Monetizing Your Work - Earn Pistachios and Macadamia Nuts Instead of Earning Peanuts
THIS ISN'T ABOUT PRE-SELLING NUTS!
Although you could. :)
I have seen blogs and comments many times here where people mention earning tiny commissions. Even less than $1 per sale.
And that, combined with my own experience running into the same thing in the past, I thought writing a blog on this might be helpful to someone.
I talked a little about this in my last blog post over here... Update #4: 2 Months After Joining Wealthy Affiliate.
Did You Know A Blog / Website Can Earn Much More Money Without Increasing Traffic?
It's true.
There is more than one way to increase the earnings while traffic level remains constant.
But here I wanted to talk about what is likely the easiest way... what you are pre-selling as an affiliate.
If you are focusing on pre-selling peanuts you will need a lot of traffic to build a meaningful income. It can be done sure. But I personally see it as just making things much harder on yourself than it needs to be.
The Price of Nuts Matters
These are some average prices of different kinds of nuts. Of course, this fluctuates based on time and where you buy them. But I checked these prices all from the same place about 15 minutes ago.
Peanuts sell for about $4.50 per pound
Pistachios sell for about $9 per pound
Macadamia nuts sell for about $25 per pound
Imagine someone building a blog centered around their love of nuts. And, for whatever reason, they mainly are writing about and linking to pages selling peanuts.
Let's say they generate 100 sales per month and earn about 35 cents per sale. They make $35 per month selling peanuts.
Now let's look at what it might be like if they mainly are writing about and linking to pistachios.
Let's say they generate 80 sales per month and earn about 70 cents per sale. They make $56 per month selling pistachios.
And, finally, let's look at what might happen if they mainly are writing about and linking to macadamia nuts.
Let's say they generate 50 sales per month and earn about $2 per sale. They make $100 per month selling macadamia nuts.
On the one hand this is a poor example because of the overall tiny commissions and on the other hand it was chosen intentionally for that reason.
Although the commissions are ridiculously low even at the high end, it still illustrates the major difference in earnings... without any increase in traffic. And in fact even assumes a major decrease in sales per month which is not a given.
In the example, income is basically tripled simply by pre-selling something that rewards your efforts in a more meaningful way.
Of course, it depends on how niche the site is... if the entire website is focused exclusively on peanuts then you would need to use the next strategy.
The Niche of Nuts is Not Only About the Nuts Themselves... Nor is it Actually Nuts at All
I think sometimes people (and I did it too!) get so caught up on their niche and laser targeted niche topics they severely limit themselves.
Another way to increase earnings from the exact same amount of traffic is by thinking about the person visiting your blog.
And the person is exactly what you should be thinking about. The person. Not the topic itself. Not the products or the services.
In this case, it is a person who loves nuts.
How much do they love nuts?
There will be some percentage of these people who are truly obsessed with nuts.
If you covered clothing (shirts, socks, hoodies, etc) about nuts some of these people would love to buy them. And some visitors would think "oh wow John would love nut lovers t-shirt. I will order that for Christmas!"
If you covered coffee cups about nuts some of these people would love to buy those. And some people dropping by might buy them as a gift for others.
What about candy? Another great option for nut lovers.
Your niche is tiny yes. It should be tightly focused. But once the people come to your website looking for information of one kind or another on nuts... you can then open your niche wider to cover other products and services related to nuts and more specifically products and services for people who love nuts.
Because your niche isn't really NUTS. It is PEOPLE who love nuts. There is a huge difference. Can you see that?
Another example would be... say someone has a blog about pets. If they have a hard time monetizing beyond peanut level commissions they can think out of the box a bit.
The niche is actually people who have pets and more specifically are pet lovers.
What else would these pet lovers like? If you took photos of your pets you could cover that angle. And introduce them to cameras. Now you are positioned to make commissions of maybe $40 per sale. Same is true for video cameras.
