In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 24% responded with “Search Engine.”

I frequently use search engines to find new affiliate programs to promote.

What I do is to search for the main keyword for my site, followed by the phrase affiliate program.

Sometimes the results are junky, but more often than not, I'll discover affiliate programs that didn't occur to me.

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 6% responded with “Conferences.”

Affiliate marketing conferences are a good place to discover new affiliate programs, as well as reinforcing your existing affiliate relationships.

The key difference at affiliate marketing conferences over the many other places where you can find new affiliate programs is that you get face time with the affiliate managers.

I've found it's a whole lot more effective to make my case for increased commission when joining a new affiliate program in person over email, phone, IM, etc.

The conference networking takes your relationship with a brand, advertiser, affiliate manager, etc. to a higher level.

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 3% responded with “Affiliate Manager is on Twitter.”

I am sort of surprised by the low percentage who find affiliate programs this way, but perhaps it's because I'm more apt to follow OPMs, and I see all of their new program announcements on Twitter.

I find it helpful to not only discover affiliate programs on Twitter, because an affiliate manager is proactive there, but also it's a great too to follow affiliate programs you've joined.

The affiliate managers and affiliate programs I follow on Twitter will regularly post information on limited time coupons, special deals, etc., as well as linking to recent blog posts about the affiliate program.

Plus, it's nice to have access to an affiliate manager on Twitter for quick questions about their program(s).

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 7% responded with “Affiliate manager is active on message boards.”

The responsiveness of an affiliate manager is key, and affiliate marketing message boards or forums provide a great opportunity to ask any question to a given affiliate manager.

There are a handful of affiliate marketing forums, and the active presence of affiliate managers at them is a good indicator of how accessible they will be when you need them.

In the example above, you can see how affiliate manager Evan Weber announced that he was re-launching the affiliate program for BaronBob.com, and shortly after his post, there was a response from an affiliate.

And then Evan quickly circled back to the affiliate, and his forum signature includes ways to reach him on Facebook and by email.

That's what I like to see in an affiliate manager for an affiliate program I'm considering promoting.

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 6% responded with “Affiliate marketing blogs.”

Finding out about affiliate programs through affiliate marketing blogs can happen in a couple of different ways.

But first you need to find the blogs – that's easy. Just go to Google and search for affiliate marketing blogs.

The quickest and easiest way to discover affiliate programs from an affiliate marketing blog is to simply scan their advertisers.

Blogs will typically run ads in the header or side columns, and often the ads running in those spots are for affiliate programs or affiliate networks.

Also, you ought to read the blogs, because some of their posts will typically be about new affiliate programs, case studies featuring affiliate programs, news on unique technology or features being offered by affiliate programs, etc.

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 15% responded with “Affiliate Manager contacts you.”

This method could include a variety of techniques for contact, such as direct mail, email, phone, and IM.

The favored techniques will vary with each affiliate program, as will the effectiveness.

As an affiliate, I prefer to not be interrupted, so contacts by phone and IM aren't typically welcomed. Both are certainly good if you want to ask a lot of questions, but I don't often want conversations when I select affiliate programs – I just want to test first and talk later.

Email works for me if it's an individual pitch, based on how a given affiliate program can benefit me and my site(s).

Mass email with general attributes of an affiliate program usually gets a quick delete from me.

I prefer direct mail as an affiliate, too, but rarely get anything in the mail from an affiliate manager.

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 5% responded with “Affiliate network.”

Affiliate networks are companies that provide affiliate tracking and reporting for affiliate programs. When affiliates join an affiliate network, they are typically able to search the network by names of merchants, keywords, or categories of affiliate program.

An example of an affiliate network is ShareASale.

Other affiliate networks I currently use are Affiliate Window, Commission Junction, and LinkShare. There are many others out there, but these are the networks I am currently active in, as their merchants are most relevant to my affiliate sites.

In the case of ShareASale, there is an option to search with a keyword for either merchants or products; advanced search, which has a variety of parameters to choose; and dozens of categories, many of which have a number of sub-categories.

There are also options to view only those merchants with datafeeds, as well as viewing which merchants have current coupons/deals.

So, if I am looking for merchants and/or products for an affiliate site focused on gifts, I would search for gifts and see what was available to me.

When I find an affiliate program that fits my needs, I would click “Join Program”.

I prefer to promote affiliate programs within affiliate networks, so I can consolidate my logins, reporting, and payments, so this is one of the ways I like to search for affiliate programs.

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 25% responded with “Affiliate Directory.”

The affiliate directory played a big role in my affiliate marketing history, as I worked for the first affiliate program directory, Refer-it, back in 1999-2000.

Back then, affiliate directories were a needed resource, because there were fewer ways to find affiliate programs at the time.

But now it surprises me that many affiliates still rely on the directories. I started up an affiliate directory called Affiliate Thing years ago, but killed it in 2009, because I found it to be unnecessary.

Additionally, I didn't like where they were heading with a great many of them featuring affiliate programs, because they were two-tiers (they were getting a piece of the affiliates joining under them) or the spaces on lists of the top affiliate programs were being sold.

However, affiliates are clearly still using what I consider to be the equivalent of Yellow Pages for affiliate programs.

So which is the best affiliate directory?

Well, I took a look at those ranking best in Google, and there isn't one I'd recommend for affiliates to use.

But for merchants, I'd suggest submitting your details to the affiliate directories that are ranking well, but don't pay for placement.

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 7% responded with “Advertising in print publications.”

It may seem backwards to look offline for affiliate programs, since they are based online, but it's a great way to discover new affiliate programs and networks.

Affiliates can find affiliate programs in a couple of ways with print publications – affiliate marketing industry magazines, like FeedFront, or titles specific to their niche or vertical.

Here is a magazine ad for the SeaWorld affiliate program.

And here is another magazine ad from cpa network Commission Empire.

For any merchants reading, you should have a unique call to action or url, so you can track the performance.

Now that you've got things set with your site, you're producing content, and driving some traffic, it's time to find some affiliate programs to monetize your site.

But where do you find the right affiliate programs for your site?

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”

The affiliates responded with a wide variety of methods for finding affiliate programs to promote, including affiliate directories, search engines, and being contacted by affiliate managers.

I will go through all of the ways mentioned by affiliates, so you can experiment and find out which is most useful for you.

Before you start trying to find affiliate programs, be sure to focus on those that are relevant to the topic of your site.

Don't be seduced by high commissions. You will want to test ads for products and services that make sense for your audience.

Here are the most popular methods for affiliates to find affiliate programs:

• Advertising in print publications
• Affiliate directory
• Affiliate network
• Affiliate Manager contacts you
• Affiliate marketing blogs
• Affiliate Manager is active on message boards
• Affiliate Manager is on Twitter
• Affiliate Marketing Conferences
• Search Engines

In addition to focusing on relevance for your affiliate ads, you don't want to put too many ads up on your site. Less is more!