I have a brand new website I'm launching shortly and I will be running an affiliate program. I'll also be concentrating efforts on organic SEO. These two topics seem to always be kept separate, but why? Here's what I mean...
It's generally known that for SEO purposes, you want as many relevant sites as possible to link to your site (inbound links). Now, if you're running an affiliate program, it makes sense to me that we can combine affiliate marketing with SEO efforts by only approving affiliates who operate highly relevant sites, and use creatives that the search engines can follow. BUT... most banner ad creatives seem to be made using Flash (which, as I understand it, search engines currently cannot read). That seems to say that you had an inbound link opportunity and you blew it by using Flash. Am I wrong?
Why does everyone seem to be making banner ads in Flash instead of html (or any other technology) when using other than Flash can also get you the benefit of the inbound links (and clicks)?
Is it because of animation ability? It seems that most research shows that the crazy animated banners don't attract the click as frequently as a simple banner.
Is it because of file size? Can't a simple html banner ad be created in small enough file to be attractive to affiliates?
Thx!

Thanks for useful information that is way I like participation in QA sites.