Affiliate programs are programs which direct internet traffic to a merchant web site, according to specific agreement made between the two parties. The affiliate programs posts links which direct internet users to the merchant web site. The agreement between the affiliate program and the merchant site can be of different forms. One such form is when the merchant web site pays the affiliate program based on the amount of people which the affiliate program sends the merchant site. There is also another type of agreement where the merchant site only pays the affiliate program only if the buyer buys or performs a specific action in the merchant site. Basically affiliate programs help merchant site promote what is on its site, thus gives the merchant site a lot of advertisement. However, a merchant site can gain maximum internet traffic if it chooses the best affiliate programs.

Amazon.com is a perfect example of a merchant site which is profited from the best affiliate programs. Amazon.com and the affiliate programs have an agreement between the two parties , where the affiliate programs posts links about individual books which are for sale on Amazon.com, the affiliate program is paid a percentage of the price the book is sold , if the buyer links on the link posted by the affiliate program and then goes onto buy the book. The only job assigned for the affiliate program is to promote the books which on sale at Amazon.com, whereas all the other jobs performed during the transaction is done by the merchant web site such as taking the order, cash transaction and the shipping of the book. With over five hundred thousand affiliate programs, Amazon.com receives get a large amount of internet traffic when compared to other sites which sells books.

A popular tactic common amongst the best affiliate programs is that they post their links on sites which have some sort of a common interest as the merchant site; therefore it is most likely that the viewer would click on the link posted by the affiliate programs. If a merchant site needs to pick an affiliate program out of the best affiliate programs found, there are many aspects one needs to take into consideration. The best affiliate programs keeps on updating their posts, especially when the merchant sites edits the information found on its site, thus preventing any inconvenience to the internet users. Another noteworthy feature found amongst the best affiliate programs is that, puts up its posts on positions on the screen, which are most likely seen by the internet user, thus would pay some attention towards the link. With the high competition amongst the affiliate programs, it takes a lot of effort and dedication for an affiliate program to be amongst the best affiliate programs.