Affiliate marketing is a very simple business system and is ideal for people with entrepreneurial mindsets. To get the most out of affiliate marketing and make a desired income from it, you will have to do some research, choose your strategy, your niche and then stick to the plan.

Affiliate marketing is basically a way for you to make money from other people’s products by simply referring people to the designated site. The product owner takes care of the costumer, closes the sale and pays you.

Having your own website and web hosting is essential for making money with affiliate marketing. If you’re on a tight budget, you can start by creating content with free blogs like Blogspot or web platforms like Squidoo, but your goal should be to get your own site.

Here are the steps you need to take to make money with affiliate marketing:

1. Choose a niche market

You have to decide what kind of affiliate products you want to promote. Maybe you’ll want to promote something that interests you or simply something that pays well. You can promote almost anything; the quantity of affiliate programs on the internet is increasing rapidly.

2. Sign up for an affiliate marketing program

When you decide what niche you want to be involved in and what kind of products you want to promote, then it’s time to find the affiliate programs that have a quality product and a good compensation plan. The best places to start are Clickbank (the best place for digital information products), Amazon(for physical products) and MarketHealth(for health products).

3. Decide on a promotion strategy

Blogging, traffic exchanges and Pay Per Click are just some of the techniques that you can use to make money with affiliate marketing. Find what best suits you, do some reserch on the subject and then go do it.

Our recommended path would be creating a website and getting free traffic to your affiliate offers from the search engines. With proper search engine optimization, your websites can rank high in Google and get all the free traffic you need. TO achieve this, you will need to know the basics of SEO and link building.

4. Getting a website or a free blog

You can easily start your own website for just 1 cent and learn quickly how simple and quick it is to build your own website on any topic imaginable. Alternatively, you can start a free blog or create an account at Squidoo.

5. Doing the work needed to succeed

Action is necessary to make money online. You shouldn’t trust get rich quick schemes. It takes persistence and learning to make a full income with affiliate marketing. The good news is that you can do it and there are many affiliate marketing tools and resources on your disposal.

You must focus on creating high quality content when you are building an affiliate website. Irrespective of the type of site you are building, whether a content site, review site or any other type, the key to success is to offer helpful content. Winning the crowd means that you need to provide excellent information that can’t be found anywhere else, because the internet is already full of information. Keep your content fresh and unique, and make sure it isn’t outdated in any way, as that would be a turn off for the visitor. The larger the amount of quality content featured on your site, the more your visitors will trust you.

When you’re promoting a particular niche, it’s important to be passionate about it. Trying to promote products in niches that don’t interest you at all will soon see you bored and losing motivation for your internet business. For example, suppose you’re interested in piano music and you are promoting acne products; will that do justice to your affiliate business?

Probably not – in fact, it’s more likely that your prospects will spot your disinterest in something they really like and choose to purchase from someone else. When you’re passionate it shows and when you’re not interested in a niche, even then, it shows.

When it’s time to register a domain name for your own affiliate site, choose one of your own and not a free site. Avoid free blogs and choose a domain name that makes sense for what you’re promoting. Choose a domain name that contains keywords related to the niche you’re promoting. If you include your product’s keyword in your domain, this can play an important role in helping your site rank better in the search engine results.

Registering a domain name is cheap and choosing the right one can give you an edge over your competitors. If you aren’t certain what you are doing, affiliate marketing can become quite tough. So you should keep in mind the above tips that we discussed when going about with your affiliate business. You should always promote products with a good conversion rate and that pay out a high commission. It is critical that you also make sure the company has good tracking software so that you will receive credit for all your sales.

Push Button Money Bonus Overall, if you aren’t certain of what you are doing, affiliate marketing can be a pretty complicated business. So you should keep in mind the above tips that we discussed when going about with your affiliate business. You always want to focus on products that offer a high commission and that convert well. To receive credit for all the sales you make, you must make sure the company has a good affiliate tracking program. AffiloJetPack Blogging Syndicate Bonus

In affiliate marketing the product manufactures are getting help from a third-party to promote the popularity and advertisements of the product in the internet. The service provider uses the internet and other web facilities to market the products and services and make them reach the people.

In affiliate marketing there are opportunities to make sub marketing which is very helpful for the service provider. This enables to get more and more visitors to the website and there by increase the traffic to the website.

The services are available through out the world and are the best promotional technique available to increase the popularity in the internet.

