jomaxx - 5:26 pm on Feb 21, 2008 (gmt 0)

I can't stress enough how important it is to look at every aspect of an affiliate program and then test it out carefully. I've looked closely at hundreds of programs, tested dozens, probably, and have only ever made significant money with four or five. And a couple of those were killer programs that only a few other people anywhere were pushing hard.

For me the just-barely-tolerable point is where Amazon.com performs on my site. If a program doesn't show signs of being able to do at least that well, then I drop it -- it's just not work my while to keep a few derisory links up so that I can get a $25 check every now and again. OTOH, if it does better than Amazon, I run with it.