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Affiliate question

by mpacheco
8 replies
noob question - When the big players like Amazon and CJ (et. al.) don't carry your niche product and the ma & pa shops don't have affiliate programs setup, what can you do?
#affiliate #question
  • Profile picture of the author BridgetSielicki
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    • Profile picture of the author mpacheco
      Originally Posted by BridgetSielicki View Post

      Choose a new niche.
      Brilliant. :rolleyes:

      Anyone with any useful ideas?

      Off the top of my head I can say that building up content and getting to top page in google would enable one to solicit private advertising from the small ma-and-pa shops..

      Beyond that, I'm wondering if there's other ideas I hadn't considered.
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      • Profile picture of the author mpacheco
        @daredevil and webapex -

        Thanks for the replies and fantastic ideas.

        My main keyword is not quite as niche-y as you would think, but I'm targeting a post to this other keyword that involves stickers, and there's just not a lot of affiliate stuff for cheap stickers, however the specific term gets a solid 300+ searches per day and it's super relevant to my main keyword so the organic traffic alone makes it worth my effort.

        At any rate, I'll go back to the smaller shops and ask about setting up a program just for me once I'm #1 on google with (a lot) more than 30 visitors per day... Thanks for the idea!
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        • Profile picture of the author Daredevil Marketing
          Originally Posted by mpacheco View Post

          @daredevil and webapex -

          Thanks for the replies and fantastic ideas.

          My main keyword is not quite as niche-y as you would think, but I'm targeting a post to this other keyword that involves stickers, and there's just not a lot of affiliate stuff for cheap stickers, however the specific term gets a solid 300+ searches per day and it's super relevant to my main keyword so the organic traffic alone makes it worth my effort.

          At any rate, I'll go back to the smaller shops and ask about setting up a program just for me once I'm #1 on google with (a lot) more than 30 visitors per day... Thanks for the idea!
          Stickers? As in...bumper stickers or whatever? Hell, if you're confident that you can sell them, just get a few dozen or hundred made yourself (without totally ripping their design off, of course) and sell them yourself. I just can't imagine an affiliate commission for stickers to be all that much to get excited over.

          Unless by "stickers" you mean something entirely different, of course.
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          DareDevil Marketing
          Fearless Marketing Strategies
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          • Profile picture of the author mpacheco
            Originally Posted by Daredevil Marketing View Post

            Stickers? As in...bumper stickers or whatever? Hell, if you're confident that you can sell them, just get a few dozen or hundred made yourself (without totally ripping their design off, of course) and sell them yourself. I just can't imagine an affiliate commission for stickers to be all that much to get excited over.

            Unless by "stickers" you mean something entirely different, of course.
            Yeah, not like the kind of stickers you get from the $0.25 toy machine outside the market... Higher end, all vinyl, die cut, etc..

            I have no interest in becoming a retailer for this stuff... So yeah, maybe it is best to just forget about monetizing this post and just try to rank the hell out of it for the sake of the traffic.
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      • Profile picture of the author dfs_dean
        If the major online players don't handle whatever the product is that you've got in mind, but the little local establishments do then why are you pursuing an affiliate arrangement? If you believe the product would be profitable then rather than trying to become an online affiliate you should try to become the online retailer!

        Peace
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        Find something to enjoy about reality. It's not going to go away.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daredevil Marketing
    Originally Posted by mpacheco View Post

    noob question - When the big players like Amazon and CJ (et. al.) don't carry your niche product and the ma & pa shops don't have affiliate programs setup, what can you do?
    One route to take would be to contact the "ma and pa" shops and inquire about whether they'd consider setting up a commission-based program for you.

    If you're confident that you can shoot and convert enough traffic that it'll be worth their while, you'd have what amounts to zero competition for that particular product (other than the shop itself, of course).

    This is something you'd have to make work their while, of course. And you may even have to do the leg work of setting it all up for them if they're not-so-technically-inclined but if it's an item (or items) that you KNOW you have plenty of targeted traffic for and can scale up (to make it worth your while) it may be worth it.

    That being said, it must be one hell of a "niche-y" product to have nothing showing on places like CJ or Linkshare (which handles Wal-Mart's affiliate program) or even Amazon. The payouts on some of those stink, but hey, it may be a good place to test before rolling into something bigger. If you can make it work with those small margins, then you know you've got something if you can scale it out and go direct with a "ma and pa" shop for a much larger cut.
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    Fearless Marketing Strategies
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  • Profile picture of the author webapex
    Darevevel has some good advice...it certainly less risky to operate in a field with more than a couple of ready affiliate opportunities, allowing one to switch programs when one goes under or just doesn't convert sufficiently.
    Might just be easiest to offer banner ad sort of space rental to the mons an pops and leave it at that, perhaps renegitiating rates based on click volume.
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  • Profile picture of the author wanrom
    Originally Posted by mpacheco View Post

    noob question - When the big players like Amazon and CJ (et. al.) don't carry your niche product and the ma & pa shops don't have affiliate programs setup, what can you do?
    You should launch your own product and Advertise it the way you want
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    sticker printing | folder printing
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