The 100-day countdown to Christmas may have begun, but before we celebrate the most wonderful time of the year, we need to celebrate the scariest, creepiest, most sugar-laden time of the year: Halloween!
Yes, time to bring out the creepy costumes and the bowls of candy ... and time to make money off them, too!
Halloween Costume Affiliate Programs: A Trick or a Treat?
Definitely a treat if we go by the National Retail Federation's report that back in 2012, 170 million people planned to celebrate Halloween. Their report further states that an average person will spend around $80 on decor, costumes and candy, including roughly $28 on costumes. These costumes may be store-bought, but a certain percentage will simply look for inspiration online. You can read more of their report here.
This infographic on Halloween statistics also shows that in 2010, adult Halloween celebrants spent a total of $1.21 billion on costumes alone. There's certainly more than just candy and chocolates in this niche.
Consumer statistics are not enough, of course. We need to look at how the Halloween-related keywords are doing in the searches, so I launched Traffic Travis to start my keyword research.
You can immediately see that there are some good keywords in there. There are some long-tail variations that target specific groups, too, like "baby Halloween costumes" and "Halloween costumes for women."
It's always good to have some variety, so I went into KeywordBuzz to look at variations of my target keyword:
There are 399 variations of my main keyword, "Halloween costumes," and each variation appears to refer to a specific market.
Other keywords I can target are "costumes" and its variations like "costume party," "costume party themes," etc. You're certainly not going to be stuck with just targeting "Halloween costumes" on your site.
Halloween Costumes Affiliate Programs
I went to ClickBank first to see what products they had for Halloween and if they had affiliate programs for Halloween costumes. Unfortunately, they didn't have anything, so I decided to Google it. I found some really good programs that are offered through other networks, mostly ShareASale and Commission Junction.
Halloween Costumes
HalloweenCostumes offers a wide range of costumes, including unique ones available nowhere else. They also have costumes for other occasions, such as Christmas, Valentine's and Easter. The average purchase on their site costs $70 and you get a 10% commission for each sale. Their program is offered through Commission Junction and ShareASale.
Costume Craze
Costume Craze is similar to HalloweenCostumes. They have a large inventory of costumes for adults, children and even pets! They, too, are not limited to just Halloween costumes. They are part of the Commission Network, same as HalloweenCostumes, but offer a slightly higher commission of 12% per sale.
Fright Catalog
I think Fright Catalog is the best when it comes to Halloween costumes. They have the creepiest, scariest ones. They also have other costumes, but I think the best costumes they have are the ones for Halloween. They offer their program through ShareASale. I had to dig around a bit to find that because they don't have an affiliate page like Costume Craze or HalloweenCostumes. You get a 10% commission for each sale through their program.
There are other programs on ShareASale that are worth looking into. There are interesting ones in Commission Junction too, but they're a bit limited compared to ShareASale.
Amazon's affiliate program is also worth considering. The commissions are not that high, but don't forget that Amazon gives you a commission for anything else that the customer buys off the site through your link, so you're not limited to Halloween costumes or decor.
There are a few programs in Offervault, but I don't think they're worth looking into, as the good ones are for ringtones and such.
Promoting Halloween Costume Affiliate Programs
We've got the keywords and the affiliate programs; there's definitely potential to earn here. But how do you go about promoting your site on Halloween costumes?
Pinterest, Instagram and Other Social Media Sites
Note that I put Pinterest first. This is because Pinterest is a social media site where images are shared. Since people will be looking online for inspiration for their Halloween costume, then they will most likely go to Pinterest, or stumble on it.
Content Sharing and Strategy
You need to make sure your site has a strong online presence: lots of Facebook likes and plenty of image-sharing on Pinterest. This means you need to have a constant stream of content that you can share and that users will want to share in turn.
Content management and strategy play important roles here. While you can make a lot of money off this niche during a particular season, it doesn't mean that you should drop the site during the lean months. Keep in mind that there are costume sites that have costumes for other occasions, not just Halloween.
You also won't be able to share images all the time. You can share DIY costume ideas, or costume party ideas. You can review sites that sell Halloween costumes. You can also have columns like Featured Costume of the Week or annual features like Most Popular Costumes for Valentine's day and such.
Link Baiting
Sharing content does not necessarily mean sharing content from your site. You can also share interesting articles or images from other sites in the niche. If you're going to be reviewing a Halloween costume site, then make sure to let the owners of the site know that you're publishing a review. Let them know you're linking or referring to their site. That's the bait. Hopefully, they'll like the review and link back to it from their site. That's the link.
Halloween Costumes Affiliate Programs: The Bottom Line
We've looked at the keywords, the products and the programs, as well as possible strategies for going into this niche. I find the subject of this niche interesting and exciting. The commissions, while not that high, aren't so bad either. Promoting the site and driving traffic to it will take some planning and strategy. It's going to be a bit of a challenge, but if this is where your interests lie, then that won't be a problem.
I hope you enjoyed this week's niche! If you found my post helpful, then please share it on your favorite social network through the share buttons at the end of this post. Questions or comments? Just leave them below and I will make sure to reply to them.
For in-depth lessons on keyword and niche research, please visit AffiloBlueprint!
Barry Desautels • 11 years ago
around the holiday niche.
Barry
John Oldham • 6 years ago