TrustNo1 - 4:59 pm on Apr 24, 2007 (gmt 0)

"Ummm . . TrustNo1 . . for you those "things" (presumably signals of quality or success-readiness) would include .?"

For me, because of my model, there's really not too much that would keep a merchant off my site. If I see things like big affiliate leaks or Adsense, I won't put them up. If they're a merchant at SAS and not on Auto Deposit, they don't exist to me. In the end, I constantly put up merchants and let my site visitors decide who the good ones are via their actual purchases.

"The worst affiliate programs are still offering you "Christmas 2006 Special Offer" banners."

That is a pet peeve of mine, affiliate managers that don't do their jobs and can't keep the creative up to date and that's a sign of a poorly run affiliate program. But that doesn't mean you can't make good money with that merchant. There are programs where I hear constantly from an affiliate manager and they might not work for me. There are others where I might never hear from them but I could do great with them. For me, I just need a text link to the home page and I'm fine. Depending on what you do and how you do it, you might need more.

I think sometimes people look for some set of rules or they might want to know what merchants work for other people, thinking that's going to apply to them. It might, it might not. Affiliate marketing is wide open, there are many different ways to make money, you have to find out what works for you.