How To Make Money Online With Christmas

Most people think about making money online during the holidays the same way they think about buying gifts: too late, too rushed, and spending more than they gain. Christmas is actually one of the most predictable income opportunities on the internet, and the entire system starts with a free tool that tells you exactly when interest is about to spike. If you understand how to read that signal and attach it to the right affiliate product, you can create content that earns commissions while you sleep through January.

In this video, Alston walks through the exact process: from opening Google Trends to identify where seasonal interest is heading, to finding products on Bath and Body Works to promote as an affiliate, to running keyword research on YouTube so you know what review content buyers are already searching for. The method is not theoretical. There is a creator doing this right now, showing up four separate times in the same YouTube search results, building a small media business from Christmas scent reviews.

What You’ll Walk Out With

How to use Google Trends to spot seasonal spikes before they peak, not after
The exact path from a trending keyword to an affiliate product worth promoting
Why Bath and Body Works works as an affiliate source, and which categories to target first
How to find buyer keywords on YouTube that already have proven demand
What a high-performing seasonal review looks like from a real creator who is dominating a niche
How to repeat this system every quarter, across every major holiday on the calendar
A one-question quiz to figure out which seasonal niche fits you best at finder.platformproof.com

The Seasonal Spike Window and Why It Matters

Online buying behavior is predictable in a way that most people never take advantage of. Open Google Trends right now, type in “Thanksgiving,” and zoom out to a multi-year view. You will see the same shape repeated every single year: a flat line for most of the year, then a sharp climb starting around October, peaking in late November, and falling off again. This is not random. It is a calendar-driven surge that you can plan for the same way a retailer plans their seasonal inventory. The internet is not chaotic. It is seasonal.

Christmas works the same way, just on a bigger scale. When Alston pulled up the Christmas search trend in the video, he pointed out that the Christmas opportunity was “just getting up and running.” That matters. The creators who win this window are not the ones publishing content on December 23rd. They are the ones who published in October and November, so their content has time to get indexed, get views, and rank by the time buyers are actively searching. You want to be at the beginning of the upward slope, not scrambling at the top of it.

The other thing seasonal spikes teach you is timing rhythm. If you build out five to ten pieces of content around Christmas this year, those same pieces will resurface in Google and YouTube search results next year when the spike comes back around. You do the work once. The internet does the rest every December after that. The return on seasonal content compounds in a way that one-off content never does, because the calendar repeats and your work does not expire.

How Google Trends Becomes Your Research Tool

Google Trends is free, and almost no one is using it correctly for affiliate marketing. Most people treat it like a curiosity, a place to check if something is popular. The correct way to use it is as a timing signal. You are not asking “is Christmas popular?” You already know it is. You are asking “when does interest in Christmas products start accelerating, and which specific categories within that spike are worth targeting right now?”

The tool lives at trends.google.com. When you type in a broad seasonal term, it shows you search interest over time on a scale from zero to 100. A reading near zero means almost no searches. A reading of 100 means peak interest for that term during the time frame you are viewing. What you want to find is a term that is currently sitting in the 20 to 40 range but has a history of climbing to 80 or 90 within the next few weeks. That gap between where interest is now and where it is going is your content window.

Once you have confirmed the seasonal trend, the next step is not to create content about “Christmas” generically. That keyword is too broad, too competitive, and too vague for an affiliate play. Instead, you use the trend confirmation as a green light to go find the specific product you will actually be promoting and reviewing. Google Trends tells you the market is warming up. The affiliate program tells you what product to put in front of that market.

From Trend to Product: The Affiliate Connection

In the video, Alston uses Bath and Body Works as the affiliate program example. The choice is instructive. Bath and Body Works is a seasonal powerhouse. Their Christmas collection drops every year, they run significant promotions around the holidays, and their products generate enormous search volume around scents, gift sets, and comparisons. For a content creator, that search volume is the raw material you need to build an affiliate content strategy.

The process is straightforward. Go to the Bath and Body Works website, click into their New Arrivals section, and look for whatever Christmas collection has just launched. In the video, Alston clicks into exactly that section and finds the Christmas collection. He then picks a specific product, Vanilla Bean Noel, and uses that product name as his keyword research starting point. The product is not the point. The search behavior around the product is the point.

You do not have to use Bath and Body Works. The principle works with any retailer that has a seasonal affiliate program and generates real product search volume on YouTube. What Alston is demonstrating is a research method: find the seasonal category, find the specific products within it, and let YouTube search data tell you which ones have buyer intent behind them. Bath and Body Works is the example from the video. The pattern is what you take home and apply to your own niche.

