Comment by superfrank

I was confused at first as well, but I think I kind of get it.

I have a site that has lots of sports data on it. If you go to look at a page for one of the teams, maybe I want to put a link to buy their jersey. I could potentially go direct to the source and apply for affiliate programs from Nike, Adidas, Under Armor, Puma, etc, but that's a lot of effort to both set up and maintain across all the different partners for something that's not part of my core business.

Instead I can just use Channel3's affiliate links. I make a little less, but the trade off might be worth it for the simplicity.

Honestly, I'm not 100% sold on the idea being a good business, but I kind of get the idea. My concern would be maintaining the whale type customers. It feels to me like the product makes sense for minnows who don't have high volume or for people building an MVP or looking for a proof of concept, but once a customer has hit a certain scale, I don't get why you wouldn't just get a direct affiliate program and cut these guys out.

If I'm driving a $1000 a month to Nike and getting 3% from these guys, but I can get 5% by setting up an affiliate program directly with Nike, maybe it's not worth my time to chase that extra $20. If I'm driving $50k a month to Nike then that's an extra $1000 a month I could get by cutting these guys out which feels a lot more worth it.