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Channel Partners Versus Affiliates - What Are the Major Differences?

Internet marketing or affiliate marketing, specifically, has been going on for the most part since the inception of the Internet itself. From the beginning, the adult industry was the first to realize the potential for teaming up with affiliate sites to drive traffic to their websites. Eventually, big online retailers like Amazon caught on and joined the band wagon. Affiliate marketers drive customers to company's official site or landing page and earn commission through the sales of the products. Sites like ClickBank are platforms where digital products like software are sold, bought and promoted. Affiliate newbies usually get their products here because registration is free for everyone.

Structure
Channel partners, on the other hand, are companies with physical offices and customer sales support that follow up clients and customer. While a reseller can have their own online store, their target markets are mostly offline customers and clients. There are even VARs or Value Added Resellers that cater to highly specialized markets that would normally need a physical sales meeting to introduce a product.

Selling point
Affiliates are usually individuals who can only sell one product at a time. In fact, in a certain trade marked internet marketing method, the expert suggested that an affiliate find one niche keyword that does not generate much competition and focus on finding a product to promote it to avoid too much competition.

Scope of responsibility and experience
Channel partners deal with big volume of products from a variety of vendors. The VARs, while they deal with lesser volume, sells extremely high-valued products. Their partner profiles will probably be a list of who's-who of software manufacturers and will detail their experience not just in sales but in software integrating and implementing as well. Partners are established companies that do actual selling rather than just promotion.

For big software manufacturing companies, channel partners are the regular distributors of their products but that does not mean that affiliates have nothing to offer to the table. Affiliates, in general, are more open to innovation, they are cheaper to team up with than channel partners and a vendor can have more affiliates.

Resellers, in the meantime, are solid companies that are reliable and more experienced with sales and marketing. They navigate not just the online space but the physical world as well. And they can have relationships with regular and loyal customers unlike affiliates who are confined to their virtual world.

So are affiliates enough competition to drive channel partners out of business? The answer is, of course not. As long as majority of trade is conducted offline, partners will continue to be the reliable distributors of products for vendors. In the question of conflicts, however, vendors have to decide if they want to hire affiliates to promote their products. The conflict will not come from the affiliate, it would be from the vendor itself that actually sells the product. The affiliate just helps customers arrive at the vendor's website.

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