5 Star Affiliate Blogs

Craigslist Now Warns About Affiliate Scammers and Tells Users
How to Get Back at Them Where it Hurts – Right In the Wallet!

Affiliate Scammers Give the Industry a Big Black Eye!

I think (hope) most affiliates know that they aren’t supposed to do affiliate marketing on Craigslist. Not only is it against Craigs TOS, but many affiliate networks prohibit CL marketing and will withhold your commissions.

The underbelly of affiliate marketing, has all kinds of scammy ways to try to game the system and trick CL users into pulling out their credit card or filling out a lead form. I won’t go into some of the creative marketing these guys do, but they are giving the affiliate marketing industry a huge black eye. Millions of CL users (consumers) are now probably going to link the word ‘affiliate’ with the word ’scammer’.

Craiglist’s enlists the aid of users who report affiliate spamvertising and anyone who has tried posting blatant affiliate links there, knows just how easy it is to get flagged.

But now Craigslist is resorting to more extreme measures to curb affiliate scams. They issue a full page warning to users entering certain parts of the site (dating and jobs sections are the two I know of) and tell them how to get back at affiliates. This affiliate foiling tip is on the warning page:

FUN FACT: If you are able to determine a scammer’s “affiliate ID” and report it to their affiliate marketing program, this will often result in termination of the scammer, and confiscation of the scammer’s ill-gotten gains by the affiliate program.

Here is an example of the affiliate scam warning that comes up before entering job sites. Below is the copy, just in case you read this blog a month from now and that page is no longer working.

SCAM ALERT – affiliate scammers are posting bogus ads promising (nonexistent!) employment, paid research trials, or other compensation, but then notifying repliers that they’ll need to jump through a hoop first, directing them to:

* background checking services
* credit checking or reporting sites
* sites where you are instructed to enter your resume or personal information
* sites where you are asked to sign up for a “free” trial offer
* sites offering training or education
* sites offering a “system” for making money
* survey or focus group sites
* sites designed to deliver malware or misuse your identifying information
all in hopes of earning affiliate marketing commissions or otherwise profiting at the expense of persons seeking employment.

Lots of variations on this scam, but each generally involves dangling (nonexistent!) compensation, and then directing you to a website where you are asked to sign up for something, use your credit card, or input personal information such as your email address.

The disclaimer page that comes up before entering the personals section is a little different. It says in part…

SCAM ALERT – scammers posing as potential romantic partners are directing CL users to age and identity verification sites, dating/adult/cam sites (where you can see their “pics” or chat with them), even sites designed to deliver malware — all in hopes of earning affiliate marketing commissions at your expense.

FUN FACT: Reporting a scammer’s “affiliate ID” to their affiliate marketing program often results in confiscation of the scammer’s ill-gotten gains by the affiliate program.

Market responsibly folks! Do we really want millions of consumers thinking affiliates are scammers?

Story lead came from the Warrior Forum:
Craigslist SCAM Alert: Against Affiliate Marketers!

Looking for ways to kick your PPC campaigns up a notch for the Holidays?
Are you having challenges with the Google Adwords quality score?
Do you ever get stuck in a rut with your PPC campaigns?
Are you using the same old PPC strategies?

One of my favorite PPC affiliate marketing blogs is the RevenueWire Blog. RevenueWire is a 5 Star Affiliate network that specializes in software products and the team over there really knows their stuff when it comes to PPC! So I wanted to share a few of their best and most recent posts with you. I hope these tips will help you jump start your PPC campaigns, either by showing you some new ideas or reinforcing some important basics you may be overlooking.

The New School of PPC Affiliate Marketing “As the waves of Google Quality Score changes and “Slaps” continue to roll in, it’s becoming more and more clear that the ‘Old School’ approach to PPC affiliate marketing just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Things have changed too fast and too drastically to keep doing PPC the old way.”

The Road to PPC Success “Doing PPC the right way requires an intricate blend of knowledge and skill. Success will depend largely on developing and perfecting your methods through testing and hands-on experience with the different elements of a PPC campaign.”

How To Make Your PPC Marketing STAND OUT IN A CROWD “In PPC advertising success is about being targeted AND unique. As one or more products in a particular affiliate niche start to outperform other similar products, everyone jumps on the hot ticket items to try and make their buck. This makes the niche highly competitive and therefore more difficult to stand out in.”

