Affiliate Marketing Vs Network Marketing - Which is Better? (2025)

Before we get into the topic let’s try to understand the basic concepts of these marketing systems and how do they work. Both Network Marketing and Affiliate marketing uses a group of people to sell products and services to consumers. So you as an Affiliate or a distributor will be selling products that a company manufactures and will be getting commission based on the sales amount.

What is Affiliate Marketing?:

Affiliate Marketing can be one of the most lucrative business opportunities to make extra income online if you really know how to get targeted website traffic. It is a Free to join marketing opportunity, where you become an affiliate with a company or a product vendor.

After signing up, you will get your affiliate links or website, by which you promote the products and get sales. Most companies pay you 10%-30% on an average per sale, however, if you sell digital products, the commission rate can go up to 50%-80% per sale.

Even if affiliate marketing sounds free to join, you need to invest your time and money to generate those sales. It is completely online and is only good for those who are really an expert in generating daily targeted traffic.

If you are a beginner in the online marketing niche, I strongly suggest you go through our Free 2 hours Money Master Training. You can also start a blog to get website traffic or a YouTube channel if you are good at making videos.

There are 100s of ways to get targeted traffic by using paid traffic or free traffic methods, but you need a lot of time and investment for that. I strongly suggest you go for training from a legit online marketer before you start anything online.

Choose a specific niche that you are passionate about and stick with it. Make sure to check out our post on Affiliate marketing and choose some of the best affiliate marketing platforms to make money online.

What is Network Marketing?

Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing is a concept of selling products and services through distributor recruitment or by making a network of people. If you are good with people and have a great network of influence you can have exponential results pretty fast.

It is a concept in which, 1 distributor recruit 2 & 2 recruit another 4, 16 and goes on until it becomes a huge network. If done correctly, it can pay off for years to come with a solid passive income from home.

While on the other hand, MLM has got such a horrible misunderstanding and controversies, due to 100s of getting rich quick & pyramid schemes. Since the 1960s Network Marketing has been doing well for many companies and at the same time, 100s of companies come and go.

A pyramid is a structure, which is pointed at the top and expanded at the bottom, is considered one of the most solid structures. When the term MLM pyramid scheme is mentioned, it means people at the top earn the most money while people at the bottom or who join late lose money.

A legitimate Network Marketing will have a Multi-Level structure, which sells a legit high-quality product and have an honest compensation plan. According to the FTC guideline on direct selling MLM which follows honest business conduct is legal and there is nothing wrong with it.

Which is Best, Affiliate Marketing or Network Marketing?

With Affiliate marketing, you get an affiliate link that you promote online and if people purchase anything through it, you get a commission. This is completely online and you either get a one-time commission or a residual commission based on the program.

The commission amount in terms of digital products with affiliate marketing is fabulous. Many times you will get a very high commission rate up to 80% of the sales amount and no other industry can offer such a high percentage.

However in order to make money with affiliate programs you need to be an expert in promoting those offers. Make sure you create a responsive landing page to capture your email address and use an autoresponder to follow up with that list. Targeted traffic and a lot of it every day to your affiliate link is the key to success with affiliate marketing.

In terms of Network Marketing, after you join the program under your sponsor you get your distributor id number. Under this id number, you will again sponsor people under you and with that, you get a commission ranging from 10-25% of the business volume.

The beauty of a legitimate MLM program is that you not only get a commission from a direct sponsor but will get a commission on group sales too. If you are able to create a good number of red hot distributors under your team, the money can be really good.

A good Network Marketing business with a great compensation plan is the ultimate vehicle for creating a solid passive income. MLM can be built using the power of the internet and most of the time people prefer face-to-face promotion which is an old technique.

Pros & Cons of Affiliate Marketing:

Let’s see some of the advantages and disadvantages of Affiliate marketing which might be helpful for you if you decide to join one.

Pros:

• Most of the Affiliate programs or platforms are Free to Join

• Choose any product or Niche you want to promote

• 1000s of top-selling Products

• The commission is really well most of the time

• Weekly or monthly payouts

• You won’t face the frustration of rejections with online promotions

• Work from home anytime you want, according to your convenience

• Consistent Targeted traffic daily means regular income for you

• Can live a Laptop Lifestyle with Affiliate Marketing

Cons:

• The online world is full of scams

• To succeed you need a mentor or trainer

• You are required to invest your time and money, to make money

• Too much competition is really frustrating

• Most commissions are one time

• Affiliate Marketing is difficult to do offline

• You need a computer, Laptop and good Internet connections

Pros & Cons of Network Marketing:

Here are some great advantages and disadvantages of a Multi-Level Marketing business, if you ever wanted to start with MLM companies.

Pros:

• Low start-up cost

• You can work part-time from home or anywhere

• You set your time schedules, that is convenient to you

• There is always a great Team support

• Network Marketing is a great Passive Income source working part-time

• Your team can grow exponentially resulting in big income

• It will build you and make you a great salesperson

• High-quality products make it more demanding

• It’s a win/win situation for everyone.

Cons:

• It is not free to start with a direct selling program

• There is much negativity about the industry due to illegal pyramid & Ponzi schemes

• You will face too many rejections

• It takes tremendous hard work for many years to succeed

• Product prices are more compared to normal ones

• You might have to invest every month to maintain a business volume

Final Words about Affiliate Marketing & Network Marketing:

When you consider Network Marketing or Affiliate Marketing in terms of money, it depends on how you take action. We can’t come to the conclusion that one is the absolute best and the other is of no use. It all depends on how dedicated you are and how you are playing the game. Affiliate Marketers sometimes use the power of Networking and make residual commissions with some great programs. At the same time Network Marketing also uses the internet to multiply their results in a short period of time. So, you need to be passionate about whatever niche you are in and take action to achieve success.