Affiliate marketing is a rewarding business. After all, you get to set your own schedule and make a limitless amount of money promoting others’ products. Best of all, you don’t have to worry about fulfilling or responding to customers’ question. But here is the thing. Most affiliate marketers often end up making their own products. In reality, an affiliate marketer is a freelance marketing executive. You get to promote products based on a set of rules put forth by the merchants, and you don’t have to show up for work everyday. If you don’t deliver leads, you won’t get paid unlike employees, and you are not covered by the merchants’ health insurance programs. Still sounds like a job to me.

Don’t get me wrong. I love affiliate marketing, and I think it is a wonderful career to pursue. But, I’d rather be the rule maker than follower. That’s why most top affiliates make the transition to the other side and start their very own affiliate programs and push their own products. There is simply more money in owning your product than just being an affiliate.

I’d like to consider affiliate marketing as a test. If you can pass the test with flying colors and promote others’ products, chances are that you are going to have success pushing your own creation. And let’s not forget that you are going to learn product launch techniques from super-affiliates in the process. I know a lot of folks claim that they intend to stay affiliate marketers for life, but in reality, most folks who are somebody these days have their own products. As much as I’d love to think that pulling in 7 figures every year is easy as an affiliate, it really isn’t. But having your own product opens many doors for you (JVs, recognition, …) which makes it that much easier to pull that kind of money in on an annual basis.

What do you think? Are you an affiliate marketer for life?

A lot of folks have been talking about going local to gain success in the affiliate marketing world. But I am surprised that nobody talks about going global with affiliate marketing. The truth is only a handful a countries (U.S., UK, …) have opportunities for affiliate marketers, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t take this trade global in countries that don’t have the system available.

Before going global with your affiliate marketing efforts, you need to find out more about the markets you are planning to go into. If you are a native of a country that is not covered by networks such as LinkShare or CJ, the opportunity is probably there to duplicate those systems in your country. But even if you are an American, you can still take this trade global. But you need to pick your spots.

The easiest way to go global is by focusing on Canada, Australia, and UK markets. The competition there is less than it is in the U.S., and the opportunity is there to make lots of money. You can also try to implement affiliate marketing in other countries, but you will need local know-how to get things done.

Global affiliate marketing is the future of affiliate marketing. It’s a logical steps in more ways than one. The competition is less in the global markets, and you can expect folks to catch up with the concept of affiliate marketing. I am a firm believer that while the sales process will defer in different countries, the language of selling an affiliate marketing offer to someone is truly universal, which is why going global now can pay big down the road.

Your take: Is going global with affiliate marketing worth it?

It’s true. Timing is absolutely everything when it comes to making a killing in the affiliate marketing world. There are many folks who make a killing by promoting the right product at the right time. Affiliate products are not different than regular products, and they go through a life cycle as well.

What the above diagram doesn’t take into the account is the intensity of your competition. The intensity rises to its max in the maturity and decline phases. That’s why you should try to catch your leads before your product reaches its maturity. Take Clickbank for example. It’s true that products with higher gravity have proven themselves to be better-sellers. However, a product with gravity of 100 is just tough to promote. Why? Because there are so many affiliates tackling the same product. The PPC costs are going to be too high, and there is a good chance that getting ranked for the organic search is going to be even too tough.

The best way to catch new products is by signing up for industry newsletters. Top merchants are kind enough to give you heads up about new products in advance, giving you plenty of time to prepare your campaigns. Now keep in mind that a whole lot of folks will start early, which is why you should be as agile as possible. What you don’t want to do is start promoting a product after the early buzz is gone, and the market is saturated. Affiliate marketing business is too competitive for marketers to wait around and promote products in their maturity phase. Promoting  the right product at the right time makes all the difference.

Your Take: Which product phase do you find more suitable for your promotional campaigns?