Tips for Writing Killer PPC Ad Copy “Every affiliate in a highly profitable niche has to go up against fierce competition. So the question is, how can you make your PPC ad copy stand out from the rest?”

I hope you are working with RevenueWire. If not, why not? Join them today!

November 4, 2009

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New programs available through Google Affiliate Network:

Bounce Energy	Frames Direct	Say It With Books	White Flower Farm
PayOffLive	Live! On Sunset	TheNerds.net	Bplay

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CLICK to read the rest of this entry

I wanted to report today on several new initiatives that are being undertaken in an attempt to fight affiliate fraud.

Yesterday a Performance Marketing Leadership Summit, was held and the focus was on Fraud Prevention and Affiliate Screening. The event, hosted by OfferVault, was open to affiliate and CPA networks who are concerned about the growing problem of affiliate fraud and how to detect and eliminate it. In a series of keynote presentations and panel discussions, participants received information which they will be able to implement to correct this problem.

Jivan Manhas of MediaTrust told the crowd “We are seen as the ugly stepchild of online marketing. We call it performance marketing because the term affiliate marketing is tainted.” according to Adotas who reported on the event. Ad networks must unite to fight fraud! Volunteers? Read that story to discover some of the fraud prevention solutions that were discussed at the event.

In response to the affiliate network application fraud problem, Mark Roth, the owner of Offervault a CPA network aggregation site and offer search engine, is creating an Affiliate Certification process called AffiliCert.

What is AffiliCert?

Affilicert is dedicated to combating fraud committed by affiliates in the CPA/Performance Marketing industry, and to facilitating the approval process for legitimate affiliates.

We do this by providing the community of networks with a stream of pre-screened affiliates who have been through our rigorous screening process.

Murray Newlands attended the event and has more about AffiliCert here:
AffiliCert Affiliate Certification what the hell

Additionally MediaTrust today just announced an online compliance center and proprietary anti-fraud detection tools to help lead the performance marketing industry toward higher accountability and compliancy.

MediaTrust Launches Enhanced Fraud Detection Tools along with New Industry Compliance Center and other Leadership Initiatives

The performance marketing channel is rapidly growing in popularity with online advertisers due to its compelling pay-for-results pricing model. This rapid growth makes self-regulation and open knowledge sharing among all members of the performance marketing ecosystem (advertisers, networks, publishers, and consumers) critical to its continued success.

To execute successful campaigns in compliance with industry and FTC standards, advertisers and publishers need information, tools and ongoing research pertaining to new compliance standards, fraud mitigation and campaign management best practices. MediaTrust is working to ensure that all industry stakeholders have the information and tools needed to effectively and responsibly leverage the channel.

Amazon just expanded their social networking features by launching direct integration with Twitter. The “Share on Twitter” feature allows Associates to create affiliate links to their favorite products, directly from Amazon detail pages and instantly post them to their Twitter account via the Associates Site Stripe.

Click to view full screen and see how it works!

Additionally Amazon just posted a “Social Networking FAQ” to address issues such as the FTC guidelines and to answer questions like how to create shortened product links on social networking sites.

Details here: Amazon Associates Now Integrates Directly with Twitter

To stay in the loop on the latest Amazon Associate news follow Amazon Associates on Twitter and to give them feedback on the new “Share on Twitter” feature use hashtag #AMZNSOT.

Adfinity – Maximize Your Earning Potential

Adfinity is recommended by affiliates because we make affiliate marketing success attainable! We offer the highest payouts, a referral program, timely payments and a management team ready to help you day and night.

Adfinity publishers stay with our company because we are there to help them launch their campaigns, offering a level of support beyond the norm. Our experienced team of affiliate managers help make sure our affiliates are getting the best return on their marketing investments – whether it be from their website, search engine, email marketing, media buys, or social media.

Adfinity Affiliate Network Benefits:

.:. Numerous exclusives and in-house offers!
.:. Best payouts, hundreds of CPA offers!
.:. Rapid payments sent to all publishers – weekly payments available!
.:. Super affiliate signing bonuses – continued special affiliate offers!
.:. Internet marketing support – dedicated affiliate management services!
.:. Exceptional Linktrust tracking technology!
.:. Weekly informative Adfinity newsletters!
.:. Quality online advertisers that want your traffic!

