By Max Kim Many online marketers actually don't know the difference between affiliate programs and referral programs. In fact, most will think that both of these are the same. However, they couldn't be any further from the truth. There is a huge difference between an affiliate program and a referral program. Knowing the key differences between these two can help a business owner decide on which program they should use for their offers in order to grow their business. The main difference between an affiliate program and a referral program is that an affiliate program is a where the referred leads come from someone the affiliate do not know and as for a referral program, the lead will come from someone they know personally (word of mouth to friends and family). By knowing the difference here you will know that there should be a difference in the structure and the compensation as well. Let us first look at the difference in structure of these two systems. Structure