Key Affiliate Marketing Dates

Posted on 7 Feb 2007 in Development, SEO / PPC | 1 comment

After 6 years in Affiliate Marketing, I still find myself rushing round at the last minute, trying to make the most of organic traffic that hits my websites at certain times of the year. The latest one is Sweet Valentines which, even being single, I know is only round the corner, yet I only started playing with the site on 2nd February. Yes, a whole 12 days before the big day!

When I say playing, feeds were broken, images not working yet still it was getting approx 800 uniques a day. Lots of free traffic that was generating £0.00 as the visitors couldn’t spend their money even if they tried! Even now, the site isn’t working 100% but I’ve run out of time and have other things to tend to

If I was a lecturer, I would be telling my affiliate students to ensure their seasonal website be up, running and fully tested 3 months before the big day, so to allow search engines to pick up and run with it prior to the big day. With that in mind I thought I’d put together a list of key affiliate dates, that in my eyes, are essential to generate maximum income;

• January Sales (26 December -> 15th January usually)
  • Think, plan and design during August / September
  • Implement and test October -> November
• Valentines Day (14th February)
  • TPaD during September / October
  • Implement and test November -> December
• Easter (March / April)
  • TPaD during October / November
  • Implement and test December -> January
• Summer (12 June -> 14 June *England only )
  • TPaD during February / March
  • Implement and test April -> May
• Christmas (25 December)
  • TPaD during July / August
  • Implement and test September -> October

So what’s this TPaD thing?

Think
What is it you want to do? Maybe your goal is to develop a website, add a section to an existing website you currently run, or even a trial a seasonal PPC campaign.

Plan
Depending on what your initial goal is, you may find your planning ranges from a simple keyword list all the way to a completely new interactive website. See what other sites are offering, speak to merchants to find out anything special they have planned and do some research! How do you plan to tell people about your new venture? Are you going to PPC it, send newsletters out, get links from similar websites?

and

Design
If you planned correctly, and most importantly stick to your plan, then you should have pretty much a draft for your design already. Now comes the tailoring part, or putting your plan in to practice. This may mean developing a website or burning your fingers typing out keywords galore. Contact other websites that have similar content and see if they would be willing to swap links with you.

Most importantly, as you can see from the dates above, don’t spend any additional time on one season, rushing things, when really it is already too late. Learn your lesson and move to the next seasonal theme.

What about you?
Do you have different dates, focus on different seasons such as Travel / Holiday? If so, what deadlines do you work to and what other advice can you offer?