Are UK Affiliates Being Pushed Out?

After putting two recent events together I've started revisiting my foreign sites.

These sites aren't US focused or even Australian as most affiliates seem to go. Last year I was thinking even bigger. I bought a domain name to target the phrase "affiliate marketing India" as well as "affiliate marketing South Africa".

At the time there was loads of press attention of the business opportunities in India, I looked at the size of the population, the growth in the "connected" classes and decided to get on the "Bandwagon".

The same thing happened with the South African site. I thought, what with the World Cup coming up there in a few years they'll be loads of opportunities to get 2nd tier income.

But recently many of us have been thinking about the new, increased pressures on our affiliate marketing businesses. Kieron's seen it with Google Adwords, Frostie's commented about the general industry and others have taken part in the discussion on the A4U Forum.

Then I get a PM from a reader asking about South African domain names and I thought it's about time to get my overseas stuff sorted.

But should I be doing this? Shouldn't I be thinking about the pressures here in the UK and how to beat them or find new opportunities on these shores?

Well to be honest, I'm sick and tired of the excuses that many merchants and networks come out with these days. I'm fed up finding most merchants finding ways not to pay us or, indeed, copying what we do and then stopping us from doing it.

So to those merchants and networks, bollocks to ya!

I'll be narrowing down who I work with in the UK and opening up more opportunities overseas - where you expect stuff to be a bit dicey. I know it'll be a "seat of the pants time", but what's life for if you're not going to have a bit of fun?!

So if anyone's got any pointers, I'd be most grateful! :D