Here's my vote for the Ebay Partner Network. It takes some time setting up the ads, but it's worthwhile because you get paid based on impressions, not just clicks. The longer you're with the program, the higher your quality will rank, in my experience (so the more $$ you'll earn per impression).

We're in the same boat. There's quite a few alternatives to Amazon's program out there, and you're right - most of them pay better commissions. Your best bet is simply to create relationships with smaller merchants - they often offer better incentives.

As for the best network to use (for a large amount of products) besides Amazon - there is the Ebay Partner Network, they recently changed their payment structure to pay based on visitors sent (clicks), instead of products sold. Most of the larger shopping sites, such as shopping.com, PriceGrabber, PriceRunner, ShopZilla, etc. will have affiliate programs. Your best bet is to visit a site you like and see if it has an affiliate program.

And then of course there's the affiliate networks - CJ, oneNetwork, Clickbank, Connect Commerce (Google), etc., where you can look up individual products and merchants and sell products based on their individual commission structures.

I live in NC and one of our main affiliate program's, Amazon.com's associate program, was axed as a result of an Affiliate Tax law that made it into the budget this year. As much as that upsets me, I'm starting to realize that Amazon was paying measly commissions anyways. On top of that, it seems like it's not the best idea to have all my eggs in one affiliate basket, as this situation clearly shows.

So my question is - what is everyone using in lieu of Amazon? I heard there were thousands of affiliate programs closed in NC, so there must be quite a few of you out there that have found alternatives to Amazon?