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March 23, 2020 By adamriemer Leave a Comment

How to Source Product for & Start a Subscription Box

(Please note many of the links below are affiliate links and I’ll earn a commission if you shop through them. Some are affiliate links and I will not earn commissions like the SmugMug link. I’m sharing it because that is the only way for you to get a discount on a new account. Others are a for me to track because I like data.).

Many of you know I manage the affiliate program for Cratejoy.com. That means I get to work with awesome content producers from bloggers to YouTubers, and I also get to talk to small business owners who create monthly bits of happiness for their subscribers.

TL:DR (Too Long Don’t Want to Read) – Skip to the bullet list below and go to the section relevant to your niche. You’ll learn how to source product or get ideas to create your own subscription box and subscription service.

The box owners curate monthly packages with everything from local and international foods to kids crafts, geek and fashion boxes, STEM and educational kits, books with interactive gifts to match the chapters, and even a kitchen sponge of the month subscription.

There are more than 2,000 boxes available for consumers, but what happens if the owner’s city goes into lockdown or sourcing product becomes tricky. It could be anything from their farmers market closing because of quarantine or a hobby store where you’d normally source crafting supplies shutting down for being non-essential.

Just Because Covid-19 is Here it Does Not Mean You Have to Lose Subscription Box Subscribers!

If this happens, marketing and creative strategy come into play. That is my specialty and what I help clients with. As a way for me to give back and encourage small businesses like mine to not give up, here is what I normally get paid for totally free for you to use. Any shares or likes and comments are greatly appreciated.

If you’re a box owner, you could offer pauses on your boxes to save subscribers, but you can also offer the following strategies as an alternative and work to keep more active users.

If you do not have a current subscription box, use this post for inspiration to launch one. If you reach out to me through the contact form, I’ll connect you with the Cratejoy marketplace team and get you their instructions on how to launch a subscription box service.

Cratejoy does not know this post is coming, so I hope it is a good surprise for them and is another thing I can do to support my clients as well.

Here are the current niches I have ideas for. Feel free to skip to the most relevant section if you do not want to read the entire post. As I come up with more ideas I’ll add them to the list. Feel free to leave a comment below with your own way to source product or keep a subscription box going in the comments section below.

How to Source Product for Subscription Boxes & Keep Subscribers:

Food Boxes
Pet Boxes
Fitness Boxes
Kids Crafts
Kids and Young Adults Books
Adult Books
Photography and Art Boxes
Sex Boxes
Cocktail and alcohol boxes

One Thing To Know Before We Go Into Sourcing

Before we jump into the options to keep your subscription box subscribers happy, there is one thing I am going to be recommending you do. Use your phone, camera or computer and stream out to Facebook and YouTube. By doing this you can engage your users, grow your audience and save the video.

That video can then be optimized for SEO and work to build you new followers and new subscribers. It is as simple as clicking “go live” so don’t get nervous with the technical terms.

People being quarantined and needing to isolate is increasing viewership and watch times for my video clients which makes sense. Now is the perfect time to engage your users instead of losing them. Here is what I would do if I had a subscription box company or was going to start one by niche.

Food Subscription Boxes

March 17, 2020 By adamriemer 4 Comments

How to Make Money During Coronavirus

If you work as a bartender, personal trainer, group fitness instructor, photographer, tutor, or even at parties as an entertainer (clowns and djs), you have skills people need now more than ever. And these skills could help you make money while growing new business while everyone is in self-quarantine.

The best news is you have everything you need, you’ll only need to embrace a bit of technology. And since we cannot go outside, now is the perfect time to learn it.

Below you will find ways that you can use your skills as a service professional and make money until you can return to your place of work. I start with a list of the steps below and then dive into detail about each.

What you need to make money during Coronavirus:

Create an editorial calendar
Join affiliate programs specific to your niche (examples below with explanations)
Use your cell phone or digital camera that connects to social media
1. A computer can work too
Post a set day/time to record, publish and/or stream
Learn the tools to build a larger audience
**bonus step** set up a website and collect subscriber information

Now let’s go into detail about each of these and make them relevant to you.

