Web Hosting services and domain registration companies are two natural affiliations for a site that discusses building web sites or intends to offer information to new netizens as my site is intended to do. I have narrowed my search down to a select few but will continue to seek those that offer the best value and terms to the user.
LowCostDomains offers an affiliate program with banners and other images/ code you copy to your site. Registration and payment is handled through a third party service at Commission Junction. Payment is based on site click-throughs producing sales within 45 days of the customer visit to lowcostdomains and requires minimum commissions due of $25.00 within a month. Commission ranges from 20% to 30% depending on dollar amount of sales. See http://www.lowcostdomains.com/affiliates.htm for further details.
Internet.com
has made a business out of affiliations.
http://www.internet.com
By acquiring a "brand" name offering significant recognition and understanding of the web site's purpose, internet.com placed itself in a perfect position to offer it's site as a portal for others providing e-commerce and web based services. Sites offering services to Information Technology professionals are perfect targets for commercial affiliations. For further discussion of this topic see my previous page regarding Customer Relationship Management.
Affiliation Considerations and an Alternative
Affiliations should have a direct relationship with the web site's intended purpose and be of interest to the user. Otherwise you will only succeed in pissing them off. An alternate method to gain extra revenue for a site that offers a genuine service would be micropayments. PayPal offers this service. For an example of this and an explanation, please visit the following sites:
Example: PayPal
link is on the bottom of Matt's page - http://www.mattkruse.com/
(Check out the stats listed on the top of this site - way cool)
The Case for Micropayments (by Jakob Nielsen, a leading expert on web usability): http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980125.html