Do you know that the drone industry is one of the fastest growing sales in the technology market? According to the Consumer Technology Association, 1.1 million units were sold in 2015 and in 2016, the number doubled to 2.4 million – that’s only in the US alone. Entrepreneurs who are seeking for a profitable niche are already eyeing on this cool electronic gadget.
If you are one of them, this article is going to show you how to start a drone business online with a mere investment of one dollar per day. Are you ready? Let’s go.
Consumer Behaviors In The Drone Niche
We know drone is popular, but who are actively using it and what are they commonly used for? Here are some insights to plan your business ahead.
- Statistic shows that more men use drone than women and younger men tend to be more active than the older ones.
- One out of three internet users are interested to learn more about drones.
- The most popular use is for commercial photography (36%) and video shooting (29%).
- Currently, drone technology costs about the same price as a laptop or a smartphone. In other words, they are fairly affordable.
- Country rules and regulations apply when it comes to flying a drone which may also require having a remote pilot license.
- Drone is operated mostly in rural (33%), urban (26%), remote (26%) and industrial areas (16%).
Which Business Model to Choose
If you are planning to start a business from scratch in this industry, you’ll need to invest million of dollars and gather a massive team for research and production. It’s risky and extremely competitive.
In recent years, a few startups have filed for bankruptcy as a result from not being able to cope financially. Hence, I wouldn’t recommend this route for beginners.
Instead, you may have a better chance of making small recurring profit over a long period of time through affiliate marketing. With this business model, you get to partner with reputable drone companies, promote their products online and earn sales commissions when someone purchase through your recommendation. The cost for inventory is zero which makes the risk extremely low for this type of business model.
As you know, there are plenty of successful drone companies out there and the good news is, a couple of them offer affiliate programs that can be applied for free.
For example, DJI who’s the forerunner in drone manufacturing and technology offers 5-8% in commission for the orders. This means, with a purchase of DJI Phantom P3 that sells for about $500, you could make anywhere between $25 – $40 per sale.
For brands that don’t offer a direct affiliate program, there’s another platform that you can monetize from which is the Amazon marketplace. Through the Amazon Associates program, you can promote a wide range of drone selection but take note that the commission rate is slightly lower at 4%.
Still, there’s money to be made since people usually shop for more than one item, especially when they want free shipping from Amazon. In general, the more products they checkout, the more profit you will make.
What You Need To Get Started
The basic things that you will need to run an affiliate business are;
- A custom domain which costs about $14/year.
- Hosting and a WordPress platform which could cost about $30/year.
- Some online training in affiliate marketing.
So if you do the math, it only comes up to about $1/day to run your business for a year. A domain is basically an address of a website and it should reflect what type of drone topics that you want to talk about.
For example, I did a quick search and found that droneforbeginners.com is still available.
Honestly, I expected such name to have been taken a long time ago, so it’s surprising to see that it is still available. So if you are targeting the beginner’s market, grab this domain before it’s gone.
The Value of Using WordPress
Once you have a custom domain in hand, you may connect to a hosting company that uses WordPress. Within this publisher, there’s a feature called blogging, which will be your biggest arsenal as an affiliate marketer.
Blog posts enable you to publish a ton of information that can educate your readers about drones. These articles will eventually lead to your product reviews where commissions are made.
Blogs are constructed based on keywords which are terms that people used to search for drone topics on Google. These keywords aren’t difficult to find and if you’ve been Googling long enough, you may be aware of this auto-suggest phrases at the bottom when typing in a search term.
These are valuable keywords used by affiliate marketers to target the type of audience that they want for their websites, which in your case, are the people who wants to buy drones.
Another method is to use a keyword tool, where you can attain more metrics such as monthly searches and competition to gauge the value of a particular term before using it. I used Jaaxy Pro for doing keyword research on my niche and it is great for churning out keywords that you never even knew existed.
Affiliate Program Opportunities
As mentioned earlier, there’s never a lack of affiliate programs in the drone industry. People who buy this gadget are also interested to learn how to use them. Hence, one can either recommend good drone models, drone courses or both. These are some companies that you can be affiliated with;
- DJI
- Drones ETC
- Aerix Drones
- Dartdrones
- Aerial Tech
- Udemy
- GoWorx
Now, you must be wondering, can keywords actually point a reader to the right information? I thought I run an experiment to find out. You see, I am new to drone so naturally, the first thing that comes to mind is “how to choose a drone for beginner”. Google suggested a few sites for me.
