There are so many untapped niches left for Q4 that it drives me crazy. Most Affiliates are focused on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, Solstice, Sparkle Season, etc… that they forget America and Canada are filled with millions of immigrants who send gift back home for their own holidays. Think about most major cities and how they have specific communities like China Town, Little Italy, Little Mexico, etc…. These communities form because there are giant amounts of immigrants out there. You also have a ton of corporations who send corporate gifts to other countries based on those countries’ holidays. Because most people are focusing on the well known US and Canadian gift giving holidays, they forget about the immigrants and corporations who have to try and figure out what the holiday is about and what an appropriate gift is to send. This is where you can take over that niche by creating a site all about these topics, which has little to no competition right now, and start making money. The only trick is making sure that the merchants you find are able to handle other languages, provide banners and creatives in other languages and can support shipping at a reasonable rate to other countries. Here are a few examples of holidays and how to make money by creating a solution for people who need to find gifts to send.
1. Half Moon Festival and giftbaskets
This is a large holiday in numerous Asian countries where people send gifts regularly. By finding Affiliate Programs like Gift Baskets Overseas on Share a Sale that has pages and products that match this holiday you can more easily learn about the holiday, convert this type of traffic and start to make money. Writing about holidays like these on your current sites can also be interesting to your readers. You can give them ideas on how to decorate, gifts to give, foods that are popular for the holiday, etc… and create their own way to have a Half Moon Festival party and educate their kids on another country’s culture. This is a great way to generate extra sales, keep your readers learning new things so they come back and help get more shares and likes for your site.
2. Sell related products like calling cards
If you create a site about a specific holiday, talk about the history of it, etc… then you can try selling gifts and items, but you can also sell related products that may move quicker like calling cards and things that immigrants or people looking to travel to that country would want. If it’s students studying another culture, try promoting books about that country or guides to the holiday and how to set up parties, etc… for them. This is a great way to monetize this traffic once you know what your audience is there to find.
3. Find retailers with traditional clothing, etc…
If you are talking about how to host an event related to the holiday or are talking about the traditions and culture around the holiday, one option to monetize the site is to feature clothing related to the culture or festival. If it is a festival with traditional clothing then show where to buy it, if it’s costumes, sell the costumes that are related to it and if it is about making your own, show where people can buy the supplies to make them. This is where storefronts and widgets are awesome for your site.
4. Party stores and create storefronts with traditional products for the holiday
This is the easiest thing to do. If you are giving party advice or ideas on how to throw a party, create a storefront with the traditional colors for plates, tablecloths, napkins, etc… You can also find pinata’s or other games that make sense and also feature recipes that have traditional foods for that holiday. You can create storefronts by using Share a Sale or Linkshare (I am actually not an Affiliate on Linkshare so I don’t know if their tool is still good) or by using a service like Goldencan or Popshops.
5. Provide information on Visas and Currency exchanges
Another way to generate revenue from sites about the information is to write about traveling to the country and helping people know what to expect when they get there. You can sell costumes, clothing, travel supplies as well as find widgets for passports and travel visas with affiliate links that will pay you when people order or renew their passports and visas online. You can also find a few currency exchange programs that pay you on a click or a sale basis. These are awesome for travel sites and travel guides to different countries, events and parties.
Finding holidays that have large celebrations, are huge in other countries and are not being monetized or do not have heavy competition in the US is fairly easy to do. Monetizing your site is even easier. The only thing you have to do is figure out what the goal of the site is, who the people visiting it are and then how to provide the information they need and the products or things that match your content.
