Yes, I've used affiliate programs to help market my products. It's no magic pill though.
You still need to put in work to get the "right" affiliates, support them with creative banners/campaigns, specials, datafeed requests, etc. There's a lot involved in doing it "right" (which I'm not sure I'm doing

)
I use shareasale.com for my affiliate program. They handle the software, managing affiliates, paying affiliates (I pay shareasale, shareasale pays the affiliate), tracking the transactions, etc.