Affiliate marketing help the consumer to know about the new products and services and to choose them according to the needs are requirements. The consumer have the opportunity to know a range of products and at the same time to purchase them through online shopping facilities available. The consumer can also get help in the form of services through such websites and enjoy the benefits from e-commerce.

Affiliate marketing is an effective method to draw the attention of the public to newly launched products and services and to get more visitors to the company website.

Marketing resources that the poker affiliate program provides you and be ready to start, it is really hard to survive without an effective affiliate marketing plan. Remember your task is to pre-sell which involves marketing and promoting your affiliate link to as many people as possible. But remember, without action, you cannot blame this affiliate marketing article or any article for that matter.

In any case, affiliate marketing is set up to be that of a finder’s fee situation because you are bringing new businesses to the client. We’ll discuss affiliate-marketing strategies more in detail in part II of this writing. Success with Affiliate Internet Marketing Programs Though there is much information to obtain prior to becoming an affiliate; it can definitely pay off in the long run. These affiliate marketing article tips can be the most profitable affiliate internet marketing tips you ever learn and you are actually seeing this exciting method right here put into action within this article.

Affiliate marketing can make you a lot of money, but if you want to be at the top of the food chain and make the kind of riches that the top guns make, you do need your OWN product. More Guidance” Cutting Through the Information and Finding the Right Program for You” Whether you have already decided on which affiliate network marketing program you are going to use to make money on the internet or you are still looking for more answers to your questions there is place where you can go to receive more help than you will from any actual program out there. The only thing Dell lacks that can benefit affiliate marketing is great landing pages that explicitly outline the details of the coupon. The Pay-Per-Impression and Pay-Per-Click Model are not common to be used in Affiliate Marketing anymore.

Affiliate Marketing is a widespread method of promoting a website, in which an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor; subscriber and/or customer provided through his/her efforts. It is feasible to make as much money with affiliate marketing as it is through a conventional online business that sells products or services. Com, popularized affiliate programs as an internet marketing strategy. Affiliate marketing is an easy way to start a business and make money because you don’t have to worry about customer service or product creation.

The basic premise of the online poker affiliate marketing program is that site owners can get money by encouraging people to join or purchase from a number of large sites. Product Endorsement: You’ll realize very quickly that the Affiliate Program is just a form of the Product Endorsement Joint Venture that we’ll talk about now, so hopefully we have taken a commonly understood form of internet marketing and will begin now to expand the scope, and your understanding. Finding help and resources for making money online or by affiliate marketing are some of the most sought after subjects on the internet. There are design principles that you must follow when you build your website to achieve success in affiliate marketing.

Affiliate networks are a powerful solution to the knowledgeable Internet Marketing Merchants. Affiliate marketing programs are best alternatives to those who are sick and tired of their arduous daily work just to climb up the venerated corporate ladder. “Pay per lead affiliate programs” allow you to develop multiple streams of income from one business, one marketing effort, and one website. The PIPS is a service that supplies a complete website setup on your own domain name and hosting account, and promotes affiliate products from the best affiliate programs online, namely SFI, Empowers, Internet Marketing Centre, Internet Marketing Warriors / Host4Profit and Traffic Swarm.

Affiliate marketing is now a buzz word on the Internet arena; thus, it will not be very difficult for you to find an affiliate program. But if you are prepared to put that time and energy into your affiliate marketing business, then you will, in time, reap the rewards of all your hard work. Affiliate marketing is quite complex, and it would be impossible on the limited space here to explain all you need to know to succeed in affiliate marketing.

When it comes to creating an online poker room, Pokerstars are the one company that every new poker room should strive to emulate. New poker rooms should try and do what Pokerstars do in every department possible….

…except the affiliate side of things, which is one of the worst I have ever seen from an online poker room.

This article isn’t critiquing the individuals that work in the affiliate department at Pokerstars. Through my dealings with the likes of Carly, Chris etc, I’ve found the people who work there very nice and helpful. However their affiliate program in general is – to be frank – a complete disaster, and needs worked over from the ground up.

First I want to address something – Pokerstars do not need an affiliate program. This should be obvious to everyone. They, and to a lesser extent Full Tilt Poker, are the only poker rooms that could still do well without affiliate programs. Pokerstars have so much going for them that generates enough word of mouth, as well as lots of offline marketing methods in various forms of media, and finally great search engine rankings for key terms like “online poker”, that they really don’t need an affiliate program.

