Affiliate programs are ones that I screened and selected carefully to become a "sales associate". When someone follows a link that contains my affiliate code and makes a purchase I get a small commission (in theory anyway).
That sounds at first like quite the potential moneymaker (I wish!). However, the reality is that even with a website that gets a fair amount of traffic (tbyil.com), this private forum where such advertising is allowed, and two other forums on Yahoo, the total affiliate sales I get in a month is a couple hundred dollars. Probably that is because I do not promote my affiliate links or products nearly as much as I could - and often I don't bother to put in any affiliate links to begin with. I guess that I am too conscious of not wanting to be a huckster or ever recommend something solely because I would make money from it - or even give anyone that appearance.
I suppose the bottom line is that it is far more important to me to help someone heal than it is to make money
I spent quite a bit of time and effort selecting who I wished to affiliate with, especially as relates to health, and I really should do a better job of telling people about their better products. Who knows, with the handful of book sales, Google Ads and a few more affiliate sales I might even get in sight of the poverty level - lol.