Most affiliate marketers are constantly on the lookout for sound business intelligence. One interesting piece of news that I caught recently involved tech usage in the United States? How can news about tech usage be useful to affiliate marketers? Let’s take a look at the following excerpt from a Web Pro News article:

A new study that examines how countries use technology to improve their social and economic conditions has the United States, Sweden and Japan ranked at the top of the list.
Connectivity Scorecard developed by London Business School professor Leonard Waverman and released today, measured countries on 30 factors, including use of communications technology.

This tells us mainly that new technology sells well in the United States, Sweden and Japan. As we move further down the article we see a list of the top “innovation driven economies.”

Here are the ratings for “innovation-driven economies” measures in the study on a scale of 1 to 10.
United States 6.97
Sweden 6.83
Japan 6.80
Canada 6.50
Finland 6.10
Britain 6.10
Australia 5.93
Germany 5.52
France 5.07
South Korea 4.78
Hong Kong 4.46
Italy 3.85
Spain 3.56
Hungary 3.18
Czech Republic 3.11

Poland 2.18

If affiliate marketers are looking for the perfect tech market focus group, there they have it. The great thing is, with the exception of Japan most of the countries at the top of the list have a sound command of the English language.

For affiliate managers, this tells us that we need to be looking to recruit affiliate marketers from those regions. If we are missing out on Japan and South Korea, we are missing some enormous markets. Getting affiliate marketers marketing in their native languages is absolutely essential if you want to have an international program.

By now most of you should be very familiar with the major affiliate networks out there. They provide good value for money and are a great way to get instant access to a pool of experienced sales people. The other option, is to keep it all in house and do it yourself. DIY affiliate marketing has a place, but there is a lot that you need to be aware of before you get started.

Advantages of Existing Affiliate Marketing Networks
The biggest benefit of going with an existing network is that you are instantly plugged into a pool of marketers. Some of the networks have very competent marketers and having instant access, so to speak, will get your program off to the right kind of start. There are, however, a few other significant benefits to using an existing network. All of the major affiliate marketing networks provide Affiliate Program Tracking as part of their service. Furthermore, everything is done for you on the programming side of things. This can save a tremendous amount of time and money. You get an affiliate network that is ready to go from the moment you have signed your contracts.

Advantages of DIY Affiliate Marketing Networks
The biggest advantage of a DIY affiliate marketing network is that it gives you control over every aspect of your network. Paying affiliates, affiliate management, affiliate tracking and recruiting are all kept in-house. This can save a great deal of money. There is no middleman and the only fees that you encounter will be bank or payment processor fees. Keeping everything in house allows you to set up a program that is exactly the way you want it to be. There are, however, some significant drawbacks.

Drawbacks of DIY Affiliate Marketing Networks

• Legalities - One aspect that you will definitely need to consider is the legality of your Terms of Service agreement. The world can be a very litigious place; it is definitely advisable to sit down with a lawyer to come up with a bulletproof TOS.
• Time commitments - It can take a prodigious amount of time to run your own affiliate marketing network. If could rob you of time that you need to actually build your business
• Cost of setup - A good coder will be able to get the nuts and bolts of your affiliate system running relatively easily, especially if they have had some experience with affiliate programs in the past. You would be well advised to get a professional to take care of the setup process. You will need to weigh the costs involved with the setup with the ongoing cost of an established affiliate marketing network. The DIY version is an upfront, one time only cost. An established network will be an ongoing percentage.

Do it yourself affiliate marketing networks are not for everyone. With a little hard work and perseverance, however, they can offer some significant longterm benefits. If you have the time and money to set one up, it is definitely worth the hard work.

Producing your own affiliate marketing materials is a great way to save money. If you already have a good set of affiliate marketing materials, they can provide a great template for you to work with when it comes time to produce your next set. There are a few expenses involved, the biggest being the software package that you will need. One of the best programs for graphic design is Adobe Illustrator, it is also possible to achieve a great deal with Adobe Photoshop. If you have one or the other program work with it, there is a scaled down version available that will be up to the task.