Join Adfinity Now!

Read below to find out why Adfinity stands out from the crowd:

Tons of Exclusive and In-House Offers – One of the many unique things about Adfinity is the advertiser for many of it’s offers, this allows us to pay Publishers incredibly HIGH Payouts!

Best Payouts, Hundreds of CPA Offers – Because of our longstanding relationships in the industry, we give our Publishers the highest payouts

Rapid Payments Sent to all Publishers, with Weekly Payments Available – Publishers that make over $1K in weekly commissions are eligible to request weekly payments. If you’re interested, please contact your manager today.

Super Affiliate Signing Bonuses and Continued Special Affiliate Offers – We take care of our super affiliates and regularly give them Bonuses and Prizes, as well as offering them first pick of brand new offers. If you’re a super affiliate, Adfinity has you covered!

Veteran Internet Marketing Support and Dedicated Affiliate Management Services – Our staff has experience with all forms of internet marketing, and can help troubleshoot or help you launch your campaigns quicker!

Exceptional Linktrust Tracking Technology – With our recent switch to Linktrust, we’ve tracked 5-10% more leads on average than networks that use Directtrack.

Weekly Informative Adfinity Newsletters – Our Newsletters not only give you the scoop on our new offers, but tell you what’s new in the industry so you can stay ahead of the curve!

Quality Online Advertisers that Want Your Traffic – Our partners know we provide results and love working with us!

Join Adfinity Today

As always let us know if we can help you be successful with this 5 Star network.

Disclosure: Adfinity is a 5 Star Advertiser

Pubcon 2009 hits Las Vegas next week and I know lots of affiliates that are going. I’m happy to see there are plenty of affiliate topics on the agenda this year.  Below are a few of the affiliate marketing sessions that look good.
See full session grid here.

Hot Topics and Trends in the Affiliate Space – Affiliate gurus have a large book of strategies to choose from when dealing with the wild world of affiliate programs. This panel will cover recent trends in the affiliate space, from PPC to running your own affiliate program.

Social Media Marketing for Affiliates – Affiliate advertisers and buyers, how are you dividing your time? Have you jumped in to social media plays? Is social media a good channel for you to use? This session will discuss the best ways to engage social media websites and how to profit from them as an affiliate marketer.

CLICK to read the rest of this entry

November 3, 2009

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New programs available through Google Affiliate Network:

Inhabit	Anti-Aging Store.com	Three Dog Bakery
Jezalins.com	Goalie Monkey	PrintsMade Easy.com

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CLICK to read the rest of this entry

I couldn’t decide whether to title this post “Swine Flu H1N1 Marketing Scams” or “Don’t Take Advice you Read on Some Affiliate Marketing Blogs Seriously.”

I read an affiliate blog over the weekend that suggested a marketing ploy that is dangerous and unethical. It suggested affiliates try to sell various herbal products by saying they will ‘prevent’ the swine flu.

Not only would that be unethical, but it could also get you in trouble the FDA or FTC for making false medical claims. They are massively cracking down on H1N1 (Swine Flu) marketing scams and are even offering a widget to enable the general public to report offenders.

Here’s an example of an ad this affiliate was running.

Scarred of H1N1?
Protect Yourself From Getting Sick
With The (Product Name) Vitamin!

He does say it’s a sensitive topic and some may want to stay away from this niche, but doesn’t come out and admit that it’s unethical to infer any vitamin can protect you from getting H1N1 and that the FTC would frown on anyone claiming that it can.

Here are some FDA and FTC resources and news stories warning about H1N1 (Swine Flu) marketing scams.

FDA, FTC Issue Joint Warning Letter to Web Site Offering Fraudulent H1N1 Flu Supplements “The FDA continues to consider the sale and promotion of fraudulent H1N1 influenza products to be a possible threat to the public health and in violation of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act,” said Michael Chappell, acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “The FDA has an aggressive surveillance program to detect fraudulent H1N1-related products and will take prompt action to stop the marketing of fraudulent H1N1 influenza products and will hold those who are responsible for doing so accountable.”

FTC – Fraudulent 2009 H1N1 Influenza Products List The FTC is maintaining a list of fraudulent web sites who make illegal H1N1 product claims.

