My opinion is that programs that do the following have a 100% competitive advantage over all other programs:
those that maintain the affiliate's code on the url.
e.g.
http://www.hotsite.com/?id=34333 or hotsite.com/34333/index.html
This is because even though sponsors claim to use ccbill and "DO NOT SHAVE" the act of sending traffic to a site that loses your id after a few days is really shaving over the long run.