Seems like everywhere I turn, I end up at a web site claiming to have the Affiliate Best Program list. They are very eager to tell me all about these top affiliate programs that are going to make me rich over night without having to put in any time. My reaction is always the same: Does anyone buy this stuff? I know I don't. I've been at this for many years and I've learned that when people are promoting a list, like the Affiliate Best Program list, it's usually to serve their own interests. They probably have an incentive to push people to the programs on their list. I've learned this by trying many of the suggestions on many Affiliate Best Program lists. Many, many hours later I've realized that the list of really good programs is not that hard to come by.

So what is the real list of high-quality, top affiliate programs? That's easy.

• Amazon Associates
• Google Adsense
• eBay
• Commission Junction

These are all big companies with big programs. When you work with these companies, you don't have to worry about not being paid. These affiliate programs may not pay the highest values, but the reliability is worth it. Here's the real truth: If you're serious about making money online, you will need to put in some hours on the computer to make it happen. Nothing is worse than putting in the effort with an affiliate program that turns out to be unfair to their members. Or worse, the program you select from the Affiliate Best Program list is no longer in business 6 months later. I've seen this. These affiliate programs spend a ton of money to create a buzz. It works. All of the affiliate marketers recommend it as the next big money making opportunity. Then one day, it's simply gone. Affiliates are left unpaid. The forums are overrun with complaints. You lose.

So if the real Affiliate Best Program list is so easy to spot, why isn't everyone making big money from these programs. Ah, a much more subtle question. The first thing you should do if you're serious about affiliate marketing as a home business income source is to spend some time at the web sites of the programs I mention above. Each has an extremely well-developed affiliate member section where you will find tons of information about how to work with them. Additionally, many of the programs have made big investments in technologies that allow you to deploy creative marketing strategies through Application Programming Interfaces (API). If you have time and technical capabilities, you should stop reading this article and focus your efforts on those web sites. If you are not super technical or need help understanding how to put the affiliate pieces together, you need a script.

In many forums on the topic of Affiliate Marketing you will come across posts describing "scripts" made by developers that are available for sale that allow the affiliate marketer to do some rather technical tasks automatically via API. Scripted API interfaces are a wonderful way to stand out and bring in solid income. What scripts allow the affiliate marketer to do is to take advantage of those tools offered by the larger affiliate marketing programs and gain greater visibility on the Internet. This leads to traffic, which leads to income. Coders can make these API scripts themselves. But scripts are not true software. Ten years ago we would have called them middleware, but that term isn't used much today. Affiliate API scripts are not true software because they take too much time and technical knowledge to handle properly. Additionally, if something goes wrong, you are stuck with no support.

So what do you do if you are not technical, but want the traffic and income advantages that API scripts have? I highly recommend locating software platform with embedded scrips to use to your full advantage. There are many true software platforms that basically have these cool affiliate API marketing scripts "baked in." They usually bundle the script with hosting, a domain name, and support. This is the perfect scenario for the newer affiliate marketer who wants to stand out and really drive some traffic. I personally recommend IncomeStores.com if you are looking for revenue from Amazon, eBay, Commission Junction and Google. With a Niche Income Store, you control everything about the store, but don't have to code it. It also offers all of the latest API interfaces with the big programs mentioned above. This software will never be on the Affiliate Best Program list because they are simply a tool to allow you to more rapidly make money from the well-respected affiliate programs that are on the list.

For the reasons discussed above, I believe using tools like IncomeStores.com is a much more reliable method for building meaningful income online.