Not all of the good affiliate programs go through the big boys. As you can imagine, there are advantages and disadvantages to using someone like Linkshare or Commission Junction to run your program. The major disadvantages seem to be cost (expect to drop ten grand for setup and network access fees, and a 30% commission on what you make from the program) and the fact that your program will be lost among thousands of others.

So many companies have decided to manage their own affiliate programs, using specialized software and with their own promotional plans (30% buys a lot of Adsense). I surfed the ten most popular independent affiliate program directories, and I've listed ten of the more promising programs.

Disclaimer: I do not necessarily recommend or endorse any program here. All I know is that I reviewed the listing, visited the website and decided that it was genuine (rather than a bunch of ads or links and/or a Clickbank or other program's front site).

Affiliate Classroom

www.affiliateclassroom.com

A step by step training program to help you easily launch and grow your own affiliate internet business (I signed up for this one).

Balance Ayurvedic

www.balanceayurvedic.com

An Ayurvedic (natural and herbal) remedies website with a 20% lifetime commission on all sales.

Internet Marketing Center

www.marketingtips.com

Resource center for Internet Marketing. The free stuff is good too.

$1 Newspaper Ads

www.clickslink.com/shop/newspaper_ads.html

Advertise in the classified section of newspapers for as little as $1 each. (Through Clickbank) I thought this one was kind of cool.

Funny T-Shirts

www.funny-tshirts.biz

There's some funny stuff here, and $4 per sale for you.

Information Packaging

www.info-pack.com

Some really cool and unique software for webmasters.

BettingBots

www.bettingbots.com

Here's a unique site for people with gambling-related content ? a directory of betting automation software.

Tradepub.com

www.tradepub.com

Pay per lead for free trade publication subscriptions - good for industry-specific sites

4 Team

www.4team.biz

Microsoft Outlook tools

Testiment Business Marketing

www.testiment.com

$5 per lead for Internet Marketing consulting

There are plenty of good programs out there that aren't connected to a big affiliate network, and plenty of directories to find them.

Here's a good Google tip: type in the word or phrase that describes the affilate program keyword, then include +affiliate. For example, if you're looking for a dog toys affiliate you would search dog toys +affiliate. You should get back a bunch of programs.

Happy hunting.