Or is it? Won't you get a better deal if you deal with the merchant directly? Also, if affiliate marketing networks are the way to go, what makes a good one?

The first advantage of the affiliate network, to both merchant and affiliate is that the network looks after accounting and the payment of commissions. This way the affiliate does not need to worry whether the merchant has good and fair software to control payments to affiliates. It also gives the merchant some credibility as affiliates feel that the merchant must be reasonably reliable to be there. This is not necessarily true, because it is quite easy to get products listed on some networks.

The second advantage to affiliates is that the affiliate marketing network hosts offers from hundreds or even thousands of merchants. In some, you can easily see how much you will be paid for each sale, and of course they have marketing tools there as well. Therefore, you can compare the different merchants easily.

If you search directly through Google for affiliate + keyword, where keyword is your niche or product of choice, you could take days to find a few good ones.

Is the merchant's sales page on the affiliate marketing network?

It is important to view the merchant's sales page, which may be shown at the affiliate network. If the network gives a link to the merchant's page on its site, this saves you time, so look to see if they do.

In any case, you need to read the sales letter as if you were interested in the product. Unless the sales letter makes you feel you would like the product , don't market it. And don't market any product where the surfer has to give his name and email before he can enter the site. That puts too many people off.

Which are the best affiliate marketing networks? These are the things you want:

1.A wide range of categories, each with a good range of products and services.
2.A ranking of merchants or products either as a conversion ratio, or some other measure of success in affiliate sales.
3.Links to the merchant's site on the site of the affiliate marketing network.

Some of the affiliate marketing networks that meet some of these criteria are clickbank, paydotcom, cj.com and linkshare. These are well-established networks that have been around long enough for any problems to have shown up. Clickbank, which markets digital download products only is excellent in these respects.