Merchants can take Advantage of Falling Dollar though Affiliate Marketing

Every week the dollar seems to be falling further down against all of the other world currencies, including the Yen, Euro and Pound. The bad news this reflects: the rest of the world doesn't quite have the same faith in the U.S. Economy anymore, and also things will be getting a bit more expensive within the USA, and the power of the dollar decreases.  However, for merchants, the good news is that American products are now less expensive and are more attractive to consumers in other countries. Promoting visits to the U.S.A. is getting to be quite popular to Europeans with the thoughts of coming over for cheap holidays and shopping.

Our world is shrinking everyday from a business perspective.  I love this ad from the Financial Times that illustrates various landmark skyscrapers all existing on a "global island".

Business in America have a great opportunity now to start marketing their products overseas. If a merchant has never attempted to market products overseas, using an affiliate program is a good way to "dip the foot in the water." In the U.K. affiliate marketing is growing by leaps and bounds and more publishers are getting turned onto the advantages as opposed to Adsense. There are now 2 major annual affiliate events in the UK with the A4U Expo and the new Affiliate Summit UK.

Affiliate marketing (while lagging the UK) is also gaining more mainstream popularity with webmasters in Australia and New Zealand. There are certainly plenty of webmasters promoting sites in the US that are already familiar with affiliate marketing principles. These are the easiest to enter markets for Americans due to the language similarities. Other European and Asian markets however do offer potentially attractive affiliate markets. Affiliate marketing (through mobile commerce) is a HUGE industry in Japan. There is also potential in countries like Ireland, Germany, France,  Singapore and Korea.

They key: get assistance from a knowledgeable agent and/or network with experience in the region. AMWSO has enormous advantages since we are based in Asia with many staff members originally from Europe. Getting connected through a network can alleviate any international affiliate payment and tracking issues, leaving the merchant to contend with payment processing and shipping. Major credit card processing and Paypal eliminate 90% of international payment issues, and now with the various logistic and fulfillment services from companies such as UPS or even Amazon, storage and shipment of products can be localized as well.

The barriers for selling internationally are being lowered everyday. Consider dipping your foot into the water through performance marketing before your competitions locks down the market.

  Plug This!

AMA 2007 : Canada Rules, when it's not raining!

Yes Canada let me in again. And this time there wasn't even a queue at the immigration section either. "Bonjour, have a nice stay.." of course then I got to the baggage collection way to fast and had to wait half an hour for my bags.

What i did notice during my brief passage through immigration was another case of superlative Canadian customer service. The the line over from me a family from Taiwan were discussing their visit to Canada with the immigration official. They spoke no English and she spoke not a word of Chinese, but through careful patient friendly sign language and pointing everything was sorted out and no one lost their temper or got the slightest bit excited... Yup, even at the gateway to the country those Canadian manners were in action.

Yesterday I made a valiant effort to buy some more RAM for my Sony Laptop, so dashed out into the streets to go shopping...and for the first time in 3 visits to Vancouver it was raining. I was ready for the cold, I was ready for snow, I was not ready for rain... it was icy cold and wet. That might sound like obvious, but back home rain is warm and you don't notice being wet. I think my total shock at the rain being cold must have shown as people were giving me a wide berth in the streets. I'm not sure if it was the wild eyed panicked look of a man on the verge of freezing to death or the fact that I was clutching my laptop case to my chest as if my life depended on it, probably both...but I certainly got plenty of room... didn't find my RAM either! Though the Sony shop was very apologetic and gave me directions to somewhere that might...if it's not raining later today I'll give it a shot. :)

Tonight we have small gathering of folks with Missy, Brian, Forrest, Brook, Alex and more getting together for a pre event huddle and a few cups of really hot chocolate!

  Plug This!