Affiliate Marketing - Is it possible to be successful in the fishing niche?

by Corovus

Posted: 7 years ago 11 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I have been involved with Affiliate Marketing since about 1 Year now, creating and selling Kindle eBooks. So I am pretty much a newbie. Recently I decided to dive a little deeper and go serious about this topic, to hopefully make a real passive income at some point.

I made a list with all the things that I am interested in and came up with the idea to create a niche site about fishing tips/fishing gear recommendations, since I am a passionate angler myself. But this whole topic raises some questions and hopefully some of you can help me out finding the correct answers.

- Low ticket vs high ticket:
There are some contradictory statements about this. Some say high ticket is the way to go because you need fewer visitors/buyers. Others say low ticket is the best, because people tend to impulse buy and you don't need to build such a strong relationship to get them to buy.

In my particular case, most of the items in this niche are low ticket items. Apart from new Anglers who might buy a whole Set of Rod/Reel/Tackle most of the potential customers already have their basic gear and looking to buy tackle and smaller stuff (hooks, swivels etc.) - at least that is my concern. With an 8% commission rate and item prices between 5€-20€ I would need thousands of visitors to make this work, right?
Any opinions on that?

- Hard to get recurring customers
This refers directly to my first question. If my concern about the fact that most visitors would only buy low ticket items is true, how do I get them to come back? I would think that someone who bought some swivels and hooks through my partners online shop they would go back to that shop to buy more stuff, instead of going to my blog/niche site.
Any opinions on that?

I would love to get some insight from experienced Marketers on how to approach this whole thing. Do you guys think it is possible to make a decent income in that particularly niche? Maybe on of you guys is already active in the fishing niche?

#affiliate #fishing #marketing #niche #successful

Regional Warrior 7 years ago

It is called split testing A/B try one and then try the other then you know what works for you
Simples
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- 1 reply
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- Corovus 7 years ago
  
  I know split testing but how is this related to my question?? It is not like I have established a brand/site already and want to try out different marketing strategies and paid traffic.
  
  I just want to know if any of you experienced marketers thinks that this is potentially a profitable niche - dispite the fact that most of the items are 20€ or less.
  
  Thanks
  
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PedGrob7 7 years ago

Corovus,

Somehow I feel you've answered yourself in your own question.

Read what you wrote again to have a clear idea about what your market is actually worth and if it's worth pursuing or not.

I don't know that market that well to be able to say "yes" or "no" but let us analyse your own words:

1. "Apart from new Anglers who might buy a whole Set of Rod/Reel/Tackle most of the potential customers already have their basic gear and looking to buy tackle and smaller stuff (hooks, swivels etc.)" - this is a perfectly valid concern and you should access if this is really true before moving forward. How long does the gear hold? How often do they need a new set of gear?

2. "With an 8% commission rate and item prices between 5€-20€ I would need thousands of visitors to make this work, right?" - 8% of a €20 item is less than €2. Where does the normal buyer actually buys their stuff? From the internet? Do they need to touch and see the item before purchasing? It's important to understand the buying habits of your market. There are markets where people are simply not willing to buy online because the profile of the buyer is simply not that one.

3. "If my concern about the fact that most visitors would only buy low ticket items is true, how do I get them to come back" - again, buying low ticket items is not bad depending how often they do it. Once per month? Per year? If you have them all buy a low ticket item per month it's a numbers game and you just need to bring more people over. If you'll only get them to buy one per year your numbers will be a lot harder to manage. Know your market and their needs and identify what they actually need and would by from someone like you.

4. "I would think that someone who bought some swivels and hooks through my partners online shop they would go back to that shop to buy more stuff, instead of going to my blog/niche site." - Remember that they are probably doing that because you don't still exist. The question should be: what would you need to offer to get them to buy from you instead? What do they care that you can provide in bigger value comparing to that partner online shop?

Let me now go a bit beyond now.

You need to understand your market very well, but you know this by now.

What I want you to focus is in the big picture.

I know that you know, and have some passion, about the fishing tips/fishing gear niche.

If you can grow a niche site on that and make it profitable?

My immediate thinking is: yes.

And my answer comes not only from selling that gear or tips but, in your market, you have a lot of other things to promote to your list.

Let me think, of the top of my head, about products your audience my be interested about:

- boats;
- courses;
- entry in some fishing places;
- trips;
- gear;
- clothing;
- and so on and so forth.

Are you working on a specific location?

Can you make yourself the hub of all this?

How many fishermen are there in your target audience?

Find the answers to these questions and you'll get yourself what you need to move forward.

If there is a TV channel ONLY about fishing, I would assume there is enough market for your niche site.

But that is simply a hunch.

Good luck.
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- 1 reply
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- Corovus 7 years ago
  
  PedGrob7,
  
  thanks for your detailed information regarding my question.
  
