One of the easiest ways to cash in on the popularity of the Pokémon Go phenomenon is to focus on affiliate sales of physical products. After all, this AR game is based on the other video games, which are originally based on the collectible trading card game that is and always has been a HUGE seller with kids of all ages. A quick look at Amazon’s best sellers in Collectible Card Games shows a whopping 11 of the top 20 best-selling items are Pokémon-related.
Some of the other items in the top 20 are things like protective sleeves for the cards, so you could even see sales on those, too. Plus there are things like binders, starter packs, and collectible card packs with pins and badges that kids (and adults) can collect. These things sell consistently anyway, but with lots of newbies discovering Pokémon for the first time, now’s a great time to cash in on those people looking to get into the trading card phenomenon as well as the free app on their phones.
The Pokémon franchise also includes things like clothing, hats, backpacks, toys, video games, and books, all of which can be found on Amazon.
Here are some top-selling items that feature Pokémon from Amazon that you might like to promote:
- www.amazon.com/Assorted-Pokémon-Trading-Cards-Bonus/dp/B000WD3XBI
- www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Pokémon-3-Ring-Binder/dp/B00H4E6QI0
- www.amazon.com/Pokémon-Clip-Carry-Poké-Styles/dp/B00IL795W8
- www.amazon.com/Charizard-Ex-Box-Pokémon-TCG/dp/B00JDCLXFC
- www.amazon.com/Pokémon-Small-Plush-XY-Pikachu/dp/B00GGKKXC8
- www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Pokémon-Ketchum-Embroidered-Size-/dp/B007CEWAIC
Selling Kids’ Collectible Items
Look for a boom in popularity of kids (and grownups) dressing as Ash, the boy Pokémon trainer from the animated series, for Halloween this year. Ash cosplay could be lucrative, too. Plus, because most of the items related to Pokémon are low-cost, there’s a good chance parents will add other items to their order to qualify for free shipping, so although you may not earn big affiliate income from the Pokémon items, you could still see sales from the additional items purchased at the same time.
There are several ways you could promote these physical items. If you happen to already have a site that promotes toys or video games, you’re set. Just promote Pokémon-related items.
If you don’t have one, you could grab a cheap domain to promote products. I would steer clear of anything with Pokémon in the domain name in case you run into copyright issues, but you could create a toy site, one for collectible trading cards, or one that caters to geeks and gamers. These will all allow you to extend your promotion beyond the Pokémon franchise and include other trending products.
This is likely to have better long-term results, but if you just want to cash in on the Poke-craze, throw up a free WordPress site and promote affiliate links on it. Better yet, create YouTube videos reviewing the products on Amazon. Be sure to give useful information in the videos about how to find Pokémon in the Pokémon Go game, how to train and power up your Pokémon in the video games, or any other Pokémon-related trivia and tips. The more helpful you are in your videos or blog posts, the better.
Have fun seeing how many different Pokémon-related products you can find to promote to your followers. In fact, just have fun with this phenomenon, period. Yes, it’s a great opportunity to make money on a trending craze, but it should also be a fun way to interact with your followers and enjoy a game that’s fun for all ages.
Free Wifi.
If you own a restaurant or busy shop, you can offer wifi and advertise that patrons are welcome to play Pokémon Go in the premises. You can promote your premises with Lure Modules when traffic is low, as these are timed to 30 minutes. Players will learn to come when you aren’t too busy.
When normal traffic is high, you can reduce the available bandwidth so that people don’t play on the premises. Remember this is a strategy to increase sales, so your prime time should not be interfered with unless players are more lucrative. Players will learn to keep away at such times.
Offer Discounts and Freebies to Visitors. The level of Freebee can increase based on experience level.
This is another great way to increase traffic through your business. Connecting with the players makes your business a partner in the game as well. A clever suggestion is to offer discounts to the winners if you are a Gym. You don’t have to be playing to know who has won. A better idea is to keep asking which team is winning. In any case, the winners will promptly let you know they are due for discounts.
For the freebies, you simply tell them to show you the screen of their mobile phones to confirm their level. You could also have a hall of fame, where you record the player with the highest trainer level or Pokemon Combat Power recorded on any day. Not only will this provide a standard for others to strive to, it will attract players to find out who the neighbourhood’s reigning champion is.
If anyone has a higher level they will of course come forward and want to remain around to know if someone else beats him/her. This in turn creates a magnet for high level players, making your place the place to come see the champions and learn from them. Be careful to treat the champions like champions. They will bring you even more traffic as humans want to be associated with people greater than themselves.
Offer Pokémon Go-Specific Taxi Services.
Pokémon Go doesn’t recognize any distance travelled at more than the speed of walking. A normal taxi ride will therefore not work. You need to drive very slow, at a maximum of about 15 MPH. Unless this is in a very crowded street, most taxis will want to zoom past.
If you know all the PokéStops and Gyms in the area you can offer to take players around the circuit. Not only will they be grateful, they will come again and again. If you have a taxi chain, the players will seek you out in other cities when travelling.
The other difference between Pokémon taxis and ordinary taxis is that they are more like tour vans and city site touring buses than taxi cabs. They don’t just take people from one point to another, but from many points to many points. They also wait for the passengers at each point to complete their mission before proceeding to the next point.
Provide Smartphone charging services.
