I was having a bit of a browse around online a few days ago, feeling a bit sorry for myself and in need of a bit of retail therapy to cheer me up. The following series of events probably show a couple of things. Firstly, I’m an affiliate-o-holic and Secondly, it gives a small insight into how you can feed personal interests into finding a niche. So yeah. This is a tutorial in how to work yourself too hard… and some full on niche detective work!

It all Starts With Placing Yourself In The Position Of The Buyer…
So anyway…. there I was sitting at my desk, all burnt out and crabby (I could tell I was because Duncan was hiding from me - not easy to do in a two bedroom apartment, but manage it he did!).

“Bloody working all the time” I thought. “I’m fed up! Time to buy myself some nice stuff.”

Then Comes The Realisation Of A Unique Selling Point or Product…

So off I trot around the internet looking for some funky handbags and other things women like to buy when they’re feeling overworked and harassed. After stumbling around the internet for a while I happen upon one of the handbag pages from YesStyle and see they have a bewildering array of really cool and unusual handbags (I particularly loved their RooTote bags but they can’t ship them to Australia cos of some distribution agreement - gah!!)

After That, Your Affiliate Investigation Skills Set In…

“Hmm…”, I think. “They have an affiliate programme with Webgains, don’t they?”

YesStyle have always been on my radar as I’ve always seen various affiliate programme posts by their affiliate managers. I’ve just never gotten around to looking at their site. At first look, whilst I liked the products, the type of things for sale on there were quite alien to me as the overall feel is very “different”. This immediately struck me as a good thing. Obviously many of the brands are targeted at Asians. So there was the first, obvious, niche. Asians overseas wanting to buy their favourite clothing, skincare, and accessory brands.

“Hmmmm” I thought (again). “…but there must also be other people buying the products on this site. They appeal to me, so who else?”

It was at this stage I thought I should just drop the affiliate manager a line and ask him straight what their markets and bestsellers were. YesStyle have over 20,000 products so it seemed prudent to save myself a day or three! I checked their EPC on Webgains and decided it was good enough for me to devote some research time to. Stefan Janssens got right back to me (Literally ten minutes later - well done Stefan!)

Here’s What I Found Out From Stefan: -
“YesStyle are a merchant based in Hong Kong but mainly sell overseas. Australia is one of our major markets (but also US, UK and Europe). We have lots of stuff you wont find anywhere else. “

This makes their products very interesting. If they can’t be bought anywhere else, and you can work out a way to drive highly relevant traffic to them, they will convert like the blazes!

“Oh ho.” I thought. “I wonder what kind of products go well in those countries?” So again I applied my patented technique. I asked. Over the course of a few e-mails flying backwards and forwards I discovered this from the lovely Stefan: -

Our beauty products sell well in the UK, but always for specific brands and
product

There are several reason why people buy them from us
- Exclusive gift sets
- Pricing: This depends very much on the brand and the country on the
customer. We have one world wide price, while usually beauty brands will
have different pricing strategies by country.
- Products suitable for Asian skin (not necessarily from Asian brands. Also
US / French brands will have products especially for the Asian market, and
overseas Asian may want to buy them. )

There are the top brands for UK and Australia

Austraila

Anna Sui, Biotherm, Dainty, Lancome, Shiseido

UK

Anna Sui, Demalogica, Kose, Shiseido, SK-II

I also discovered that in the UK market…

Currently Our Men’s fashion does really well
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Men.aspx (any brands — mainly casual shirts,
t-shirts, and jeans) .

Also Womenswear brands such as Dodostyle
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=235782 , Sechuna
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=238769& , and more
elegant styles such as Nabi
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=235262& sell very
well in the UK.

Well! Not bad for an hour’s work I don’t think! I found out bags of information about a merchant I’d absolutely no idea would convert all that well in the UK. What’s more, they might well be a good fit for me to try things out in Australia with a couple of test mini sites.

Ummm…. Kirsty, Weren’t You Supposed To Be Taking A Break?
Is what Duncan whispered cautiously when he found me a couple of hours later feverishly researching keywords and fiddling about with product feeds.

“Oops.” I said, and promptly went back to online shopping.

Make A Test Purchase…

Given how impressed I was with YesStyle’s range I actually went back and popped in an order with them (good way to combine work and play!). I got myself a bikini, a dress, a really cool bag, Anna Sui Eyelash curlers, and an Anna Sui gift set for $200 US all up which was then delivered here to Australia for free. Pretty good what with the weak state of the US Dollar at the moment.

So there you have it. A tale of me trying to have a relaxing night of indulging myself and ending up finding literally hundreds of products I should find a way of pushing in the UK market (and indulging myself eventually!). It’s pretty typical of me really.

Whats that? Yes, perhaps next time I should relax OFFLINE!

For anyone that’s interested, YesStyle have affiliate programmes in Australia (on Clixgalore), UK (on Webgains), Europe (Zanox) and US (Shareasale), but all of them will track worldwide.

N.B - YesStyle didn’t know I was going to make this post during my dealings with them. I was impressed with their info and responsiveness. I thought my experience with them really showed how you can use your own shopping experiences to find something you could promote.  Naturally, if they’re really greatful they can show their appreciation spontaneously….

You’ve got my address guys