3. The more focused your web site better your conversion ratio. If you are promoting 100 different products or services your CR's will be low. If you promote 1 product or service at your site your CR will be MUCH higher. With affiliate programs less better.

4. How often you promote your affiliate programs. The more often you promote each program higher your CR will be.

5. How many links on your site. The more affiliate links higher your CR will be. But do not get carried away here. Do not let your web site look like a flea market because your CR will be bound to go down.

By concentrating on these factors you should be able to achieve a CR of 1%. By doing these things even better you may be able to get it to 2%.

But do not expect CR to rise overnight. A visitor today may only turn into a sale in 6 months time. So make sure you have 12 months of data before properly assessing conversion ratio.

The most important thing is marketing your affiliate programs. More marketing means a higher CR which means more money for you.

So monitor your conversion ratio and make it your goal to improve it.

6) Recurring Commission

Taking referral duration a step further, some affiliate programs will even remember you not only for first product you sold to a given visitor, but also for every product they will buy from them in future, including upgrades, etc. This aspect is especially attractive for affiliate programs that sell services with a subscription model. For example with a monthly subscription-based service you earn commission each month. This can quickly add up over time.

7) The Statistics

Most affiliate programs will give you reports on your sales activity. Some will send you a monthly report, others will give you a URL to view your statistics in real-time at any time. I much prefer latter. Real-time statistics allow you to see early on how affiliate program is performing on your site. They also allow you to tweak your promotion (e.g. use different promotion material) on a daily basis and get most out of program. Personally, I am always suspicious of affiliate programs that don't provide any real-time stats.

8) The Payments

Last but not least, you want to make sure payments are made often enough, preferably once a month. Some affiliate programs will only pay you every 3 or 6 months.

There you go. I suggest you print or save this article somewhere. Next time you are thinking of joining an affiliate program, take a moment to evaluate its quality by going through these 8 criteria. If it passes test, then you probably have a winner. Otherwise don't waste your time, move on to a better program.