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Hello everyone and welcome back. There are plenty of niches out there that can be good earners for your online business.
Some of them might not fall into the classic evergreen niches but they still have a lot to offer anyone starting an affiliate marketing business.
So today I thought I would take a look at a toy micro-niche that fits the bill. Specifically the hot wheels/diecast models niche.
Hot Wheels is a brand name but it is used pretty commonly to describe small diecast cars, which is exactly what I want to look at today.
Can You Make Money Selling Hot Wheels? There is a lot to like about diecast models/Hot Wheel cars as a blogging niche. Diecast models, in general, have a passionate fanbase, there is a huge diversity of products and they have a solid group of affiliate programs to choose from, making them an ideal place to start making money online.
So let’s dive in, take a look at this toy sub-niche and find out if it is something you might want to tackle with your online marketing business,
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Sorting Out Your Webhosting And Domain
First things first. You are going to need to find a place to publish all your great Hot Wheels related content. I always recommend having a place that you can call your own for your online business and that ultimately means a website hub.
You can use YouTube for your content but you will have to follow their ever-changing rules or run the risk of losing your Channel. That is why your own branded domain is so important to the success of your online business.
There are hundreds of places you can purchase a domain and web hosting. Which one is best for you is going to be determined by how much you want to spend and how good you want the hosting to be.
In my experience, there is not a huge difference for most starter tier shared web hosting solutions. Here are some things to consider.
- Speed
- Uptime
- Cost
- Customer Service
Speed and uptime should be the main concern for a new affiliate marketer. You need to have your site up as much as possible and as fast as possible. You can easily spend a few hours researching your web hosting options and get your site up and running in short order.
Here are a few options that are very popular among affiliate marketers. Some of the following are affiliate links.
BlueHost
Bluehost is the most popular web hosting solution. It is also one of the most divisive. Some people love it and some people hate it. I have never really been able to figure out where all the hate comes from.
In my experience it works just fine, I have used it to start a couple of websites and never had any major problems with it. You can check out Bluehost here.
SiteGround
Another very popular option is SiteGround. Everyone who hates Bluehost seems to love SiteGround and vice versa. I don’t have any experience with them so I can’t say for sure but they are well-liked and widely used. Get more Info on SiteGround Here
SiteRubix
Site Rubix is the web hosting used by Wealthy Affiliate’s training platform. This is another divisive web hosting solution. There is a lot of hate out there for Wealthy Affiliate but most of it is unfounded.
At any rate there hosting solution is actually quite good. It is pretty fast and the customer service is top-notch. You can check it out below.
WP Engine
WP Engine is a more expensive option and one that I would not recommend to brand new affiliate marketers. It is better left to older websites that need more bandwidth for traffic.
However, if you are looking for a more advanced web hosting solution and willing to pay a bit extra this might be just what you are looking for. You can check out WP Engine here.
Wrapping Up And A Word On Domains
You can get domains just about anywhere you want. Always try to get a domain with privacy included with the cost of the domain. Typically new domains run about $15 dollars a year so it is a pretty small outlay.
Just remember that my suggestions for webhosting are just that. You can find hundreds of other hosting solutions and many of those might be just what you are looking for. Shop around and fine the best for you.
Starting Your Hot Wheels Niche Blog
Now that you have your hosting settles it’s time to focus on exactly the type of blog you want to create. Typically this falls into 3 categories. An Info Blog, An Affiliate Marketing Niche Site, Or A Hybrid Site.
All 3 of them are pretty viable for a diecast model or Hot Wheels niche site, but I think a hybrid or a straight up affiliate site would probably work the best.
The Info Blog
The info blog relies on leveaging advertising onsite in order to make its money. As the title suggests this is a blog or website made up of almost completely informational content.
There may be an affiliate link added to the articles for a certain Hot Wheels car when it is reasonable to do so but there are few if any buyer intent articles designed to get people to click on affiliate links.
Informational keywords tend to be a bit easier to rank for, although there will still be some competition. But rarely on the level of the buyer intent review type keywords.
The downside is that you need to generate much more traffic to an informational site to make it a full time income. Affiliate marketing is much more lucrative especially when you are just startign out.
With time and ad supported informational site can churn out consistent income for years with just a little maintenance.
The Affiliate Site
The affiliate site focuses solely on using affiliate links to generate the income for the site. Affiliate sites tend to focus on buyer intent articles like reviews and best of lists (we’ll get into these a bit later).
