiliates and the merchants can find out all background information about each other including reputation in the market from the Affiliate Networks before utilising each other's services.

Affiliates can sign up for various programmes in one go. Affiliate Networks are instrumental in establishing a symbiotic relationship between merchants and their affiliates which is profitable for both. Sometimes affiliates are particular about the category of products that they wish to advertise and the same way merchants are choosy about websites that will ultimately act as their affiliate. Online Affiliate Networks give them the opportunity to pick and choose the type that would be most suitable for each.

Commission Junction, ClickXChange, ePurple Media, Link Share are some of the popular Affiliate Networks in the industry. It is advisable that merchants and affiliates sign up for more than one Affiliate Marketing Network, as it will expose them to more variety in choices, thereby resulting in more revenue for affiliates and more publicity for the merchants.