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Scott Rowley's avatar

But what if, in a cash-strapped UK, people want to take advantage of sale offers because it's the only way they can afford Xmas? Maybe publishers can help them navigate that and find the best deals on the best products. And, uh, take a little bit of that lovely affiliate cash for performing said role. Win-win.

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Peter Houston's avatar

Ever the pragmatist Mr Rowley. I don't have anything against discounting or sales, it's the Black Friday frenzy I have a problem with. Outside of the fact that it's a meaningless concept, how do you get heard amongst the noise?

Black Friday guides from publishers are probably useful and an affiliate opportunity, but regular product recommendations are way more useful in building regular revenue and reader loyalty than short-term coverage of the madness.

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Scott Rowley's avatar

"regular product recommendations are way more useful" - totally. And then during a sale period the job goes from "what are the best products?" to "what are the best deals?"

Getting heard amongst the noise is the dark art of it (a good SEO/news strategy etc).

I suppose I think there's a bit of a kneejerk opposition to Black Friday from back when we used to watch Americans fist-fighting each other to get a cut-price sandwich maker. But I don't know that's it's really any weirder than any other sale – and placed before Xmas it's kinda more useful than most.

Anyway. I'm just saying all this cos I've been advising people on where to buy guitars all weekend. ;-)

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Peter Houston's avatar

We can't all work for eCommerce juggernauts :-)

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Scott Rowley's avatar

One day we all will ;-)

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Joe Berger's avatar

How the heck did Black Friday cross the pond and become a thing in the UK? I’m so sorry you have to deal with that?

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Peter Houston's avatar

Like everything else these days, good and bad, online.

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