10 Reasons Why I Love Christmas

Earlier in the week I did a post about why I don't like Christmas - perfectly intending to do one the next day about "Why I Love Christmas", however I've been a tad too busy. So here goes: What's great about being an affiliate at Christmas:

1. Obviously you get great presents from the networks, agencies and merchants. Webgains I think were the first this year with the great hamper from Virginia Hayward and Affiliate Window was the latest with a couple of bottles of wine and champagne and Existem sent a nice bottle of Rum. I don't expect these gifts, but its always nice to get them. They do make me feel guilty when I feel I don't deserve them - at least it makes me work harder!
   
   
2. At some times of the year its a real struggle to find content to blog about or PPC. At Christmas its just so damn easy. If you manage to organise the communications from merchants, networks and agencies properly then its a piece of Christmas cake to get the inspiration for "great" posts. If you add in using RSS feeds from merchants' sites then there's no excuse for not adding fresh, relevant and profitable content.
   
   
3. There's always a competition or two from merchants and networks. You've got the Affiliate Window incentive - the Raffle Bonanza, the PrezziesPlus one, Existem's own incentive, the fantastic one from PrezzyBox where you can win a trip to Dubai and the outstanding one from BuyAGift (I'll enter this one next year). So far I'm happy with my Nigela Book from Play.com and Affiliate Window.
   
   
4. I was going to say its easy to make money at Christmas. But what I mean is that shoppers just go mental at this time of year and you can promote almost anything and you'll get sales. I don't remember promoting Practical Presents on Affiliate Future but there's been a nice, steady stream of sales from them.
   
   
5. There's just so much data around to help you improve your sites for next year. My Christmas site, which I started this year, is getting around 11,000 different keyword variations a month (visits are obviously a lot more). I'll be going over this data in the first 3 months of next year and seeing how I can improve the sites to increase the traffic volumes for next year. I'll also be going over the conversion rates, EPCs etc for my merchants and see which have come up to scratch. I'll also be looking at Analytics to see where the "hot spots" of merchant clicks have been so I can review the design of the blogs. There's just so much to look at which should help me hopefully double, triple, quadruple my earnings next Christmas.
   
   
6. The merchant, agency, network staff are even more helpful than usual. Some excel themselves all year around, however at this time of year they'll bend over backwards to send content your way, recommend merchants, check over your sites for you. That makes like a fair bit easier - thanks.
   
   
7. You get out of your comfort zone and promote merchants you never thought you would. There's been some merchants that I've blogged about that I thought "I'd never make much out of that" but am then very surprised with the results. This will then take me into the new year and try and find ways to build upon their promotion.
   
   
8. It's nice that when you've been working your backside off for a few months promoting Christmas that you can just change down a couple of gears and see the sales come in. If you want to knacker yourself out and work 24/7 then the rewards are there, but if you want to get the work/life balance "right" then you're still rewarded.
   
   
9. You hear stories from other affiliates that may not have had much success during the rest of the year finally start to make some good money. I really get a lot of satisfaction out of others doing well. There are many affiliates that are just ticking over, doing ok, but need the inspiration and confidence to give the industry a big push. Christmas earnings certainly does that for some.
   
   
10. You get a few days off to stuff yourself silly and spend some of the cash you've earned. I'm a tight git and don't spend a great deal. I don't need flashy cars or a 15-bedroomed house to know I've "made it". Having a good relationship is far more important than others thinking "my Gawd he's loaded" - if it works for you then fine -I prefer the more intangible things in life. But spending a nice bit of your hard-fought earnings at this time of the year can also be good for the soul and makes it all worth it. There's some great offers on at the moment, and even a tight git like me has splashed out on a new 42" TV for the living room from the very helpful and good value DirectTVs.

It's been a great year. I've continued to refine my "route to market", actually learned a great deal of stuff outside of my core competencies, and had a lot of fun in the process.

Now I'm off to have an early mince pie, sit back, think of Valentine's Day, Easter and work out what I need to do to win a trip to Barbados with Affiliate Future. First stop, Magazine Group I think!