The pros for this type of site is that they require less traffic to make money and are typically much faster that Advertising heavy info sites.
The downside is that the keywords tend to be much more competitive and it can be more difficult to rank on search engines. Still, with good keyword research, this is a great place to start your business.
Reviews or lists of Diecast models would be a great example of the type of content that you will want for an affiliate niche site.
The Hybrid Site
The hybrid niche site is just what it slounds like. It utilizes both affiliate marketing and advertising for its montetization. Hybrids are becoming more popular as most affiliate marketers look to diversify their income.
While it may seem like a good idea to use a hybrid site every time you create a new niche site, there are some drawbacks. The biggest is that advertising slows your site down somewhat.
A pure affiliate site is going to be quite a faster than a hybrid or a full advertising site. Still hybrid is probably the best option for most affiliate marketers out there.
The best way that I have found to build a hybrid niche site is to have advertising display on the informational posts and not on the affiliate pages.
This gives you the best of both worlds. Fast affiliate pages and info pages that can augment your income with the advertising.
However, I would wait to ad advertising to your info pages until you get a solid stream of traffic flowing through your site.
Monetize Your Blog
There are quite a few ways to monetize your blog or YouTube channel. Patreon and similar services are options if you have an established community.
However, there are 3 ways to make money with your content that are going to be the bread and butter of your online business.
Let’s check them out now.
Advertising On You Niche Blog
Advertising is a pretty simple way to monetize your website. Typically you want to use ads for informational content. It is very possible to build a full-time income using just advertising and informational content.
All you need for advertising to generate income is to get traffic to your site and hope someone clicks on an ad. It doesn’t matter where the traffic comes from and you don’t need to sell anything in order to make a profit.
Affiliate Programs For A Hot Wheels Niche Site
Affiliate programs are the best way to make money with your Hot wheels niche site when you are just starting out. You can earn some money with much less traffic than advertising and you don’t have the established audience needed for an info product.
Affiliate marketing is pretty simple, not easy, but simple. You add you affiliate links to your content and when someone uses your link to make a purchase you get a commission.
Where do you get an affiliate link you ask? From affiliate programs. In this case we want to find affiliate programs that sell Hot Wheels or other diecast models.
Here are some affiliate programs that would work well within the Diecast/Hot Wheels niche.
- Amazon Associates – The big bully on the block. Low commissions but a great conversion rate most of the time
- Diecast Models Wholesale – One of the best affiliate programs for Diecast models in general. Join Here.
- Target – Another huge retailer, especially in the United States. This can be a great alternative to Amazon in the diecast niche or in any toy niche for that matter. You can get more info on the Target Affiliate program here.
There are plenty of other options. You can check out general toy affiliate programs and well as model affiliates to find other options. These are just 3 of the best that I have found.
Does Hot Wheels Have An Affiliate Program?
I have not been able to locate a Hot Wheels affiliate program from the manufacturer. Nor could I find an affiliate program for Mattel, the makers of Hot Wheels. You will have to use 3rd party affiliates, like Amazon for your affiliate programs.
Informational Products
I am not sure that informational products would really work well for a diecast metal car/hot wheels niche site. There may be some possibilities but it is going to take someone deeply embeded in this niche to come up with somethign workable.
Typically informational products work best in hand-on niches like art, gardening, woodworking, and photography just to name a few. If you can think of an angle, Info products can be one of the most lucrative ways to monetize your content.
The Wrap Up TLDR
That just about wraps up our look at the Diecast car niche. Both diecast cars in general and Hot Wheels specifically can be a pretty good source of income for your online business.
Just keep in mind that some of the Hot Wheels can be quite low in price so you will need to have a good amount of traffic if you focus on Hot Wheels specifically.
Diecast cars and models can run into the hundreds of dollars so less traffic is needed if you focus on the higher-priced diecast cars.
Overall, I think you will find the diecast niche full of money making opportunities with a passionate audeince that has a good degree of disposable income.
Adding a diecast or Hot Wheels section onto an existing toy blog is a great way to expose your readers to these wonderful metal cars.
In the end, this is another fantastic niche that some intrepid affiliate makreters can make their own and build a solid business around. If that be you then I wish you the best of luck.
Remember most affiliate marketers fail because they never start. Don’t look back at what might have been, Get started today.
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