I love discovering new affiliate marketing blogs. It just makes my day to find a one with such great content that I want to add it to my feedreader. That doesn’t happen very often, because I already read most of the good industry blogs.

Today I discovered RyanBuke.com a fairly new affiliate blog that launched in August 09. There were several posts I wanted to share but I decided on this one to start with, because it really gives a good look inside the inner workings of CPA networks.

When established CPA networks start to get complaints due to lack of support or slow payments, affiliates start looking for other options. With so many new networks popping up all the time, it’s easy to think that new network that keeps promising to do it better, is just the ticket. This post will give you some insights about working with CPA networks and points out how new networks, even those with the best intentions, can go downhill fast when things get out of control.

New Affiliate Networks – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Are new networks the best solution out there? Will they end up representing the breath of fresh air you so desperately need? Let’s find out…

Let’s start by analyzing the role networks have in the ecosystem. Here’s how things work…

New networks have to offer weekly wires to stand out. Otherwise, people will simply look the other way. Let’s leave the fact that some owners start out with shady intentions aside and assume that most of them want to start a legitimate business. Let’s also assume that they have a 5 figure budget at their disposal, are really excited and offer weekly wires as well as outstanding support via phone, email and AIM. While everything may seem great on paper, problems are bound to occur at one point or another.

Just in time for the Holidays. Here are some things affiliates, merchants and affiliate managers can do to optimize the affiliate marketing relationship and create more revenue for all.

The affiliate stuff blog has a post with 5 things merchants can do to work better with affiliates and 5 things affiliates can do to improve their working relationship with merchants.

10 Ways Affiliates and Merchants Could Work Better

Two months ago we decided, despite the gloomy economic outlook, that the Affiliate channel was a good fit for our products, pricing and customer base. I’d like to think that since then and together with our Affiliate partners, we have improved our act which leads me to write my personal view of 10 ways in which both Merchants and Affiliates can work closer together for better results.

AdHustler has a funny but true list of 10 things affiliate managers should and should not do if they want to stay on the good side of their affiliate publishers.

The 10 Commandments of Being an Affiliate Manager

1) Thou shall not be annoying – Annoying affiliate managers make me want to either kill myself or kill them. In all seriousness being annoying is not a virtue. Unless I have a close relationship with you as an affiliate manager I do not want to hear from you on the phone……EVER! If you call my phone a few times a week to touch base, I will hunt you down at a conference and make your life miserable.

ShareASale just announced a fun little Holiday contest they have going for affiliates. The grand prize is a trip for two to Chicago, where ShareASale is based. Air fare and hotel are included. Plus they have some other fun activities planned for the lucky winner!

Affiliates also have a chance to win a drawing for other prizes each week, between November 1st and December 24th. Check out the ShareASale blog for all the details. Fourth Quarter Frenzy

If you spend time making lots of affiliate landing pages or spend money outsourcing landing page design, here are a couple new tools I recently discovered that could make your life easier.

The 1st landing page tool is for building Wordpress landing pages, which is something I always find affiliates struggling with on some of the forums I frequent. Yes you can build a static page with Wordpress to use as a landing page, but it’s going to have all the nav links, archive links, sidebar images, widgets and whatever your main blog has in the header, sidebar and footer. In other words your landing page is going to be FILLED with LEAKS that can take your visitor right out of the sales funnel and off somewhere else.

FlexSqueeze

# Turn any WordPress blog page into a custom sales squeeze page with one click! No messing around with external files or FTP uploads. The sidebar magically disappears and you have a nice clean space for online sales or promotion.

# FlexSqueeze includes built-in squeeze page header images that are selectable in the theme options. You can even upload your own custom header images! Set your sales page title and tagline separate from the rest of your blog.

# Customize your squeeze page colors, width, fonts, header image, title, navigation, footer and much more! Squeeze page settings are independent from your main blog, so you can have a completely different look for your squeeze page!

This next landing page tool I’m not too sure about, but will pass on for you to evaluate. I saw what I believe was probably a paid post on John Chow’s blog and the product looked interesting, but when I clicked over to the InstantLP site I was turned off. It’s one of those long hypey sales letter pages with an increasing sales price. Makes me think if the product is any good why do they have to use these sales techniques? Could just be my bias or could be they need to rethink their marketing strategy.

