9:13 AM
Dear Friends:
Several people asked if I could reprint the articles or columns I wrote on making money in the pet market.
Ive enclosed some great insight and business savvy advice.
Marc
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Question: Id like to find a way to make money in the pet supplies market. Im watching other people do it, and I think I can do it much better. Please send me your thoughts on this market.
T.P. Atlanta GA
Answer Marc Charles.....
Hi TP -- thanks for the question and post.
I like the pet supplies market......a lot.
Ive also helped a lot of businesses and entrepreneurs in this market too.
Funny thing though........
One of the most sucessful entrepreneurs in this market started out with one of the most pathetic websites Ive ever seen!
So....dont base everything on a "fancy" website.
Look......in my opinion were in a Depression....we passed the so-called "recession" several months ago.
But the pet supplies market online is still going strong. People will always take care of their animals and pets.
This goes for pet sitting, pet walking and pet spas (Im not kidding!).
Heres part of an article I wrote for Early to Rise on the topic:
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Dear Entrepreneur:
People are crazy about their pets. I see it in our house every day. We spent more money this year on special pet food, toys, and treats than we spent going to the movies ... but I didnt realize this was a $34 billion market!
There are several ways to profit in this market. One of the best is by selling pet supplies, toys, and/or specialty foods directly to consumers.
Youll make even more money by targeting pet lovers who regularly shell out big bucks for these items without hesitation.
In todays issue, Ill focus on three opportunities that will enable you to take advantage of this incredible "pet lovers market."
Heres a short list of products and services that are hot sellers (online and off):
* Pet Pages (pet websites and hosting)
* Toys (Forget about squeaking bones, PetCo.com has more than 10,000 different toys to choose from.)
* Pet Insurance (Im not kidding. Premiums start at $1 a day.)
* Pet Yellow Pages
* Pet Adoption Services
* Pet E-mail Newsletters
* Pet Charities
* Pet Grams (sent via e-mail)
* Pet Gift Cards (huge!)
* Pet Shows (Everybody knows how big dog and cat shows are - but horse and bird shows are even bigger.)
* Pet Vitamins and Supplements
* Organic Pet Food (Our cat wont touch it - but its a hot rising trend.)
If you want to launch a business and profit from this market in the offline world (via direct mail), here are 3 simple steps to take:
1. Obtain a mailing list of recent repeat buyers who have purchased pet supplies via direct mail that are in the price range of the products you want to sell.
2. Obtain the names of a pet food manufacturer and/or supplier who is willing to process your customers orders and drop-ship them for you. Here are two such companies: CarefreeVet and Great Eastern Pet Supply.
3. Obtain preprinted catalogs that you can send to qualified prospects. Most pet supply wholesalers, drop-shippers, and affiliates make these available for you to use.
If you dont want to handle telephone orders yourself, you can retain a call center to do it for you. Youll find dozens of call centers that specialize in this type of thing at DMNews.com, or you can do a quick search on Google.
If you prefer to market pet products and services online, Ive got great news. It has never been easier to sell these things on the Internet. Neeps.com, for example, is a specialty pet products retailer that has been very successful in "niche retail." They are ranked among InternetRetailing.coms Top 500.
The primary mechanism for selling pet products and services online is to attract or drive qualified traffic to your website.
You dont have a website? No problem! There are hundreds of companies online that offer instant e-commerce sites or storefronts.
Whats more, sites like eBay, Yahoo! Marketplace, and Amazon.com Marketplace can deliver mind-boggling targeted traffic to your site. Or you can just post an instant mini-store on these traffic monsters.
Pet supplies affiliate programs are another great option.
Affiliate programs offer one of the fastest and easiest ways to profit from the pet products bonanza.
With an affiliate program, all you do is post a unique URL link in search engine keyword advertisements, on targeted high-traffic websites, or in targeted e-mail newsletters. When someone clicks on that link, theyre brought to a pet supplies website. If that person makes a purchase on the website, you receive a commission.
The Petco.com affiliate program pays an 8% commission on sales up to $3,000 per month, and a 14% commission on sales over $15,000 per month.
PetsMart.com pays 15% on monthly sales over $16,000.
