I look for all of the above – creatives are very important, a reputation of honesty among my fellow affiliates is extremely important, but I voted for stats. I don’t necessarily mean real time stats – I want thorough stats.
The more information the better. I need information to base campaigns on. Stats where you check and see how much money you made and that’s it are for the birds, and programs that limit themselves to that get bottom exposure, and surely never benefit from any experimental campaigns I may do.
I don’t see how some of the programs think you can do an intelligent job of marketing if all you know is how much you get paid this month.
I want information, creatives and responsive managers.
If I have those, I know I can generate good income, given the program is honest.