The feature below made me think it may be of interest to CPA marketers and worth letting you know about. Drag and drop instant CPA landing pages???

InstantLP

Want to cash in on the CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) craze? Create affiliate sites/landing pages from ANY affiliate network simply by dragging and dropping. Just drag and drop your affiliate code into InstantLP and the landing page is automatically created! See, you can try out lots of offers and niche markets cause it only takes you a few minutes to create each landing page!

Disclaimer – Disclosure: I have not tried either of these programs so these are not reviews and I am not recommending – simply passing on the information. I was not compensated in any way for making this post.

Curious to know what sets super affiliate millionaires apart from the pack? Wondering what characteristics they possess? How do they think? What do they make sure to do to be successful and what do they avoid?

I was just reading a couple of posts by Ruck over at the Convert2Media blog that will give you some great insights into the questions above. Ruck is well known in the industry and Convert2Media is a fairly new CPA network (16 months old). So Ruck writes these posts with the inside scoop of being able to see these affiliate’s actual numbers and he gets a bird’s eye view of what these affiliates are doing to be so successful.

Tips From A C2M Millionaire

“First off, this publisher achieved $1,128,000.00+ change in the month of June. An incredible feat by any means but what is truly remarkable is that he’s only 21 years old and been in the business for a little over a year. I’ve had the pleasure of working with this publisher VERY closely over the course of his work with C2M and I would like to share some tips and characteristics about this publisher for the people who are looking to reach a level such as this.

I would like to start out by sharing some of the things he DOESNT do:”

Another C2M Millionaire Story

“Current Revenue Earnings to Date from this publisher – $1,083,837.30

An incredible feat for any publisher but let me go on a bit here. This publisher is literally 6 months old. The next part might seem unbelievable as well. This publisher got started by buying a work from home google kit online. (Who says those things dont work!). This publisher also went thru quite an ordeal a few months back. I was messaged one day that he was heading to the hospital for surgery. I shot him a message and to my surprise he was laying in the hospital bed running his business from a laptop.

Anyway, I want to quickly share some tips and characteristics about him.”

Profit from Satellite TV, Digital Cable, Internet, Phone & Home Security

Saveology Network is an authorized dealer for the nation’s most recognized brands in home services and offers a competitive advantage in this ever-growing industry. By joining the Saveology Network Affiliate Program, you will have the ability to market home services from top brands including: DISH Network, COMCAST, Charter Communications, Cox Cable, Time Warner Cable, ADT Home Security, Vonage and more. Additional brand offers will be made available to the Saveology Network Affiliate Program on an on-going basis.

Saveology Network is the affiliate marketing network of Elephant Group, Inc., who’s marketing savvy has already generated more than a billion dollars in sales for its partners by putting the right offer in front of the right consumer across the desired channel at the right time. What does that mean for you? It means you will always have the latest, high converting products and services to offer your audience.

The Saveology Network Affiliate Program Offers

.:. Industry-leading commissions and quick payout
.:. True cross-channel tracking to ensure you earn your commission
.:. Persistent cookies, so you get long term credit for customers you refer
.:. 2nd Tier commission – $20 Bonus for sales made by affiliates you refer
.:. 800# phone tracking to ensure you get credit if customers order by phone
.:. 24/7 call center operation closing your traffic
.:. Cross selling and up selling capabilities to further monetize your traffic
.:. Customizable marketing creative for online AND offline marketing
.:. Dedicated Affiliate Management Team
.:. Parasite-free and committed to staying that way

Join the Saveology Network Now!

About Elephant Group, Inc.
CLICK to read the rest of this entry

I was reading a couple of disturbing threads at AbestWeb over the weekend. Members there have discovered that AVG, the #1 free antivirus program, is totally blocking all Linkshare affiliate links and is also blocking CJ links on one of their domains. This is a very serious issue as we head into the busiest shopping season of the year.

AVG is the leading free antivirus program. The AVG site boasts that it’s on over 80 million computers but Download.com shows 226,913,526 total downloads.

Below is the main ABW thread about it. According to Trust, in post #53, if affiliates are using javascript links from that blocked CJ domain, AVG kills the whole page, not just the links. Are you noticing AVG alerts from your links??

