Inaugural blog.. affiliate marketing

Everyone keeps saying, Paul you need to write a blog about affiliate marketing so, after 10 years of working in online marketing here goes my first blog.

The first comments would be a huge thank you to the consumers. Consumers are getting it. With a poor economy they are starting to realize the value of shopping in a global marketplace. So, it's exciting to be in a vertical that is actually booming while the rest are busting.

Now- a huge thank you to the affiliates. You are responsible for pioneering online marketing and corporate America is starting to realize this is a viable channel and one they better embrace or they are foolish. You, the affiliate, stuck your neck out there for so many years, committing marketing dollars without a guarantee of return. You took the risk corporate America didn't and hopefully you stashed a lot of money and are now able to invest it with the housing markets and stock markets at such low price points.

Advertisers are crawling cautiously... and I want to thank them for dipping the toe in the water. It is, however, becoming a lot more apparent that they are ready to take the plunge. But shifting paradigms takes time and we need to be patient.

As well as things are now, we are still in our infancy. Which means one thing to me... potential. Keep on striving, investing, biting, scratching, clawing to get good quality traffic and grow your business. Show the advertisers that the investment for better tracking tools, more dynamic affiliate programs, higher payouts, more technical resource will be well worth spending.

We are just scratching the surface here everyone. Keep on keeping on.