[SilverGuy]

We will soon be launching our second site, which will be devoted to higher end handcrafted one-of-a-kind jewelry. I have gathered that product-specific data feeds are the big thing, but most of what we will be selling will have an inventory of just one for each item. This seems to defeat the purpose of such data feeds.

My question, then, is: Can affiliate marketing be used for stores that sell one-of-a-kind items? If so, what would an affiliate do? "Sell" our brand via banners? I wonder if that would really work.

Thanks!

[Trust]

You can just make product links. How many products total are you talking about?

Oh nevermind, cancel the product links part. One of each item. Text and banner links I guess.

[SilverGuy]

Originally Posted by TrustNo1

You can just make product links. How many products total are you talking about?

Oh nevermind, cancel the product links part. One of each item. Text and banner links I guess.

Does this work? I'm guessing that what drives a customer to a site is a specific product image, not a general banner. I guess I'm really asking what publishers would do with a situation like mine to help me generate sales. I click on products all the time at online malls, but I personally never click on general banners. Maybe I'm unusual.

[Trust]

You can do text links and banners, maybe people have some other ideas?

But one of a kind/uniqueness is a selling point. There are people that like to say, I have this, this is the only one of it in the world.

[Leader]

We will soon be launching our second site, which will be devoted to higher end handcrafted one-of-a-kind jewelry.

That sounds like a hard market, but I'm sure some affs would be able to make sales of it.

I have gathered that product-specific data feeds are the big thing, but most of what we will be selling will have an inventory of just one for each item. This seems to defeat the purpose of such data feeds.

Usually I'm all for mass-distribution of feeds (since most merchants have the same stuff in stock for a long time), but I would suggest NOT mass-releasing a feed for 1-of-a-kind items (assuming of course that they sell at a decent speed) due to a general lack of updating.

Some people, though, are well-equipped to handle high stock churn, and can automatically update daily. These would have the best chance with 1-of-a-kinds on a feed.

Can affiliate marketing be used for stores that sell one-of-a-kind items? If so, what would an affiliate do? "Sell" our brand via banners? I wonder if that would really work.

Probably the best pitch would be if they made up a sales page which talked up your product line in general, and showed 1 or 2 example pix.

But in my experience, you'll get a couple who do that, some who run the feed (if they can get it), and some that just have your banner. And newbs, lots of newbs...

You may get more content sites than I do, since I've got a (well-deserved) reputation for liking sales-oriented sites, and that undoubtedly affects the site-type ratio in my program.

[SilverGuy]

Thanks for your feedback.

[ADesertRose]

It could work but your probably won't get as much traffic off of simple banners than product links, but you really can't do product links if they are one of a kind items. Updating would have to be too often to be worth it. The only other option I see is a dynamic product link that features your latest greatest item so there is always some fresh interesting piece of jewelry to draw a visitor to you.

[DataFeedFile.com]

Well I think you can still do product links and product feeds as long as you keep them updated at least once per day.

The key for marketing unique one of kind product is to keep creating new products, banners and so forth (require lots of time).

[ecomcity]

Overstock dos a good job of selling handcrafted limited qty good through their Worldstock program. Of course banners and sub-category text links will take shoppers to available products. Then too the GoldenCan.com application updates all affiliate sites with available items by category if you update the feed often.