I am sure there are people out there selling hand crafted clothing for pets. Perhaps some even put the pets name on it. Some would have affiliate programs. A true pet lover may very well be interested in buying these unique items for their pet friends.
Maybe there is a problem you ran into and you found a solution to it. Perhaps furniture covers to protect furniture from your animals. You can talk about that and introduce those items.
There might be a service online where a person can send in a photo of their pet and an artist creates a sketch or painting of the pet... if they have a referral program.... :)
Heck, for dogs and cats you can even get into air cleaners and vacuum cleaners.
All of these things are directly related to the lifestyle passions and problems of these pet lovers.
How Much Difference Can Commission Amount Make?
A lot.
You could have 50 visitors per day to a blog and it could generate more money than another blog that gets 1,000 visitors per day solely based on the amount of the commissions.
Imagine the high traffic blog is generating 150 sales per month averaging $1.50 commission per sale. That is $225 per month income.
The other blog is generating 4 sales per month averaging $75 commission per sale. That is $300 per month income. From 1/20th of the number of visitors.
But are there many products and services that really pay higher amounts like this?
Yes. And...
Here Is a List of Just a Few Pistachio and Macadamia Nut Level Affiliate Opportunities
I haven't personally checked into and used any of these yet. I just did a little searching and found them and people who are happily using these places.
In truth, there are affiliate programs out there I have seen that pay $8,000 and more per sale.
I think many people have a hard time thinking of such numbers because they are used to Amazon and other places often paying tiny commissions.
Or they don't have much money to spend on things themselves... maybe they are a bargain hunter so they only link to lower price items on their blogs and websites which only appeal to the bargain hunter minded people.
They cannot relate to people who will actually not buy low price products and services simply because they are low price. But it is true. There are a lot of people who want premium stuff and they expect to pay much more than bargain bin prices.
The simple fact is you can provide more value by offering products and services for these people... and make more money in the process... instead of focusing only on the bargain bin hunters.
I actually had that problem my first time around. I always look for the deals. I research and try to get the highest quality for the least amount possible. Sometimes I wait many months or even a year to buy something. But not every person is that way. In fact I think probably more people don't do that than the number who do that.
Anyway... here are some examples of what I think are very meaningful commissions. Although when it comes to a monthly recurring payment even $10 is good and $20 is excellent. IF people stick with the service for at least 3 to 4 months on average.
Shopify eCommerce average $58 per sale but can be as high as $2,000 per sale
Crowdfire Social Media Management earn up to $420
Wishpond Marketing Tools recurring $15 to $60 per month
pCloud Cloud Storage up to $70 per sale
Sandals Vacations $125 to $500 per sale
PetPlate $50 per new customer referral
eToro Social Investment Network $160 per new customer referral
Dogonit $35 to $157 per sale
Of course, the WA commission itself fits very well here. But you already know that.
Time to Wrap it Up
Okay, so we took a good look at how much difference commision size can play in a blog earning a tiny amount or earning a very meaningful amount... with no increase in traffic.
And don't take this as me saying "It's all about money. Money is the only thing that matters." Of course, a business is about making money by providing value.
But what I am talking about here is making it worth your effort & time by not limiting yourself. And at the same time you are providing more value to your visitors. It is a win-win.
You just need to take a look around and see what else is out there that your audience might like. Not everything needs to literally be "specifically for dogs" for a blog about dogs for example.
The other important thing to realize is that it's not only about traffic. Traffic is one piece and there are many blogs and websites getting a lot of traffic and not making much money. And there are other blogs and websites getting much less traffic yet they make a good amount of money. The ideal is to maximize your earnings per visitor.
This is just something I learned the hard way years ago. Worked my butt off building an authority website. Generated loads of sales for vendors and was paid peanuts for doing so. Don't do that. You deserve better.
Alright, I hope this helps someone. Maybe gives you some ideas. I honestly think some people could at least double and possibly even quadruple their income within a month's time simply by applying these things.
Recent Comments
1
Great post. Lots of good information