Is affiliate marketing good for B2B sites?

Last Friday I spoke at the American Chamber of Commerce Japan in Tokyo on how to mine more sales from affiliate programs. Many in attendance represented firms offering business products and solutions. I was asked by several attendees how well represented the B2B industry was in affiliate networks. The short answer is, not well represented. Unless you count office supply firms and some ASP solutions provider as B2B. The fact is, most affiliates are individual web site/blog operators and they tend to write or promote things that they understand. B2B products are a tougher sell and will likely result in fewer ad clicks to affiliates. This is not to say that affiliate marketing is a bad choice for driving sales to B2B sites. Companies selling business solutions and products will need to package their affiliate programs in a more user-friendly fashion. An affiliate program could be used to drive traffic to an online questionnaire that is structured to find possible business leads for follow up sales. But just as Alibaba.com was the answer to an online shopping mall for B2B, perhaps some savvy entrepreneur will create an affiliate network that caters to the B2B industry. A quick reminder; I will be presenting a talk on Japanese Mobile Commerce at the Digital River Global Network Sales Summit on November 7th and 8th at the Harbour Plaza Hotel in Hong Kong. Give me a shout if you’re in the neighborhood.