Is Affiliate Marketing Haram

Even though I am not a Muslim scholar I would say that Affiliate Marketing does not break any Islamic ruling. Because similar middle man models exists since the early days.
Even so, the Affiliate only makes an introduction, however the business owners still needs to do the closing. Hence if the deal is closed, then the Affiliate will get a?commission.
However, as we all know the introduction process is not as easy as we think. It does require effort and certain degree of knowledge and skill to be successful in it.
Take example of a real estate agent. This agent may not have contacts of people who may want to purchase a unit they are selling. Instead of advertising in papers, this agent will talk to their friends and give them incentives for searching the client.
And for that work and if any deal is made, the friends will receive the incentives. So as you see instead of spending money in advertising, the agent can channel the money for what we normally call?referrer fees.
What makes it problematic and questionable for income gain is the introduction to another middle man in between.
In this model there is a multi level of middle man in affiliate marketing best between. Observe the blue and the red Middleman.
At the end of the day, the client is found by the red Middleman. However do you think the blue Middleman deserves anything?
If you ask me, in most cases the blue middleman is not required in the picture. If there are any sales, he should not deserve a single cent because the hard work is actually done by the red middleman.
For someone to buy/sell a house, he or she must have a license to do such work. So in this case the Real Estate Agent role is important because they have to do all the paper work.
Similarly in Affiliate Marketing there is one particular role that many forget which is the Affiliate Manager.
Product Owner / Service Provider -> Affiliate Manager -> Affiliates -> Client
Most of the time the product owner or service provider will not be able to handle transaction especially for Top Internet Marketeers. Hundreds of transactions can come in a day and that is not easy to handle. Hence they will hire an Affiliate Manager to manage the transactions and manage the Affiliates. Yes affiliates too will create problems and the Affiliate Managers role is to give support to both Affiliates and clients.
In Affiliate Marketing there isn't any point systems. As you may or may not know, in Multilevel business there is this point system which you need to sustain and maintain to earn the relevant income. However this is alien to Affiliate Marketing. In Affiliate Marketing all sales are recorded are and distributed according to the Product Owner discretion. And the income is accumulated.
Product Owner / Service Provider -> Affiliate Manager -> Affiliate 1 -> Affiliate 2 -> Client
As you can see Affiliate 2 is doing the hard work looking for the client. However in some models, Affiliate 1 also receives commission from Affiliate 2 sales. So do you think?Affiliate 1 deserves to be rewarded without him doing anything?
As you can see, the product owner/service provider still has its role and so does the Affiliate manager. however Affiliate 1 role is questionable.
As you can see this becomes a debate in recent years in the Islamic World especially in Malaysia. Can this be allowed? If you ask me. Its a NO.
I think every Muslim already know this. The products and services that you are promoting must be Halal otherwise you have to answer to Allah swt in judgement day.
As I said earlier I am not a Muslim Scholar or Cleric and my findings can be absolutely wrong, hence this is just my opinion and I personally will not be part of such Multilevel programs.