As I sit watching paint dry, eagerly awaiting my seven day bidvertiser experiment to reach it's conclusion I've become reflective. In the past twelve months or so, I've joined a number of programs with the intention of making some cash from them. Some have been winners, some have been stinkers. But it's always nice to log into an affiliate program after a lengthy absence to find that you've made some 'surprise' money.

The first one, is Deal Dot Com. In it's start up stage there were a few high flyers that apparently did quite well with this program targeting the "Make Money Online" market. Unfortunately I wasn't one of them. To make decent money from Deal Dot Com, you need to be good at building referrals. The cool thing about Deal Dot Com is that you can have direct referrals (tier one) but also second level referrals (tier two).

"You get paid 35% of DealDotCom’s profit for every item that they buy. If someone you referred to DealDotCom refers someone else, you get paid 15% of DealDotCom’s profit every time they buy something for the rest of your life."

Unfortunately, I've never been good at building massive referral numbers, so I haven't made my Deal Dot Com fortune. Still, I was glad to see that my single digit referral brought me in $3.50 the other day! Thanks whoever you are, it paid for my coffee! The other beauty of Deal Dot Com was that it costs nothing to join, so there's nothing to lose. Easy.

Seriously though, if you've go a large network that's interested in making money online (and the associated products) you should give Deal Dot Com a look, they have a facebook plugin now as well, which makes it even easier for you.

The one that has really surprised me though is the phpBay Pro affiliate program. phpBay Pro is an awesome piece of programming, so I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending it to anyone looking to integrate eBay auction into their site. I use phpBay Pro three sites, and it's the best $49 I've spent. To give you an idea, in this month alone, I've passed the $170 mark (see requisite screen shot below). That's $170 from very little effort. I'm guessing that's why phpBay Pro is an easy sell, and explains why I've made $90 from affiliate sales in the last 6 weeks.

The phpBay Pro affiliate program is a good one because it pays $14.70 for every $49 sale. That's a pretty decent cut if you ask me! What's been my strategy? Buying phpBay Pro, using it, proving it works, and then telling people how good it is. I should write a book!

Not an affiliate program as such, but I made a nice buck from picking the 2008 NBA Champions over at Predictify. I gazed into the crystal ball and picked the Boston Celtics a month or two back, and they got over the line, and helped me buy another coffee. I'm glad I couldn't disagree with Boston fan boy Blankshooting.