I’ve already done a Niche of the Week post on weddings, specifically, wedding speech affiliate programs. But, I decided to take a look the the wedding niche again. This time my focus is on wedding dresses.
Weddings have gone from celebrated, sentimental events to being a billion-dollar industry. A survey by popular wedding website TheKnot.com revealed that couples spent on average USD $28,427. And on average, $1,200 of that goes to the wedding dress.
The wedding dress is not a prerequisite to a wedding, but tradition and culture typically dictate the bride wear a specific garment to the ceremony. In Western countries, that usually means a white wedding dress, while many Eastern nations require brides to wear traditional costumes. Brides and mothers of the bride tend to pull out all the stops when it comes to wedding dresses, as nothing is too good for the bride on her special day.
And that explains why brides spend thousands of dollars on their dresses, and why there is such big drama over picking one. Think TLC’s “Say Yes To The Dress.”
Traditionally, brides go to a bridal store to pick a design and get fitted. These days, more and more brides go online to get their wedding dress, mostly for the convenience, but also for the great prices.
The Keyword List
The results I pulled up in AffiloTools prove there’s plenty of demand in this niche (Yay!), but as with high demand, there is often high competition too (Boo!). There are keywords that are in the mid-50% range (moderate competition) with good monthly searches that you can also target.
You can always go to Ubersuggest.org for more keyword variations. If you’re using AffiloTools, you can use the Related Keywords tab within the Research module to look at related keywords to your search.
Wedding Dress Affiliate Programs
I had a feeling that there would be no wedding dress affiliate programs in ClickBank. To my dismay, I was right. There were a few wedding-related affiliate programs, but none that are specific to dresses. So, I went online to look at different online bridal stores.
House of Brides
House of Brides is an online bridal store that began in Chicago in 1929. It has now expanded into a chain of stores in Chicago. HouseofBrides.com is the global website, offering brides-to-be and their entourage a wide selection of dresses and accessories.
The site runs its own affiliate program. House of Bride affiliates enjoy a 4 percent commission on each sale.
ElegantGowns.com
ElegantGowns.com offers a wide selection of wedding dresses, both for the bride and the bridal party. The site carries designer labels but also offers affordable yet fashionable pieces.
At 10 percent commission per sale, the site has one of the highest rates among the affiliate programs in this niche. The affiliate cookie does not expire so your site visitor can make a purchase after clicking your affiliate link 3 months ago, and you still get the sale.
The program is offered through the ShareASale network.
TheCelebrityDresses.com
TheCelebrityDresses.com offers gowns that are similar to what celebrities have worn at various events like the Oscars and the Met Gala.
The site manages its own affiliate program, and affiliates enjoy a commission between 10 percent and 20 percent per sale.
TiffanyRose.com
TiffanyRose.com is a UK-based online store catering to expectant mothers. Its line of maternity wear includes maternity wedding dresses.
The affiliate program is offered through Affiliate Future, an affiliate network also based in the UK. The site does not disclose the exact commission per sale, so be sure to get in touch and ask before you commit.
Girl Meets Dress
Another UK-based online store, GirlMeetsDress.com, offers women a selection of wedding dresses along with other formalwear. Unlike the other online stores in this niche, GirlMeetsDress offers a rental service that allows you to select, fit and wear any of the dresses in its catalog. After the event, you simply pack the dress in the box it came in and send it back.
The site offers affiliates a commission between 4 percent and 10 percent through the Linkshare affiliate network.
Ways to Announce Your Site
The next big challenge after getting the site up is driving traffic to it. There are plenty of methods to do this, both paid and free. It’s easy to get caught up trying to figure out which methods to try first, so think about your link building and inbound marketing strategies as you go into the niche. Having a strategy, even just a rough draft, will help you escape an analysis-paralysis episode when building links for your site.
Social Media Marketing
Pinterest is a great social media site to promote on. Share images of your favorite wedding dresses with your affiliate links. Or you can send them over to your site for more information.
You can do the same on Facebook and Twitter, but visual sites like Pinterest and Instagram, which are based solely on images, will likely be more effective.
Amazon Kindle Traffic
You can also write a small e-book on how to pick the perfect wedding dress, with an emphasis on picking a dress online, and share it on the world’s biggest e-book store: the Kindle marketplace.
For a broader approach, the e-book can cover anything related to weddings. Just make sure it contains links back to relevant articles on your site so that users who download it will know where to go for more information.
Link Indexing
Don’t let any backlinks you’ve made go unnoticed by search engines. Make sure to have these links indexed. You can do this by submitting your links to sites like Pingler.com. You can also use Twitter or Facebook to index your bigger and better links.
Wedding Dress Affiliate Programs: To Have and To Hold?
Despite the tough competition, the wedding dress niche is a fun one and I would pursue it, given the chance. Before I get to building my site for this niche though, I would make sure I do some thorough niche and keyword research. I’d have a link building strategy laid out too.
The commissions aren’t that high, but they are good enough, especially given how much some dresses can cost. If you have a wedding or wedding-related site, then you can monetize it with any of the above-mentioned wedding dress affiliate programs.
I hope you find this week’s niche interesting and insightful. Would you consider going into this niche? Are there any niches you would like to see featured as Niche of the Week? Let me know in the Comments section below!
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