I'd recommend paying out at least 20% if you can still make a decent profit on sales. Paying your affiliates well will greatly improve odds that they stick with your program and continue to send you sales. Remember, a smaller profit on a large number of sales is better than a larger profit on few sales.

Offer a quality product of service

This tip could be extended beyond just your affiliate program. The quality of your products can make or break your business and your affiliate program along with it.

Getting your own affiliate program can really boost your sales. The sooner you get one started, sooner you can enjoy your added profits.

4. Referral Length - You should also check out how long after you referred a customer that you still get credit. With advanced tracking systems in place, companies can keep track of customers for a long time after they first were referred. Some companies promise that they will still give you credit for a year after you first referred a customer. Since many customers don't buy on first visit to a site, this can also be a great perk.

5. Lifetime/Residual Income - This is actually a very important aspect to consider. Many companies that charge a monthly fee for their services will pay you a percentage every month as long as they keep customer. For example, hosting company I use, Host4Profit, charges $24.99/month for its hosting services. They pay their affiliates an even $10/month for every referral. This gradually builds up into a steady, sizeable income.

6. Reoccurring Commissions - You can also find programs that will pay you a commission for every purchase that a customer you referred makes. For example, if i refer Joe Surfer to a site, they will pay me for every purchase that he makes, not just initial purchase. The length of time varies, sometimes you can get reoccurring commissions for a month, a year, or maybe forever.

Pick More Programs

If you can make a lot of money with a couple of products, wouldn't it make sense to increase your income by just joining more programs? It sounds good, but it has major flaws. Your income depends heavily on traffic that your site receives, and you are only going to be able to convert a certain percentage of visitors to buyers of any of your affiliate programs. Too many programs dilute your conversion rate of visitors to buyers, and actually has other negative effects.

If you join too many programs, you won't have time to promote any one or few of them effectively. To be a successful affiliate, you do need to spend time marketing your programs. Instead of picking every program on Internet, you are much better off picking a few good paying programs, and spending a lot of time marketing them.