A Few Ideas Inspired From "A Stupidly Simple Cash Cow"
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to share a few ideas I had after reading David Preston's post (which appears to be destined to reach the 1 trillion "view" mark soon, lol)...
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-its-free.html
I think the idea itself is great, but I couldn't help but wonder what might happen if you added a little bit of offline "affiliate marketing" to that strategy. Perhaps something like this was discussed somewhere in that thread, but you'll have to forgive me if I don't set aside an extra week to go through the entire thread.
Here's my thoughts...
I've often wondered why more offline businesses don't incorporate some type of referral (or "affiliate") program. Of course, certain types of businesses would do better with that than others, but I'm still amazed that you don't see that kind of thing more.
For example, are there any gyms or health clubs in your area that look like they could use a lot more business? There's at least 2 in my town that would fit that profile (and I'm in a fairly small town!)
Why not offer to set up a simple webpage for them (if they don't have one already), and then integrate a Paypal affiliate script into their site, and set it up so that their prospects could sign up for a monthly recurring membership to the gym through the online affiliate script. Set up the script so that the commissions are split between the gym owner, the affiliate, and you! To tempt the prospects to purchase via the affiliate script online (and not offline at the gym), there could be a small monthly discount involved for doing so ($5 less per month, or 1st month half off, or whatever).
Your "fee" for setting up their website and affiliate program would be a small cut of the ongoing residual commissions from that affiliate program.
Here's how I might set something like that up...
Have the gym owner print up a bunch of flyers, with a "Wanna make some easy extra cash?" type of theme. Since we are in a bit of a recession, there's a LOT of people looking to make some extra cash right now. The flyers would be featured in a prominent location in the gym, and the gym employees would make sure that everyone that came in knew about them (I also have some more ideas on flyer distribution, more on that in a second).
The flyers would promote the gym's *affiliate* program, and link to their webpage that described it. All the affiliate would have to do is sign up for a free affiliate account with Paypal. You could also setup an affiliate resources page that included templates for flyers and business cards that advertised the gym, that the affiliate could print up and pass around). And maybe pre-written emails (that they could use to send to all their local friends). The affiliate page would also explain all the best ways to promote the program, where to go, etc.
Since it would be impractical to put a typical affiliate URL on a flyer or business card, the flyers would just give a URL to the gym's homepage, along with a "discount" code (aka the affiliate link in disguise). When the prospect puts in their "discount" code at the website, the affiliate script knows which affiliate to credit, and splits the commission between the gym owner, the affiliate, and you!
Maybe something like...
40% gym owner
40% affiliate
20% you
Whenever an affiliate sale is made a 'notification of payment' would be sent to the gym's email account, and the gym's employees could add the new member's info into their system.
And the gym owner shouldn't be too upset about getting only 40% of the normal profit for each new member, as that is income that they wouldn't have otherwise had! (40% is a LOT better than 0%!)
I mentioned earlier that I had some other ideas for flyer distribution. Here's a potentially VERY powerful one...
Get the manager of a pizza delivery restaurant to be one of the gym's affiliates, and give them lots of flyers to stick on each pizza box that gets delivered! The manager has a good incentive to get those flyers out to as many homes as possible, as he or she will be getting a recurring monthly commission, for ZERO extra work on their part!
And there's no reason you couldn't triangulate this kind of deal with *several* different gyms and pizza restaurants (or any type of "delivery" service). Once you've made a simple webpage and affiliate resources page for 1 gym (or whatever kind of business you're targeting), simply copy those templates and use them for other similar businesses that you set up.
The beauty of this particular model is the *recurring* commission! You set up each business once, then let the affiliates work for you!
I've used a gym in this example, but I think this business model could work well with other types of offline businesses too. How about setting up affiliate programs for local video rental stores? Maybe a monthly subscription fee where the member could rent an unlimited number of videos for x amount per month - but only if they signed up through the website (affiliate link) that you set up for the video store.
Now think how powerful this might be if you start getting pizza delivery restaurant managers to be affiliates for the video rental stores that you set up! (now that's a good match!) And just like in the first example, you would set it up so that you get a recurring commission on all of the sales.
Anyways, those are just a few random ideas that David's thread inspired me to come up with. I'm working on a few important online projects at the moment, but I may try some of this offline stuff soon. I just wanted to share these ideas in case anyone else thought they might be worth pursuing.
So what do you guys think? And what other types of offline businesses do you think could benefit from this type of model?
