Well you have slaved hard to get your home page ranked at spot number 5 on one of major search engines for a popular term.

Your visitor arrives at your site which loads nice and quickly (only takes a few seconds).

And whammo!

They see a nice little affiliate link right at top of page and click on it. They think 'Gosh, that was just thing I was looking for.'

But wait a minute.

Who was that web site that directed them to site they were looking for. Cannot quite remember them. It was just an affiliates links page anyway.

You may make a commission on a sale from this person but you have just missed an even bigger opportunity.

You just made a big mistake.

By not letting your visitor get to know you first you did not develop any type of relationship. It is unlikely they will come back to your site. Why should they? They found what they wanted at your site so there is no need to come back.

One affiliate program I have joined pays out 45% commission to their affiliates and another 10% to 2nd tier. That's 55%! They only keep 45% and it's from this that they take their costs. Either they've gone completely mad or they are very smart! I suspect they are very smart.