---
title: What Is Affiliate Network Marketing?
description: 🔵 What Is Affiliate Network Marketing? Affiliate network marketing is a hybrid model that combines affiliate marketing with network marketing principles, where affiliates earn commissions on their own sales and a percentage on the sales of affiliates they recruit.
url: https://flawlessmlm.com/en/faq/what-is-affiliate-network-marketing
last_updated: '2026-08-12'
language: en
type: faq
keywords: ''
published_date: '2026-05-21'
---

# What Is Affiliate Network Marketing?

**Updated:** May 2026

Oleksandr Honcharov, CEO at FlawlessMLM 

Affiliate network marketing is a hybrid model that combines affiliate marketing with network marketing principles, where affiliates earn commissions on their own sales and a percentage on the sales of affiliates they recruit. What is affiliate network marketing? It is sometimes called multi-tier affiliate marketing or 2-tier affiliate programs, and it sits between traditional affiliate programs and full MLMs.

**How affiliate network marketing works**

*   **Two-tier commission structure** — affiliates earn from their own sales and from sales made by sub-affiliates they refer.
*   **Lower upfront cost than MLM** — most programs are free to join, with no starter kits or inventory.
*   **No physical product handling** — affiliates promote and link; the merchant fulfills the order.
*   **Smaller second-tier percentages** — second-tier rates are typically 5-10%, compared to MLM downline overrides of 20%+.
*   **Examples** — ClickBank's 2-tier program, MaxBounty referrals, and many SaaS affiliate programs.
*   **Legal status** — legal in most countries, as long as commissions are based on actual sales rather than recruitment fees.

**Definition:** Affiliate network marketing is a hybrid commission model that combines affiliate marketing with a second tier of recruitment-based earnings. Affiliates earn from their own referred sales and from sales made by other affiliates they invite into the program. It is also called multi-tier affiliate marketing.

Affiliate network marketing is often confused with MLM, but the key difference is scale: most affiliate networks pay one or two tiers, while MLMs pay 5-10 levels deep. Two-tier is legal almost everywhere; deeper structures cross into MLM territory and face more regulatory scrutiny.

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Source: [FlawlessMLM FAQ](https://flawlessmlm.com/en/faq/what-is-affiliate-network-marketing)