Prior history has shown that the weekend following Thanksgiving (which falls on November 27 - November 30 this year) is one of the strongest retail time periods of the entire calendar year. So in preparation for this, we went out to all of our ShareASale merchants and collected over 300 deals and doorbusters created specifically for Black Friday weekend. We’ve got coupon codes, landing pages, everything you need for a Black Friday marketing push.

To access them, simply click here and login: Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deals Database

All of these deals also appear in the Deal Database and RSS Feed, so if that’s how you already pull everything, then you’ll see them there too.

Here is a quick video to show you how to get it done…
(Click here to open a new window for this video tutorial)

I decided to take the opportunity to teach everyone a little bit about the ShareASale Make-A-Video and how Affiliates can use it to take their own video content, and monetize that content with product links that are relevant to the video.

When it comes to video conversion - direct product linking with specific and relevant products should yield a much much higher conversion than utilizing networks that pick ads for you.

So here is a quick tutorial! (Click here to open a new window for this video tutorial)

To view the finished product, check out the ShareASale Make-A-Video product below…

Many thanks to the wonderful folks who were good sports and put up with the cameras all day on the golf course. We had a ton of fun - hope to see everyone again at next years ThinkTank10!! For anyone who participated in the event, and who wants an official High Quality DVD shipped to them of the video… please email me your physical address and I’ll get it right out to you. I have a limited quantity but should be able to accommodate everyone.

There is a filter added for “Closed” Merchants, along with a “Select All” which allows you to quit all of the programs that are closed - if you wish.

Here is a quick video to walk you through it….

Here are some highlights:

• You control who, in your program, participates.  You also control the payouts per call based on call quality, duration, and a number of other factors.
• Call commissions show up in your account just like any other type of transaction.
• Easy access to reports through the ShareASale interface.

We would love to show you a demo if you are interested… just contact Client Services or put a comment here below and we’ll find a good time.

Are you ready to win big with ShareASale this Q4? You better be! Every single week from November 1 – December 24, we’ll be raffling off a frenzy of fantastic prizes for ShareASale affiliates…and one lucky affiliate will be the recipient of a phenomenally fun trip for two to our very own, much beloved Chicago!

How it works:
Each week, every ShareASale affiliate who has driven at least $5000 in sales since November 1, 2009, will be entered into a drawing to win a prize from one of our sponsors. We will have one drawing every week during the promo period.

For example, if you drive $5,000 in sales during the first week of the promo period, you will be entered into the first weekly drawing, and into every subsequent drawing. If you accumulate $5,000 in sales by the third week of the promo period, you will be entered into that week’s drawing, and every subsequent drawing thereafter. So the sooner you reach $5,000 in sales, the more chances you’ll have to win a weekly prize.

Additionally, if you accumulate at least $50,000 in sales during the entire promo period, you will be eligible for our grand finale prize…a trip for two to Chicago, air and hotel included. (Plus some other fun activities! We’ve got a whole package of fun planned!)
Qualifying weeks will begin Sundays at 12:00am CST and end Saturdays at 11:59pm CST

Week: 1 - November 1st -7th Sponsored by CEIVA Become a CEIVA affiliate here
Week: 2 – November 8th – 14th Sponsored by Pokenzoo Become a Pokenzoo affiliate here
Week: 3 – November 15th – 21th Sponsored by Emitations Become a Emitations affiliate here
Week: 4 – November 22th – 28th Sponsored by Vanns Become a Vanns affiliate here
Week: 5 – November 29th – December 5th Sponsored by FootballFanatics Become a Football Fanatics affiliate here
Week: 6 – December 6th – 12th Sponsored by Wishgiving Become an Wishgiving affiliate here
Week: 7 – December 13th – 19th Sponsored by Zenobia (NutsOnTheNet & MySpiceSage) Become an Zenobia affiliate here
Week: 8 – December 20th – 24th Sponsored by CrazyForBargains Become a CrazyForBargains affiliate here
Grand Prize: Winner to be announced December 25th

Weekly drawings will be held and announced on the proceeding Monday of each contest week. Only the winner’s first name and state will be announced for privacy reasons. Qualifying affiliates can only win one weekly prize for the Q4 frenzy but are eligible to win a weekly prize and the “grand prize”. International winners have the option to receive the weekly prize or the value of the weekly prize deposited into their ShareASale account. Once a weekly winner is notified they have 7 days to contact Jason Rubacky at Jason at ShareASale dot com to claim their prize. If the prize is not claimed within 7 days we will redraw for a new winner. Prizes will be drawn from an official hat by an official ShareASale employee. *no shenanigans!

