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Affiliate programs come as a boon to most small and big business who find affiliate marketing as one of the cheapest and cost effective means of increased brand awareness and promoting goods and services. The affiliate program is completely risk free as the affiliate merchant has to pay its affiliates only in case the desired results are achieved. Affiliate program management Affiliate program management can be a tough issue to many affiliate merchants who carry out 100% in-house affiliate programs. In case of an in-house affiliate program the affiliate merchant has to purchase and install an affiliate tracking software in his server, maintain the software, track leads, pay the affiliate and take care of any disputes all by himself. But in order to avoid such a situation and get a smooth affiliate program management one may go for affiliate networks. Affiliate networks are service providers who act as intermediary between the affiliate merchant and his affiliates. Functions of an affiliate network Act as an intermediary between the affiliate merchant and his affiliatesTrack sales leads with a tracking software and maintain recordsPay out the affiliates on a regular basisTake care of all legal and other paper work and documentationTake care of any disputes that may arise between the affiliate merchants and the affiliatesCarry out promotion programs for affiliate merchantsMost affiliate networks keep complete control of all the revenues and commission where as some like Linkshare don't. Some popular affiliate networks are Commission Junction (cj.com), Linkshare (linkshare.com) and clickbank (clickbank.com)
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