What are the "Best Practices" for Affiliate Programs?

Dear Fellow misc.entrepreneurs.moderated Group Members,

We hope that all of you that celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday had a 
Great One! :)

We just wanted to start, the hopefully mutually beneficial, discussions 
on the topics of  What are the current "Best Practices" for Affiliate 
Programs?

How does one "Launch" a successful Affiliate Program(s)?

How does one "attract" lots of good Affiliates?

Then ...

What do you do to help your Affiliates promote and sell your products 
and grow their own "downline" Affiliate Force?

What do you do when the product(s) currently offered through your 
Affiliate Program begin to "age" and/or "saturate" in the market?

I hope that this will help us all both stimulate some lively discussions 
and all of us benefit from your responses! :)

- Michael S. DeVries 
  Principal,  
  The Virtual Consulting Firm  
  "Real People Providing Real Solutions in a Virtual World"
  http://www.TheVCF.com