Christmas Affiliate Time!

Normally by now I’d have done some work on our Christmas site and had it ready for the “onslaught” that actually never happens - but today was the first day where I felt it was time to start looking at it… and how I wish I hadn’t!! Feeds out of date, old merchants now closed, links not working, content needs updating, some sections need coding…. hooray!! It’s Christmas and I’d like to be the first to say Bah! Humbug! I hate it already!

The good news though is that some sites like Brastop and Prezzieplus on Webgains already have christmas creative, whilst Prezzybox, who are the official patron saints of affiliate christmas, look like they’re about to release their top notch annual offering! Christmas products like cards, decorations and wrapping paper are also appearing in product feeds too. Sadly the big toy stores like ToysRUs and Hamleys haven’t released anything remotely festive, but that may be coming soon when the big toy sellers for 2006 are announced?

If you’re looking to put together a Christmas site then there’s some useful hints and tips over on A4UForum. One good point especially is made by OLBG who suggests “Focus on promoting the merchants that have done best for you during the year”! It’s very tempting to add links to every merchant and to try out new ones, but often best avoided.

One other tip is use your own online christmas shopping experience to do test sales! Christmas is an ideal time to find the merchants who work well, track sales and also deliver on time, and those that don’t track or who offer bad customer service. Share your findings with other affiliates too!