Shoes are very common, yet popular item, but do you know that the US footwear industry reap about $48 billion in revenue each year? If you are interested to start an online shoe business, you have certainly chosen a profitable niche. What’s even better, you don’t really need a lot of inventory for this. Let me show you how it works with the Crocs affiliate program.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
In case you are new to this term, affiliate marketing basically means earning a commission by recommending a merchant’s product online. The way you partner with the merchant is by joining their affiliate programs either directly from their site or through affiliate network companies.
Where to Find Crocs Affiliate Program?
The Crocs affiliate program is available at Rakuten Linkshare.
All you need is to create an account in the network and search for ‘Crocs’ in the advertiser column. With this program, you’ll make 8% of affiliate commission every time someone buys a pair of shoe at the Crocs online store through your affiliate link.
How To Start an Online Shoe Business?
Domain and Hosting
Although there are many ways to promote an affiliate product, the cleanest approach I find to building a successful online business is through an affiliate website. If you’ve not created one before, just head over to SiteDomains and search for a custom name. In this example, I came up with a business name called ‘dailycomfortshoes.com’ and it is available for purchase at $13.99/year.
After buying the domain, you just need to hook it up to SiteRubix hosting and within minutes, it will automatically launch a WordPress website. There’s no need to download any software and you can start to use it immediately.
Content Creation
The next step is to fill your site with content, but before you jump into the selling part, think about what type of female shoppers that you want to focus on your website. There are plenty of people who buy shoes online every day, so what reason can you give them to buy from you instead of the competitors?
What unique information can you provide in order for them to trust your product recommendation?
A good approach is to address the situations/problems that women have when it comes to choosing shoes. Here are some topics that I’ve brainstormed using Google’s Alphabet Soup Technique.
- How to choose shoe size?
- How to choose comfortable shoes?
- What shoes to wear for traveling?
- Can I wear the same shoes everyday?
Before people buy shoes, they would ask these type of questions and usually search for the answers online. That’s where keyword research comes into the picture. How popular are these queries and how easy can you rank for these keywords? Let’s use the Jaaxy Keyword Research tool to find out more.
This is a popular term; about 64 searches per month (see AVG score) and low competition of 17 (see the QSR score). The lower the QSR value, the easier it is to rank for that particular keyphrase.
Not a popular term; too low searches (AVG <10).
Moderately popular term; has 24 searches per month and low competition score of 13.
Conversion
Following the analysis, we would target the popular term and write an article based on that keyword idea. You would repeat the same thing until you get some traffic coming to your site.
After that, apply for the Crocs affiliate program and wait for the approval. Once you have been accepted, you can tie in some products on your content by using the affiliate links provided.
For example, if your article is about “What shoes to wear for traveling”, you can introduce the Duet Busy Day Heather Multi Skimmer which is a casual looking yet comfortable shoes for women.
Crocs also provide high-quality image product links which you can add to make your article more visibly engaging.
This pair of shoes sells for $54.99, so if someone were to purchase the product through your recommendation, you’ll make $4.39 (8%) in affiliate commission. Now, I know a couple of dollars probably isn’t a lot of money, but here’s where you can leverage from your online traffic.
- Hundreds of people are going to read your article and product recommendation.
- One shopper may choose to buy more than one product.
- People are willing to spend more money during promotional seasons.
So, if you can convert 100 readers into buyers, you’ll earn a minimum of $439, if you get 1000 readers, then you’ll earn $4390 AND that’s only for ONE product alone.
Shoes for Everyone in the Family
Crocs also offers a great selection for men and kids shoes so remember to include those range when you are writing your product reviews. Here are some great keywords that you can consider for these categories.
- mens flip flop with arch support
- comfortable sandals for men
- what shoes to wear with khakis
- crocs rain boots for kids
- loafers for baby boy
- girls flats on sale
Just by thinking out of the box, there are so many fun ways that you can start an affiliate business selling Crocs without having to stock any inventories.
So, Is Crocs Affiliate Program Worthy of Your Time?
Although Crocs shoes aren’t the cheapest footwear out there, they are very well known for their comfortable designs. Since I own a pair, I know how it feels like on my feet and I am very sure a lot of people like them too.
Navigating their online store is a pleasant experience for the shoppers and there are plenty of positive reviews to read. Plus, when the shoes go on sale, the mark down can be quite irresistible not to buy.
Currently operating in more than 90 countries, Crocs has become a household brand that many people trust. Therefore, this is a worthy online opportunity to consider.
I hope this article has given you some idea on how to start an online shoe business using affiliate programs. You can also apply the same techniques – create a website, write content and convert your traffic – on other shoe brands that you favor.
If you think this niche is exciting, do get in touch with me within the training at Wealthy Affiliate University to learn how to get started.
Do you have any thoughts or questions about this topic? Feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.
You might also want to read;
How to Become an Amazon Associate
You have a lot of great ideas and guides to start an online business. This guide on starting a Crocs Marketing Niche site is another great addition to all the ways of making money with affiliate marketing. I have thought about a shoe site and did have a few pages on another site that paid on referrals and sales. That site went away and any time I go back in time wishing I had put those articles on a website that was in my control. I know I can still do it. Put the time and work in and get paid.
Hey there, and a great article, I had a good read!
Crocs has an affiliate program? Hmm interesting. At 8% commissions it makes them stand out a little bit as many people offer 5-10%. But good to know! I have a friend who is interested in shoes and in this type of business but is not sure about the niche so I will recommend him your post!
Thanks again.
Crocs has to be one of the most comfortable shoes out there! The fact that they have an affiliate program amazes me. I never would’ve thought, then again, why wouldn’t they. That would be a great way to maximize revenue through a shoe website.
This is cool. I never knew that Crocs had an affiliate program and I wear their stuff all the time!
Is Jaaxy keyword tool a free tool or do I have to pay for it? Are there any alternative affiliate programs you would recommend if I wanted to go into the ‘basketball shoes’ niche?
Jaaxy is a paid keyword tool. If you sign up as a starter member at Wealthy Affiliate (WA), you can use it for 30 searches, free of charge. If you are running on a budget, there’s also a free keyword tool in WA that you can access as a premium member.
In regards to your interest in ‘basketball shoes’, here are some of the affiliate programs and commissions that I managed to look up for you.
KickUSA – 10% (via LinkShare)
NIKE UK – 11% (via Webgains)
Under Armour – 6% (via Conversant)
Finish Line – 6% (via LinkShare)
Hope this helps.
I’m a fan of Crocs for their efficient design so it sounds like a great idea to be an affiliate for them. I noticed that you mentioned Rakuten Linkshare to join Crocs’ program. Would you recommend to be an affiliate with Amazon instead?
If no, why not? Thanks!
If your locality permits, by all means, apply for the Amazon Associate program too. If you are accepted, then there are more shoe products that you can link to maximize your 4% commission rate, which is lower than what Crocs offer but that’s still okay.
Hello Cathy! Love your website and the way it is laid out. I think that your different ideas regarding affiliate marketing are top notch. Your idea to implement affiliate marketing with the Crocs company is genius. It shows that you can create an affiliate marketing business promoting almost everything. Thanks for the inspiration. Keep it the good work up!
One of the main objectives of this article is to show that affiliate marketing isn’t only limited to Amazon Associate. There are many reputable and independent brands that offer generous commissions if you are willing to go all out in promoting their products within your niche. I’ll be coming up with more articles like this one so stay-tuned.
Very interesting article. I was not aware that you could actually become an affiliate of Crocs. Come to think of it, it actually makes a lot of sense. I’m not very confident when it comes to affiliate marketing. Would you say that it’s better to become a direct affiliate of a product such as Crocs OR would it be better to become an affiliate of Amazon where you have a lot of products to sell?
In regards to your question, there are some pros and cons to be considered.
1) Direct affiliation with a certain brand usually offer you a higher commission rate. The good thing is that you’ll be targeting very specific audience and you must make sure that you know the ins and outs of that niche to be able to publish content on a regular basis. For those who can’t participate in Amazon due to their regions, this could be a good option.
2) The advantage of promoting as an Amazon Associate is, like you said, you don’t have to depend on one product to earn. But you’ll have to accept their lower commission rate and make it up by doing cross promotion and/or learning to drive traffic from multiple channels. Amazon is a reputable retailer and a shopping heaven for many so this is something to take advantage of.
Either way, you want to get a niche website up and running first before applying for any of these affiliate programs. The companies will want to see that you’re not only committed, but that you are also knowledgeable in what you are doing.
Hope this helps.
I never really thought of Crocs as a shoe that was worthwhile of marketing. Now I think differently. This was a very informative post outlining just how well a Croc affiliate site could be. Crocs are out of my realm of expertise, but if someone was interested in them, your website would benefit them tremendously.