Particular types of businesses are more suited to the affiliate selling technique. As Nielsen points out in his article, books lend themselves well to the program since almost every site will have some books to recommend about their specific area of expertise. Another product that seems extremely well suited to the affiliate style of selling, is CDs. This adds a new twist to the affiliate marketing scheme. In a lot of cases the affiliates themselves don't make a lot of money from participating in such programs.
Some companies pay affiliates more than others.
Because of the way affiliates are set up, some companies have made a business out of acting as a middleman between companies and their affiliates. GeoCities launched its affiliates program to 3.3 million of its Homesteaders. Online sales of products will be in multibillions of dollars. Some of the pitfalls that Web site owners fall into is by signing up with too many affiliates. According to Nielsen this jeopardizes long term trust for short term gain.