However that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have one, or that they should leave it at the bottom of the totem pole in regard to priority. An affiliate program can help them bring in so much more revenue, and get the word out about Pokerstars even more. You think the word of mouth ROI is good now? Wait until you have thousands of happy affiliates working for you and doing everything they can to get players to the site. Pokerstars HAS been doing changes after basically ignoring the affiliate side of thing for years, however there are still many, many problems. This article isn’t going to be a negative article bashing them in any way although it may seem like that at times; the point of this article is to hopefully help them in creating the best affiliate program for online poker.

Affiliate Response: This is without a doubt, the biggest issue I have with the Pokerstars affiliate section. To me, I expect a response within 24 hours from an affiliate department on a regular business day. I consider that the standard in the industry. Most programs fall under that category. However the response time at Pokerstars is extremely bad. If I get a response within 3 days, I’m surprised. It can often take at least 5 days. I do routine tests of affiliate support, just to get an idea of how long they take to respond, and also for a future article. So I e-mailed poker rooms a simple question as a new affiliate – can I get unique signup/bonus codes for promoting your site offline. This is one that any affiliate manager should be able to answer within seconds, and I sent this to over 30 affiliate programs. Of those 30 programs, 25 responded within the 24 hour mark, 4 responded within 30 hours. Pokerstars?

8 days. That’s how long it took for them to respond to such a simple question. I understand that the affiliate department is understaffed, but this is completely unacceptable, and the affiliate department needs more resources immediately, because response times like that will turn off any affiliate from ever promoting them.

Marketing/Bonus Codes: This is something else that needs to be clarified immediately at Pokerstars, and really should be. First, some affiliates are allowed personal codes to use which seem more legitimate and encourage players to use it. Yet some affiliates aren’t. So if I am recommending players that sign up at Pokerstars, am I going to get equal conversions from a marketing code that says “STARSBONUS” or a marketing code that says “JohnsPokerSite.net”. No, I’m not, and this needs to be addressed immediately so that, like the majority of poker sites out there, affiliates are able to use any custom code that they want. I like to market offline, and I’d love to promote Pokerstars offline around Christmas time, and be able to tell people to gain entry into a $10,000 freeroll that I am running, all they have to do is enter “DANSXMASBONUS” or similar as a marketing code. People see that, they understand it, and it converts well. But if I have to tell them to enter “JohnsPokerSite.Net” as the marketing code? Yeah, that just isn’t going to convert anywhere near as much.

The other problem with marketing codes is that the field is actually there. Here’s how it should work: if Bob clicks through Pokerstars via my affiliate link and downloads the software and registers, Bob should get tracked to me. Period! I was the one that convinced Bob to try out Pokerstars with the review I have spent hours working on. However, this is not the case. Why not? Because while registering, Bob sees a field for “marketing code”. Hmmm…what’s that? Well, Bob will now google “Pokerstars marketing code”, find all these sites with marketing codes listed, and use one of those instead, even if it doesn’t give him anything extra. So I did the hard work in actually converting the player to Pokerstars, and I don’t get paid? That’s just not fair at all. If you MUST use the marketing code field, and I have no problem with it, the Pokerstars software should first check to see if this player came through a tracking link. Cookies or registry entries would solve that. And if the player is tracked? Then the marketing code section just won’t show up. Other poker rooms do that, why can’t Stars?

Pokerstars.TV: Did you know this actually existed? A lot of people don’t. But it’s there, and can do extremely well at converting players. How to get players there? Affiliates obviously, except affiliates aren’t able to do anything with that currently. This was brought up by Pokerprop back on May 16th, and still nothing has been done.

Newsletters: I get newsletters from affiliate programs on a daily basis, updating me on their current programs. They’ll provide me new promotions and features of their software, new banners, new content I can add etc. Some programs write weekly, some every two weeks, and some every month. Monthly is what I would expect from any promotion. The date of this writing is October 22, 2008. Pokerstars biggest competitor currently is Full Tilt Poker. Another site growing by the day is Cake Poker, who are a LOT smaller than Pokerstars. Here are the dates of the last 5 newsletters I have received from these poker rooms:

I should add to this, that in the PokerStarsPartners.com backend they have a section which lists all their affiliate newsletters, and they have newsletters for October 08, February 08, November 07 and September 07. However I’ve checked 2 different e-mails I have registered with Stars affiliates, as well as asked 3 other affiliates and none of us have any record of these newsletters. So either Pokerstars have had e-mail problems, or these were made available online or when you log into the software only.

