You probably all heard about "Dance with the wind". That is exactly how I came of the title of this article. By "leader", I mean those leading affiliate programs, like Google Adsense in (Cost-Per-Click) CPC programs, Amazon in CPS (Cost-Per-Sales) programs and so on.

Nowadays, many website owners complain about strict rules of Google Adsense and low referrer rate of Amazon. In their mind, Google Adsense is dead. Amazon is lead. As a result, they tend to switch to other alternatives that have relatively looser requirements or have a much higher commission rate, which they managed to find in such places as clickbank and other advertisement proxies. Nevertheless, the best news I've heard about is that some of these alternative programs have a mediocre performance, but far from outstanding. On the other hand, however those webmasters who stick to traditional giants such as Google Adsense and Amazon continue to share with us their successful stories. Personally, I strongly suggest that we dance with the leader. The major reasons are as follows.

First of all, the leading affiliate programs are far more advanced in advertising technology. We could always hear exciting news about technique innovation or new advertising tools from them. Take Google as an example, there are hardly any competitors in the advertising world that even come close to its technique. Recently, it just acquired AdMod to strengthen its influence in mobile advertising market, which brings new ad publishing choices for webmasters. It also collaborates with Amazon to allow bloggers to easily plug in Amazon ads in blogs.

Second, the leading affiliate programs know the most appropriate rate. Based on their rich experience in advertising industry, they have a good command of knowledge to charge a most appropriate price for advertisers and distribute a fair share of ad revenue to website publishers, no more no less. On the contrary, some unknown affiliate programs set a ridiculously high commission rate to attract webmasters. Word of advice, don't be fooled by their high rate. Think about where your ad revenue comes from. If you always bear in mind that any ad revenue you may have comes from advertisers, you'll be more rational when choosing which affiliate program to participate in, since the advertisers are not fools, either. Besides, the high commission rate often means that the choice of ad type is quite limited and quality of ad is rather poor.

Last but not least, the leading affiliate programs are more likely to have a very low probability of default. A significant part of assets of leading companies are composed by intangible assets, which is closely related to their reputation. If you look at Google's balance sheet it reports to shareholders every quarter, you could get a better idea of that. That's why those leading companies are always quite aware of their reputation. Therefore, it's quite unlikely that they default on affiliating commissions payable to webmasters at the expense of their public image. However, those affiliate programs sitting in the corner are different. They probably don't care about reputation whatsoever. Instead, short-term profits are most vital to them. When something unfavorable, such as cash crisis, happens, it's not a bad idea for them to disappear completely without paying out a penny.

In summary, I strongly believe those leading affiliate programs, such as Google Adsense, Amazon and so on, are more worthy of your effort, in terms of sharing the benefit of their technology advantage, securing a fair market return and protecting your ad income.