blacker than black friday

I'm not exactly sure why they call Black Friday "black" to begin with, but this week before Thanksgiving has been horrible when it comes to my affiliate marketing sites. Sales have been lower this week than they have been all year. Perhaps everyone is saving their money for official Black Friday sales, but I had hoped that internet sales wouldn't be as affected. What's strange is that my search ads are still getting as many clicks as before - they're just not converting this week. I'll have to try and remember this next year, and simply turn off my search marketing campaigns for the week prior to Thanksgiving.

I still can't help but wonder if the affiliate marketing networks aren't screwing us over. There are times when it seems too strange that we would be getting the usual click-through and yet the conversion rate drops so miserably. Or maybe it is the advertiser, hiding sales from the affiliate network. Either way, I hate the idea of my income depending on the honesty of someone who technically owes me commissions.