Keyword Research on YouTube: Let the Platform Do the Work

Here is where most affiliate beginners make a mistake. They find a product they want to promote, then try to invent keywords they think people are searching for. Alston’s method is the opposite: you find out what people are already searching for by typing the product name directly into YouTube’s search bar and reading the autocomplete suggestions that appear. Those suggestions are not guesses. They are aggregated real searches from real people who wanted an answer and typed it into YouTube.

When he typed “Vanilla Bean Noel” into YouTube search, the results surfaced a range of real buyer questions: reviews of the scent, comparisons between Vanilla Bean Noel and other Bath and Body Works scents, questions about specific product formats like body cream and lotion, and content from people who visited the store to smell and review the products in person. Each of those autocomplete suggestions is a confirmed content opportunity. Someone typed that phrase into YouTube because they wanted an answer and could not find one they were satisfied with yet.

The comparison angle is worth calling out specifically. Alston highlights “Vanilla Bean Noel vs. Warm Vanilla Sugar” as one of the search variations that surfaced. Comparison reviews are some of the strongest buyer-intent content you can create. Someone searching for a comparison is not just browsing. They are close to a purchase decision and want help choosing between two options. If your video answers that comparison clearly and your affiliate link is in the description, you are positioned to earn a commission on exactly that decision at the moment it is being made.

What the Top-Performing Content Actually Looks Like

The video does not just describe what you should create. Alston shows a real creator who is doing it well right now in the same niche. When he searches for “Vanilla Bean Noel” on YouTube, the top result is a nine to ten minute review video from a creator he identifies as Queen of the Girl Geeks. That video has around 8,000 views. She is not a brand. She is not a media company. She is one person who found a keyword, went to a store, and published an honest review.

What does her content look like? She went to the store, experienced the product firsthand, and gave an honest review on camera. That is the entire format. No special equipment requirements. No brand deal. No production team. She showed up, smelled the candle, described her honest reaction, and posted the video to YouTube. The result is 8,000 people who found that video because they were searching for exactly that product at exactly the moment she had content waiting for them.

The review format also maps directly to affiliate link placement. A viewer who watches someone experience a product, form an opinion, and give a genuine recommendation is far more likely to click a “get it here” link in the description than someone who saw a generic promotional post. The content earns trust. The affiliate link converts that trust into a transaction. The two pieces work together, and neither works as well without the other.

One Creator, Four Search Results: The Repetition Effect

The most important thing Alston points out in the video is not the single review. It is the fact that when he scrolls through the YouTube search results for Vanilla Bean Noel, the same creator shows up three and four separate times. She is not dominating because she got lucky with one video. She is dominating because she created content on every variation of the keyword: different scents, different formats like body cream versus lotion, different comparisons. She covered the whole territory, not just one corner of it.

When one channel occupies multiple positions in the same search results page, it crowds out competition and builds an authority signal with the platform. YouTube reads the pattern: this channel knows about Vanilla Bean Noel. Viewers searching for anything in that cluster are going to see her. Each video also links to the others, which means a viewer who finds one review is likely to watch two or three more from the same channel. That increases total watch time, which YouTube rewards with broader distribution over time.

The practical takeaway is that you should not create one Christmas review video. You should create a series. Pick a product family, cover every variation within it, answer every buyer question that surfaces in the autocomplete suggestions, and build a small library of content that covers the niche completely. That is how you go from one affiliate click to a seasonal content asset that generates traffic every time December rolls around.

Not sure which seasonal niche fits your situation?

Take the one-question quiz at finder.platformproof.com to find the best starting point based on what you already know and what kind of content you can actually stick with.

The Step-by-Step Action Plan

Open trends.google.com and search a seasonal keyword like “Christmas gifts” or “holiday candles”
Look at the multi-year view and identify when interest typically starts its upward climb
Go to an affiliate retailer with a strong seasonal product line (Bath and Body Works is the example from the video)
Browse their Christmas or holiday collection and pick two to three specific products that appear popular
Type each product name into YouTube search and read the autocomplete suggestions carefully
Pick the keyword variation with the most specific buyer intent, comparisons and named reviews rank highest
Create your review by visiting the store, ordering the product, or finding a way to give an honest firsthand take
Publish your video or blog post with an affiliate link in the description or body, then repeat for every variation in that product family

Honest Drawbacks to Know Before You Start

The seasonal window method works, but it has real limitations worth understanding before you invest time. The biggest one is the timing constraint. You cannot publish Christmas content in January and expect results in January. The search spike rises and falls within a defined window each year, and content published outside that window will not get traction until the following year. If you are just starting, you need to move in late October or early November to catch the current cycle. Miss the window and you are waiting twelve months.

The second issue is competition. The Queen of the Girl Geeks example shows someone who is already doing this well. If you go after the exact same keywords she is ranking for, you are starting from behind a creator who has an established channel history and existing watch time signals. The smarter move is to find the adjacent keywords she has not covered yet, the longer-tail variations with lower competition, and build your early content there. As your channel grows, you can move into more competitive positions.