Once you have decided on your choice of program, you can get to work on producing your own materials. If you used a professional the first time around (and they were kind enough to give you the PSD or AI files, your job is really easy. It is just a matter of tweaking the image to include any new product or new information. Text can be altered simply and it is easy enough to replace an image. The Internet has a wealth of information on all kinds of Photoshop and Illustrator techniques. You do not need to be a design guru to make a few little edits to your affiliate marketing materials.

If you don’t have any good templates to work with then you will have a longer process ahead of you. It would pay to spend some time browsing your competitor’s sites and checking things like color schemes and font sizes. As in all things, there are trends and fashions that should be observed. You shouldn’t copy the materials, but there is no reason why you cannot get some good ideas. Check the sizes in particular, this is something that you do want to emulate. Banners and skyscrapers tend to be fairly uniform in size.

It is definitely worth spending some time to get to know the design programs that you have purchased. It can take a while, but once you have learned them and polished your techniques a little, you will be able to produce professional looking affiliate marketing materials. Affiliate marketing materials are quite low on the difficulty scale of design related tasks. Both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop have trial versions. You can download them and use them free of charge for a limited period of time. The trial period should be long enough for you to determine whether or not producing your own affiliate marketing materials is something that you want to do.

Most people are aware of affiliate marketing. You click a link to a product which has some identifying script attached enabling a business owner to identify the source of a sale. When the source is identified, he or she is paid a relevant percentage of the sale or a flat rate for the lead. It is a simple process that works. Affiliate marketing networks are growing in their influence and fast becoming one of the most effective marketing tools that you can employ.

If you want to boost your sales, affiliate marketing networks present a very efficient means to doing so. Think of an affiliate network as a permanent online sales force. They will sell your products as long as there is enough incentive to do so. The difference between an affiliate marketing network and a regular sales force is that you only have to pay affiliates when they sell.

Only paying for results is something that sets affiliate marketing apart from other marketing methods like pay per click. With pay per click, you pay a small amount for each click. With affiliate marketing you only pay for sales. You will pay a larger amount than for a click, but as you are only paying for sales, you can engineer your program in such a way that it stays profitable. Many people love the fact that with affiliate network marketing, profits from the sales cover the campaign. If you don’t get results, you are not out of pocket. This is perhaps affiliate marketing’s biggest selling point and the reason why so many people are using it as a means to drive their sales.

Affiliate marketing has some tremendous advantages over traditional promotional techniques. If your business is not a part of an affiliate network, you ought to think very carefully about what you might be missing out on. While it may take some time to build an affiliate network, when it is operating at full strength it can be a force to be reckoned with.

Affiliate marketing will see that your advertising is placed on influential websites and blogs all over the web. Unlike traditional advertising, you are not paying for every click on a banner ad or text ad, you will only pay for actual conversions. The downside, you will be paying more for conversions than you would for clicks.

There are some websites that do well from conventional forms of advertising. Many people, however, find that they do not. An affiliate marketing network is much like a mobile sales force, where you pay commissions, not salaries. An affiliate marketing network gives you global reach at minimal cost. Your affiliates will be promoting your business constantly as long as you are able to manage their commission payments.

If it sounds like more work than a click campaign, it is. It will take a little bit more personal involvement. You will need to maintain contact with your affiliates and encourage them from time to time. If you run your affiliate marketing network through one of the larger networks, you will be able to offload some of the work, but not all. On the upside, however, the work that you put in has the potential to see far greater benefits than a simple click campaign and your affiliate network can still be going strong, long after you have spent your PPC budget.

Just to give you affiliate program managers a bit of inspiration and to give those of you doubters an idea of how big affiliate marketing is, we are pleased to announce that Microsoft has thrown their hat into the ring. This is sure to be a massive boost for 5 Star Affiliate Programs who are running the service for them. At the moment, affiliates will be marketing Windows Live OneCare, or Microsoft Ad Center, but there are plans to incorporate other products over the upcoming year.

It is not clear how much they will be paying and it is likely to be subject to change as they tweak the system. Their affiliate marketing program is in Beta stage now, so expect some changes as they find the right balance. Microsoft will provide you with a range of banners and other marketing materials to use on your website, so all you have to do is to sign up and to copy and paste a little bit of code.

Source: Marketing Pilgrim, Microsoft