Many of us grow up with fond memories of Lego. For those who are passionate about it, here’s the good news. You can turn this hobby into something creative while making money at the same time. That’s what the Lego affiliate program is all about and in this review, we are going to explore some online opportunities and find out how you can get started in this niche within minutes.
The Program at a Glance
In case you are new, an affiliate program is basically a marketing system that allows regular people like you and me to promote products online and earn commissions whenever someone buys through our affiliate links.
In the context of this company, you’ll be promoting Lego products that you’ve personally tried, tested or have some knowledge about, in the form of reviews and lead potential customers to the merchant site which is the official Lego online store.
For every sale, you’ll make 3% in commissions and the referral period will last for 7 days. That means, whenever someone clicks on your link, you have up to 7 days before the link expires at the user’s end. To get into the program, you need to sign up through Rakuten Linkshare which is the network used to manage their program.
Now you are probably thinking, isn’t Lego available through the Amazon marketplace as well? Yes, it is. The commission fee is the same, but the referral period is way shorter – 24 hours. If the readers don’t purchase anything within that duration, you’ll lose a referral.
The other advantages of using the main merchant site are that they offer free shipping for any purchase more than $35, there’s a loyalty program that offers a lot of perks, they have regional-specific customer service center and also links to other resources pertaining to the product development where you couldn’t find elsewhere.
If you are already a regular user with Amazon, by all means, sign up through the Amazon Associate program. If you are not, then the main merchant site is something worth considering.
Product Key Features
You may have enjoyed Lego for its fun features, but there’s more to it from a business perspective and knowing what they are, will help you to promote the brand better.
1 – The main reason we all know about Lego is that the brand has been around for more than 80 years. Over this period, the company has revolutionized toys into what most of us experience today. In fact, they are rated as one of the top innovative companies for consumer electronics.
2 – Their product is known to assist in cognitive and problem-solving skills, both of which I believe can benefit humans of all ages. As such, they have a variety of sets/themes catered for specific groups, ranging from toddlers to 18 years old and above.
3 – Many of you may not know, but Lego has an educational website that provides lesson plans with specific tools for early learners to secondary students. While they don’t have an affiliate program for that, it certainly creates more awareness and interest among the newer crowds.
4 – The main website is on par with the modern eCommerce experience. They are easy to navigate, mobile-friendly and the checkout process is also smooth. These features will encourage more people to hang around the site longer and eventually make a purchase or two.
5 – When it comes to product details, their layout couldn’t have been more thorough, even better than those on Amazon, I would say. It tells you the specific pieces, comes with free downloadable building instructions and most importantly, descriptive customer reviews with Lego specialist response to boot. How cool is that?
6 – While the retail prices vary, one can expect that the most sought after products are the cool and hard-to-find sets which usually sells for $50 or more. If you are promoting something that is exclusive, say $200, then you could earn $6 per sale. It may not look a lot in the beginning, but if you multiply by 100 buyers, that’s $600 for just one product. And how many products Lego has? Thousands if not more and remember, they are constantly releasing new ones too.
7 – A growing number of people are using the internet to find solutions to their ‘Lego problems’ and this is evident because we are seeing all these queries appearing on the Google search bar as well as the ‘Search Related’ results. Google didn’t simply put it there. They appear because users are actively searching for these topics and they are keywords to leverage from as an affiliate marketer. I will explain this later.
8 – When it comes to shopping seasons like Christmas or Black Friday, Lego is often on everyone’s shopping list. So if you are constantly pushing out a lot of good quality reviews, it’s not impossible to see a surge in profits during these periods.
Who Should Join The Program
Any hobbyists or educators who like to play or use Lego as a teaching tool are the most appropriate people to be joining the program. Your targeted audience would be another hobbyist who wants to grow their collection or parents who are interested in children’s’ learning skills.
Your in-depth knowledge about the parts and pieces will help these groups of people, buy the right Lego set online that fits their requirements and budget.
What You’ll Need to Get Started
A good place to publish product reviews or informative articles is to use a blog. If you are up for the challenge, you can also produce YouTube videos and add the affiliate links in the video description area. For beginners, I would start with a blog first because it’s much easier and doesn’t really require a lot of time.
