Prior history has shown that the weekend following Thanksgiving (which falls on November 28 - December 1 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 200 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

Here are some of highlights:

• 1 Day Only: 30% off any purchase at Manhattan Portage
• 75% off everything at Memories Across Miles, a scrapbook and paper supply store
• 50% off the Hoover Savvy Bagged/Bagless Upright, now $115!
• 25% off any purchase at Nimli.com
• 50% off the North Face Jester backpack, only $25
• Free Shipping on all gifts and sets at Clarins
• Free shipping on all gifts at The Fruit Company

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.

I was also lucky to have the opportunity to speak with Shawn Collins on his “Affiliate Thing” podcast at the Affiliate Summit booth. Also on board were co-Affiliate Summitter Missy Ward, and Connie Berg. We had a good time talking about some industry news, issues, and it gave me an opportunity to talk about our PPC “3 Strikes” policy as well. Since September 1st when the policy became active, we’ve received a great amount of feedback and reports. I would also like to thank all of the affiliates who have really stepped up their efforts to make sure that they are in compliance with the rules at hand. I know how difficult it is to keep up with so many policies, and your effort is very much appreciated. We know there will always be mistakes, hiccups, etc… and will continue to do our best to determine the difference between an honest mistake and a continued violation. So thank you….

Click here to take a listen to the Affiliate Thing

In similar form to the Deals Database, Affiliates can access these creatives from inside their Affiliate Interface as well as through RSS feeds and downloadable databases. Affiliates can also search for specific types of gift cards - and find/join programs that they might not have already been a part of.

Thanks for the great suggestions at Think Tank - and we hope to be able to implement many more of them soon!

So this is just a quick post to let you know of a few ways to keep track of all the new programs that launch on our network.

The RSS Feed - This feed contains each and every new program as it is launched.
http://www.shareasale.com/newprograms.xml

The Twitter Feed - This is a new addition, and will contain a few posts per week of merchants that we select from the larger group
http://twitter.com/shareasalenews

The Newsletter - The monthly ShareASale Newsletter contains a handful of merchants as well as new promotions and few articles on what we are up to. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to this from within your ShareASale account.

The Facebook Group - We maintain a Facebook Group to discuss various news topics as well as update on major changes / announcements.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2592250239

Blog and Press Releases - Here at the blog we announce new things here and then, and occassionaly have a press release for a new merchant, etc…
http://blog.shareasale.com/press-releases/http://blog.shareasale.com

ABestWeb - We maintain a forum on ABestWeb - the largest single forum resource for affiliate marketers.
http://www.abestweb.com

Each year, we close our offices today and we encourage others to take this day in rememberance not only of what was lost, but also in celebration of everything that we have in our lives. The families of victims from that morning would give anything to spend one morning with their loved ones, we encourage you to go out and live today to the fullest that you can. Affiliate Marketing can wait until another day. Pressing issues will be attended to, however, we encourage you to leave all but urgent issues until Friday.

We will never forget those who lost their lives, or those who gave their lives in the hope of saving another.

Recognizing that there may be urgent situations, although we hope that there are not, we have setup the following.

For urgent needs, Merchants are able to login to their accounts by visiting here: Merchant Login

For urgent needs, Affiliates are able to login to their account here: Affiliate Login

All tracking for transactions will be working as normal, however, any fees that ShareASale would normally collect will be donated to the International Relief Fund, managed by the Red Cross. Donations to this fund go towards helping the Red Cross assist and aid in tragedies that occur all over the world, and you can add your donation by visiting the Red Cross.

In your account, click on “Make Videos” which is under the “Tools” section. You’ll see the following page which has a demo on it (demo also located: http://blog.shareasale.com/2008/08/06/make-a-video/)

Also - you can now download and use videos that Merchants have uploaded featuring their products.

Under the “Get Links” section of your account, there is a link for “Get Videos” … click on it and it will take you here….

You can see a list of videos, as well as preview what they may look like.

For each Merchant that has video you will also see that showing on their usual Creatives page.

When you are grabbing the actual code for videos, please note the parameters that you are able to add in there, including the usual “Afftrack” variable so you can manage any sub-id information that you need. Videos can often be resized, etc… as well.

If you want to use this video as an Affiliate of PianoWizard… here is a link to their creative.

Here is a link to the Flickr Set - http://www.flickr.com/photos/25498451@N06/sets/72157606817717597/

Can anyone tell me who the folks are in pictures labled 152 and 206 ? I want to email them and thank them for their exceptional spirit in getting up and participating in our Live Band Karaoke!!!

See ya next time.

Please note that this process is seperate and independant from any action that a Merchant wishes to take on an individual affiliate.

There are some instructions in there on how this report should be used, as well as the information that we will need, etc… Please make sure to read that page and if there are any questions feel free to let me know…

This is in relation to the following blog post from June…

http://blog.shareasale.com/2008/06/17/shareasale-pledges-and-expectations%e2%80%a6-part-2/