Tickets.Expert Affiliate Program (You’ll Love This One!)

I’m very excited to announce our newest client the Tickets.Expert affiliate program.  This one is extremely exciting because there are numerous ways to make money and tons of room for new sites to compete with established sites.  It is also a fit for all types of partners from events and fan sites to local and frugal bloggers, even family resource sites, YouTubers and more.

Below you’ll find a few strategies to use as a starting point to make money with ticket affiliate programs as well as how this one can be applied to your site and your specific needs.

Strategies to Make Money Selling Tickets Online:

• Content ideas by blog or website type
• Facebook advertising
• Remarketing
  • Email marketing (more than just emailing)

Click here to become a partner now or continue reading for strategy, content and targeting ideas.

Content Ideas by Blog or Website Type

Fan Sites

• Tour dates and tickets – for this article you could list each of the stops on the tour by date and also where the best seats are by venue.  Ticket tie ins are easy here and sales should be strong, especially by showing where to find seats after the show has sold out.
• Performer/show Name + modifier – creating articles or resource guides with modifiers like coupons, deals, sold out, pre-sale, etc… are all great options to gain exposure to fans looking for tickets.  This could be “pre-sale Lady Gaga tickets for Dallas” or “Wicked touring tickets for Kennedy Center discount”.
• Sports tickets – One unique thing you could try is to optimize for upcoming seasons like “Nationals vs. Orioles Home Game June” or “Steelers vs. Jets at (insert stadium name) tickets”.

Local and Events Blogs

• What to do in (XY) in (AB) – creating guides and using modifiers is an awesome way to bring in traffic and make money with ticket affiliate programs for regional sites.  Here are some example content ideas:
  • Family friendly ideas in San Francisco in July
  • Date night ideas for Gay Couples on Vacation in Maine
  • Broadway shows at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh in January
  • How to see the entire Louvre in Paris in 5 hours
  • 5 awesome beer & food tours in NYC under $20
  • Is the Russian Ballet Worth Seeing on Tour
• Events in (insert month) in (your city) – these articles could help you become a resource site or go to guide for your local community, city or region.  You’ll have a lot of competition, but by creating things with specific niches like couples or families, or by interest like foodies or for art lovers, you may be able to compete and eventually get rankings like “what to do in Phoenix this week”, “Halloween events in Boston” or “fun things in Denver in November”.

Travel Websites

• Artsy things to do for families in Santa Fe – these types of articles work as guides for specific types of travelers.  They could be families, singles, newlyweds or any other type of traveler looking for information.  By incorporating venues that sell tickets or what to do while planning a vacation in advance, you can easily cross-sell tickets.
• Ways to skip the line/save money/how to do XYZ in 1 day – A popular topic that has a lot of room to move into are guides on money saving, skipping lines or saving time.  By including a point about pre-ordering your tickets and walking straight through the entrance, you can make money with ticket affiliate programs and also create something that deal and saving sites may link to or share.  If your guide is good enough, you could pitch it using traditional PR methods for sharing from news sites and gain backlinks.

Other

• Mid-funnel traffic based on venue – A post that describes venues and seating could be a great way to attract attendees who aren’t sure about where to sit.  Describing where there are blocked views, bad sound quality because of echos, if it is hard to see the stage, are all great ways to get someone who is in the shopping process and is looking for the best seating options.By using a datafeed or deep link to the venue page, you can create extremely relevant landing page experiences.  Once our widget is available (coming soon) you’ll be able to let people search by artist and venue so you don’t have to change out links when new shows start and your ticket engine is always current.

Facebook Advertising

Facebook is probably one of the best ways to make money with ticket affiliate programs.  You can target anything from fans in a specific city to people who are excited about a tour before tickets go on sale.  With programs like Tickets.Expert, you could do sports tickets for the same day as the game.

Below you’ll find a few types of people you can target as well as a few different targeting options using the Facebook ad platform.  After I’ll go into remarketing using Facebook as well as other options.