The full report can be viewed here: http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf

It is important that all affiliates and merchants read this report and determine what, if any, action needs to be taken in order to comply.  The report states that the rules become active on December 1st of 2009.

Mediums such as Twitter, Facebook and other social sites are included… so it is important to fully read and understand the report.  The FTC has said themselves that they aren’t going to be fining people for lack of disclosure … but are really instead trying to guide bloggers and marketers in the direction of ethical business practices.  If you aren’t trying to deceive customers - it is unlikely that you’ll be affected by this.

In my opinion, bottom line, honest bloggers and affiliate marketers don’t have much to worry about here.

UPDATE: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/jennifer-vilaga/slipstream/ftc-bloggers-its-not-medium-its-message-0

MORE GREAT STUFF:  http://affiliate.madhatterconsulting.com/news-just-for-affiliates/fourth-quarter-woes-ftc-releases-updated-regulations-for-bloggers/

As part of our “Fix It” campaign - we will be posting some of the things we fix as suggested by everyone here as comments on this blog post…

Check back often or subscribe to the RSS feed at http://blog.shareasale.com/feed/ to keep track.  We’ll also be posting some of the larger fixes on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/shareasale

Well I am trying something new here… at least new to me.  In this post, I am going to argue a certain side… and then reach out at the end of the post to a friend of mine who (if he accepts the invitation) will provide an alternate point of view.

POINT:  (see all the way at the bottom for COUNTERPOINT)

I watched a video today that (while also making me laugh quite a bit) displayed some of the qualities that I love about affiliate marketers.  As an affiliate network, we work with a ton of great affiliates who inspire me everyday with innovative ideas. Please keep in mind that this video is not my content, it comes from a website called Break.com …  the link to the video is here:

In the video, the subject… I’ll call him “Chester” for the purposes of this blog post, was presented with a conundrum that a lot of us face today.  How he handled it, I am arguing, makes him just like one of the thousands of entrepreneurial affiliate marketers that we work with every day. (You’ll need to watch the video to understand this post… so please go ahead - and I’ll wait for you to return )

The lessons that I learned from Chester:

Never be afraid to take the leap.

Every day I hear a new story from an affiliate or affiliate manager who saw an opportunity to fill a niche in this world and took a big jump to try to fill it.

The lesson from Chester:  Be brave.  This economy is not an obstacle that cannot be overcome.  If you see an opportunity, go out there and go after it.  If a cat can stick it’s head in a fountain of water just to get a drink…anything is possible.  A further lesson from Chester here is to be brave while at the same time being smart.  He could have jumped in a toilet, for example… but that wouldn’t have been as smart a move.

Adapt to your surroundings.

While I don’t know Chester personally, I have to assume (for the purposes of this post) that for whatever reason… his usual water supply was unavailable or was somehow unsuitable.

There are dozens of marketing channels, and that is only counting the ones that are already out there.  I’ve argued this point before… but it applies to this post:  So many affiliate marketers out there are relying on only one channel to bring in the majority of their traffic.  If this channel were to suddenly change to the point of being unuseable, most of those affiliates would be left without a large chunk of their business.  Get out there and find new sources… build communities, develop loyal followers, find new and innovative ways to reach customers etc…

The lesson from Chester:  Adapt.  If your water bowl were somehow taken away from you, would you be able to stick your head under a faucet - even if you were a cat!  (Cats are notoriously afraid of water … for those non-cat lovers.)

Don’t worry if you don’t get it all right…

Clearly I think we could all agree this is not the most efficient way to drink. However, Chester is unfazed by this. He sticks his head in and fails to get any water probably 99% of the time. However, he presses on. In Affiliate Marketing there are so many failures… so many ideas that didn’t work out, so many websites that couldn’t generate traffic - but the beauty of it is that if you keep at it and continue, you’ll get your drink of water too.

The lesson from Chester: Persevere.

To summarize:  I think Chester (I’m certain that is not his name, by the way) is not dumb at all… as the video title suggests … but instead showed guts, ingenuity and initiative.  A lot of those qualities are exactly those needed to be a successful affiliate marketer and entreprenuer.

As a fun addition to this post, I’d like to invite my friend and fellow affiliate marketer, Shawn Collins, to provide a “Counterpoint”.  I’ve argued why Chester “succeeded” in this video… but I’d like to hear how he failed.  Shawn, you up for it?

UPDATE: Good news, Shawn has accepted my invitation to Counterpoint this post - and is currently crafting his argument.

Click on over to ShareAStar to design and share your star with your friends!!!

Stay tuned for an via twitter and facebook for announcements about upcoming holiday themed pieces!!!