Halloween is such a fun holiday.
This time also means people will be heading out to spend a ton of money on costumes, candy, party supplies, and more.
Though it’s only a few weeks away it still gives us enough time to quickly put together a niche website and capitalize on the consumer trends.
The following is going to be a complete blueprint you can use to get one of these Halloween niche websites up and running this afternoon.
Take what you learn from this and then begin applying it for other holiday niches, too.
Okay, let’s get started …
Step 1: Setup the Halloween Niche Website
We’ve already done an extensive look at setting up a website but since this site is going to cater to the Halloween niche there are a few notes we’d like to add (along with a few suggestions for giving it a proper look and feel for the holiday).
Domain
The domain should carry some kind of Halloween feel but shouldn’t be limited by the year which many seem to do such as HalloweenCostumes2013.com. The reason to avoid dates is that you’ll want to come back to this niche site next year and have it relevant to new holiday trends.
A few suggestions would be something like:
- BestHalloweenCostumes.com
- TheSpookyCorner.com
- TrickOrTreat.com
These, arguably, have been taken but it should give you a decent idea on where to start.
Here is a list of Halloween “terms” that you can start with: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/wordlist/halloween.shtml
Themes
Now, the theme is going to be slightly different than your usual run-of-the-mill website theme. What you want to do is keep it Halloween-centric which will give off the appropriate vibe. The site will look and feel more catered to the offers. This should also apply to your marketing campaigns such as email or social media activities.
Here are a few that I’ve found:
This should only set you back about $30 – $50 which isn’t bad considering you could probably repurpose it at a later time for other spooky holidays or events.
Structure
Now we move onto the structure which is actually quite basic because it’ll revolve around the products you’ll be promoting. If I were you I’d make the structure as follows:
- Home
- Costumes
- Party Supplies
- Spooky Videos and Sounds
- Blog
- About
This should give you enough to begin making posts and pages around costumes, parties, and other media that’s the main money-makers of the niche.
Step 2: Find a Halloween Niche Affiliate
Before you begin I’d recommend that you read our guide to finding products that sell.
My best recommendation would to do the following:
- Use keyword tools to find the most requested terms and phrases for Halloween
- Check out the major shopping portals and find the hot sellers
- Monitor keywords like “Halloween” and “Costumes” on Twitter
- Setup Google Alerts for Halloween-related news which you could leverage for trends
There are a ton of supplies for Halloween items and you’re in no way limited to just doing the few item suggestions I’ve mentioned. You could go deeper into the niche, if you have time, to offer things like banners, fog machines, games, safety items, lighting, and more.
Here are a few Halloween shops that have affiliate programs:
- HalloweenExpress.com affiliate program
- SpiritHalloween.com affiliate program
- CostumeSuperCenter.com affiliate program
Note: You could always use Amazon for your affiliate offers, too.
Step 3: Cater to Spooky Content
The content you’ll push on your website is actually really simple and can be broken down into a formula.
Keep these in mind:
- X [replace with a number]
- Y [replace with customer type]
- Z [replace with monetary amount]
For example, you could write costume-related suggestion posts such as: Top 10 Best Werewolf Costumes for Children or 20 Spooky Costumes under $50.
You get the idea.
Here are some more ideas for content:
- How to setup an awesome Halloween party
- How to stay safe during Halloween
- 10 Frightening Zombie Costumes
Play with the format and use our list of thought-provoking ways to develop content ideas.
Remember to keep them centered around Halloween; take full advantage of the search terms and phrases you find in the keyword research tools, what people are saying on social media, and compiling your notes about the hot sellers.
Step 4: Promote like Crazy
You don’t have too much time before Halloween so it’s important that you start promoting, immediately.
A few things you may want to consider:
- Paid advertising on Google or Facebook
- Sponsored tweets
- Sponsored blog posts
- Guest blogging
- Holding a contest
Pull every strategy you can out of your marketing bag.
Now would be a great time to put a budget into effect and push forward with paid advertising since it’ll be the quickest way to gain traffic. From there, I’d recommend having a big contest (that ends soon) to get some social media play. Then, just keep pumping out that content, get it shared, and work with others in the industry to do some traffic exchange.
Step 5: Evergreen the Site for Next Year
The last thing I’d like to mention is the importance of keeping your work evergreen.
What I mean is that, as I had mentioned, try to avoid using date-specific items or relying too heavily on this years’ trends. What you should do is create a niche site that can be used, again, next year.
When the time rolls around, again, you can make a few edits to your lists, pricing, and offers and have it ready to go in half the time compared to the first build.
You’re now prepared to tackle the Halloween niche. Get out there and build!