Additionally there is another thread over at the Linkshare forum:
AVG Blocking All Linkshare Links? Can Those With AVG Check

Trust reported this to Linkshare via Twitter over the weekend. Today Linkshare tweeted and blogged that they are working with executives at AVG and they hope this problem will be resolved soon.
LinkShare links and AVG anti-virus software

I’ll follow this story and add any updates below. If anyone else has more info please add it in comments.

UPDATE 10/27: Linkshare reports the issue has been resolved but I think the CJ domain is still blocked.

What better time to spice up your copy or add some new keyword rich content than right before the Holidays – the biggest selling season of the year! We all know that content is king and COMPELLING content sells, so take some time to learn how to improve on the sales copy you have already written to make a bigger impact on Q4 sales. Yes, there is still time, just do it!

Here are some best blog posts I’ve read recently that deal with boosting conversions with great copywriting.

How to Motivate People to Buy “Thinking in terms of motivation makes selling with emotion a little less mysterious. And spending the time to truly know who your prospects are makes motivation crystal clear.”

Five Effective Copywriting Tactics for Affiliate Marketing “What’s the secret to effective affiliate marketing? It all boils down to engagement. So let’s take a look a five copy tactics that can bring you immediate and long-term revenue from affiliate programs”

How to Sell More Ethically “How to write ethical sales copy: Ethical selling is about convincing people to spend money on something they need. Sleazy selling is about convincing people to spend money on something you want them to buy.

How to Stand Out in a Crowded Niche “Just look for the hidden benefits behind an audience’s interest in your topic, and target those benefits instead. Standing out is a matter of having a more intimate understanding of your readers than the competition. Let the hidden benefits guide you – you’ll beat them every time.

October 22, 2009

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New programs available through Google Affiliate Network:

Vox Call	LacenseBeef.com	Smart Credit
Ellusionist.com	Inhabit	CSNStores.com

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CLICK to read the rest of this entry

A controversial story came out in July about the fact that Amazon had supposedly refused to pay an affiliate his commission on affiliate links placed on Twitter and there was some speculation that using URL shorteners with Amazon could also be a problem.

The original story came from Search Engine Journal, reported by Joshua Odmark. No Precedence For Social Media – Amazon Hangs Us Out To Dry
Jangro blogged it: Affiliate Links in Twitter, Amazon Says No
And so did I: If You Twitter Affiliate Links – Amazon Won’t Pay

Today Amazon clarifies their stance on social marketing, twitter marketing and URL shorteners, saying they are all fine to use, if used within Amazon’s guidelines. Joshua wrote the story again, this time with support and feedback from Dave Cotter, head of Amazon’s affiliate program.

The piece was written as a GUIDE to social media marketing for affiliates and Amazon lays out the ground rules that they assume will also be acceptable for most other affiliate programs, although you should always check each program’s TOS.

Social Media Affiliate Marketing Guide 101 – With Amazon

I would like to thank Dave Cotter, head of Amazon’s affiliate program, for contributing to this guide. After writing an earlier social media affiliate marketing article, Dave reached out to me to create this guide to help affiliates all over the Internet understand the proper way to approach affiliate marketing on social media.

The purpose of this article is to clarify exactly what is acceptable from the standpoint of Amazon. Since Amazon has been one of the leaders in affiliate marketing, if you follow their suggestions there is a good chance they will also be applicable to other affiliate programs. Please keep in mind that in order to be sure, you should read the guidelines for each affiliate program individually.

Shawn Collins also recently blogged about his approval for using affiliate links on Twitter for the Amazon affiliate program. Tale of the Affiliate Done Wrong

International traffic in many areas can be relatively inexpensive, because few affiliates know how to best capitalize on it. There are large, identifiable foreign markets to target online that aren’t nearly as competitive as the US market is.

MediaTrust just blogged some good information about how to leverage overseas markets and where to get targeted traffic for various countries.

Tapping Into Foreign Markets

“For those that are just starting to get into the foreign markets, the most common transition is to target other English speaking countries, so that your creatives and landing pages do not need to be edited… Then there are the countries that need to be targeted with translated creatives…

Now as you dream in the endless possibilities of less expensive traffic, the question remains: Where are a lot of these affiliates getting their traffic from?”