Tips To Get The Most Out of Q4 Traffic

[BillyKay]

1. If you have a Christmas section, it should already be done.

- Check every product link... make sure the product exists, and make sure the price is correct. A lot of merchants have been subtely raising prices due to the economy

- If you can, change your Holiday section to look Christmasy.

http://mailordershoppe.com/xmas/main_christmas.htm#top

I added snow to my logo and made the links red. Puts people in the holiday (spending) mood

2. Use coupons
Even if you have a product site or a feed site... find - and use - coupons. People are looking for deals. If YOU don't offer them, the visitors will find them elsewhere

3. Give your best sellers prominence
If you already know what's selling, feature them prominently. In my case, it's something like personalized Christmas stockings. If you don't know, ASK the merchant. You're only gonna get one shot at Q4 riches, so give the customers what they want

4. Remove the dogs
We all have merchants or products that have done squat all year. Resist the urge to give them one more chance. They've had TEN months to prove themselves. Axe them, and just focus on the winners.

5. Ignore "Join Our program" emails.
You will be innudated with "Q4 is our best season/join now" emails. Duh!! Q4 is EVERYONE'S best season!! You don't have time. You may even want to create an autoresponder that politely says "I like your program and will investigate it after Q4"

6. Strategize with your best merchants
You know who they are. Call them!! Get a battle plan organized

7. Check Your Network Offers
A lot of merchants offer a higher commish during the holidays, and Networks like Linkshare require you to opt-in to accept the offer. Make sure you're getting the highest possible rate for the sales you're sending

8. Prepare a backup plan
If you devote 50% of your holiday sales to merchant "A", and something happens, know in advance who your backup merchant "B" is. That means you already joined their program, and have some idea of how you'd promote them.

9. Remember Your Family
I spend the next 2 months telling Jesse "Unless you're dying, ask me in January". Wrong!!! We do what we do for our family. No matter how hectic things get, always remember what's truly important

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Great tips Billy. I'm getting ready to leave town to see my son and his wife after the loss of their baby. So I'm setting up an auto-post about your post and linking here. Thanks for the blog fodder! I needed it, since I'm a little brain dead right now.

[BillyKay]

If you get customer feedback... LOOK at it! You don't want to loose sales due to an oversight.

I just got a $90 sale - moments ago - with a customer comment:

Subtotal: $80.43
Promotional Discount (MM0526): -$4.02
Shipping (Shipping & Handling: Standard US Ground): +$13.95
Grand Total: $90.36
_________________________________________

Comments: No instructions on how to add to cart. Not user friendly.

CUSTOMER TRACKING:


My first thought is "It appears you figured it out wench!!"

or "What's that big blue button that says "Add to Cart?"

or my personal favorite: "I tested my site's ease of use with a 5th grade class at my son's school. What grade are YOU in??"

But, if this person found something lacking, other shoppers will too. Use these comments to make any changes that will minimize lost sales.

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Billy could be she has something that blocked her from seeing it. One example, lots of people like me are worried about the new clickjacking threat - heck even Apple and Microsoft are worried about what it can do. It's cross browser so even affect FF. The ONLY way to stay safe until the browser makers figure out how to stop it is by using FF and the noscript plug-in.

That noscript blocks ALL kinds of things, so everyone should test their site because it really messes things up. I'm used to it now and know if somethings missing on a site or look squirley I need to temporarily allow all on the page. There is a big long thread about Clickjacking on my forum if you want to know more or Google it. But we've discussed some of the gotchas.

It blocks or warns on re-directs too so could impact affiliate tracking. Have not had time to research that issue yet. Anyway that may not be HER problem, but keep in mind there are different plugins that mess up sites or buttons, so may not always be that they are blind.

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Noscript example. I just clicked your logo to go home, it would not work. Then I tried to add a smiley and it would not let me. If I didn't know it was noscript, I could have assumed your forum was broken. (I allowed all and now I can use your smileys.)

[BillyKay]

Wow! Thanks Linda

(next time, INCLUDE the link )

[Timewarp]

Unbelieveable...
I read about this post from Affspot on Twitter so clicked it.
Twitter sent me to http://www.affspot.com/forumdisplay.php?f=89
Which then sent me to a blog for yet another excerpt,
which then sent me back here to read the damn thing!

[See You Guys]

Hi, Billy, I checked one of your pages and also had some problems. The button was down under the coupon box it was blue but quite small. Don´t you want to put some larger button above the fold right next to the picture of the product or its description? Also, if the whole theme is blue, people tend to overlook the uniform parts. It is like a photograph in a blue frame. You don´t look at the frame.

[BillyKay]

Thanks for the tip. Maybe I'll experiment with an alternate color for the buy button.

But as you can see, it 2am and I'm still working... I can schedule that for... er... next April! LOL

[See You Guys]

Originally Posted by Billy Kay

Thanks for the tip. Maybe I'll experiment with an alternate color for the buy button.

But as you can see, it 2am and I'm still working... I can schedule that for... er... next April! LOL

You insomniaKAY...