Third, affiliate commissions in the beauty and fragrance space can be modest on a per-transaction basis. A single candle or body lotion does not generate a large commission on its own. The way this model pays out is through volume: many viewers, many clicks, and many small transactions that add up across a library of content. Do not expect one video to fund a month of expenses. Expect a portfolio of seasonal content to build a meaningful income stream over multiple seasons as your library compounds.

Find Your X

The Christmas affiliate method is one specific application of a broader principle: find the intersection of seasonal demand, affiliate product availability, and your ability to create credible review content. For some people, that intersection is beauty and fragrance products. For others, it might be toys, kitchen gadgets, outdoor gear for winter activities, or something tied to their own background and experience. The tool and the process are the same across all of them. The product category is the variable you get to choose.

If you are not sure which category is the right one for your situation, the quiz at finder.platformproof.com can help you identify the best starting point based on what you already know and what kind of content you are most likely to stay consistent with over time. Starting in the right place matters more than starting fast.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Trends and how do I use it for affiliate marketing?

Google Trends is a free tool at trends.google.com that shows how search interest for any keyword has changed over time. For affiliate marketing, the key is to use it as a timing signal rather than a general popularity check. Search for a seasonal keyword, look at the multi-year view, and identify when interest historically starts climbing toward its peak. That rising slope is your window for publishing content before buyers flood in and competition stiffens.

Does Bath and Body Works actually have an affiliate program?

Bath and Body Works has run affiliate partnerships through major affiliate networks in the past. The specific availability and commission terms can change, so the best approach is to search for “Bath and Body Works affiliate program” and check their current partnerships through networks like Rakuten or Commission Junction. Alston uses them as an example of the type of seasonal retailer with affiliate potential, and the same research method applies to any comparable retailer that sells products people actively compare and research online.

How many views do I need to actually earn commissions from this?

The video does not give specific earnings numbers, and inventing them would not help you plan accurately. What it does show is that the top-ranking review in the Vanilla Bean Noel niche had around 8,000 views. Affiliate conversion rates and commission amounts vary widely by retailer and product category. The honest answer is that meaningful income comes from a quantity of content covering a full keyword cluster, not from a single video with one big view count. Build the library first.

What if I do not know anything about the products I am reviewing?

The video addresses this directly. Alston suggests going to the store to experience the product in person. For a fragrance product like Vanilla Bean Noel, you can walk into a Bath and Body Works location and smell it before you record anything. You do not need to be a fragrance expert to do this well. You need to be an honest person sharing a genuine reaction. Viewers searching for reviews are looking for real takes, not credentials or industry expertise.

Can I do this on TikTok or Instagram instead of YouTube?

Alston mentions TikTok and blog posts alongside YouTube in the video, so yes, the platform is flexible. The core method works on any platform where you can create searchable or discoverable content. YouTube has the advantage of longevity since videos can surface in search results for years after they are published. TikTok can generate faster initial reach. Blog posts work well for text-based keyword searches. The strongest approach covers more than one platform, but YouTube is what Alston demonstrates and recommends in this specific video.

How far in advance should I start creating Christmas affiliate content?

The video suggests the window opens when Christmas interest is “just getting up and running” on Google Trends, which historically corresponds to October and early November. Publishing in that window gives your content time to get indexed and begin ranking before the December peak arrives. Content published in late November is racing against the clock. Content published in October has time working for it instead of against it.

Can I make this work without purchasing every product I review?

For physical products sold in retail stores, visiting the store is the free alternative to purchasing. The creator Alston highlights in the video went to the store and experienced the products in person without necessarily buying all of them. For products that do require purchase, the cost in the fragrance and beauty category is relatively modest. If you are building a library of content across an entire seasonal product line, treating some purchases as a content investment rather than personal spending makes the math easier to work with.

Does this method work for niches outside of beauty and fragrance?

Yes. The method is seasonal trend, plus affiliate product, plus searchable review content. Bath and Body Works is one example of a product category that fits this frame. The same process applies to any seasonal category with an affiliate program and real search volume: holiday kitchenware, outdoor gear for winter activities, toys and games, seasonal food products, and many others. Google Trends will confirm whether the seasonal spike exists. YouTube search will confirm whether buyer questions exist around specific products in that category.

Sources

Google Trends at trends.google.com (used for seasonal spike research in the video)
Bath and Body Works at bathbodyworks.com (affiliate product source demonstrated in the video)
YouTube search autocomplete (keyword research method demonstrated with “Vanilla Bean Noel”)
Original video: How To Make Money Online With Christmas, Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof