The recent polar vortex didn't affect where I live, but I still felt the change it brought to the weather. It was colder, much colder than usual, during early January, about the same time the polar vortex hit the US, Canada and Mexico. I saw the damage it caused in the news and in videos that circulated in social media. I began to wonder how people kept themselves warm under harsh conditions, and the fireplace came up. But then, I thought to myself, not everyone has a fireplace, and not everyone can afford to have one built. That's when I came across these elegant and convenient electric fireplaces.
Fireplaces are great, but they are not easy to set up and can be quite expensive. They can provide heat for the entire room and several parts of the house besides, but they require large amounts of wood and gas. There is also some work involved in getting a fire going, and it requires supervision as an unattended fireplace can cause a house fire.
Electric fireplaces, on the other hand, are set up by plugging them into an electric socket in your home. They can only provide heat within a room, but you can easily turn them on and off. An electric fireplace also does not require constant supervision, or large quantities of wood and gas. This infographic, "The Ultimate Guide on Electric Fireplaces vs. Wood, Gas & Oil" by ElectricFireplacesDirect.com further illustrates the difference between electric fireplaces and wood, gas, and oil fireplaces.
Keywords: Warming Up
The keyword "electric fireplace" has a a high monthly global count: 90,500. There is also high competition for this keyword. The same goes for all its other variations, including product name keywords such as "dimplex electric fireplace."
I read up on all things to do with electric fireplaces to dig up more keywords I could target. "How to install electric fireplace" is one of the keywords I found, and while it does have medium competition, it has a very low monthly global count.
I went to KeywordBuzz and found some other keywords, including "energy efficiency of electric fireplace," "electric fireplace for sale" and "electric fireplace guides." They are all high-competition keywords with low monthly global counts. I also went to check electric fireplace sites to see what keywords they are targeting. I found only a handful, such as "energy efficiency" and "save energy." They have medium to high competition. The global search counts could be better but at least I have a list of keywords with enough variations to work with.
Electric Fireplace Affiliate Programs
I checked ClickBank, but the ClickBank Marketplace did not have any electric fireplace affiliate programs, so I took to Google and looked at websites that sold electric fireplaces to see whether they have affiliate programs.
ElectricFireplacesDirect.com
ElectricFireplacesDirect.com is just one of the numerous online stores selling electric fireplaces and heaters. The site is one of the few that have affiliate programs, though. Affiliates receive an 8 percent commission for each sale, which is not at all bad considering that prices for electric fireplaces range from around USD $100 to USD $1000 each. The affiliate program is through AffiliateTraction.com.
Amazon.com![Electric Fireplace Affiliate Program - Amazon]()
Amazon.com has a wide range of physical products from books to toys to sports goods. It comes as no surprise that the marketplace has electric fireplaces, too. Amazon Associates is not known for generous commissions but the program can be enough considering that you get a commission for the total sales from each customer. You may be referring your visitors to Amazon to purchase an electric fireplace, but they can also get an additional heater and a few books on conserving energy, which will boost your overall commission.
eBay
eBay is similar to Amazon. The only difference is users can sell their stuff on eBay and members can bid on items. It's a combination of an online store and a trading website. The eBay Partner Network pays good commissions depending on what your site visitor purchases from eBay. Electronics can get you a 55 percent commission, for example. The network also offers bonuses if you're able to get new users to sign up or for returning customers to purchase again.
Offervault
There are a few fireplace affiliate programs through OfferVault, and the payouts look good. You can get between USD $36 and USD $85 per lead.
Get the Fire Going: Methods to Drive Traffic to Your Site
Once you have your site up, your next task is to drive traffic to it. That's one of the most challenging tasks in affiliate marketing. Link building and inbound marketing are usually trial and error: try one method and see whether it works. If not, then move on to the next and see how that one goes. A link-building strategy can help a lot in guiding you on what method to try next. The following are some link-building and inbound marketing methods you can use for this niche.
Social Media Marketing
You might think that this inbound marketing method will not apply to this niche. You'll not have much luck with Facebook and Twitter, it's true, but you can post images of beautiful electric fireplaces on Pinterest. You can also share infographics that give information on how to install electric fireplaces, or how electric fireplaces compare with the traditional fireplaces.
Amazon Kindle Traffic
People are more aware now of what green energy is and the effects of global warming to our planet. There are people who are looking for ways to conserve and save energy, mostly to save on costs. You could create a short ebook on how to conserve energy or how electric fireplaces help bring down energy costs. Then, put a link to your site within the ebook.
The good thing with this method is you can either make the ebook free or charge a price for it. If you do charge a minimal fee, then you can earn a bit of cash while getting traffic to your site.
Link Indexing
The main challenge in link building is the results are not immediate. It can take some time before the backlinks you've created are indexed and counted toward your site. This is where link indexing helps. Link indexing helps you show search engines you've created new links to your site and get them indexed.
Electric Fireplace Affiliate Programs: Too Hot To Handle?
There is earning potential in this niche, but I see several problems with it. One, this is more of a seasonal product. The interest in electric fireplaces, and heaters in general, peaks during the cold months. Once spring and summer are here, it's over. You can still generate interest for your product by promoting it on websites for home improvement and mention how it adds to the beauty and elegance of a room. The sales you will get outside of the cold season will be much smaller compared to sales during it.
The commissions are fine, but I don't see a site all about electric fireplaces. The effort is not just going to be worth it as there's no constant demand for this product. It's going to be difficult to find topics related to it that you can write about.
If you do have a website on winter goods or you have a blog about living in a cold country, then you can promote one or two products in in this niche. But I wouldn't stick with just this niche exclusively. It's definitely the kind you combine with related products and niches.
I hope you enjoyed this week's Niche of the Week! If you did, please make sure to share it with your family and friends using the Share buttons below. Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
