Holidays are fast approaching and “Black Friday” among others, are just around the corner. This is just about the right time to promote those hot products as well as a good time and run your experiments :). In addition, if you are an AdSense publisher and are struggling to reach that threshold of $100 to receive your paycheck (more about this towards the end), then this might be of interest to you. Moving on.
As you all know, Google’s Search Trend provides plenty of information with regards to what consumers are looking for. More recently, Google made available a website (ThinkHoliday) powered by “Google Gadgets” which highlights the trends as to what types of product searches consumers are conducting this holiday season. By combining this data with that of the products available on Google’s affiliate network, you may want to take advantage of the plethora of information you can have access to and get on the band wagon.
As you can see from the image above, “ThinkHoliday” provides “rising searches” within the last 30 days and on different categories. If you are a publisher, you can use this information to find specific products that are related to your website (or not), and promote them.
Here are some tips you can apply to get you rolling:
- Find or identify products using “ThinkHoliday”.
- Build specific product links on Google’s affiliate network.
- With the help of Google Analytics, use your most viewed articles for better conversion
- and anything else you can think of (use your imagination, lol)
How does all this help in getting paid by Google?
Frustrated on how much Google AdSense pays you? If you are struggling to get your first paycheck from Google AdSense due to the threshold of $100, leveraging on this holiday season and promoting products from Google’s affiliate network can help you get there quickly. You do know that Google’s affiliate network (GAN) is integrated with AdSense and converting some sales on GAN will add up to your AdSense earnings.
That’s it. It is still early to wish you a great holiday season, but it is always good to wish you all much success in your online endeavors. Get to it!
Patricia@lavenderuses
Hi DiTesco
Up until this week I had not heard of Black Friday! Has different meaning in Oz. Sounds like everyone goes on a shopping frenzy. I sure wouldn’t like to be around the shopping malls for that lol
That is the advantage of online shopping isn’t it and I know here in Oz a lot of Gen Yers do all their shopping on line which is great for those of us selling products that way. Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate it.
Patricia Perth Australia
Hi Patricia. In my side of the world we also do not have “black Friday” and I think it is more of an “American” tradition. We do have celebrate and quite heavily Christmas and that has already started. As you said, that’s the beauty of online shopping, you can do it without the usual hassle, although there has some downsides as well.
Anyway, good luck with your products. How are they doing BTW?
AlexPapa
This was interesting DiTesco. I came here following a guest post you placed recently in another blog. I was not aware that Google had its own affiliate program. I am a keen affiliate and I will have to investigate this further!
Thanks for sharing it with us. Alex Papa
Hello Alex. Good to see you here. Google’s program started quite a while although it has gone better during the past months. The interface has been improved and there are very good products offered over there. The only drawback I can see is that it needs more offers for people who are in the “MMO” niche. Give it a try though as it has been working well for me 😉
Peter from Blogging Mechanics
Thanks for informative and useful post, DiTesco! I am using Google trends and Google Insights constantly, but I didn’t know about the ThinkHoliday stuff. It is very useful, will definitely use it in some of my niches.
Hi Peter. Well maybe the reason you have not heard of ThinkHoliday is because it is relatively new. If you are a Trends and Insights user, then this should be easy for you 🙂 Got those products in there before “Black Friday”. Happy ThanksGiving!
Rahul
hi ditesco,
i use google adwords, adsense but hearing about google affiliate network for the first time. and yes, it’s really very good to add some extra income to adsense earnings. thanks for sharing. how can i use thinkholiday (confused)?
Hi Rahul. ThinkHoliday is just a tool to guide you in identifying products that are “currently” hot on searches. First you have to sign up to be a Google Affiliate and then once approved, use the “hot trends” on ThinkHoliday to find products on Google’s Network. When you have located the product, put it on your website or choose a specific page where you want it displayed. I hope that helps. If you are still confused, let me know and I’ll make sure you got it right.
Hesham
DiTesco, this is great info for me, and it’s just on time!
I am actually working on a new website that will make use of this kind of products 🙂 however I am not so sure I can make it this session as the idea and site still in development!
Awesome!
Hello Hesham. You and your projects, lol. Anyway, this is a good method and works well depending on the “specificity” of the websites you are working at. It is an “all season” method so you can apply it pretty much whenever you want. Just had to put it out there for people to use it if they have time and need some ideas. I see you are working on a WPtheme related website. This is either a coincidence or we are on the same radar. I also have my own website tailored specifically to everything WP Themes related 😉
Shiva | Blogging Ideas
Hi DiTesco,
Thanks for the great post and thanks for giving the idea on how to utilize Google Trends and Google Affiliate Network tpgether. I have already signed up for Google Aff. Network but hardly used it because most of the programs out there are US centric but well maybe I think holiday season like Thanksgiving and Christmas for leveraging this method. Although I cannot use this method, this thanksgiving since it is too late but I am sure this method will do good in Christmas too. I will surely try it out then
Hi Shiva. Google Affiliate Network while slightly more focused on the US market has been steadily growing and has more options for international publishers. Check it out regularly as they have new advertisers almost daily. Thanks for stopping by
Latief@SimpleBloggingTips
Yes, I’m in the club of AdSense frustrated bro 😀
Thanks for the information how to use other Google service to increase AdSense earning, this is cool DiTesco 😉
Hi Latief. AdSense “F Club”, lol. Well Latief, give GAN a go and maybe that will add up to your current AdSense earnings and see that “bling bling” coming your way more quickly :). Good to see you here
ThinkHoliday is a really nifty tool especially with the approaching holidays, but from what I see they are kind of behind with the trends, because they are telling me the coolest trends are Halloween candy, witch costumes etc :D.
I knew about their affiliate program but never wanted to give it a try. Maybe I will try them.
I am also going to read Build specific product links where there is more information about how to spot good advertisers ;).
Happy Black Friday customer hunting oh and Happy Thanksgiving day for all those who celebrate it!
Thanks Alex for your wishes. Right back at you 🙂 Good luck on finding products on GAN, hopefully you will sell lots 😉
Thanks for this useful update. I will try making use of the same. Keep blogging 🙂
Hello Aswani. Good to see you here as always. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks bro. Hope all is well with you. This method is appealing as if you make any good conversion, it adds up on your Google AdSense account 🙂
Evan Schulte
This is really great advice. This will help people get the money they need this time of year. Congratulations.