Q4 is one of the busiest times of year. Publishers should take the initiative to plan their affiliate marketing and content strategy before November hits, ensuring they’re fully prepared for the madness of the gifting season. Whether planning has just begun or almost finished, we’re sharing our top recommendations for affiliates looking to maximize the opportunities available during this time of year and ensure they’re putting their best promotional foot forward for the remainder of 2018.
Feel free to download our Q4 Checklist for Affiliates and check off items as you go.
For Your Site + Social Accounts
- Define Q4 goals (KPI, ROI, etc.)
- Update picture and ‘About Me’ page
- Ensure social media icons and newsletter sign-ups are redirecting properly
- Recycle old, popular posts
- Update headlines
- Add new, relevant affiliate links to these posts
Pro tip: Download our Product Discovery Tool to generate affiliate links on the fly and without needing to log in to the interface
- Insert a ‘call to action’ to draw audience to links
- Create a content calendar for events, holidays, ideas, etc.
- Increase engagement with your community
- Create polls and surveys to determine shopping habits
- Comment on similar blogs and posts
- Send newsletters to capture interest in your content
- Perform a backend site audit
- Update and install new plugins
- Update image files with proper names
- Check your page speed
- Test your site on mobile
- Optimize your SEO
- Include keywords in title and posts
- Write an informative meta description
- Organize content to be easily indexed and identified by search engines
- Promote
- Identify the social channels and email open times of day most popular with your audience
- Develop a posting/send schedule and stick to it
- Boost priority content for extra exposure
For Your ShareASale Affiliate Account
- Organize your merchant list
- Delete closed programs, follow-up with pending applications, and present updated information to programs that have declined you
- Identify and apply to new merchant programs
- Discover new programs to join via the Merchant Directory
- Check out the Coupons/Deals Database and the marketing calendar consistently
- Join ‘The Official ShareASale Blogger’s Group’ on Facebook
- Use the Custom Link Generator
- Add the afftrack parameter to your links to track performance
- Post shortened links on social channels
- Communicate with your merchants
- Download your merchant list
- Be on the lookout for opportunities in their newsletters
- Update your payment settings and account profile
