When is a good time for Affiliates to get ready for Christmas?

[Nicole Fortunaso]

Hi Guys

Dare I say the word 'Christmas' in August! lol..
However, I am really curious to know when is a good time to start preparing your site for the Christmas rush?

With so many things to consider, such as design updates, special promotions and the addition of new product categories - how do you like to get the ball rolling?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Nicole,

Great question and VERY timely, thanks for posting.
I've been meaning to ask about this too.

So did you guys already start in July? Just starting now?
Or are you a last minute Christmas shopping affiliate site prepper?

 

[purplebear]

Not really quite sure, I've heard July is the time to start. umm I'm just doin Halloween now. I think quite a few shoppers were kinda late doin it last year. ummm pages are supposed to get indexed quicker now.....hmm now probably would seem like a good time I guess. Definitely by September tho I'd think. Real definitive answer, huh lol

 

[Nicole Fortunaso]

I like your thoughts purple bear... Allot of the industry talk is pointing to now being a good time to start, however there is still allot of ground work to be done with other shopping events and Halloween is a big shopping event too!

 

[affearner]

Based on our calendar, we start preparing all promos and offers for Christmas a month or two months before. We also do the same thing for our other monthly promos.

 

[maxie104]

Hi. Just getting Fall Halloween Thanksgiving up and running but have plans in hopper for Christmas. Don't like to spring things on my customers to soon. But that is just me.

 

[affearner]

Right Maxie! All things must come at the right time; otherwise it will just be useless. Imagine offering free skis on June.

 

[bobang]

I happen to have a minisite on Christmas with some stats to prove. I will post 2006 stats since it has stats for Jan - Dec and most recent. Let's have a look.

Jan 2006 368 736 2129 3424 30.30 MB
Feb 2006 257 546 1661 2196 19.99 MB
Mar 2006 209 583 1677 1997 18.42 MB
Apr 2006 223 602 1698 2238 21.38 MB
May 2006 225 591 1737 2361 20.44 MB
Jun 2006 210 622 1696 2002 18.86 MB
Jul 2006 193 636 2521 2798 32.72 MB
Aug 2006 239 683 1718 2511 22.15 MB
Sep 2006 278 691 1787 2858 23.60 MB
Oct 2006 480 954 1986 3832 36.55 MB
Nov 2006 992 1868 3206 7378 84.64 MB
Dec 2006 1611 3006 4663 11655 141.01 MB

I've noticed that Christmas related terms are searched throughout the year. I also have a Christmas blog that shows the similar traffic pattern. But as you can see, searches definitely increase around October.

So I guess you can start working on it during the summer and really go after it around September.

Hope this helps.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Cool Bo. Always good to have stats instead of just guesses.

I REALLY like your new blog design BTW. Just noticed it
this morning when I was scanning my reader.
NICE! I kinda like the color for some odd reason!

 

[lexiseek]

It's never too early! Christmas will be here before we know it. I can't believe the summer went as quickly as it did.

 

[Julia15]

Thanks for contributing those stats, bobang. Like Linda said, its very useful to see figures rather than hear estimates.

 

[affearner]

Research for Christmas-related stuff will always go throughout the year but I think it's not good to look at a site that advertises Christmas coupons and deals when it's only June right?

 

[andreww]

Depends on yr traffic gen model.

If you're using a high PR, fast indexed blog, you can launch campaigns immediately (ie you could theoretically launch the campaign during late nov/early dec shopping season).

Same if you're using social networking tactics or PPC (though you might like ot give yourself abt 7-14 days lead time to let your CPC mature and build up some history).

If you're using articles, press releases or other means, then more time is needed.

 

[affearner]

So is there any exact figure or date which is valid enough for a site to use when launching Christmas deals or promos?