LOCAL Shopping + Affiliate Marketing = New Model - Ideas???
Since you guys are such sharp brainstormers I wanted to ask a few questions here, to see what you think.
1st of all the only really successful company I've seen so far that marries "LOCAL" and "Affiliate Marketing" well is Groupon. I know the manager of the Groupon affiliate program and feel that having a strong affiliate program, to help get the work out, is one of the biggest reasons for their success. I also think it's one of the big reasons Google wanted to buy them - because they have such a strong sales channel already in place.
(Backstory: for those of you that mainly know me from here on the offliners forum - I also own 5 Star Affiliate Programs, one of the leading affiliate destination sites and have done promotion for the Google Affiliate Network, launched the Microsoft Adwords affiliate program and the Microsoft Zune Pass affiliate program. So my affiliate management consulting background is years longer and much stronger than my Google Places background.)
So anyway ever since I got into Google Places and got addicted to LOCAL marketing, I've been looking for a way to marry the power of local with the power of affiliate marketing and was lucky enough to hook up with LuckyLocal. (no pun intended.)
I won't go into a long thing about LuckyLocal, you can see how it works in the official launch PR here. But in a nutshell, to put some context into the question I'm going to add below - it's a LOCAL shopping comparison engine that anyone can put on their site/blog to allow people to shop and compare at tons of big brand stores like HomeDepot, ToysRus, Macys, Sears, OfficeDepot and more - right in their own backyard. So think of it like an affiliate datafeed, affiliate widget or shopping mall template, only designed to pull LOCAL product results for LOCAL stores.
If you want to find out more about how it works or see the merchant or affiliate network list or anything to generate ideas - all that info is on their affiliate portal. CommissionLocal.
So anyway, here's my question. You know how sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees? I'm coming up with a brain freeze on something. I'm trying build a list of all the possible types of sites/blogs that could use LuckyLocal to monetize their content.
I have some of the obvious ones on my list like: local directories and local news sites. Plus I think it would even work well for some "niche" sites and blogs. So for instance if someone had a home improvement blog, in addition to any regular affiliate links, they could add a widget or search box where consumers could comparison shop for LOCAL inventory at local stores, as yet another income stream for the blog. Same thing for Mom blogs. Mom's that visited the blog could shop and compare the best stroller prices at the local ToysRus, Sears and Macys, etc.
Since you guys all work to some degree with local offline marketing, (plus I assume many of you are also affiliate marketers) can you think of any other good fit? Can you think of any small businesses that would use it? Or other niche specific types of sites?
I feel like I'm missing some biggies, but there are so many directions this company could focus their efforts. I'm just trying to come up with a list of all of the options, so I can help them boil it down to some of the best opportunities.
Does anyone have any other ideas for marketing or strategic relationships?
Thanks in advance for any ideas/feedback.
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Linda Buquet :: Google+ Local Specialist and Google Top Contributor
ADVANCED Google+ Local Training :: Also offering White Label Local SEO
Latest Google Local News, Tips & Tricks
Linda Buquet :: Google+ Local Specialist and Google Top Contributor
ADVANCED Google+ Local Training :: Also offering White Label Local SEO
Latest Google Local News, Tips & Tricks