Create an Editorial Calendar

The first step is to create an editorial calendar. But make sure the first stream or video can be done without any extra equipment or supplies. Start by letting viewers know they can do the first week of activities with items around their own home but they might need to order a few things online for upcoming broadcasts.

Here are some examples by niche.

Fitness professionals – body weight exercises (not gear needed).
Bartenders and chefs – use common pantry items.
Photographers – taking advantage of natural light or even desk lamps.
DJs – create themed dance party nights and host a costume or themed contest during it where you give a free recording from an event away after we are out of quarantine. The theme can be anything that uses common items like toga parties.
Teachers & tutors – you can line up daily or weekly themes like algebra, physics and also create experiments that are educational, safe and fun and that use peroxide, baking soda or vinegar.

As you’re talking about the first week and using items the person already has, mention what they’ll learn and need for the upcoming 3 or 4 weeks while we may be trapped inside. This is your first opportunity to earn revenue.

Join Relevant Affiliate Programs

(note, some of the links below are ads and I earn commissions if you shop or sign up for services through them. Just like I’m recommending you do.)

You’ll want to join affiliate programs and get unique coupon codes that are trackable to you. When your fans and followers use the code, you earn a commission. ProsourceFit.com is an affiliate program I manage and I will happily get you set up. Click here to join, its free and we’ll get to work together so double bonus!

If you’re a bartender and are recommending unique items like bitters, or a chef and spices may not be available, join programs from herb and spice, or food ecommerce websites. You’ll be supporting small businesses and also helping your fans and followers. If you’re a teacher or [Read more…] about How to Make Money During Coronavirus

November 21, 2019 By adamriemer Leave a Comment

Strategies to Get More Instagram Swipes, Saves & Comments

Optimizing for Instagram is all about getting your current followers, and people searching for hashtags to engage with your content. For this post I’m going to focus on how to increase Instagram engagement for your current fans and followers, with the goal of sending the right signals that your images and posts are high quality.

When your followers engage with your Instagram posts in a natural way, it should help you to get more exposure to new audiences in the hashtag search feature and for the people that already follow you. On Instagram there are multiple signals that can send a positive note to the algorithm.

Five Instagram Engagement Ranking Signals Include:

Swipes
Likes
Comments
Saves
Shares

To get your fans and strangers to engage, you not only have to produce images your audience wants to see, but you have to be creative. That is where I come in and I help the partners in my affiliate marketing programs with this regularly. Here are a few Instagram optimization strategies by the type of account to try and help you get more swipes, comments, and saves.

Swipes

Swipes are when people swipe left and right to look at your photos when you have multiple images in the same post. If a user is scrolling through their feed and stops to look at your image, then also swipes through the series, there is a good chance the content is good. Aside from asking your followers to look through each image, here are a few ways to encourage more Instagram swipes by popular type of Instagram account.

Bonus tip: Add arrows that point right in the lower right hand corner as an additional signal if you have a series. You could also place “next” or “step two” over top of the arrow in the lower right corner of the image.

For Photography Instagram Accounts:

Share a series of how you create your photos starting with the final version as the first image in the series. You could caption it, “how to create a photo like this”. You could also do a split picture with a before and after image that has a line dividing the image in half. Then make each image in the progression a major step in your editing process. Now your fans can follow along to see your process and replicate it. In order for them to create the same outcome, they’ll have to swipe through each image in your series.
Teach a photography technique like “taking an XY shot in harsh light”, or “how to create XYZ effect with photo editing”. Each image in your series should be the next step to reach the end goal. If the fan or follower wants to learn the technique or skill, they’ll need to swipe through.
Upload multiple shots with the same theme, and offer a discount on the last photo in the series that applies to each. This shows off your work and provides an incentive to look at the last image in the series.

