How reliable affiliate programs can be?

Hi again all

It's D.D. from small lil island at the other side of the earth here! :) .... I would like to thank you so much for the warmth welcomes and helpful responses! A small little heaven in this wide wide world (WWW) hehehe ....

Anyway, here i m again with a new question ... seeking for insights with people with more exposure.

I have seen so many websites proclaiming how easy it is to make money through the power of internet (honestly I believe in it).. one of it is through affiliate programs. But, how can we make sure if that particular company is reliable? How can we know we have XXX amount of sales and XXX amount of commission? And whether they will pay us or not. Though if there are softwares which able to track all these, it's still not so convinicing, isn't it? :o ... hhmm ...

Has anybody had more experiences in this issue? Hope you can contribute some of your time and effort in typing it out hehehehe! Zillion thanks in advance!!!

Sincerely

D.D.