Thursday, November 01, 2007
I Guess Christmas Is Here Then (Inc October Update)
There's been a definite leap in sales in the last four days across my toy and gift sites, so I think it looks like Christmas is here. No real difference in overall traffic, but clickthroughs and conversion rates are both higher - probably between two and three times higher than the previous week.
I really got the sense that Christmas was here when I went to Bentalls last weekend. There was only a token nod to Halloween with a few scary displays, but there was no mistaking that their focus was all about Christmas.
Last year my Toy site lost its decent SERPs just before the Christmas rush, but this year I have a better site, a better domain and I'm hoping to have a very good festive period. I kind of tied my flag to the Toys R Us mast in terms of datafeed and don't want to make any drastic changes now, but it's a shame because their commission is kind of low compared to others - although it has to be said the conversion rate seems good, for me at least.
October generally was a bit flat compared to last couple of months. The changes to MSN's rankings gave me a bigger hit than I first thought and Adsense was down about $600. I also had a mini-disappointment when I saw my Amazon stats today. The overall number was ok, but I had exactly one order short of moving up am additional tier for the month, which is annoying. Actually the order numbers were in excess of the tier, but because not all of them had been despatched I lost out on an extra 0.5% for the month.
That said, October was decent enough and I'm now looking forward to an excellent Christmas period.
I really got the sense that Christmas was here when I went to Bentalls last weekend. There was only a token nod to Halloween with a few scary displays, but there was no mistaking that their focus was all about Christmas.
Last year my Toy site lost its decent SERPs just before the Christmas rush, but this year I have a better site, a better domain and I'm hoping to have a very good festive period. I kind of tied my flag to the Toys R Us mast in terms of datafeed and don't want to make any drastic changes now, but it's a shame because their commission is kind of low compared to others - although it has to be said the conversion rate seems good, for me at least.
October generally was a bit flat compared to last couple of months. The changes to MSN's rankings gave me a bigger hit than I first thought and Adsense was down about $600. I also had a mini-disappointment when I saw my Amazon stats today. The overall number was ok, but I had exactly one order short of moving up am additional tier for the month, which is annoying. Actually the order numbers were in excess of the tier, but because not all of them had been despatched I lost out on an extra 0.5% for the month.
That said, October was decent enough and I'm now looking forward to an excellent Christmas period.
Labels: adsense, christmas, earnings, msn, toys, update
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Toys and Affiliate Marketing (pwned by Awin)
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:
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?
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
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
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