That's right - there's an opportunity for affiliates to promote consumer goods like clothing, jewelry, home goods, toys, craft supplies and a huge variety of other items and make up to 50% commission doing so.
And it's not just for the US market - although that's the developing market for this
company.
I didn't realize any of this until I came across a new WordPress plugin and noticed it had a huge number of sales:
The reason this plugin is so handy and, I think, why it's had over 2000 sales in the past couple of days is because it does for AliExpress what other plugins do for Amazon. In fact, that's what Alibaba wants to do - compete with
Amazon.
The plugin allows you to insert AliExpress products into your website using the AliExpress API without having to leave your site.
You may have read the recent articles about how Alibaba - a website that connects businesses with Chinese manufacturers - is trying to break into several new markets, including the
US.
If you've seen the site, you'll understand that they operate in the wholesale market.
However, there is a consumer website division called AliExpress which offers thousands upon thousands of consumer goods that can be purchased
individually.
What you may not have known is that they have an affiliate program that has a 30 day cookie and pays up to 50% in commissions!
Every product has its own commission rate of 3-50% but I've been through the affiliate dashboard and there are PLENTY of products at the higher
commission rates.
50% is very, very hard to ignore for us physical product affiliates!
Once I saw what kinds of products were available in the AliExpress affiliate dashboard, I bought the plugin and wanted to tell you about it, too.
There are 3 versions
of the plugin available: Front End, Pro, and Advanced - I stuck with Pro.
You have to buy the FE version ($9.35 when I bought), then you're upsold to the Pro version ($22 when I bought), and then there's another upsell to the Advanced version ($37, I think?).
The FE version only imports mass quantities of products like a store builder.
The Pro version does the above plus allows you to insert single products from within your WordPress post, includes a localizer to switch the tracking ID to other countries based on your visitor's location AND can be used to translate product information into other languages - a huge plus for
anyone who targets or wants to target non-English speaking countries.
The Advanced version includes all of the above plus the ability to spin the product description text in order to create unique content. If you've read previous emails from me you know that I believe you must change up product description text with these kinds of tools in order to distinguish your site from other
sites. I choose to write my own text but if you hate writing then the spin feature may be helpful to you.
My purpose for purchasing the Advanced version was so that I could insert individual products into posts inside my hand written content without having to leave my WordPress site.
One note - you do have to apply to the AliExpress program using the instructions in the included start up guides. The application does ask for your website information but I was approved immediately and with a site that doesn't get a lot of traffic (that was a test to see if you needed a lot of traffic
or not).
The AliExpress program does allow you to post affiliate links on 3rd party websites IF the 3rd party site allows affiliate links. You can also put your AliExpress affiliate links in EMAIL which is another significant difference from Amazon!
Now, it does take up to 5 days to get your API key from AliExpress which makes the plugin useless until then but that gives you time to go through the start up guide, browse the AliExpress affiliate products, and get your plan together.
There's also a webinar that will talk about how to leverage the plugin into more sales and hit some of the targets they mention in
the sales page but, regardless, the plugin has value if you have any intention of adding products from AliExpress to any of your sites.
Just to be clear, you can promote AliExpress to the US market as well as quite a large number of other countries and that's another great benefit here. If you're looking to diversify to other markets, utilize your marketing skills in less competitive
markets, or don't live in the US and wish you could find a program to promote locally this would work for most of you.
One question you might have is whether or not you can convert sales on AliExpress vs. Amazon. The US market is very familiar with Amazon but maybe not as aware of the AliExpress name. As marketers, if you match the right product to the right audience, you can make
sales.
That means that with AliExpress, if you're marketing to an audience that's more familiar with Amazon then you have to find products on AliExpress that either have a better price than they do on Amazon OR promote products that people will want but can't get on Amazon. (ie, "What a perfect pair of shoes for my outfit but Amazon has nothing like it - I'll buy it on the less familiar site
because it's exactly what I need!")
Think toys, accessories, home decor items, party decorations, craft supplies and clothing to begin with. As an example, I've been trying to find the right 100% cotton yarn for a crochet project and Amazon doesn't have it. Other sites want a fortune for it. I found the best match so far on AliExpress today. I don't know the quality but
it's worth my checking out (then I can write a review about it on one of my sites...right?) ; )
Take a look at the plugin and if you'd like making a higher commission rate with a retailer that has a giant selection of products and willing to pay up to 50% to get you to do the work, get the plugin to save you time in creating your posts.
Sincerely,
Erica Stone
erica@extremereviewer.com