Just wanted to share a few ideas I had after reading David Preston's post (which appears to be destined to reach the 1 trillion "view" mark soon, lol)...
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-its-free.html
I think the idea itself is great, but I couldn't help but wonder what might happen if you added a little bit of offline "affiliate marketing" to that strategy. Perhaps something like this was discussed somewhere in that thread, but you'll have to forgive me if I don't set aside an extra week to go through the entire thread.
Here's my thoughts...
I've often wondered why more offline businesses don't incorporate some type of referral (or "affiliate") program. Of course, certain types of businesses would do better with that than others, but I'm still amazed that you don't see that kind of thing more.
For example, are there any gyms or health clubs in your area that look like they could use a lot more business? There's at least 2 in my town that would fit that profile (and I'm in a fairly small town!)
Why not offer to set up a simple webpage for them (if they don't have one already), and then integrate a Paypal affiliate script into their site, and set it up so that their prospects could sign up for a monthly recurring membership to the gym through the online affiliate script. Set up the script so that the commissions are split between the gym owner, the affiliate, and you! To tempt the prospects to purchase via the affiliate script online (and not offline at the gym), there could be a small monthly discount involved for doing so ($5 less per month, or 1st month half off, or whatever).
Your "fee" for setting up their website and affiliate program would be a small cut of the ongoing residual commissions from that affiliate program.
Here's how I might set something like that up...
Have the gym owner print up a bunch of flyers, with a "Wanna make some easy extra cash?" type of theme. Since we are in a bit of a recession, there's a LOT of people looking to make some extra cash right now. The flyers would be featured in a prominent location in the gym, and the gym employees would make sure that everyone that came in knew about them (I also have some more ideas on flyer distribution, more on that in a second).
The flyers would promote the gym's *affiliate* program, and link to their webpage that described it. All the affiliate would have to do is sign up for a free affiliate account with Paypal. You could also setup an affiliate resources page that included templates for flyers and business cards that advertised the gym, that the affiliate could print up and pass around). And maybe pre-written emails (that they could use to send to all their local friends). The affiliate page would also explain all the best ways to promote the program, where to go, etc.
Since it would be impractical to put a typical affiliate URL on a flyer or business card, the flyers would just give a URL to the gym's homepage, along with a "discount" code (aka the affiliate link in disguise). When the prospect puts in their "discount" code at the website, the affiliate script knows which affiliate to credit, and splits the commission between the gym owner, the affiliate, and you!
Maybe something like...
40% gym owner
40% affiliate
20% you
Whenever an affiliate sale is made a 'notification of payment' would be sent to the gym's email account, and the gym's employees could add the new member's info into their system.
And the gym owner shouldn't be too upset about getting only 40% of the normal profit for each new member, as that is income that they wouldn't have otherwise had! (40% is a LOT better than 0%!)
I mentioned earlier that I had some other ideas for flyer distribution. Here's a potentially VERY powerful one...
Get the manager of a pizza delivery restaurant to be one of the gym's affiliates, and give them lots of flyers to stick on each pizza box that gets delivered! The manager has a good incentive to get those flyers out to as many homes as possible, as he or she will be getting a recurring monthly commission, for ZERO extra work on their part!
And there's no reason you couldn't triangulate this kind of deal with *several* different gyms and pizza restaurants (or any type of "delivery" service). Once you've made a simple webpage and affiliate resources page for 1 gym (or whatever kind of business you're targeting), simply copy those templates and use them for other similar businesses that you set up.
The beauty of this particular model is the *recurring* commission! You set up each business once, then let the affiliates work for you!
I've used a gym in this example, but I think this business model could work well with other types of offline businesses too. How about setting up affiliate programs for local video rental stores? Maybe a monthly subscription fee where the member could rent an unlimited number of videos for x amount per month - but only if they signed up through the website (affiliate link) that you set up for the video store.
Now think how powerful this might be if you start getting pizza delivery restaurant managers to be affiliates for the video rental stores that you set up! (now that's a good match!) And just like in the first example, you would set it up so that you get a recurring commission on all of the sales.
Anyways, those are just a few random ideas that David's thread inspired me to come up with. I'm working on a few important online projects at the moment, but I may try some of this offline stuff soon. I just wanted to share these ideas in case anyone else thought they might be worth pursuing.
So what do you guys think? And what other types of offline businesses do you think could benefit from this type of model?