1.)  Choose 1 or 2 major affiliate programs to join.  You can always choose some smaller programs, but don't get confused by having so many affiliates.

2.)  Don't bombard your visitors with too many affiliate links.  They'll become very confused and the only place that they'll click will be on the close box on your site!

3.)  DO NOT SPAM!  Spamming will only get you in trouble ~ plus we all hate it!

5.)    Before you choose a program to join, read all their fine print:   how much they pay, MLM's, their use of cookies, earning a residual income, if they participate in spam, etc.

6.)  Be careful if an affiliate asks you to pay them (besides for your domain name and web hosting).  Most will let you join for free and let you do as much or as little as you like. 

5 Ways to Increase your affiliate income:  

1.  Start a "niche" website and choose products that correlate with that niche.  The internet is saturated with work at home/make money at home sites so choose something different.  Pick a topic that you enjoy so that you can come up with a lot of content for it.

2.  Put affiliate links in all your signature lines.  Promote your links when ever you can.  Always let everyone know about your products.

3.  Use your blog or start a blog if you haven't yet.  Promote your links wherever you can.  Blogs are great for giving a personal touch and people are more likely to buy something when they know exactly how you feel about the product.

4.  Write articles and submit them to other websites.  This gets your name out there and it gets you one way links which search engines love!