Many web geniuses fail to understand as why other people would help them make up a business empire. There are some commercial site owners who want to shot to fame and be counted among names like Yahoo, Google, MSN, Rediff, etc. They spend time making up an effective affiliate marketing program and when it is put into practice, publishers are very disinterested.

A merchant or advertiser has to understand this in the first place. A web site publisher or owner of the web site has as much right to move up the ladder as the merchant. Giving him few cents for dollars that merchant himself makes won’t yield to anything. The merchant has to learn to earn money with affiliate and not exploit a naïve who does not have a sound business plan.

As long as affiliate programs make the publishers earn peanuts, there would be a big "No" to affiliate marketing.

An affiliate is like a business partner, not an employee who is squeezed for the profits. Some of the best affiliate marketing programs are based on the above proposition, viz., to earn with the affiliate. A fair percentage, fair commissions and incentives are the first requirements of a successful program.

There is a misconception as the advertisers often think that affiliates are promoting their web sites only. Affiliates promote business and by directing the traffic and customers to merchant’s site, they are doing more than what hired search engine experts or marketers do.

There is no dearth of publishers in the market. A merchant can spend enough time to look for affiliates and surely will find thousands willing to do the job. But it is not a secret that a few per cent of the total affiliates or publishers are able to deliver the job effectively. In other words, merchants may have publishers working for a couple of dollars. But the merchant himself won’t be making much. The profits in affiliate marketing are reciprocal. Good affiliates earn good money and so do the merchants who earn money with affiliate .

You must have an understanding of what a partner can be like and what kind of treatment he is supposed to receive. If you have that you will always be satisfied with your affiliates.