According to a report from AffiliateBenchmarks (the affiliate research division of NETexponent), the three most important things affiliates look for deciding whether to join an affiliate program are the commission they will receive, the product being sold and the brand being promoted.

The report also found that 68% of affiliate respondents said that "affiliate technology" played a role in deciding whether to join a particular program. Custom landing pages and a product feed were the most valuable technology offerings for affiliates when promoting a merchant offer. The top three affiliate vendors cited in the survey were Commission Junction, LinkShare and Google Affiliate Network (GAN).

Additional survey findings include:

• Nearly half (44%) of affiliates have joined between 1 and 25 affiliate programs.
• Most affiliates say that a low percentage of programs generated orders in the month prior to the survey.
• An overwhelming majority of affiliates want to be reached by email at their personal email address, especially with regard to commission changes.
• Search engine optimization (SEO) is among the most popular ways affiliates drive traffic to their sites.