With some of the products I am targetting the merchants
have prominant telephone numbers on their sites and due to
the nature of the products, I would imagine most people
would ring the number rather than just buying online.

From my experience UK consumers are far happier buying after
speaking to someone over the phone (especially with more
expensive items) and I would imagine having the number on
the site increases the likelyhood of a sale.

Are there any merchants who pay out commission for
telephone enquiries? surely the merchant could create a webpage for affiliates to link to where the products have a
unique reference no. for each affiliate and any telephone
enquiries would have to quote the reference no.

This would create more sales for the merchant (because
they have their no. on the site) and affiliates would be more
inclined to work with them.