Good Plan For Instagram Monetization?

I have a 70k Instagram account in the cat niche, gaining close to 1k a day now. I want to monetize it and after receiving lots of advice, I want an opinion on my final plan.

Option 1:

I am buying a domain that is my Instagram username, and, for now, the site will be one big shop, selling cat related things such as phone cases, clothes, calendars, cat accessories, anything cat. I will sell these as an affiliate of the site selling them such as PetSmart, Amazon (if I'm desperate), or a lot of other pet ones.
While this will be my main source of income, I plan on also having a CPA offer to make additional money. Due to the fact that there are very few cat (if any) CPA offers I'm planning on just using a free iPhone email submit one, since all my traffic will be mobile I'm sure people would be willing to enter a contest to win an iPhone (do you guys agree or would you suggest a different offer?).

As well, to reach the CPA offer I plan on putting a custom made banner on my site after every 8 items in the store (rows of 4) that is legit looking and says something along the lines of "Support myigusername and enter a contest to win a free iPhone!" so that people will be more likely to click it. This picture would redirect to the landing page and from there they can enter their email and make me money.


OR


Option 2

They click on my site from Instagram and it takes them to a page that has two links: "Enter to Win A Free IPhone" which redirects to the CPA offer or "Go To The Store" which takes them to the store and then have the exact same thing as Option 1 where it's the store and every 8 items there's still a picture that redirects them to the CPA offer. This way they can see the CPA offer before they even get to the store so it's a higher chance of them actually entering their email since the CPA offer will probably generate more money than my store (due to low % payments from Amazon Affiliates and that cat products are cheap).

Does this sound like a good idea? What would you change to make it better?

Thank you for any advice you guys give

EDIT: Was just looking at Amazon and it says you can earn up to 8.5% of the sale... That's basically like a quarter per sale for me at most. Looks like the CPA offer is going to be the main money maker for me....

Pretty good idea keeping the shop in relation to your page but why not have a amazon store then get a percentage of anything that someone u refer to amazon buys.

SeoElf said:

Pretty good idea keeping the shop in relation to your page but why not have a amazon store then get a percentage of anything that someone u refer to amazon buys.

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Amazon store? Is there a difference between this and being an Amazon affiliate? Because my plan was for the store on my site to have products from Amazon and be an affiliate so I would get a percentage of the sale. However I was wondering if any other store sites offer affiliate programs so that I can have more of a selection to choose from?

EDIT: Was just looking at Amazon and it says you can earn up to 8.5% of the sale... That's basically like a quarter per sale for me at most. Looks like the CPA offer is going to be the main money maker for me...

Ok just thought of another option and updated main post, let me know what you think!

Definitely option #1. I think if you'll do option #2 you'll just put an unnecessary step for your visitors. Maybe instead of putting a banner with CPA offer between the products you could just make a sticky header or footer.

I doubt that you make too much money with untargeted trafic to iPhone CPA offers, and as you said it might be hard to find cat related CPA offers so Amazon store is most likely better option.

What I would do is that I would implement your option B then analyze your results after few days and then drop the other option and keep the better converting one as a final solution. Instead of using two links on the landing page split your traffic 50% - 50% to both offers using piece of PHP code.

tok997 said:

Definitely option #1. I think if you'll do option #2 you'll just put an unnecessary step for your visitors. Maybe instead of putting a banner with CPA offer between the products you could just make a sticky header or footer.

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I think I'll try doing both options and seeing which one converts better. Option 1 allows the CPA offer to be more visible while Option 2 makes it easier for them to get to the store.

laowai said:

I doubt that you make too much money with untargeted trafic to iPhone CPA offers, and as you said it might be hard to find cat related CPA offers so Amazon store is most likely better option.

What I would do is that I would implement your option B then analyze your results after few days and then drop the other option and keep the better converting one as a final solution. Instead of using two links on the landing page split your traffic 50% - 50% to both offers using piece of PHP code.

Click to expand...

I feel like anyone would be willing to win a free iPhone so like you said, I'll try it and see how well it converts. I also think doing a store from a different site (like PetSmart) would be more beneficial since the commission rates are better, the products are more expensive, and it has more authority for pet products than Amazon does. I don't understand the 50%-50% part of your reply though. Do you mean have a 50% chance to be redirected to the store and a 50% chance to be redirected to the iPhone offer when they click my URL? If so, I think having the 2 links on one page and having the store or offer open in a new tab when clicked would be better.

I don't understand the 50%-50% part of your reply though. Do you mean have a 50% chance to be redirected to the store and a 50% chance to be redirected to the iPhone offer when they click my URL? If so, I think having the 2 links on one page and having the store or offer open in a new tab when clicked would be better.

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Yes, I meant redirecting users rather than making a page with only two links which could potentially turn some people already away.

laowai said:

Yes, I meant redirecting users rather than making a page with only two links which could potentially turn some people already away.

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But then wouldn't some people never even reach the store?

Personally I think Option 1# would be the better choice.
"WIN FREE ****" promos are generally seen as scams by many, so if I get brought to a page with an option of an offer or store, I'll question the legitimacy of the store.
Might even scrap the CPA offers or find one that is not so obvious and extremely related to your niche.
Depends on how long-term steady you want your store to be I guess.

If you wanted to have a third option try something like this.

More fun than Instagram and Twitter! Get This App Now >> {{Insert Link Here}}.

Of course the link would be a popular application for mobile devices.

Jovsta said:

Personally I think Option 1# would be the better choice.
"WIN FREE ****" promos are generally seen as scams by many, so if I get brought to a page with an option of an offer or store, I'll question the legitimacy of the store.
Might even scrap the CPA offers or find one that is not so obvious and extremely related to your niche.
Depends on how long-term steady you want your store to be I guess.

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if i go with option 1 do you still suggest I have the banners with the CPA offer?

I think that's a question you must ask yourself on your business model. It really depends on how you want customers perceive your online store.
Do you think you can make enough money just from sales through your instagram without CPA offers?
Maybe you can run test periods, so run your store without CPA banners for 2 weeks and then run the next 2 with them and see what your results are.

Like I said earlier, having CPA offers on a store you want to look professional/legit is a pretty risky thing - but test what works and stick with it!

I like the first option more. You second option is a hand-me-dawn idea imo

nameless7 said:

I like the first option more. You second option is a hand-me-dawn idea imo

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What exactly do you mean by that?

Hit me up in a PM if you'd like to Skype, seeing that I am new to IM but have experience in e-commerce; we may have things to learn from each other
(I can't PM due to not enough posts)