In that list, one particular blog (the one on the top of the list) stood out and seemed to address my question. The blogger went a great length to explain what type of drone is suitable for a beginner like me. When I clicked on his product review, there’s a link that leads to the Amazon marketplace so obviously he’s an affiliate marketer.
Without a doubt, this would be a site that I would buy from if I am really interested. So in a nutshell, that’s how you sell to customers online through targeted keywords that are optimized for the search engines.
So, Is Drone a Profitable Niche
By 2020, the use of drone is expected to reach 7 million units and over $11 billion dollars in sales. Currently, it’s been widely experimented in surveying crops, aerial construction, security surveillance, wildlife/weather monitoring, package delivery to remote location and many more.
The way I see it, the drone’s functions will only continue to expand as human seek for solutions to the everyday problem around the world. This niche is undoubtedly promising and now is the best time to get involved (psst, it’s only 3 more years to 2020) using all the tips that I’ve just shared on how to start a drone business online.
To learn more about affiliate marketing, please visit my number one training platform for the recommended tools and resources.
What are your thoughts about the drone niche? Do you think it is profitable? Please share your comments with us below.
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Cathy,
Wow I had no ideal that the drone business was so massive and growing that much by the day and used in that many fields. I agree TODAY sounds like a genius time to start a online business based around drones. You were talking about the rules and regulations in each country required to operate drones, but I’m unclear on one thing.
Are there any regulations for selling drones on my website? Do I have to check to make sure someone qualifies before I can legally let them purchase a drone from my site OR can I sell them to anyone wanting to buy the product?
Basically I’m asking, is it just their responsibility to make sure they are acting within the laws and regulations OR am I responsible as well if I have a site that has links selling drones? Do I have to limit who I sell to? I look forward to your response.
Hi Noah. Interestingly, there’s no legal requirement to sell/promote drones online – yet. They can be easily acquired through reputable retailers and drop shipping sites. It’s the act of flying that’s the legal concern here. This is pretty similar to the cannabis niche. While they are widely available online, some countries prohibit the shipping of these products into the consumer market. In my opinion, it’s mostly to prevent people from abusing the products.
I have a friend from New Zealand who bought a drone about 2 years ago, with the intention of starting a business taking aerial photography.
He ended up with one client through a friend who knows a friend. From that point did not make much more business. It’s a tough market as you need experience and some sort of portfolio
This is a great idea that I will put forward to him, as by this time he would know a lot about drones and it would be quite simple for him to promote as an affiliate. Great idea, thanks for the info.
Yeah Jonathan, definitely get him to set up a drone blog and leverage his skills from the online market. The thing about new technology is that sometimes, the audience demographic can be very sparse. Having a website presence can help to put you in front of those people versus promoting one-to-one.
You hit the nail on the head with your growth analysis of the drone industry. I love flying drones, but never even considered making it a business! How great would that be to get paid for what I already love doing?
You have my interest I will admit.
However I am concerned about my knowledge level with computers. You have recommended a training platform, so my question is how much knowledge do I need to get started? Is there a good support staff to help me along my way? That seems to be a big factor to me.
Hi Brendon, you certainly don’t need any tech savvy knowledge to get started in any type of online business. In the Wealthy Affiliate training area, there are community and website support to help you along the way. Just ask, and someone will reach out to you.
Hey Cathy, Thanks for this awesome article about drones. Technology is advancing faster than we expect and frankly, I only realized more about drones in 2016. And that was when I learn it is called a drone. Looking at it now, this gadget is great for capturing visuals and as a result, is helping people make more money in their respective industries.
This is something I would look into as a business opportunity especially in the area of affiliate marketing.
Woah, that’s a great niche! Never knew it’s getting so popular with all that keywords and trends online. There seems to be several ways to enter this niche and I am pretty sure with diligent research, one can rank and do some nice sales. Will definitely keep this product idea in mind.