affiliate marketing blog  

Okay, okay..  I hear you.  “Don’t get all economist Phd on us”.  And I promise I won’t get too far into the weeds.  But you know that you only have so much time and that you need to predict where your time will be best spent.  You also know that these choices (good or bad) will affect your sales and income in the 4th Quarter.  How about if you could apply actual trends in consumer spending on your sites?  Taking into account actual customer spending and focus your immediate efforts on the affiliate programs that are most likely to generate higher sales and profits.

In other words, put your bang where the bucks are.

And now you can.  I havn’t seen any broad public tools for this until recently (in fact, yesterday).  Google Domestic Trends.  And the data shown is quite interesting.  Google has taken retail sales in a wide variety of categories (clothing, cars, furniture) and has matched it with search volume in those areas.  For example…  From Jan 09 through April 09 retail clothing sales bottomed out not out of line of the previous three years.  Even more interesting is that even though we’re in rough times retail clothing sales are significantly higher for this period than in 2005 and 2006!

Retail Clothing Sales compared to Google Search Queries

Now let’s apply this to your sites, and keywords.  Let’s say you specialize in furniture and home furnishings.  If you take a look at Google Domestic Trends for Furniture you’ll see that retail furniture sales/searches have been rebounding since June of this year.  And that August was fairly flat in sales.

Now, if I ran affiliate sites for retail clothing, and furniture where do you think I’d concentrate on for the 4th Quarter of 2009?  That’s right…  Furniture.  It’s on the biggest rise.  Sales didn’t drop in August, they were flat.  That matches previous years close enough to anticipate that even more furniture and home furnishings will sell in the busy Christmas season as gifts (well, maybe not leather couches, but you know what I mean).  I may also concentrate on any retail clothing since the pattern of retail activity is pretty good (albeit not like the past couple years, but better than 2005 2006).

If I also had automotive accessories, car finance, etc. I’d take a look at those areas as well.  Cash for Clunkers shows greatly in Google Domestic Trends…  And I’d make appropriate judgements there as well.

Which means I know where I’m spending my time right now.  I know what’s hot, what’s not, and I have a much better handle on where I can put the “Bang where the Bucks Are” for the busiest season of the year.  Do you know where your Bang is?  You tell me..  Click that “Discussion” link and let’s do this all together, shall we?