That's true. I think, the affiliate is a good start. Once you're big, it's silly to leave money on the table. Obviously, you have to be careful with the industr

That's true. I think, the affiliate is a good start. Once you're big, it's silly to leave money on the table. Obviously, you have to be careful with the industry you pick, so it's big enough. What I'm speaking, though, is about relatively small companies. I don't mean VC backed companies with well researched markets. There's a lot of kids dreaming about big buck doing #31337 clone of Flickr. It's basically a waste of time, in most cases. You have to be careful with the real products. They have their drawbacks, too. You have to do the support, reply e-mails from the actual customers, sometimes forecast the demand etc. Another thing I literally love in the affiliate industry is their experiments driven approach. The best test (it even rhymes!). That's what Google do obsessively, too. (see Marissa Mayer vs Doug Brown thread) I think there's a lot to learn from the affiliate industry. It's silly to get into usual moralistic standpoint: usually they have less skills than a regular wizz kid, and, somehow, manage to make better money. EDIT: It's also good to have a broader perspective. When you're speaking with a client directly and agreeing on the fee, you're doing affiliate, too.