Europe as the Next Big Playground for Affiliates?
May 19th, 2008 by 
Melanie
This is a guest post by Melanie Tan.
Last Saturday, I stumbled upon a site that was promoting an affiliate day close to where I live. It’s “Affiliate Dag” in The Netherlands! (Sorry folks, text on site is all in Dutch.) I read that the keynote speaker is none other than Kris Jones of Pepperjam and so I knew that this was something worth a visit so I signed up ASAP (it’s going to be held tomorrow).
Heading over to Kris’ blog, he mentions this… “Did you know that by 2010(ish) the size of e-commerce in Europe is predicted to be larger than the United States?“
I have heard so many times that Europe is the next affiliate marketing BIG thing and I really do see that more and more around me. A couple of years ago, if I mentioned I worked from home and earned not only a decent income but an income I would never earn had I pursued my corporate career here in The Netherlands, people had no idea what the hell I was talking about. Now, one of my neighbors is a work-at-home, full time, web designer!
I have yet to really look into Europe as the target of my affiliate endeavors so I’m keen to see what Affiliate Dag has to offer. One of the things I see as a potential stumbling block is the language barrier.
For instance, I know that the Dutch, Germans, and French would at least prefer to purchase products available in their own languages, while other European countries are quite ok purchasing US products from English-language sites. Luckily I speak Dutch 
but I do realize that the buying mindset might be different (i.e., ads need to be different, landing page color schemes and calls to action might be different, etc.).
Even if I don’t get any mind-boggling insights from Affiliate Dag, I’m quite happy to note that the affiliate marketing community around me is growing and growing well. I can’t wait to meet other affiliate marketers and compare notes! But seriously, I realized that sometimes, you really don’t need to look far for encouragement, inspiration, support, and advice. It could just be in your own backyard.
Why don’t you see what affiliate marketing or online business organizations are near you? Like me, you might be surprised at just what you find out.
Melanie Tan heads an online content provision company that provides thousands of SEO articles annually. She is also a professional copywriter who specializes in affiliate marketing sales letters/landing pages.
Posted in affiliate marketing | 
I actually wrote a post about this recently:
http://profitapolis.com/featured/time-to-kick-ass-in-foreign-affiliate-markets.html
There is definitely lots of money to be made in Europe, and it’s only just begun!
I come from Germany and this is definitely an hot market but as you mentioned in the text the language and different behaviors could be a barrier to localize your websites for the other european countries like poland, Italy, Spain and so on. The affiliate business here in Germany is quite large but in other european countries there aren’t enough affiliate programs yet. If these countries got more programs and good networks it would be a great chance and market for all affiliates. but at the moment it isn’t.
~ sorry for my english
Hi Melanie,
Might see you tomorrow .. I will be there
Are you working for one of the companies exibiting?
Richard
ImagesAndWords - GREAT article. Have you done any testing on your end? That’s ok, you can email me personally on the results. LOL.
Richard - yeah, hope to see you. Always nice to talk about our industry as it’s not really something you discuss with your immediate circle of friends. No, I’m not working for one of the companies exhibiting. But had I known about Aff Dag sooner, I would have prepared for an exhibit of my own company!
All for now,
Lan
Melanie, can you send me an email richard AT trietsch DOT nl, so that we can swap cell phone numbers and try to meet tomorrow
hey, ik wist niet dat je in Nederland woonde. Waar precies?
Maarten, tegen wie heb je het? Tegen mij of tegen Melanie :)Als je het tegen mij hebt, mail me dan even.
Richard
@Melanie - Sure, shoot me an email to my address (here in my comment header), or post your address here. I don’t mind sharing some of my results so far
Maarten… en als je mij bedoelde, mail mij dan even
Interesting post Melanie, however affiliate marketing has been thriving quite a bit over here (I’m from Denmark in Europe).. for at least 7+ years now
In fact we had the first aff and seo meetings here for a long time and one the first I attended had 100+ people showing up:
http://www.pandia.com/sw-2001/42-pubconference.html - we also had forums on European seo and aff markting for a loong time. As an example I’ve been moderating a Euro seo forum since 2000.. so you’re ermmm findings are a bit late
We had our first Affiliate Day here in the Netherlands today with Kris Jones from Pepperjam, always nice to see such a person live :).
It was good to see what the current status is in the NL’s and to meet nice people (Lan and Henk for example ;)).
The presentations were too much focussed on the Ad networks instead of the Affiliates and a lot were too basic.
But as said, it was great to meet new people and share some experiences. And as it was the first time this was organized I give them an 8 (out of 10).
Richard
@Rasmus - Yeah, I do feel that way indeed; i.e., that I haven’t been noticing what’s going on in my immediate surroundings/market. You know what? That will change soon…
@Richard - great to meet you too
Henk and I had fun chatting with you today.
I was there, it was a great day. 800 people showed up, which is huge for a country like the Netherlands, and it was the first time an event like this was held.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this useful information.
Great post.
It’s long time since affiliate marketing has made a big impact in Europe.Well, only time will tell how big the impact will be.