Affiliate programs are not likely to make you rich overnight but joining the right programs can help you earn several hundred dollars per month on a moderately sized website in a relatively short time. The larger your website is, generally the greater your traffic draw from content will be. The higher your traffic rate is, the more likely you are to be successful with affiliate ads.

Much of your success depends on two things: the quality of your website content, and how selective you are in choosing affiliate program ads to compliment your site.

1. Choose Affiliate Ads That Are Consistent With Your Website's Purpose:Keep your affiliate ads connected to your website's purpose and content as much as possible. You can be broad and creative, but remember to consider the interests and sensibilities of your website visitors. Affiliate ads should compliment your site - not compete with it.

   For example, if you run a social network for stay-at-home moms, think about what most interests your audience. You might choose programs that offer products and services for children, but you might also consider selling books, links to online degrees, and even vacation planning affiliate programs.

2. Keep it Clean and "G" Rated:You will not make money by adding porn and other adult content to a general interest website. Keep it off your site if you want to have any credibility and are trying to attract a loyal customer base rather than those just looking for instant gratification.

   A G-Rated site stands a much better chance of consistently appearing in the most possible search engine returns. Unless you are actually running an adult-themed business, keep adult ads completely off your site. Even if your site content is as G-Rated as Mary Poppins if you allow adult content ads your site will still be listed as adult-oriented by search engines.

3. Do Not Over Do It:Adding too many ads to a page and using annoying pop-ups and flash ads will usually accomplish only one thing: it will distract and annoy your readers who will just go somewhere else to find information without intrusive ads.

   Today's Internet information surfers are savvy and are quickly able to find anything you have to say somewhere else in a matter of seconds. Keep your site fresh, content-rich, and use ads as an added feature (cleverly selection and placed, of course) that have the appearance of being an extension of your site, that is, a service or convenience feature for your visitors, not as a way to get rich.

4. Be Prepared to Work for Your Affiliates:If your affiliate's ads are not working well on a page or section of your website, move them, change them, or remove them. Affiliate programs will drop you if your site is not performing for them.

   If you a lack good results it tells you that your readers are not interested in the particular ads you are showing them, or that they are ignoring them for other reasons (which is often due to placing too many ads on one page).

5. Do Not Use Framesets: Using frames is generally considered a bad idea from an SEO standpoint for any website, but it is particularly important not to use affiliate ads that are set in frames.
6. Do Not Alter Affiliate Ads: Most affiliate programs offer a variety of links, banners, and buttons to choose from. Affiliate marketers have already spent time and money and research to determine what ads sell best. They use their own branding which often includes specific phrases, colors, images, and even fonts. For this reason, with few exceptions, affiliate programs do not let you (even though it is technically easy to do) make changes to their ads. If you do make unauthorized changes the affiliate partner may refuse to pay you for any leads generated from altered ads.

The ads you choose to display on your site say something about you and your own business. Be selective, not greedy, and focus on ads that serve the needs of your website visitors to get the most out of affiliate programs.