People love to save money on products and find great deals online!
As an affiliate marketer, you should leverage this mindset. It's one way you can stand out in your niche, and really serve your market.
There are many CPA Networks, such as Escalate Media (one that I like working with), where you can promote current special offers and coupons/deals. Many of those offers are for bigger well-known brands, and they run for a very short time.
CPA offers are great but they make for higher-maintenance marketing, as you have to remove/replace the links when offers end. Still, they tend to convert very well.
Price comparisons & current deals can be hard to stay on top of too, especially if you're finding and posting them manually. But what if you could automate the whole process and always have current prices and sales available for your readers? 😀
Datafeedr makes it super easy to build an online store as an affiliate, and automatically update your site or blog with price comparisons from various merchants you are an affiliate for:
There's also an option to drip content with current deals and offers from your affiliate merchants as well, and/or to create a category that is automatically updated with coupons and specials to help your visitors find the best deal:
Nice, right? 😀 Obviously features like this will increase your conversions as you are giving buy-ready visitors the absolute best deal online.
Speaking of buy-ready visitors, people ARE shopping online with credit card in hand, and they ARE buying physical products. Especially when they can find great deals!
Just to give you some inspiration and a few real-life examples, here are current "shopping" keyword phrases being searched right now, according to WordTracker (my favorite FREE keyword research tool):
buy leather wallets 647
buy appliances 598
best tv to buy 589
buy appliance 462
buy fridge freezer 447
buy freezer 436
buy hotpoint fridge freezers 430
buy chest freezer 429
buy books online 404
buy bosch fridge freezers 400
buy bosch freezers 390
buy refrigerator 387
buy a freezer 374
buy hotpoint freezers 361
shoes buy online 358
buy fridge freezer online 339
buy upright freezer 309
buy washer dryer 290
buy washing machine 286
what bike to buy 270
buy dvds online 248
buy dvds 218
buy cigars online 215
buy textbooks 207
buy ipad 203
buy washing machine online 197
buy books 194
buy washing machines 191
buy refrigerators 179
buy contact lenses online 175
buy bath salts online 119
buy digital picture frames online 119
buy cookers online 113
buy lingerie online 100
buy cooker hood online 98
buy shoes online 98
buy refrigerator online 97
buy eyeglasses online 96
buy vinyl records online 92
buy tires online 83
buy dumbbells online 82
buy microwave online 79
buy toaster online 79
buy contacts online 71
buy wine online 70
buy steaks online 69
See what I did there? I used the word "buy" as a keyword modifier to find buyers specifically. People in a buying mindset.
Obviously you can take one word, such as "microwave", and go to WordTracker to find out what people are searching for specifically for any given product. This will give you tons more longtail keyword phrases with even more search volume!
And of course people ARE searching for good deals, best prices and price comparisons on the products they want to buy online:
best price 460
best price fridge freezers 436
best price on dewalt 36 volt jig saw without battery or charger 391
merrell shoes best price 305
ipad best price 207
windows 7 best price 179
best price cruises 158
ipad 2 best price 136
best tire prices 136
best price k cups 133
compare prices 716
compare natural gas prices 434
compare fridge freezer prices 404
compare hotel prices 378
compare freezer prices 375
compare book prices 267
compare washing machine prices 207
compare cooker prices 113
compare fridge prices 106
compare prices online 102
fridge freezer price comparison 366
price comparison 263
price comparison service 184
washing machine price comparison 139
cookers price comparison 122
fridge price comparison 99
refrigerator price comparison 94
hotel price comparison 85
People WANT to buy products online!
Your job as an affiliate is to help them make an informed buying decision, and help them find the best product - and the best deal on that product. 😉
DataFeedr is a great option for creating a product-based affiliate site targeting buyers, with price comparison charts from top merchants, and current coupons and deals. Check out all the features here. I love their new automation features, as I mentioned in my post on using them as an ideal affiliate store builder.
I mentioned Escalate Network earlier, for CPA offers. They DO offer a widget you can put in your sidebar, which would go great with your DataFeedr affiliate site. You can see an example to the right.
The deals & offers are automatically updated, based on your categories, and you have full control over which ads display there too. Which is another great way to offer deals to your visitors without having to constantly update or replace those offers!
I hope this gives you some ideas to work with, and inspires you to meet the needs of your market by creating sites (or adding a store to your site) that sell products people really want to buy! 😉
Best,
p.s. I would love to hear your thoughts! Do you currently promote physical products as an affiliate? Why or why not?
* This post contains referral and/or affiliate links for WordTracker, Escalate Network and DataFeedr, which means I will be compensated if you sign up for those services. Of course, I'm only recommending them to you because I use them myself!
About Lynn Terry
Awesome article covering the basic of product affiliate marketing. Thank you for your great article and research Lynn. Good luck.
I signed up for Escalate Media a few months ago and really dig their interface, low $25 payout and excellent management. They also email you with the latest deals which is good, because it keeps it fresh in my mind - but the emails are not boring, they provide good quick information on affiliate offers. Also they're active on social media and are from my hometown Chicago. Derp!
Having said that, I have a few projects I just started to ramp up conversions.
Thanks as always for sharing, Lynn.
Good day Lynn,
I love to come here and read post because it gives knowledge, action plan and do it right ways. You always share what you used and tried out. Thank you for this amazing post. I never heard about Escalate Network or DataFeedr , now I know and how to use it.
Once again thank you for spending your time to research and give the best. You are amazing!
Hi Lynn,
This is absolutely great post! I like the idea of price comparison since not many have applied it in affiliate sites so far. Thanks for this information, worth my time
Hi Lynn, and belated happy birthday wishes for your 40th.
What I like about Click Newz is that there is always something new to learn.
I have only just started making some money with my Amazon product review site. However, I've become a little blinkered because of my first success as an affiliate marketer.
It's time to move outside of my comfort zone, so getting this information about CPA and programs like Datafeedr have started me thinking outside the square again.
I am still trying to figure out Google though, after getting slapped by them last week. All I did was make a few extra product-based keywords and product images into clickable links.
My site is slowly recovering but visitor numbers have dropped considerably. Just another reason not to rely on the one income source.
Hi Leon,
Definitely diversify because Amazon is pulling their affiliate program out of many states, and you do want more leverage than just relying on Amazon & Google alone. 😉
As for SEO, the "golden rule" is never to employ a strategy that is for SEO alone. Do what makes the most sense for human visitors - these are the things Google will approve of as well. Also make sure you are out there marketing your site as if Google didn't exist. There are many ways to get traffic and to find buyers that are interested in what you offer!
There are many great offers for deals and coupons out there that affiliates can take advantage of to serve their customers. Escalate Network and DataFeedr are good options to start with. However, when offering visitors these deals, it is paramount to stick with helping them get the best at all times!
Hi Lynn,
Price comparison is a great strategy.I think it will give the audience more choice and at the same time will earn his trust because we are not simply promoting a single product seamlessly.Now i'm contemplating how i can implement that to the affiliate marketing scenario i'm in.
We all search frantically for deals and price comparisons whenever we want to buy something expensive. Why shouldn't we? Who doesn't like to save some cash. I agree Lynn, sites offering deals and price comparisons are a great hit among all kinds of people. Thanks for the precious advice Lynn.