Thanks for the response. You've made some points that I hadn't fully considered and caused a few mental sparks.

Until now, I've been the affiliate - not the advertiser. While my experience as an affiliate has helped tremendously, there's a lot to learn on this side of the coin too.

I'll look into your suggestion of reverse engineering the competition. I've considered it along the same lines of keyword mining, but we're in a highly competitive service-based industry where I've got doubts about the effectiveness of such an approach. With any luck, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Like many things in business, the hardest part is building the momentum from a stand still and gathering those first producers to use in marketing media such as testimonials.