Potential Targets

• Fans of a tour – by targeting people who are fans of a tour (velvet rope by Janet Jackson or blonde ambition by Madonna  (you’ll probably want something current)) you can hit people who are excited about an upcoming show.  Next look up the dates the show goes on sale in specific cities and start running ads for that.  Another option could be targeting cities with aftermarket and marketplace sales after the show has sold out by city.
• Sports tickets – you could try selecting interests in the team and combine it with traveling through to reach tourists who may want to go see their favorite team and add in a median household income if the game is expensive.  Another option could be targeting people at specific tradeshows who have job titles in marketing, PR, business development or sales and create ad copy about taking clients to a game that night.
• Fans of a show with a touring cast – Wicked, Cirque De Soleil and a ton of other shows constantly tour.  By targeting people who like the show with ads as the show is approaching their cities, you can potentially drive sales.
• Families traveling – Facebook ads let you target people while they’re traveling.  Think about parents on vacation in a major city, who are in a suburb or somewhere else.  You know a family friendly show is going on so why not advertise something to do for the family.  If it’s raining in that area, run ads for indoor family friendly events.  If you’re targeting single gay men or lesbians, look to see if there are LGBTQ events in that area.  You can even help people that are interested in weird foods discover food shows and other things based on their interests.
• Fans of a Performer – Just because someone is a fan of a comedian, a singer or a performer does not mean they know they’re coming to their town.  This is the perfect opportunity to run ads for tickets to see their favorite acts on the Facebook platform.

How to Target

Now that you have some ideas on the options to target, here are some of the interests and demographics you can set and create hyper focused niche ad groups.

Targeting Facebook Demographics:

• Income – if the show is expensive and US based, make sure you select household income and maybe exclude parents since kids can cost a lot of money.
• Age – if the show is at a venue that is 21+, exclude people under 21.
• Location – you can set location ranges based on cities and I believe zipcodes or regions.  You also have mile parameters that you can select around the center of the city or suburb.

Combinations of Targets:

• LGBTQ Events – Suppose there is a large fundraising event in Provincetown, Fire Island, Ft. Lauderdale or Rehoboth Beach that has tickets on sale.  You can combine male or female and under the interested in select the same sex.  Now select relationship status single or partnered (depending on the event because it could be speed dating or a bachelor auction) and start running ads during the day of the event on mobile devices.  As they check status updates from the beach, they’ll be seeing what to do that night and you can sell them a ticket to the local event.
• Cultural Events at Museums – Start with people who are interested in art and go further niche like modern, abstract or classical.  Now find a few famous painters, sculptors or other artists who have similar styles to the exhibit.  Next combine in the average age range of the attendees (a Dali exhibit may have a different demographic skew than a dinosaur bone reveal).  Combine this with people traveling through an area, who live within range and are fans of similar museums or exhibits.
• Comedy Clubs – The first an obvious ones are people who are interested in comedy or humor.  Next select fans of websites about humor…especially if they are similar in humor to the comedian.  You have TheOnion, Buzzfead Humor and joke sites.  Another option is to add in people who are fans of stores that sell satirical goods like funny tshirts and gag gifts and then target “going out ….”  Facebook offers a ton of options like drinks, with mates, to clubs, etc…
• Music Festivals – Think about the target “going out”.  Combine that with the headliners from the giant festivals, the specific types of music and then add in income, age, location and targets like festivals and travel and you can reach a really solid demographic.
• Food and Wine Festivals – If you look below, you’ll see going out for meals.  By targeting specific types of restaurants, vineyards, types of wine and even types of events you can attract foodies and winos. Next look at the price points of the events and add in household income.  You could even try by job title like culinary student, buyer at a grocery store, executives at law firms or businesses and others who either have an interest in food and wine or the money to afford it.

  Bonus – If you know celebrity chefs are going to be there, add them and their restaurants in and try running ads about meeting them as well as finding new go to spots for the weekend and to impress when you are entertaining.

Remarketing

Section off landing pages with information about the event on your website and place your pixels on those pages.  Now as people who are fans of XYZ performer or event hit the page (including from your Facebook ads above), you can begin showing ads for tickets and tour dates across Google, Facebook and other platforms.  Ticket terms on adwords are ridiculously expensive for a first touch point.  Remarketing ads however are normally much less expensive for the same keywords.  By using platforms like Facebook, you have an inexpensive way to reach them and set a cookie, then use remarketing networks including Google to bring them back as they’re ready to purchase tickets.

Email Marketing (More Than Just Emailing)

I did this post on skin care and highly recommend you read it.  The bottom section is the relevant part.  But how does skin care compare to making money promoting events online?  Simple, the strategies are the same.

As people hit your landing page from ads about Billy Joel or Nine Inch Nails, try to get them to optin to your newsletter.  If they do, tag them in your database as fans of XYZ events, music types or other unique identifiers.  Now you can upload that list as the show, performer or a complementary one is touring in their city and only market to those fans who are also familiar with your site by using geo-targeting combined with dates.

I’m extremely excited to be able to work with the Tickets.Expert program and know you’re going to have a lot of fun being a tickets affiliate.  Click Here to join and let me know how I can help you get started.