When basically any super affiliate goes around flexing their knowledge muscles for everyone to see (including me), they always recommend going direct with the advertiser if possible.

What does going direct mean?

For all you nubs, going direct means bypassing the affiliate network (like Copeac or CPA Empire) and working directly with the advertiser. Instead of having an affiliate link like http://nbjmp.com/afid=1231&ID=2838, you’d just have a link that goes direct to the advertiser. Why do affiliates do this?

a) To bypass all the b/s that comes with working with an affiliate network. Negotiating payouts, getting creatives, getting a whitelabel, etc.

b) To get the highest payout. Instead of the affiliate network getting the direct $30 payout and you getting $25, you get the $30.

c) To avoid affiliate network shaving.

This all sounds great, right? This article is about why you SHOULDN’T go direct. Because with all the good things that come from doing direct, there are cons to think about.

a) You’re subject to the advertisers payment terms. While an affiliate network may give you weekly wires and front the money, going direct you’re looking at NET30 at least, sometimes NET60. This wouldn’t be that big of a problem if…

b) Advertisers can not pay you. If the network is stingy about lead quality, they can simply not pay out from whatever periods weren’t “sufficient” for them. If an affiliate network gets charged back, they still want you as a publisher. So they’ll eat up the lost leads and still pay you out on them and just take a loss. If you’re running on NEℌ payment terms, you can run an offer for 2 months and spend $60,000 and have them charge it all back. It happens I’ve seen it before.

c) You’re no longer under the radar. Some of you may not care, but a lot of you will care a lot. If you’re using greyhat techniques, or even blackhat, the last thing you want to happen is have the advertiser pick up on what you’re doing. If you’re running an offer through an affiliate network, let’s say the network does 20,000 leads/day on that offer. If you do 500 greyhat leads/day that are on the lower-end of quality, it’ll blend with the other 19,500 leads and overall the advertiser probably won’t complain about the quality. If you go direct, you’re singled out and subject to termination.

d) Hurts your relationship with affiliate networks. If you’re doing enough volume to go direct, the affiliate network will definitely take a hit in your leave. Network relationships can overall be very profitable sometimes, even more profitable than going direct for an extra $2/lead.

Well, there you have it. It took me like 3 hours to write this post because I kept getting interrupted by IMs, so sorry if it didn’t come out that well. I just wanted to provide an angle on the other side of the fence, opposite of most people who chant “Go direct! Go direct!” like it’s their job. Because I’ve chosen to stick with affiliate networks many times, just because of relationships and payment terms. Hope this article helped you.

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