This is especially useful in eateries and restaurants. As they replenish their energy levels for the next few hours they can charge their phones. Pokémon Go is notorious for draining battery power, so whoever can provide this service will be a darling. Typically it is at times like these that people see the need for power banks, which, if you stock, you’ll soon like Pokémon Go for.
Phone charging outlets tend to be more practical where the phone will not be separated from the owner. A very convenient place is at the table in an eatery. Since phones don’t charge instantaneously, the patrons will find it more decent to buy a full meal that will take at least 20 minutes to eat than just a snack, especially if they come when it is packed.
Word of caution. You don’t want to have the chargers outside your shop. That is money down the drain. Not only will it not bring in any traffic, it is very likely that it will cause unnecessary, non value-add traffic outside your premises from people who’ll never purchase from you. All investment must have return on investment. Make it difficult for those who aren’t your customers to benefit from your incentives for your customers. The same way you wouldn’t think of having an open wifi hotspot, instead requiring one to be a patron to get the password, is the same way you should protect your investment for client attraction.
It also goes without saying that if you end up selling extra batteries or power banks then it is best to have them sold from the same cashier who takes payment for food if possible. That way it’s not a separate business line.
Offer a service to use people’s phones to travel and hatch Pokémon for their clients.
There’s a whole website dedicated to this. Remember the eggs? Remember they hatch by walking? Yes, this business simply walks your phone for you to hatch your eggs. It’s more like cheating on the game, but hey, at least they are playing the game, right? Typical charges range from $5 – $2 per Km depending on the distance. The shorter the distance, the more the unit cost. http://www.pokewalk.com/
A great way to attract clients is to have a restaurant and work with walkers. When fans come for lunch or dinner, they can hand over their phones to walk for the duration of their meal. The client will trust the walker because the eatery is a permanent business, and will buy a solid meal to eat while the phone is walking. This is of course encouraged when there is little traffic in the eatery, not when it is peak.
Gear Gallery App: Take pictures with Pokémon and enter contests to win cash!
This works for the social media site. If you have competitions where you ask players to post pictures with Pokémon, then the picture with the most likes wins. This provides free advertisement!
Create a training guide app and monetize with Google Ads, Pandora, Youtube Ads
There will always be those who lag behind in adopting technology, the ones who get to know after everyone else. They usually want to know everything that the early adopters know. This kind of knowledge will not be available adhoc from social interactions but from thought-out guides. The older generation, the upper middle class, journalists especially from other countries where Pokémon isn’t a phenomenon, and those who could be studying it for academic purposes, will want something more than a How to Log In guide.
Alternatively you can sell brochures listing all the Gyms and Pokémon stops in your city, obviously branded with your logo and location as well. These brochures can also be given out free of charge to any client who buys something in your shop. Not only will it drive sales, you can put it up on your social media outlets so that any visitors to the city knows that your shop is the first stop in the city.
Sell Pokémon Go Accounts.
Craigslist and eBay are replete with Pokémon Go accounts for those who want to harvest without planting. This provides opportunities for those with lots of time on their hands to walk around accumulating levels then selling them off. According to Time Magazine, Jackson Wares spent 15 hours collecting over 300 items including over 50 Pokémon.
Disclaimer: This practice is against Pokémon Go’s Terms of Service, and could result in getting your account deactivated.
Pokémon for Corporate Social Responsibility.
As the game was designed to be played while walking, there are great opportunities created by this homogenous profile of a client. Not only can you provide water and treats, you can go a step further. You could hold a team-based weight-loss contest, providing a scale for customers and offering a discount or reward to the team who loses the largest percentage of weight after the allotted time. Not only will the players be excited, they will know that their playing will not be in vain.
Pokémon Go has also been recommended for those who are depressed. Many depression patients have been known to have left their homes after several months and interacted with friends and strangers after playing the game. Providing this information on the benefits of Pokémon Go, complete with weight loss guides and how to maximize benefits from Pokémon could provide great CSR initiatives.
Affiliations with Winning Teams.
Pubs and clubs have liked to associate themselves with winning sports teams. That way patrons who admire and follow those teams join out of loyalty.
Imagine the same for Pokémon Go! Imagine if your shop was associated with the local winning team. Imagine if the experts with the most levels and expertise get discounts or free meeting venues for their teams. What can that do to your business? Whether it’s a pub, club, eatery, pizzeria or just a fashion store, association with the local winning team will mean that at least the members of the winning team will patronize your premises.
The most lucrative small business opportunities seem to be a combination of several of the above models. Some chauffeurs have discovered that combining their core business with training works very well. Not only do they guide their clients on how the game works, showing them the ropes, they also take them to the PokéStops and Gyms. The complete package seems to be very popular for those who want to catch up quickly. Not only are they saved the trouble of walking or driving at the risk of crashing, they move up much faster.
Another less obvious advantage of this combination is that each trainer, or player, pays for themselves even if they all use the same taxi cab at exactly the same time. Since the service is not just transportation, they cannot argue that the car is going to the same destination anyway. How is that for extra revenue? This allows the chauffer to offer group discounts without the clients feeling cheated. Mark, from the Gold Coast, made $200 in just 4 hours of work.
http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/entertainment/gold-coast-residents-making-money-by-driving-Pokémon-go-players-to-catch-them-all/news-story/0febb08898865b3ea07654b8447e0e90