  I have also thougt about going way beyond fishing gear and promote fishing trips to different countrys etc. Maybe that would be the best way to aproach this whole situation.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  PedGrob7 7 years ago
  
  If there is market for that, it can be a great option and, for those who will do a certain trip, you can always sell them the gear.
  
  It's a great way to capture the attention of a specific market and upsell them something else related with their niche.
  
  Try to understand what they google for the most and where you'll provide them the help they need.
  
  If there is enough people looking for the same kind of things, you got yourself a niche worth exploring, because fishing can easily be an expensive hobby and most people in this niche are willing to pay some money for some cool gear.
  
  Let us know about your developments and good luck,
  Pedro
  
  Thanks
  
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ampeloi13 7 years ago

Hi Corovus, I'm going to ask you to look at this a little different. Ok?
Think about this..., When you make a sale what do you get in return? You get a commission and a targeted buyers email. Think of the commission as your Front End benefit and having this buyers email as your Back End benefit. Now you can repeatedly market to this buyer with valuable information in regards to this niche. Learn to give them value oriented information and then occasionally send them something relevant to buy. Continue seeing your growing list members as your TRUE commodity.

Don't waste your time wondering about selling this or that when your number one goal is to make sales period. Make the sale, get the commission, you got their email, continue marketing to them via that email for long-term growth.

Don't worry about the commission amount. Just get sales and build the list!
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- Corovus 7 years ago
  
  Hi ampeloi,
  
  how do I get the buyers email? I always thought that the only way to get someones email is by make them subscribe to some form of newsletter/info material on my site.
  
  If my partner is giving me the email of visitors who bought stuff from him, wouldn't that be a violation against data privacy?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  ampeloi13 7 years ago
  
  Okay.., Now I know your new to internet marketing and that's ok. When they're buying through your affiliate links you're capturing their emails.
  
  This is long term gold! DON'T SPIN UR WHEELS wondering what to sell based on commission. Learn to get sales and capture their emails.
  
  Your partner is your business partner? So you're a team and you're splitting the sales commissions? How is it violation when your marketing relevant information to them.
  
  You need to read up on email marketing and lead generation captures. Don't waste your time wondering about commissions. You're passionate about the fishing niche. Go see what others are selling and look at how they're selling. Look at their copy, their web layout, all that. Find the most successful in your niche and mimic them, not copy them but replicate their structure.
  
  Learn about email marketing! Take Action!
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Corovus 7 years ago
  
  Yeah I am pretty new to the whole Internet Marketing stuff.
  
  When I say partner I actually mean the merchant I am sending traffic to. I read some stuff about E-Mail marketing already but I did not know that the merchant I am advertising to is giving me the adress of visitors that bought from him. That makes the whole E-Mail marketing alot easier since I can split my list between cold and warm traffic.
  
  Thanks
  
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  ampeloi13 7 years ago
  
  You need to begin to run landing pages, opt-ins and in exchange for their email you send them a 5 page PDF providing information relevant to that niche. After that you redirect them to the sales page of the product.
  
  This is why you need to be certain the sales page of the vendor/merchant is converting or you'll be wasting your time. How do I do that ampeloi13? It takes time and practice but if you're so passionate about this niche than ask yourself if you'd buy from that sales page.
  
  Also you need to drill down into this very broad niche of fishing. Salt water or fresh? Fly or spinner? Location? Seasonal fishing? Baits ( see here is a perfect example. Fly fishing-> dry or wet? Spinner-> lures or live bait? It goes on and on so you must drill down from the broad niche into the sub-sub niche. Find your little neck of the woods and become the expert! How ampeloi13?
  
  Get a website up and make it your money page. Post original articles about your sub-sub niche. Have an opt-in right there in their faces when they land on it.
  
  Before you send potential buyers to the merchant run them through an opt-in! Then send them over to buy and let that sales page do its job!
  
  Quit screwing around and take massive action! This isn't rocket science and you need to buckle down and learn about what I'm telling you.
  
  This doesn't cost a lot of money either. Sign up to an autoresponder (take time to learn how to use it) hint- use the internet and search for tutorials that are from 2017 so you're not confused with a new dashboard layout.
  
  Learn to write! Write articles, ads, go find fishing forums and reply to posts, go find fishin groups on social media. Be helpful and run a signature with your website.
  
  In a nutshell.., Make your presence known!
  
  Thanks
  
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  ampeloi13 7 years ago
  
  Your merchant is not your partner! They are only concerned with their bottom line. They might provide you with affiliate materials? Use that as an example and get your own affiliate materials so you can market and brand yourself. Always put yourself first and be that expert as you're recommending a product. GET THEIR EMAIL! Then send them to the SP.
  
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Affiliate Marketing - Is it possible to be successful in the fishing niche?

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