Also on October 10th, there was a post by Pokerstars on the PAP forums about the new Boris Becker campaign that affiliates could promote. Guess what – not every affiliate reads the PAP forums. That thread got just 92 views, some of them most likely duplicate. I expect Pokerstars has a lot more than just 92 affiliates. THIS should be the things you are e-mailing affiliates in a newsletter, and keeping them informed. New promotions, new tournaments, new games, new additions to the software – all this would be great information for affiliates to receive in their inbox, and encourage them to promote.

PokerStarsPartners.com: Hey, first of all it is great that they finally implemented this after so many years of nothing but a “signups | deposits” report, however this still requires a lot of work. XML feeds are only available on request, and the last update I read they weren’t yet available. They have a few random screenshots of the Pokerstars software which is outdated. Worse, the screenshot of the lobby lists 471 players currently playing. Right now if I log in at 11pm EST on a Tuesday night, I see 112,896 players playing. So if I do a review of Pokerstars, where I talk about all the great traffic they have, and then post that screenshot listing 497 players, all credibility is just going to go out the window. If you’re going to have a screenshots section then great – but put some work and thought into it. Have screenshots of all the different games available, all the different skins, of the loyalty program, and most importantly keep it updated on a regular basis.

Yet another section that needs cleaned up is the affiliate banner section, mainly in general navigation. I have to click “Marketing”, followed by “banners”, followed by a “click here” link which opens a new window, to access a page that has the banners sorted by language, meaning I have to click again – which opens ANOTHER new window which has the banners disorganized, and all on one page. This section needs a complete revamp. Less clicks for one, second allow people to use filters. If I am looking for a 468×60 banner to use, I shouldn’t have to load up and scroll through a huge page of banners. I should be able to filter the page so I ONLY see 468×60 banners.

These are just SOME of MANY changes needed in the backend. I haven’t even bothered to discuss their “offline marketing” section which suggests players promote Pokerstars offline through flyers, CDs etc, and yet all they offer is newsletters that have been e-mailed to players! Nor the lack of statistics available(ie: click tracking).

Pokerstars Affiliate VIP Tools: Did you know there is a whole section of tools available to promote the Pokerstars VIP program? There’s calculators, gif and flash banners, as well as videos. Are these available in the backend at all? Nope. The only reason I found them was by going to Marketing->Banners->Click Here, which opened up a site separate to PokerstarsPartners.com, and it has a link in the navigation menu for “Affiliate VIP Tools”. Also there is EPT Live Broadcast streams, logos and artwork. WHY are none of those incorporated in PokerStarsPartners.com? Why am I stumbling on this valuable marketing material out of sheer luck?

CPA/Revenue Share: Anyone that knows me, knows that I don’t like CPA. A poker room can offer me $150 CPA for players with no requirements at all except they deposit and I’ll turn it down. I’m just not a fan of CPA at all, as I prefer revenue share where it encourages me to bring in the highest raking players. I’m explaining this just to make this sentence stronger: Pokerstars should not do revenue share, or at least, not in the form that they are apparently currently doing it. This has been a topic debated for a long time. Ever since Pokerstars started, they worked on a tiered CPA system, and it worked. It doesn’t mean affiliates will promote it as strongly as sites with revenue share, but they’ll still promote it for the most part.

For the longest time, revenue share has been wanted at Pokerstars. Earlier this year Pokerstars decided to move to this model, however the way they have did so has been a disaster, by being extremely selective in regard to what affiliates are allowed on revenue share or not. Even if you tell Pokerstars that you can bring in lots of high stakes players, they won’t agree to revenue share. The whole thing has just been a train wreck from start to finish, and Pokerstars have to come to a solid decision on this. Should we offer revenue share? Do we understand the pros and cons of revenue share? Do we have the security set up to minimize the amount of people opening up new accounts? Do we have a system in place to stop rakeback? Why are we currently alienating affiliates, by only offering revenue share to select affiliates? Do we not realize that this is just going to offend affiliates? These are just SOME of the questions that Pokerstars need to ask themselves, and only then can they decide whether to go with revenue share and/or CPA, and then they should do it for everyone. By dragging their feet like this and being selective, all it does is turn off many affiliates. For example, I could probably send about 200 big players a month to Pokerstars. Should I? Well, I’d do well on their tiered CPA system, however I’d do a lot better if I was able to get revenue share. Is revenue share coming to everyone? Maybe, maybe not. Until I know the details, I’m just not going to promote Pokerstars at all, as I don’t want to miss out on any potential earnings. Guess what? I’m just ONE of MANY affiliates who think the same way, and don’t promote Pokerstars as strongly, or at all, because of this.