The first thing you’ll need is to purchase a domain name and while it should be reflective of the niche, it mustn’t contain the word Lego in it as it would be considered as copyright infringement. If Lego is just one of the many products that you want to review, then the domain would reflect a larger niche, for example, toy products or learning tools.
A decent domain with a dot com extension only costs about $15 per year and make sure to use a WordPress hosting because it’s one of the best platforms for blogging. If you don’t have any experience with this, simply enter a domain of your choice below to launch a WordPress website for free.
After the blog is set up, the next thing to do is to get traffic aka visitors to the site and the best way to do that is through content. Earlier, I mentioned that people are constantly searching the web for information so if you can find out what type of keywords they use, you can then produce engaging content that wants to be read. The content can be in the form of reviews, how-to articles or even video tutorials – so long as they are helping to solve people’s daily ‘Lego problems’, then you are more likely to see readers converting into buyers on your blog.
Just to help you get started, here are 10 targeted keywords that I’ve come up with using the Jaaxy Keyword Tool. Feel free to use them for your first few posts.
- How to Build a Lego House
- Lego Building Ideas for Adults
- Lego Gift Ideas for Kids
- Lego Hogwarts Castle Review
- Lego Jurassic Park Sets
- How to Use Lego Brick Separator
- Lego Millennium Falcon Collector Edition
- Lego Duplo Train Set
Once your blog starts to get traction in terms of traffic, apply for the program on Linkshare (or Amazon, if that’s what you prefer) and implement the affiliate links strategically on your site. The earnings, in the beginning, are always small, but remember, the more content you produce, the more keywords you’ll be indexed and hence, more online visibility from the search engines.
What’s Your Lego Inspiration?
Lego has always driven many of us to build creative things and when an opportunity like Lego affiliate program comes along, I think it’s worth something to pursue. Now, you can literally build an online business partnering with one of the most reputable toy brands on the planet. I bet it’s going to be a fun adventure ahead.
I hope this review has inspired you in some ways, and if you like to learn more about running an affiliate business, hop over to my recommended training platform to get started for free. See you there!
As Toy-R-us is shutting down many of its stores, l foresee that many Lego lovers will be purchasing their toys through Amazon or the main site in the future. I think this has huge opportunity for affiliates/publishers to capture on this market, providing more insightful values.
Definitely a profitable geek hobby, if you asked me.
This sounds like a truly amazing opportunity. Lego was one of my favorite toys as a kid and I can see why it can become a popular vendor with affiliate marketers. Is it possible to promote Lego through other blog sites with your referral links, or do you definitely have to buy your own domain and create a personal website?
Hi Solomon, the latter would definitely be a better choice. It’s called spamming if you start bombarding other people’s site or forums with your links. Plus, they may not approve of it easily. If it’s your own blog, you are free to publish the links wherever and whenever you want. I would definitely go with a niche website for this one.
I feel that the marketing opportunities with Lego are near enough endless – it’s so popular among kids, and it probably will always be.
The main link I’d jump onto is the Star Wars Lego. Star Wars is a HUGE geek subject and so popular in the internet world so this kind of Lego must be easy to cover in articles, especially for a Star Wars fan.
Are there any requirements needed to be reached by new affiliates applying for their program?
Hi Chris, there isn’t any mention of basic requirements on their affiliate program page so I don’t think they are that strict. Don’t take my word for it though. Send them an email to find out more if you are interested.
Hi Cathy,
Interesting article on building a business based on Lego products. It reminded me of my childhood and my Lego inspiration. I have always liked building things with the kids using Lego blocks, but never got into buying the more expensive kits.
It is easy to see that if you can market to a group of people buying those high end range, the commissions can really add up quickly! Lot’s of great information here for someone who wants to profit from this niche.
I remember playing with Legos as a little kid so it’s quite exciting to see that they run an affiliate programs. What do you think about having kids join the affiliate program? With supervision from their parents of course. I’d like to think kids are the best judge of toys and can make excellent reviewers while making money.
Hi Jessie, it’s not impossible for kids to become a reviewer. Ryan Toys Review is a popular channel on YouTube and this kid is already making as much as $11 million dollars! But all the programs/website/videos must be managed by the parents. I think a kid should just have fun while mom and dad go about the marketing process.