The beauty of an affiliate program with strong companies like Petco and PetsMart is they usually stick by their commission structure. (Unlike many small-time operators that revise the commission structure once you start selling like crazy.)
Whats more, companies like Petco carry name brands and offer thousands of products.
Be sure to check out affiliate management companies like Commission Junction and Linkshare too. These guys make it super-easy for entrepreneurs like you and me to make money. Think of them as one-click affiliate superstores.
Two other concepts in the pet market that I like are pet insurance and pet pages (websites for pets).
PetCarePals.com offers pet insurance for $1 a month. You could either start your own company or joint venture with PetCarePals.com as an affiliate. If you choose to go the joint-venture route, your job would be to drive traffic and qualified prospects to their website via your unique pet insurance URL.
And heres the deal with pet websites ...
You could offer your customers dozens of website templates. You can design these pet pages yourself, obtain copyright-free templates on the Web, or hire a freelance designer to do them for you.
You could give the templates away to pet lovers but charge a small annual hosting fee. Or you could give the hosting away and charge for the templates. Its up to you.
If you give the hosting away, reserve the right to post advertising on the pet websites to get extra income.
And thats just for starters ...
Take a look at MyPetPages.com. They offer free pet websites and memorial pages to an active community of like-minded pet lovers. Plus, they make money on advertising by selling pet products as affiliates and with other value-added services.
As you can see, the profit opportunities in the pet lovers market are enormous - online and offline - and nearly endless.
***Fast-Start Tip***
Determine which niche of the pet market you want to sell into.
If you want to sell pet food, products, insurance, and/or toys online, youll need to build a simple (e-commerce friendly) website. Use successful websites as a guide.
If youre not making or developing your own products, youll need to locate a manufacturer or supplier that will process and drop-ship the orders for you. A quick search on Google will provide hundreds of pet supply drop-shippers.
Your marketing efforts will be concentrated on attracting and driving qualified prospects to your site. And there are many ways to do this. You can advertise your products in pet-related e-mail newsletters and on high-traffic pet-related websites. You can also purchase keywords and phrases in the top search engines (like Google, Yahoo!, Lycos, MSN, AOL, and LookSmart).
Hot Tip: Prepaid keyword advertising is becoming even more popular than pay-per-click (PPC). PPC can be very expensive - especially when youre testing dozens or hundreds of keywords. Prepaid keyword ads enable you to determine the cost of your ads upfront. Two leaders in the prepaid keyword advertising area are ExactSeek and ISEDN.org.
Another option is to become an affiliate with a company like Petco.com. Petco.com offers thousands of brands, a streamlined affiliate program, brand recognition, and a good reputation with customers and affiliates.
If you prefer an offline direct-marketing approach, youll need to get your hands on mailing lists of recent repeat pet-product buyers, a manufacturer or supplier to process your orders and drop-ship your products, and a full-color catalog that you can mail to prospects.
As I said, most pet supply wholesalers, drop-shippers, and affiliates make preprinted catalogs available for you to use. Just make sure the order form in the catalog includes a key code so you are credited for all sales.
You could also partner with veterinarians and provide them with pet products on a wholesale level. You can purchase thousands of top-quality pet products from China for pennies on the dollar.
Check out my Importing Riches program while youre at it. This is the best program of its kind on the market - bar none!
If you live near a top pet supplies direct marketer, consider going to work for them on a temporary basis. If youre lucky, that will put you in a position to receive a million-dollar hands-on education. There may also be an opportunity for you to start or develop a new channel for the company, whereby you would receive a percentage of the profits if its successful.
There you have it!
Now you have everything you need to know in order to profit from the $35 billion+ Pet Lovers Market!
Marc Charles
Additional Resources:
Responsive mailing lists
Pet Products Affiliate Programs
Doctors Smith and Foster
1800 PetMeds.com
PupLife
Petco.com
Linkshare
DirectPetSuperstore
PetSmart
Pet Supply and Food Manufacturers (that offer drop-shipping)
Worldwide Brands
PurfectPaw
Exotic Nutrition
Purina Mills
RetailPets.com
Asian Products.com
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