Thanks sipka,
It’s really nice of you to nominate my sites!! 
I really like yours too.
One question that I think us affiliates need to ask ourselves when embarking on designing a site is whether to design for a particular market. For example, American sites in general (not talking just about gambling) have a different look and feel to British sites, and these in turn are different from other European sites.
Another question is does pretty make richer? The bigger affiliate sites many times lack the design quality, but somehow people flock to them. Or is it that small affiliates starting up have to try harder to get a foot in the door…