Opportunities in Supporting Local Businesses
Just a short post today.
Recently I applied for an affiliate membership for a company that is local to my area. They are a coffee shop that roasts their own beans, and their product is absolutely fantastic; one of my favorite coffees for sure. But up until today, I hadn't heard anything back in regards to my affiliate application.
So, I decided to to give them a call. I spoke directly with the owner, Scott, and I have a meeting with him next Tuesday morning. He was completely unaware of any affiliate offerings with his company, which is why there was never any additional activity toward my application. But he wants to meet with me to discuss opportunity. I'm going to discuss with him how affiliate marketers can help drive business to his website, but I'm also considering selling his product direct through my website. Has anybody here ever sold products direct through a website? If so, what has your experience been with that?
Thanks for reading, I look forward to feedback on this!
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Maybe ask him if he has a website and you can create one here for him or even refer him to your affiliate link to get started himself :)
-Kasey
He definitely has a website, but he may be ready for a redesign! Good suggestion! I did notice that his current site appears outdated.
Yep, been doing it for years on two products I own and I have made in the US. I just started doing the WA stuff about 2 months ago though.
Nice! What products do you own? My day job is in design & development for a product development firm. We focus primarily on technology & consumer electronics though, so we're kind of forced into manufacturing in Asia. But we work with teams around the world, and a lot of the engineering work is done here in the US.
I have an automotive accessory product and a fishing product I sell online. Joined WA to learn how to get more traffic to my sites and learn new online revenue streams as well. Is the coffee guy wanting you to buy and stock his product in order to sell it online?
Not necessarily, but it's something I may be open to, or perhaps listing his products in a "store" on my site where the order would be placed through my site and he could track it that way. He didn't seem to know much about what affiliate marketing is, even though his site had the area to sign up for it. I think his web developer slipped it in there without explaining it to him, but I'm going to meet with him. He seemed like a good dude.
That’s the best way to do it if you can...don’t have to worry about buying or stocking products and then you get a commission on what you sell through your site. Basically the same thing you’d be doing on other products through affiliate marketing networks/programs but you have less competition I’d think and maybe he will give you a higher commission.
Does his company have an affiliate program? You can also help him get one set up. I'm not sure I'd recommend all the headaches that go with selling products directly through your website, but if he has an affiliate program, you can do great. Coffee is a solid niche!
His website had a "signup for affiliate program" area, which I completed. I contacted him in hopes of getting my affiliate links, but he knew nothing about it.
Is he a single local location, or a franchisee of a national chain. If the latter, he probably doesn't know anything about the program, but it could exist at the national level.
It's a local company that he owns. His thought was that his web developer slipped it in there and didn't finish the setup.
Well, you tried!
Actually things like this happen often. Usually individual local companies are too small to have programs. They need a big enough site with a good shopping process built in to warrant taking on management of an affiliate program too.
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Best of luck on your meeting. Sound like you may be setting up their affiliate program.