You've decided that affiliate home business is for you. Where can you get home business ideas? What do you look for in an Affiliate Program, and how do you find them?

First, look for a reputable company that has products that you, yourself would use. You need to be able to believe in and wholeheartedly endorse what you're promoting, or you won't be effective.

Second, look for a product that is in demand, and/or has relatively little competition. A simple way to check on this is to search for the product on the search engines and see how many competitors it may have. You can use the Overture search term suggestion tool to find out how many searches are being done for this and related products.

Third, look for good commissions. Personally, I'd draw the line at a minimum of about 25%, unless I knew something was going to be a very high volume seller.

Fourth, look for residual income opportunities, either because the product is something the customer uses up and has to replenish, or because the company pays you a commission on affiliates you recruit.

There's more to it, but those are some basics to look for.

Now, how do you go about finding Affiliate Programs? A number of directories and clearinghouses exist that will help you in this task.

Affiliation Made Easy Here's a "showcase" site that gives you access to over 2000 affiliate programs in a variety of categories.

ClickBank is a very large affiliate administrator. Vendors sign up to sell digital products, and when you become a Clickbank member (signup is free), you are an instant affiliate of all of the products. You bring traffic to the vendor's site through your Clickbank URL to get credit for your commissions, which are collected and paid by Clickbank.

CB Mall is an online "mall" which features 2000 of the hottest-selling Clickbank products. When you purchase a CB Mall, you have an instant "storefront" to bring Clickbank traffic through.

Commission Junction is another very large Affiliate Administrator that features thousands of products from a very diffuse array of vendors. You join Commission Junction (for free) and then you can peruse their listings, which are arranged by category. Like ClickBank, Commission Junction collects and pays out the Affiliate commissions.

Associate Programs is an independent site run by a fellow named Allan Gardyne, who is one of the most highly respected members of the Affiliate Marketing community. Allan posts reviews of many Affiliate Programs, and has an extensive database of Affiliate Programs. Most of the programs listed here are in the Internet Business arena

Affiliate Match is another independent review site that revolves primarily around Internet Business Affiliate Programs. Site operator Chuck McCullogh is, like Allan, well regarded in the Affiliate Marketing community.

The links above should keep you plenty busy for quite some time. Don't overlook the fact that the Affiliate Program you're looking for could be right under your nose. Do you have a favorite hobby, or some kind of unusual expertise? You could develop an informational site about your hobby, and feature affiliate links to some of your favorite products and resources.

You'd be surprised how many merchants now have Affiliate Programs. Next time you visit your favorite online vendor, look around for the "affiliates" link on their home page. Sometimes it's a little bit hidden, or even at the bottom of the page. If your favorite vendor does not have an Affiliate Program, suggest they start one, and you can be the very first member ...

Here's a link to another of my sites that has even more home business ideas.