I’m sure most of you have read Shoemoneys blog post about how lucrative local affiliate marketing can be and are busy trying to figure out a strategy to make money from his ideas.
Most people can’t be bothered to make the connections with local businesses in the same way that Shoemoney did so we need to find a merchant that has a network of shops around the country and are willing to give commissions.
The perfect example is opticians and I’ve been talking to the team at Vision Express this week about their affiliate program. Basically they are offering £15 commission on attended eye exams which sounds like easy money to me.
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Vision Express have stores all over the country and every town has search volume for phrases like the ones below:
- eye test leeds
- eye appointment leeds
- vision express leeds
- specsavers leeds
- opticians leeds
I’m sure you get the general idea – people are already searching locally for somewhere to have their eyes tested. You just need to find a way to intercept them and then get them to click on your affiliate link.
Vision Express tell me that successful affiliates are using the following strategies:
- PPC (they allow brand name bidding as long as you don’t out-bid them),
- Natural search (a huge long tail opportunity)
- Email marketing (great if you have a list of people from a certain area)
This is a big industry and from my analysis of the search results it wouldn’t be too hard for a clever affiliate to take over both the PPC and organic search results for most of the long tail queries.
What are you waiting for?
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Leeds based digital & SEO agency Branded3. Patrick also runs Blogstorm.You can get our blog posts delivered for free by email every day - simply add your email address to the box below or alternatively grab the RSS feed.
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You’ve read my mind – Shoemoney talks about working with dentists and doctors, and I guess the market is a little different over here, with the NHS?
But £15 on eye exams does sound like a good deal and worth exploring, so thanks for pointing that out.
Affiliate marketing should be looked at almost like a joint business venture. If you are supplying information on your website or blog about a particular service or product I really think you should be pretty familiar with it.
If you haven’t actually used the the product or service, I would do some research or dig up some reviews or testimonials, and ask questions through conversing with the business providing the affiliate program.
I love the idea of joining forces with a company that you know and trust. You may wind up with a smaller list, but, in the end, you develop a loyal following, and this means more traffic, and mo’ money.
Thanks Patrick,
Great idea. I looked at the Showmoney post and thought it would be hard work finding a local company or companies but using a national company locally! Genius!
Off to the Affiliate networks to find me some deals!
Do you not think ‘opticians leeds’ would draw people to the local results, ignoring the SERPS?
Very interesting proposition, im an optician and i would like promote eye test throughout the UK on a regular basis.
I have already started the site. but was considering some revenue to pay for hosting etc. Eye tests are so important, i hope the marketing takes off and other blogs help promote eye care too.
Great post encouraging others to also promote eye testing.
I absolutely love affiliate marketing, I rate it #1 out of the few online opportunities to make money online and it costs just about nothing to get started.
Thanks for your information I subscribed to your blog
Steven
What a great idea! Eye tests are something everybody needs on a regular basis so this could be a real winner! Thanks for the heads up!
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