https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/reverse-engineering-money-s01e04-money-from-onlin

[healzer]

The goal of the series is to learn new ways to build and manage digital businesses.
You will learn how other people structure their online empires and how you can do it as well.
Instead of lurking around and waiting for a magic money making guide, we shall take measures into our own hands. If you missed episode 04, click here.

Disclaimer: All research, content, facts and figures are obtained without the intention of causing any harm to any business whatsoever. All information is obtained through legal and public ways using services such as Google and/or other websites.
---------

Most of us have heard of Tumblr, it's a great source to get images from (legally / illegally) and re-post them on other networks (IG, Pinterest, Facebook, ...). But Tumblr is more than that and there is a huge potential in it.

Since Tumblr is so commonly used for getting content from, a smart guy/gal can make use of this scenario. For instance, if you have a semi popular Tumblr account then there is a high chance someone is re-uploading your images elsewhere. If they are also re-posting your description(s), it means they could be promoting your products/website/links. You can even watermark your images with your website's URL, this way you have additional traffic sources done for you
All of this is great right? Let us now look at some online businesses which appear to be using Tumblr to make money.

Tumblr is well known for fashion, design and art.
Thus accounts as GLAM ANGEL are quite popular.

Profile screenshot:

A few days ago this account had a post:
https://glamxangel.tumblr.com/post/161741811462/mua-princess-use-code-muaprincess-at
unfortunately this post is now removed/deleted and I haven't taken a screenshot of it.
However, it was promoting a certain product from some website.
Initially I thought it was their website and/or product, but since it's now gone (and they have no other promotional posts) it means someone paid them to post it (and leave it for a few hours or days).

Notice that quite a lot of their posts are just re-blogs from other accounts.


Here's another account which appears to be quite popular: it's raining
Screenshot:

Many of their posts are promoting products through affiliate programs.
For instance this one it's raining
When you look in the description you will see a bunch of affiliate links to the products:

Here's another one: it's raining
notice that here the affiliate program is of some Korean website.

And a final one (here they use ZAFUL's affiliate program):
it's raining

The cool thing about reverse engineering other businesses is that we can figure out which affiliate programs they are using. To be honest I was expecting that many bloggers would be using Amazon or Etsy's program, but as it appears in this case they are promoting products from various programs and not a single drop of Amazon to be spotted As so many people are biased to use CJ, Amazon, Etsy, ... they ignore the smaller ones which could have higher&fast payouts, better images, etc.

Here is another business: Lynn Gunn Clothing
Screenshot:

I like this one because they target a certain audience (black clothing, rock music, ...) yet they utilize the exact same marketing tactic as the one before. The difference is that some of their affiliate links are cloaked using goo.gl for some reason.

Finally, I noticed that Tumblr is NOT only about fashion.
Have a look at this: Toy & Color Blog
Screenshot:

Can we at least agree that this website is the definition of "art", I mean WOW.

At first sight I thought this was a pure fan-art blog, but if you look closely you will find treasures.
Most of their posts are just art, but whenever they post pictures of physical items/products they usually come with links to Etsy, or Amazon (yes, finally found one):

The screenshot above is a post which promotes toys from Amazon using the Amazon Associates program.

Also notice that many of their uploads have quite a lot of notes (likes & reblogs) which is pretty crazy.
So many of us (including myself) are limited to more mainstream niches (fashion & jewelry), but there are soooo many crazy niches and industries which have almost no competition (compared to the bigger ones) and could be ten times more profitable.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)