There are certain times of the year when affiliates are going to make more money promoting certain products than they do at other times.

January is when a lot of people traditionally book their summer holiday for example. So it makes sense for affiliate marketers to give pride of place on their websites in January to travel offers. I have missed the boat as far as making money there is concerned, but another big event worth targeting early in the year is Valentine’s Day.

Hats off to the good people at the Tradedoubler affiliate network then who have provided affiliates with a page that they can simply add to their websites that is jam-packed with Valentine’s Day offers. Everything from flowers to lingerie to city breaks to dating websites are included.

A lot of people who dabble with affiliate marketing fail to make any money because they believe that all they have to do is stick a banner ad or six on their website and wait for the money to roll in.

If that’s your plan too, don’t hold your breath while waiting. That’s because many web surfers suffer from “banner blindness” and have done for years now. People simply learn to ignore banner ads - even when they contain information that would be of value to them.

The interesting thing about Tradedoubler’s ready to go page is that there isn’t a banner ad in sight. Instead they have gone for teaser copy with an inviting “more info” text link for each and every offer. The actual design of the page is excellent too, with a simple two column layout, great use of colour in headlines, and small images to draw your eye.

I was looking to add Valentine’s Day content to one of the sites that I am currently redeveloping and thought I had struck gold when I found this page that I could simply add to my website and link through to it from the home page.

If only life was that simple.

With Tradedoubler you have to apply to each merchant you want to promote on an individual basis. That’s not true of all affiliate networks, but it was a hurdle I would have to clear before using the page in its entirety. Which meant applying to 43 merchants, one at a time, and then having to wait for each and every one to consider my application.

And this is where it all starts to go wrong. You would think merchants would respond quickly to affiliate applications and some do. Unfortunately some don’t. In fact you quickly discover that while some merchants actively support their affiliates - regular emails with new offers and the like - others apparently couldn’t care less.

Of those 43 merchants that I applied to last week I am still waiting for 13 to say yeah or nay. And until they all say yes I cannot use the page in its entirety. Previous experience tells me that Valentine’s Day will come and go before I hear from all of them. For example, I applied to a finance company on the 13th of December and as of today I am still “under consideration”. If I am ever “approved” you can guarantee that I won’t be promoting that company now anyway.

What gets me is that presumably those 13 merchants know that they have been included in Tradedoubler’s Valentine’s Day promotion and it is therefore in their interest to deal with applications as quickly as they can. Not least because there is only a fortnight left now to use the content. By not responding quickly they are not only costing themselves potential revenue and preventing me from earning some extra pennies, they are also preventing other merchants who have responded quickly from profiting from the promotion.

My alternative is to edit out those merchants that haven’t approved my application yet and add them back in if and when they do, but not every webmaster has the skills to do that. Not without leaving Tradedoubler’s excellent content looking like a dog’s dinner anyway. And of those who do have the skills, many simply won’t have the time or the inclination.

Not surprisingly my initial enthusiasm for using the content provided by Tradedoubler is not what it was when I first came across it. And chances are it now won’t be appearing on my website.

For affiliate marketing to be successful it has to operate as a two way street, a partnership between affiliates and merchants. Networks like Tradedoubler can do their best to help both parties, but unless the merchants play ball then the best content in the world won’t earn me a penny. And that being the case I will be choosing my merchants very carefully from now on in.

Footnote: For another example of merchants not playing ball, see what one of the UK’s top affiliate marketing earners, Kieron Donoghue, has to say about telephone numbers on banners. And bookmark his blog while you’re there.