Toys are of course a big priority at Christmas and I'm spending quite a bit of time on my UK toys site at the moment. It's basically built around the Toys 'R' Us product feed, which is generally quite good although one of my visitors wasn't very impressed to see "For Mum Washable Breast Pads" categorised under 'Gifts, Gadgets & Toys". The downside to using Toys 'R' Us is their very restrictive PPC policy and quite a miserly standard commission of 3% though, so I've tried to build in an Amazon price comparison alongside the Toys 'R' Us, as another merchant option. Amazon of course pays up to 10% if you can generate enough volume.

I noticed earlier on that The Entertainer, formerly on Webgains, has relaunched its online presence under the domain "www.thetoyshop.com" and the affiliate program is available on Affiliate Window, with an excellent introductory commission rate of 10%. This really means that Awin pwn the Toy sector in affiliate marketing when you consider their other merchants such as:

• Toys 'R' Us
• Hamleys
• Early Leaning Centre
• Woolworths
• John Lewis

And then they have plenty of boy's toys/gadget type sites like Firebox, DrinkStuff, IWoot etc. With the Christmas gift season approaching, that's a very impressive portfolio of merchants.

Talking of toys, I happened to come across Toys 'n' Playthings - "The UK toy trade's no.1 magazine". I must admit, the idea of looking at trade publications is something I had completely overlooked but this is really useful for getting insights into what products will be hot for many months to come and right into next year. Do you read trade magazines for the sectors you operate in? Do you find them useful and can you recommend any?

Labels: affiliate marketing, affiliate window, toys