There are literally hundreds of different affiliate programs on the 'Net. Some will pay you a few cents for each visitor you send to their site, some will pay thousands of dollars for the successful completion of a single sale to a person that you referred (sent) to the site. Most affiliate programs lie somewhere in between.

In the middle of this mass of choices, how can you choose the most suitable affiliate program?

Pick a product or service you can live with

Before you sign up with an affiliate program, take a good look at the product or service you'll be endorsing. Because that's how visitors to your site are likely to view your review, link or banner advertisement: as an indication that you believe the product or service is good enough to offer your visitors (and indirectly, of course, to get paid.)

Never get gulled into promoting a product or service that you don't believe in. Naturally, you don't have to buy a product to endorse it, but if you would not dream of buying it under any circumstances, how can you expect your visitors to buy it? If your site's visitors feel that you are recommending a particular product or supplier because you genuinely believe it is good, you are that much more likely to close a sale and hence see the money.

Don't let greed cloud your decision

There is more to an affiliate program than the % commission it pays. Some programs bend over backwards to help you set up your site easily and attractively, by providing banners, buttons and other graphics, search engine forms, audio or video clips, cover art and more. Other affiliate programs leave everything up to you; can you afford to invest the extra time to develop an attractive site?

Equally, an affiliate program in a certain subject area might pay a very high commission, whereas one related to your site's topic pays much less. Nevertheless, your visitors are much more likely to buy goods or services that fit the content of your site.

Look for synergies

As hinted at above, it is always better to try and find an affiliate program that complements your own site. Better to sell books rather than CDs on a site about literature or writing. More sensible to offer site promotion tools on a site about boosting visitor numbers, rather than gardening tools.

This is better for two reasons: hopefully, your visitors are already positively disposed to the topic of your site (books, web site promotion etc.) since they chose to visit it; that will improve your sales figures. Equally, you can exploit the trust you have built up with your visitors (via the quality content on your site) by offering products that you recommend. Again, your sales figures will reflect this trust.