Higher Volume Affiliates: It’s a fact that at Pokerstars, higher volume affiliates are treated differently, and obviously better. They’re on revenue share and are given the ability to use custom marketing codes for example. This is the wrong way to go about things. Want to treat higher volume affiliates better? Sure, that is a great idea. Give them extra rewards, 50FPP instead of 100FPP for all players etc. Don’t give them unfair advantaged over other affiliates. It is just mindblowing that only certain affiliates get access to custom marketing codes, or given alternative revenue streams. The Pokerstars affiliate program is turning off affiliates before they can even get started bringing in players, due to all the reasons mentioned above. You think you have high volume affiliates now? Fix the issues above(which is just a start), and the amount of high volume affiliates you have will at least triple, because affiliates will actually start promoting you strongly again. Guess what? I’m a high volume affiliate, however I will not get the chance to show Pokerstars that, because some existing affiliates have been given an unfair advantage in regard to marketing and promoting Pokerstars, as well as a larger portion of funds thanks to revenue share, and I’m just not interested in bringing traffic to a site that won’t even allow me to use the same marketing materials as other affiliates, due to their existing volume.

The sad thing is, these are just SOME of the problems associated with the Pokerstars affiliate program. Is Pokerstars the best online poker room for the player? As I wrote at the beginning of the article, I think it is. Google things like “poker room reviews” or other terms that a new player would be searching for. You will find on many of the sites in the top 100, Pokerstars isn’t even on them, or is in low positions. There are many reasons for that, and one of the biggest is just how insignificant affiliates feel when they attempt to promote Pokerstars, especially when it takes 8 days to get a response to a simple question.

If you are reading Pokerstars, please listen closely – you have an incredible poker room with so many features, so many ways to entice new players. You have great promotions, great software, and a very strong brand name. I want to promote Pokerstars strongly. I know many other affiliates want to promote Pokerstars strongly.

Now that you’ve taken time to master the finer points of creating this content, it’s time to make it easier for your fans to find your content when they want it. To do this, you’ll want to install RSS (Really Simple Syndication) capabilities so you can distribute your content more easily to your audience, delivering your content directly to them.

But wait — if the goal is to bring traffic to your site, why would you want to set up an RSS feed and essentially deliver your content to them, the opposite of bringing them to you?

The best answer: RSS can be an enormous boost to your branding and search marketing efforts (SEO), and in the long run will deliver far more visitors to your site. Since so many webmasters are seeking out new, fresh content every day, many of them rely on other sites’ RSS feeds to refresh their sites daily. If they choose to use your RSS feed, you’ll get an automatic backlink to your site, and you get free advertising for your content. That’s more valuable than actually bringing that one visitor to your site; instead, you’re building a network that will bring potentially dozens (even hundreds) of visitors to your site in place of that one you may have lost.

The value of RSS for SEO is becoming clearer; relatively new services like Web Traffic Genius can customize an RSS SEO solution for you, or you can do it yourself.

Most affiliates use other sites’ RSS feeds. That’s fine; it’s a good way to add third-party content to your site and keep it fresh. (For info on how to install other sites’ RSS feeds to your own site, )

But the more advanced and truly ambitious affiliate will strive to distribute his or her own blog content via RSS feed, for the reasons outlined above.

The explosion of online poker was not an accidental incidence, it came in on the again of the success of the gaming trade in general. One of the major reasons for this online success might be attributed to the marketing method that’s unique to the online game. Online marketing applications are a good way for any trade to achieve a big viewers with out need to spend a lot cash on costly advertising campaigns. It really works by making a community of small websites, which host banners and hyperlinks main straight to the poker sites. The affiliate web site house owners are rewarded in flip once they produce a new customer. The affiliate can expect to receive a percentage of up to 35% of a player’s complete money generated, having forwarded them on to the related site.

