Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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The September 2007 issue of the LinkShare Affiliate Newsletter includes some tips to help affiliates get ready and have a big holiday shopping seasons:

1. Run Reports - Run a Sales and Activity report and look for the advertisers that have done well for you in the past 3, 6 and 12 months. This will help identify your top partners and determine which advertisers to give prominent site placement to during Q4. It is also a good idea to review the Individual Item Report to identify the types of products your users are buying.
2. Join Programs - Are you looking for new advertisers? Is there a particular product that you would like to promote in Q4? Go to the Join Programs tab in the LinkShare interface, search for a specific advertiser or look for new advertisers based on product categories. Remember electronics, apparel, media and toys are popular gifts!
3. Watch Your Inbox for Holiday Promotions & Newsletters - Again this year, we will be putting together a special Holiday Deal Dispatcher featuring holiday promotions, last ship dates and best practices. Throughout Q4, advertisers tend to send out more communications highlighting special publisher and consumer promotions.
4. Create a Q4 Marketing Calendar - By creating a marketing calendar you can better prepare your site promotions and email campaigns. When creating your calendar keep in mind holiday dates, last ship dates, advertiser promotions and product seasonality. For example, promote travel sites in October, free shipping offers in November and advertisers that offer electronic gift cards in December for last minute gifts.
5. Check Your Links - It is always good to check your links to make sure they are going to the right pages and your creative is up-to-date. All advertisers’ creative links have a start and end date - pay attention to end dates so you always have the most current creative. Another option you may want to consider is looking for advertisers that offer Dynamic Rich Media or DRM links. For more on using DRM go to the Publisher Resource Center.

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