Makeup and Beauty Instagrammers:

November 18, 2019 By adamriemer 2 Comments

7 Best Speakers to Listen to at Affiliate Summit

Affiliate Summit is coming up soon, and the only thing that comes up short at this show is time. You have incredible networking opportunities, tons of meetings and parties, not to mention a crowded expo hall. But something else you won’t want to miss are the speakers.

(The links in this post are ads and I earn commissions if you shop through them.)

Affiliate Summit speakers are almost always on point, or ready to help. They provide you with information, entertainment, and some let you know when you’re making money. That is one of the best things about the show, you get all the networking in the world, and also access to some of the most informative speakers. That’s why I’ve created this list of my favorite speakers to listen to at Affiliate Summit.

And if you haven’t purchased your ticket to affiliate summit yet, click here to buy it today since they always sell out and the prices go up the closer you get to the show.

If your favorite speaker from Affiliate Summit is not on it, I apologize, but this list is kept for the top 7 only. It may change from show to show, but these are my personal choices and the reasons why.

November 11, 2019 By adamriemer Leave a Comment

31+ Ways to Recruit Affiliates for Affiliate Marketing Programs

Are you looking for information on how to recruit affiliates for your affiliate marketing program? Then you’re in luck! As a two time Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award winner and affiliate manager for 15+ years, I’ve learned and come up with numerous strategies. As a way to give back to the community, here are 31+ of my favorite ways to recruit affiliates for a program.

The strategies below are in no particular order. There is a good chance you have probably have tried some of these, and others will be new to you. If they didn’t work to recruit affiliates, or you didn’t get enough sign ups from them, I go into detail about how I do each. The details may help to determine why affiliates didn’t sign up for your program. I also highly recommend reading this post about reaching out to high value affiliate partners and making sure your pitch is good enough to stand out. [Read more…] about 31+ Ways to Recruit Affiliates for Affiliate Marketing Programs

August 8, 2019 By adamriemer Leave a Comment

How to Find Keywords & Content Topics That Convert Into Sales

One of the most common obstacles that cause stagnation with content, SEO, affiliate earnings, and PPC teams is that there are “no more keywords, modifiers or topics to go after”. A lesser known, but common issue, is that SEOs and Affiliate Managers get blocked from having access to PPC accounts. That is why I’m writing this step-by-step guide on locating new keywords for SEO that drive sales.

Below you’ll find a new way to discover keywords phrases that can convert into revenue, because they are based on data, not assumptions, and you’ll have a solid reason why you need PPC account access to give to your boss or clients.

After I show you how to locate these keywords and phrases, you’ll learn when, why and how to incorporate them into:

Product and category pages
Location pages
Blog posts

Let’s start by figuring out how to find the keywords that have volume and also drive sales. This is important for ecommerce stores, lead gen companies, service providers, and affiliates.

Log into your adwords account – if you don’t have one, create one and launch campaigns with conversion tracking on.
Set the date range to at least 3 or 4 months, the shopping season you’re building content for (Valentine’s, Back to School, Engagement, etc…), or the year to date if you have a solid amount of data.
Click on Campaigns > Select an Ad Group > Click the “Search Terms” tab on the keywords page
Modify the columns so you have these five showing:
1. Search term
2. Match type
3. Impressions
4. Clicks
5. Conversions
Now export to a spreadsheet or sort by match type.
Delete or exclude all rows that have zero conversions from your spreadsheet or ignore them within the interface.

This is your gold mine. As long as you do not have “broad match” for everything, [Read more…] about How to Find Keywords & Content Topics That Convert Into Sales

Blog

Just Because Covid-19 is Here it Does Not Mean You Have to Lose Subscription Box Subscribers!

How to Source Product for Subscription Boxes & Keep Subscribers:

Food Subscription Boxes

What you need to make money during Coronavirus:

Create an Editorial Calendar

Join Relevant Affiliate Programs

Five Instagram Engagement Ranking Signals Include:

Swipes

For Photography Instagram Accounts:

Makeup and Beauty Instagrammers:

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