Time to kick ass in foreign affiliate markets!

I recently wrote a post about the really promising trends of the industry. The numbers I presented were based on US Census data. Most affiliate marketers I know are getting all their revenue from either US / Canadian, or UK based traffic. Nothing wrong with that – there’s truckloads of cash for everyone!

However – there are motherloads of cash just waiting to be made in areas outside of the English-speaking countries! The average affiliate never dabbles in these markets, and I can see why most would be hesitant to do so. The most obvious barriers are:

1. lack of language skills required for search marketing or SEO
2. lack of knowledge of how other countries use the internet
3. lack of knowledge about affiliate networks or merchants to promote

These are big uncertainties for most, and rightfully so – without this knowledge, it would be a huge risk and most likely a guaranteed failure if you jumped right in with guns blazing. So I thought I would write up a post on the subject of European affiliate markets. This will be a long post, so if you fall asleep halfway through it, don’t say didn’t warn you! But I do hope that many of you will take this information and experiment.

I would love to see feedback / comments about your experiences. Keep in mind, this post is aimed at all you affiliates who are unfamiliar with the non-English markets out there.

How big is the European online market?

121 million people in the United States are online every single day. To put things in perspective, that number is 122 million for Europe. You thought Europe was behind? Granted, most of those surfers are from countries like Germany, the UK, France, Spain, and Italy. But a huge and growing mass of people are surfing the net daily from European countries you may have never heard of.

Potential in Western Europe

Obviously, the largest European countries I mentioned above account for most of the online spending. In 2007, they spent $67 billion online. Sure - that’s half of the US spend, but if you remember my previous article - the US market grew with 36% from 2006. And the growth in Europe for the same year? 58% !! That is a lot of growth. These countries have plenty of untapped niches and markets just begging to be exploited. You will face some competition of course, but not by far like you do in the US & Canadian search engines since there is much less awareness of affiliate marketing / internet marketing (with the exception of the UK, which already has a large internet marketing community).

Potential in Eastern Europe

This region is littered with internet marketing goldmines - either about to spawn in the next year or two or already surfacing. Let me back up this claim further…

To those unfamiliar with this region of the world; it consists of countries such as Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, and more. These countries have for years been “behind” their western counterparts mainly due to cold-war era communism, political mismanagement, and various degrees of poverty. It is only in the recent 10-15 years that they have begun to build up themselves as independent countries with a growing economy and acceptance of commercial trade.

The average household is now able to afford what used to be luxury items reserved for the upper class. Things like computers and an internet connection. More and more people also have more money left over after their bills are paid. The vast majority of eastern European online surfers are still in the larger metropolitan areas.

The actual online growth in the area is reminiscent of the mid- to late nineties in the US and Western Europe. In Poland for example, 36% of the population had access to broadband internet in 2006. In 2007, that number has jumped to 50%! In Romania - a 2007 survey revealed that 29% of surfers plan on making one or more purchases in 2008. That may not seem like a big number to you - but remember; only a decade ago countries like Romania were still recovering from years of oppressive regimes and an almost non-existent access to the internet.

These are “Developing Internet Countries”

What are the hottest markets & niches?

When I did some research for this article, I was somewhat surprised to see what the top vertical would be for online purchases. It appears that household appliances do really well in eastern Europe. A close number two is consumer electronics which to me makes more sense. Don’t ask me why it’s not number one

As it turns out, the most popular markets in eastern Europe in the last two years have been:

1. Household appliances (vaccuum cleaners, refridgerators, ovens, dishwashers, toasters, coffee makers, hairdryers, washing machines, etc.)
2. Consumer electronics (mp3 players, tvs, stereos, satelite tv equipment, game consoles, dvd players, home theater audio, etc.)
3. Photo equipment (digital cameras, camcorders, lenses, accessories)
4. Computers (desktops, laptops, monitors, hardware accessories)
5. Cellhpones and accessories
6. Books
7. Audio and video media (cds, dvds, Bluray, etc.)
8. Software and games
9. Footwear
10. Travel services

Now this isn’t to say that these are the products you could have success with selling. In fact, you might find it difficult to sell most of these physical products directly. The point is; think of these as niches and not simply as product categories.

What is important to note here is what types of markets are popular. With that information, we get a better understanding of what types of surfers are out there and what actual available offers (such as CPA offers) that can be applied to these demographics!

What sort of offers and products could I promote there?

As I mentioned, promoting physical products in these countries can be a challenge but here’s where geo-targetting comes into play. Metropolitan areas and larger cities in these countries have a larger amount of educated and experienced surfers. They are more open to ordering actual products online and will also do a bit of research before they go into buy-mode. Physical products are big sellers with these users.

Others can still be very skeptical to the internet. One study I found revealed that 44% of internet surfers in eastern Europe are still hesitant to make payments online because of concerns for fraud or any payments in advance. Cash on delivery is therefore much more common than in the US where people are happy to whip out their creditcard in the blink of an eye.

Knowing this, you can still go for a wide range of offers that have no cost to the user, or free samples / trials in exchange for their email address to your mailing list. Building trust is the best remedy for skepticism.

What about affiliate networks and merchants?

Since affiliate marketing is not by far as widespread in Europe yet as it is in the US, Canada and the UK - there aren’t naturally many networks to choose from. Fewer choices yes - but also MUCH less competition!

So where does one go to sign up with European networks? The two biggest networks are Tradedoubler.com and Zanox.com. They are big networks with plenty of offers either targetted to each of many countries, or Europe-wide offers. Another worthy contender is AdsMarket.com, which focuses on traditional CPL and CPA offers with a worldwide (not US only) reach.

If you want to give France and Germany a try, check out OmgFR.com and OmgDE.com respectively. These two countries alone count for $31 billion of the European online sales revenue!

How are search engines being used?

In a recent analysis of 16 European countries, it was confirmed that Google was the most popular in 13 of them. MSN came in second (being also most popular in 3 of the countries), while Yahoo came in third across the board. Searchers are using terms like “buy” “purchase” and “compare”. However, this practice is still not seen in the developing non-urban areas of eastern Europe. This can often be linked to levels of education. People less familiar with how to use the internet still search or browse sporadically for information or products. In other words - keep this in mind when you want to target broad-range niches with wide appeal.

How do I get around the language barrier?

This one is obvious: Translation services. They are getting so cheap that it’s really not a big deal. Just do a search on Google for “translation service” with the name of the language you want to market to. Most serious services will give you a free sample, and a price quote if you need a bigger job.

You normally pay per word and/or for the number of pages. Prices can also vary with languages. What you will need a quote for is;

• your keyword list
• your ad copy texts
• any landing page text and headline (unless you are direct linking of course)

You could also ask for help and advice about the country you want to target on forums like Wickedfire.com. The forum has a big following and you’d be surprised to see how many countries are represented there. You may find someone who can give you a tip or two about approaching a given market, and know their “home base” better than anyone.

Wrap it up

For those who are really serious about scaling up their income streams to a much larger scale - the worldwide online market shouldn’t be ignored. I have focused on Europe in this article - simply because it has an explosive growth combined with relatively low competition and saturation. Other continents and countries have potential too. I will leave that research up to you. Hopefully after reading this you will want to know more and maybe expand your horizon..

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