How to Build a Campaign and Profit from Valentine’s Day
So many business thrives, and stay in business simply because of holidays like Valentine’s Day. The whole year will be consistently slow, but Valentine’s day is where they cash in big time. Other holidays that stand out for these types of business include Mother’s Day, birthdays and celebrations. However, these peak times are when people are ready and willing to pull out their credit cards and spend money. Here’s an idea how you can start profiting from these huge mega holidays.
The Concept:
Every year we all get a ton of notifications from the affiliate networks on all of their new flowers and chocolates campaigns for Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, unless you already existing web site traffic or a mailing list, there isn’t much you can do to promote these offers besides starting a new ad campaign. Why not set something up and establish yourself and be ready for next year?
A simple, yet effective idea I have for you today, is to creative your own “dating” or “lovers” information web site. Constantly millions of searches are made daily for advice on “what to buy for Valentine’s Day“, “how to be a better kisser“, “best places to propose” and so on. The concept behind all of these search queries is that they are related to “love” and all targeted to the same buying demographic.
What To Do:
One of the best ways to effectively promote to these audiences without having to sell yourself, is by creating a new web site or blog. These web visitors are already in a buying state, and it’s up to you to provide them with what they need. Instead of spending countless hours creating your own content, you can outsource a content writer to write up a short ebook for you. For example, the ebook could cover “101 Ways to Impress Your Lover“. Offer the ebook on your site for free in exchange for signing up to your newsletter subscription. Over time this will build up a massive list that you can heavily bank on during peak times of the year. (Valentine’s Day / Mother’s Day / Father’s Day)
The concept of creating an ebook isn’t only to increase your chances for building up a mailing list, but you can also include your affiliate link for many products and services within the ebook. Include a section of the ebook called “Top Sites for Buying Flowers“, have your copy writer do a short review on each, then your ebook is passed around forever with your affiliate links.
To go a step even further, you can build up your site or blog with the content featured in the ebook. Instead of offering the full content, only offer a snippet… then telling the user to subscribe for the free ebook for the full story.
The Offers:
The obvious ones are flowers and chocolate, but unlike retails stores, you have the advantage of the internet. Here are just a few offers you can promote to your anxious newsletter subscribers over the year and at targeted holidays.
Dating – Believe it or not, but there is always a good spike in signups during Valentine’s day for online match making networks. No body wants to be alone on valentines day.
Zip / Email Submits – An obvious choice for any time of the year. However, many networks are creating their own campaigns targeted to each holiday. A common campaign selection of Valentine’s Day, are free gift cards to Victoria’s Secret, Jewelry and chocolates.
Greeting Cards – Years ago I ran a few large greeting card web sites and I was always thrilled whenever a new holiday was coming up. Back then I had spent several thousands of dollars on the creation of flash greetings. Fortunately for you, there are now affiliate programs around that let you link to, and use their greeting card ad copy to promote and bring in new users. You are then paid for every new user who sends a free greeting card.
Exclusive NeverBlue Update:
One of the most successful programs for promoting free online greeting cards, is MyFunCards. I’ve personally earned several thousands of dollars working with Tina and promoting this offer. Neverblue has a monster deal with the advertiser and is currently offering more than any other network on their payouts. The offer is also available worldwide, and paying $3.00 (street rate) per signup, and of course more with quality & volume.
Real Life Example:
One of the most successful programs online has been the DoubleYourDating ebooks. From an affiliate stand point, you would earn $40 for every $19.97 ebook sold… Yes, 200%! The founder of DYD has over 1 million subscribers on hit love/dating lists and has generated millions upon millions of dollars from his lists and web sites. Before selling you his ebook, or any of his many products and services, he simply wants you as a newsletter subscriber. If you need an example to follow, simply head over to Google and search on what he has been doing over the years.
While this concept for making money may seem basic, or even redundant for some, it is an effective way to build a list and consistantly make money throughout the year. If you were to start your site and mailing list today, and were to average just 30 new subscribers daily, you would have over 10,000 subscribers by next Valentine’s Day.
Every year I say, “Next year I’ll be ready to bank big on (holiday)“… but then a year passes and it’s the same story. It really just comes down to you putting the effort and work in to get it started. The customer base is already there… now you have to reach out to them.
Really helpful tips.
I was looking to take advantage of this valentine.. Thanks for the tips. 🙂
I made a post on Valentines Day and got quite a few hits for dating services. My post was geared more towards the singles anyways since everyone is talking about flowers and candies. Campaign so far is a dud, learning curve for next year I guess….
thank you for your tips. I will try it for next valentine day.
Zac, how would you monetize a mailing list from an online game? Those contacts are almost not targeted to any niche…
I've been meaning for a long time to try to take advantage of a holiday. Good ideas, Zach. Looks too late for me for this V-day … maybe I shoudl turn towards Christmas 2009.
Zac,
Thank you for this post. I am getting ready for next year! This is a good solid way to get some massive returns during Holidays.
Respectfully,
Nicholas Chase
http://www.twitter.com/nachase
<a class="replyTo" href="#comment-99755" rel="nofollow">@Chris:
Chris, I would concentrate on gaming offers (iwon), sweepstakes and other freebie offers. I'm sure none of them will pull out their cc for anything. Still can make good money though.
@Zac: Thanks a lot! Can you recommend any specific affiliate network that you go with for those kinds of offers? I see iwon has an affiliate program; do you recommend any other programs that perform for users who won't pull out their cc's?
These are great tips, its always good to make some profit from holidays. Thanks for sharing them
<a class="replyTo" href="#comment-99811" rel="nofollow">@Chris:
Chris, Neverblue has a lot of these offers, along with IWON.
I've been wondering how one can effectively target a once yearly special occasion like St Valentines Day, and this post has answered o lot of my questions. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Zac.
Tell me about the valentine craze. I've just finished a bunch of articles for SEO purposes related to "love". If I never have to hear the word again it will be too soon.
Since I am happily married I can afford to say that! 🙂
Good tips. Moreover, they are true for any holiday.
good tips,thanks for sharing..
There are definitely a lot of dating offers that webmasters can do that are related to valentines. However, I didn't think of the eBook idea, I wish I saw this article before valentines day.
I own a lot of sites in TV / movie entertainment. Are there any affiliate offers for this niche ?
I have never done this ( affiliate marketing ) for real but I have noticed that I can sell a lot of DVD's trough Amazon when I write about it. Any tips, guidelines where should I look first Zac ? ( Amazon pays only around 4% which doesn't bring in much revenue … )