Ok here we go, it’s finally Cyber Monday… The day after “Black Friday”. All is quiet here at 9am, some traffic trickling in off a few of the bigger ad networks but nothing out of the ordinary so far. Of course, it’s only 9 here, so 8AM EST. I will expect to see spikes in traffic at weird times of the day today, and hopes that ctr’s and roi’s climb higher then normal.

After chatting with my friend Smitty on msn messenger, I realized the possibilities for anyone who has cash flow and a few smarts in their heads are L A R G E… Think about the adspend of some advertisers, who aren’t necessarily into “branding” but simply affiliate sales/referrals, and you have to assume most aren’t just pissing their $ against the wind..

For example, without naming real names, a friend of mine and business associate in Nebraska spent close to 11,000$ on ads yesterday alone. That’s the Sunday before “cyber Monday”, but that’s just to give you an idea. His concerns were simply with “money management” and ensuring he didnt run himself dry before the end of today. I am predicting he will double and maybe triple his adspend today, and I hope he knocks down personal records all day long. (I’m assuming he will ,and as humble as he is I won’t hear shit about it unless I pry/ask etc)

So where/how do you spend this much as an affiliate? Well there is a resurgence in the life of ad networks, and many of them are offering entry level access for anyone willing to throw down their credit card. Here is a great list of the TOP 50 Ad Networks, of which I have personally tested just 8-10 now, and really only saw +ve results for my verticals on 2 or 3 so far… There are still a few who require minimum adspends and or deposits of 3000$-5000$, but a lot will allow you to make an opening deposit of $50, and you are on your way. Either get your text ads created, being sure to pay close attention to “Ad copy” and being creative, or choose the graphical formats or banners suitable to promoting your offer or product. These are 2 key elements no matter where you advertise, the more original you can be, the higher your CTR (Click through rate) will be, and all good things come from more clicks…Crafting text ads is a skill you need to hone , test and split test, there is never a “perfect ad” so keep in mine it’s an ongoing process. On the other side of things, if you are going to be doing diplay ads (banner, graphics etc), then using stock images, banners or flash files from the merchant isn’t always the best way to go but can give you a good benchmark for testing.

What is usually recommended, is using  a stock creative from a merchant, but then testing it against one you create on your own or modify on  your own. (Again, being original will generally yield greater results). Always be sure to read the terms and conditions of the merchants, there are some who won’t allow you to modify their creatives and those are ones who are branding themselves the way they want.

Good luck to all Cyber Monday affiliates and merchants, may all your clicks be cash and above all else, make sure you test test test, cause NEXT year will be the year you will want to pull out your data as a benchmark for your advertising efforts!