[Linda Buquet]

Hi dc dalton,

You are right about the trust issue. Most affiliates that have been around have been burned, sometimes even by honest, well meaning merchants, that just didn't set tracking up right.

PLUS you could never design your own tracking solution that would work as well as the programs that have been out there for years, tested by thousands of affiliates and improved over time. Additionally smart affiliates value their time. If they have to log into a program that has a different layout, interface and options and learn every merchants individual program it would be a major pain.

So I strongly recommend buying off the shelf software or better yet join a network and let them handle everything for you .

I've heard good reports about idevaffiliate, postaffiliatepro and groundbreak.
I think they are all very low cost too. I could not tell you which is the best though.

If you want more affiliates then joining a network is an even better option IMHO.