It’s back-to-school time! And with the back-to-school season the second largest retail season (second only to the major holidays), affiliates have a great opportunity to boost their earnings.

Some great verticals for affiliates to focus on promoting during the back-to-school season are fashion and apparel. That’s right: every kid, tween, teen, and college kid is going to need new threads. Not only is summer ending and autumn on its way in, but every student is thinking about making an impression on their classmates when they head back to the classroom for the first time in months.

With the back-to-school season such a big retail season, consumers are also looking to save where they can. So affiliates should also consider promoting back-to-school fashions that offer consumers savings. Merchants with special deals and coupons, then, offer and added opportunity for affiliates’ back-to-school campaigns.

With the Underground Hip Hop affiliate program, for example, affiliates can reach out to all the tweens, teens, and college kids looking for some new urban threads. Affiliates can promote 1,000 different t-shirt designs, 100 different sweatshirt/jacket designs, and 100 hat designs. There’s really something for just about any urban-minded back-to-schooler.

In addition to a 60-day cookie and flat CPA of 10%, UGHH.com also offers affiliates a number of coupon deals to promote. Affiliates can offer their users coupon codes to save 10% off on all orders, $10 on orders of $75 or more, or $25 on orders of $150 or more.

And for affiliates looking to target the back-to-school ladies, there’s the Stylefly affiliate program. Emphasizing wearable, feminine pieces from popular women’s designers, it’s the perfect opportunity for affiliates looking to target girls who want to head back to the classroom looking smart.

Stylefly also offers affiliates coupon codes. Through the Stylefly affiliate program, affiliates can offer their users coupon codes that will save them 25% on orders Store-Wide, until September 30th, 2009.

As for those back-to-schoolers who think that they’re, well, too cool for school, affiliates can promote the T-Shirtmonster affiliate program. In addition to featuring a 60-day cookie, affiliates can promote thousands of cool designs. T-Shirtmonster also lets them create their own custom T-Shirts within minutes — and we all know how much tweens, teens, and college kids like to express their individuality!

With the way that consumers spend before heading back to the classroom, affiliates can’t afford to miss out on this seasonal trend. And since everyone needs new threads for the changing season and to strut their stuff, apparel is a great vertical for affiliates to promote.

What affiliates should do, then, is look for affiliate programs that let them promote apparel that appeals to kids, tweens, teens, college kids and their parents. And if they can offer those parents some extra savings, all the better.

With the economy ad it is, there is a great opportunity for affiliate marketers to help consumers find savings. This is back-to-school clothing coupons, for example, are such a lucrative promotion for affiliates.

But there is one area where consumers where consumers will spend more this back-to-school season, and that’s Back-To-College. As a recent survey by the National Retail Federation reports:

Even with the uncertainties the economy continues to present, college-bound students and their families are prepared to shell out a little extra this year. NRF’s back-to-college survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that college students and their parents will spend an average of $618.12 this year, up three percent over last year’s $599.38. [emphasis my own]

So affiliates should be consider promoting products that college kids will need to head back to the campus.

One thing that all college kids need are supplies to write those grueling term papers, such as ink toner. So the Love Toner and Excel Toner affiliate programs are excellent opportunities for affiliates. Love Toner is perfect for affiliates with US traffic, and Excel Toner lets affiliates target Canadian college kids. They also both have coupon code promotions running until the end of August.

With the Underground Hip Hop affiliate program, for example, affiliates can promote 1,000 different t-shirt designs, 100 different sweatshirt/jacket designs, and 100 hat designs to urban-minded college kids. UGHH.com also offers a number of coupon deals, so affiliates can also help those college kids save money. Affiliates can offer their users coupon codes to save 10% off on all orders, $10 on orders of $75 or more, or $25 on orders of $150 or more. The UGHH.com affiliate program also offers a 60-day cookie and flat CPA of 10%.

To target college girls, affiliates can also get in on the Stylefly affiliate program. Emphasizing wearable, feminine pieces from popular women’s designers, it’s the perfect opportunity for affiliates looking to target girls who want to head back to campus looking smart. Stylefly also offers affiliates coupon codes so that they can offer consumers a 25% savings on orders until September 30th, 2009.

Another great opportunity for affiliates who want to target college kids is the T-Shirtmonster affiliate program. In addition to featuring a 60-day cookie, affiliates can promote thousands of cool designs. The really cool thing about T-Shirtmonster is that it lets consumers create their own custom T-Shirts within minutes!

With the cost of books, computer accessories, and the clothing they wear, college kids can be much bigger spenders than other student demographics. So affiliates can’t afford to pass-up targeting them during the back-to-school season.

Not only are there so many things that college kids need, from clothing to supplies, but they’ll also be looking for some savings. By offering them saving on those items, then, affiliates can really take advantage of the back-to-school season.

If the opportunity for affiliates to promote back-to-school fashions has to do with promoting the clothes that back-to-schoolers wear, then why shouldn’t affiliates target many of their other back-to-school promotions directly at back-to-schoolers?

Well, that’s what a lot of America’s top retailers are doing this year, and that change in focus has to do with how a lot of those retailers are shifting their marketing online. So it only makes perfect sense that affiliates should also consider targeting teens directly.

As ClickZ reports, as retailers take more of their back-to-school marketing online, it makes more and more sense to target teens instead of their parents:

Indeed, the direct-to-teen approach is a bit of a departure for [major retailers], which in past years has targeted parents with its back-to-school promotions. Those efforts were waged largely on TV and radio and with circulars [...]

But the shift to a Web-based campaign is an outgrowth of its desire to influence teens directly.

With the better targeting abilities that the internet offers over television, it makes more sense to reach out to teens directly.

The opportunity for affiliates here is plain: build campaigns that target teens, and capture their parents’ back-to-school dollars. So by promoting the items that teens will consume themselves, such as fashion, and offering an incentive to make that purchase online, affiliates can capture their parents’ back-to-school dollars.

Online coupons are a great way to offer that incentive. By offering teens some saving through a coupon code on the items they consume directly, affiliates can help generate that online sale and earn a commission on it!

Because that back-to-school season is such a big one for retail, it’s also a hard one on families going back to school. They’ll be spending a lot of money, so they’ll also want to save wherever they can. What this means for affiliates is that there’s a great opportunity to promote back-to-school savings.

Coupons are going to be particularly good this back-to-school season, because consumers will be spending less. As a recent survey by the National Retail Federation reports:

[...] the average family with students in grades Kindergarten through 12 is expected to spend $548.72 on school merchandise, a decline of 7.7 percent from $594.24 in 2008. Total spending on back to school is expected to reach $17.42 billion.

[...] 56.2 percent of back-to-school shoppers hunting for sales more often, [...] and 40.0 percent are planning to increase their use of coupons. [emphasis my own]

To target school girls, affiliates can use coupons from the Stylefly affiliate program. to offer consumers a 25% savings on orders until September 30th, 2009. And to target the urban-minded student, affiliates can promote clothing and music through the Underground Hip Hop affiliate program and offer coupons that will save consumers 10% off on all orders, $10 on orders of $75 or more, or $25 on orders of $ 150 or more.

Antoher item college kids will want to save on is ink toner, so the Love Toner and Excel Toner affiliate programs both have coupon code promotions running until the end of August. And for helping students save on their multi-media needs, the Nero affiliate program is currently offering affiliates coupon codes that will save their customers 10%.

Just because consumers will spend less this back-to-school season, it doesn’t mean that they need less than they did last year. So by helping back-to-schoolers save on the things they need, affiliates can help get them back into the classroom, and earn commissions for that good-deed too.