Affiliate Marketing or Direct Marketing ?

by 12 replies
14
Hi Guys

I am not sure if this is the right category for my post, but I was looking for you opionion on this:

I am about to launch a website that let people enter their ZIP code and lookup the area for sex offenders. It will output a list of offenders living in the neighborhood.

Now I was playnning to offer a "advanced background check" which leads to a background-check affiliate company.

But i was also thinking of making the whole lookup proccess limited per IP and than offer a membership for unlimited usage (for like 10usd a month or so)...

Could you give me any recommendations what i should try first? in case one method doesnt work, I will switch anyways, but i was wondering whats the better thing to start with?

Would be glad to hear your opinions on this!
#main internet marketing discussion forum #affiliate #direct #marketing
  • Let them use the lookup tool once and then charge a fee and you can use the "advanced background check" as an upsell on the back end.
    • [1] reply
  • Hi,

    Thanks for you suggestion! Would you recommend a one time payment or a membership?

    Sorry if my questions are dumb, I just wanna think about all options I have and what is the best to start with and because I dont have personal experience, I need to ask this things
    • [1] reply
    • I suggest doing both. Have an option to buy one background check or they could just buy unlimited per month. you could also offer plans with like 10 checks/mth 50/mth 100/mth and so on
  • Give them a limited list. Like 10% of the results with a link to subscribe for unlimited access or even pay a 1 time fee. If you're going to display more information once they click on the listing, I'd just offer your link there to the deeper check.
  • Ok, so having a fee for unlimited usage+having affiliate links on the site and the results is not a "overkill" ?

    edit: overskill in the sense that people just feel that the whole website purpose is just to make money and not to actually display correct results (it does work correctly and displays official registered offenders!)
  • Umm... this info is available for free on the 'net. Also available for free as Apps. (SafeNeighborhood).

    I like your idea of upselling background checks, but if youre going to cut your arm off if you limit the SODB search
    • [1] reply
    • yeah thats what I am worried about too. I will probably think of an extra service that people could want and will charge for that.

      Also: would it be a good idea to add a email list subscription and make the main goal to get people signup to the email list and than try to sell the background report etc via that list or just keep it simple and have a direct button/link to a background check?
  • If it were me, I would poise the newsletter as a "status updater". When a new offender is added within 25 miles of their ZIP code, notify the person. Plus can do your standard monthly news blast

    Wouldn't be too difficult to program in the zip code checks / geo-coding the info... Be sure that you slap it up on a fast VPS/dedicated
    • [1] reply
    • Hi,

      i have this feature already impleted. I would just have to sign up for a mailing service like aweber.com and add the subscription form. I will most probably go with that option now and think of a paid extra feature later on.

      additionaly, I was wondering: would it be considered illegal to save the users geo info (zip,city,state) in hidden input boxes in the mail list subscription form?
      • [1] reply
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