As a result of the associates are rewarded so handsomely for his or her part within the business deal, they are inspired to advertise themselves and subsequently the websites that they represent. It’s by means of this enterprise ethic that the poker business has been capable of flourish. With the number of associates increasing every month, the poker sites can broaden their range of influence. So even if the guests to websites fail to click on on the links there and then they are getting throughout the brand name, and even sewing the seeds of temptation in peoples minds. The more affiliates the poker websites can appeal to the larger the number of folks that they will probably reach. By way of the affiliate, the greater the number of members generated the higher the profits. So in impact the 2 industries are complementing each other perfectly and have little question increased the visibility and recognition of both. Without the associates program it’s onerous to think what the net poker business could be like. The internet online affiliate marketing business is among the most profitable and risk-free forms of promoting, both on and offline.

Let’s first state exactly what revenue share and CPA is…

Revenue Share: You get a percentage of all the revenue the casino makes, for life(theoretically!). So if a player signs up at Rockbet Casino via your link, deposits $500 then loses it, you would get a percentage of that. The percentages are different at every casino, but are in the 20%-60% range.

CPA: Short for Cost Per Acquisition. You get a flat fee for all real money players that sign up via your affiliate link for a casino. So if someone goes through your link, signs up and deposits, you will get one flat fee, regardless of whether they win or lose. CPA deals can range from $100-$300, and more if you bring in high volume.

As a poker affiliate, revenue share vs CPA is a very tough decision. There are lots of pros and cons, with lots of variables. Things that you would factor in before deciding on revenue share or CPA are does the poker room accept US players? Is it on a network? Are players allowed to play at other rooms on the network? Does it offer rakeback? What are the traffic figures like on that network? Just some, of the many many variables you have to consider when deciding on revenue share vs CPA when it comes to online poker. You can read about revenue share or CPA for a poker affiliate in this article: Poker Affiliates: CPA or Revenue Share?

There ARE of course reasons as to why you should choose CPA over revenue share. There are often lots of swings when it comes to revenue share, especially with chargebacks, bonuses and just general casino play – see my Prepare for the Swings article for more information on that. Also the casino may not have a good reputation for player retention, so CPA makes sense in circumstances like that.

However you’ll forget all about CPA when you get your first whale.

A whale is the term used for players who like to bet large amounts of money, and they are plentiful. Even more importantly – they are generally loyal to a casino, and will happily lose money there month after month, while continuing to play. I have had many whales in my time, and based on my stats 90% of all whales will play at the same casino for at least 6 months.

There are many reasons as to why revenue share is better than CPA – but the one major deciding point is the whale. This isn’t like poker, where you get a high raker but have to rely on them playing regularly, putting in at least 30 hours a week etc. This is online casinos – where a whale can signup via your link while you’re sleeping, deposit and lose $10k within an hour, and have you waking up to a nice $4,000 bonus.

Believe me I’m speaking from experience here having did CPA deals in the past – sure there are lots of swings with revenue share, and you never know just how “for life” it is – but looking at my stats at every casino I promote – unless you’re getting in excess of $500 for CPA, then it’s something I wouldn’t even consider in the slightest.

I’ve made the mistake of going for CPA. When I began promoting one casino, I was focusing mostly on the bonus and getting a lot of bonus hunters in. As I didn’t think they would be high revenue generators, and as I had a feeling many of them would win, I opted for the CPA, which was $100.

I sent that casino about 100 players, which was $10k commission. And sure enough – lots of those players played, and won, or lost their initial deposits and didn’t come back. Out of that 100 however, the casino got two whales, both of whom in the last 3 years have lost over $200,000 at that casino. The revenue share rate at said casino? 40%, meaning I’ve lost out on at least $70k worth of commission.

Also one thing I should note – if it wasn’t for those two whales, I might not have been paid at all. Many people abuse the CPA policy – signing up as affiliates, getting family members to deposit and lose $20, then pick up $100 CPA. Due to this online casinos are a lot stricter than poker rooms when it comes to actually paying out the CPA, and I’ve heard stories on many occasions of affiliates not being paid what they are owed.

To put it simply – don’t make the mistakes I did. If you’re a serious affiliate take revenue share – the swings will be rough, but when that first whale comes in, you’ll never regret the decision.