What are the most lucrative offers for expats?

bernard

bernard

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If you have expat related audiences, what would be the most lucrative niches to explore and offer.

List ranked in terms of perceived monetary value:
  1. Real estate
  2. Health insurance
  3. Legal
  4. International school and kindergarten
  5. Retirement counseling
  6. Job and career
  7. Moving and house services
  8. Pets
  9. Dating
  10. Language courses
  11. Fitness and personal training
  12. Nanny and cleaning services
Anything you would rank differently?
 
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Legal advice
Moving services (in fact, any home-related service, such as electricity, plumbing, etc.)
 
ToffeeLa said:
Legal advice
Moving services (in fact, any home-related service, such as electricity, plumbing, etc.)
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Yep, absolutely, added them were I think they fit, legal is obviously very lucrative, but also EAT ridden. On the plus side is that legal services for expats might be more niched down.
 
Monetary value as in a hypothetical CPA or what you would earn from it? Perhaps I'm thinking about this completely differently but some of these I don't think would have much volume and/or you'd have difficulty making the sale. International schools for example don't have affiliate programs and there don't tend to be enough of them to play off in a rank/rent type situation.

I would put language courses higher, probably. Lots of volume, low COGS, possible to make them yourself eventually if you have a face to put on it. Differentiate by making them specifically for whatever type of expats
 
Strike said:
Monetary value as in a hypothetical CPA or what you would earn from it? Perhaps I'm thinking about this completely differently but some of these I don't think would have much volume and/or you'd have difficulty making the sale. International schools for example don't have affiliate programs and there don't tend to be enough of them to play off in a rank/rent type situation.

I would put language courses higher, probably. Lots of volume, low COGS, possible to make them yourself eventually if you have a face to put on it. Differentiate by making them specifically for whatever type of expats
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Good point. I'm thinking overall in terms of both difficulty, volume and earnings. I usually target expensive products, so I'd rather have a small part of a lucrative product niche, than compete for lots of volume and lots of competition. I have enough experience to know that my edge is in really delivering on expensive purchase decisions. Not so much in low barrier to entry stuff.

I do imagine that international school content would have high value for ads, either display or placed ads. You're right that there is probably not that much volume, but it's a very expensive product, tens and thousands in tuition.
 
Don't know if they are any affiliate programs for these, or how high you're looking to target. But luxury things like Net Jets membership (or other private jet programs), yachts, luxury adventure trips, etc.

Regarding real estate, in addition to houses/condos/buildings/land, there are also residences at high end developments. For example, the residences at The Four Seasons, St Regis, Kempinski, Waldorf Astoria, etc. You may be able to cut a deal direct or perhaps sells leads to local real estate agents.

Another is luxury furniture (again, don't know if any companies offer affiliate programs for this) but the price can get up there so might be worth looking into.
 
bernard said:
Good point. I'm thinking overall in terms of both difficulty, volume and earnings. I usually target expensive products, so I'd rather have a small part of a lucrative product niche, than compete for lots of volume and lots of competition. I have enough experience to know that my edge is in really delivering on expensive purchase decisions. Not so much in low barrier to entry stuff.

I do imagine that international school content would have high value for ads, either display or placed ads. You're right that there is probably not that much volume, but it's a very expensive product, tens and thousands in tuition.
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Fair. Having a bit of indirect experience with one of those schools, I'd be a bit wary of how knowledgeable about digital marketing they are. This one was an EU country in a non-EU first world country. a) they were limited by rules set by the parent country as to what they could spend money on, because they relied on the parent country for funding b) for the same reason they couldn't hire forward-thinking marketing people and c) I imagine whatever marketing they did do (the odd sports club sponsorship for example) required the signoff of like a million people. The bureaucracy was mad.

Maybe it's different in other countries, or there are geos where there is heaps of competition in a given city and they go hard at each other in digital spend. But when I read that my first thought was they are the last people in the world I would ever want to try and sell ads/leads/customers to.

I sort of have the same high-ticket approach but only really with public affiliate programs and I don't normally do display ads. Do you often approach companies directly to sell traffic to? I feel like I might not be taking advantage of doing this enough.
 
Strike said:
Do you often approach companies directly to sell traffic to? I feel like I might not be taking advantage of doing this enough.
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No, not usually, but I know there are a lot of real estate, nanny/cleaning, language providers out there. Locally, not necessarily publicly. I don't think it will be difficult to find in any major expat hub. Basically I know it because I know the competition uses them.

I have some different plans here though. I am thinking about trying to go local. Launch my own service sites for some of these things (like cleaning, nanny, moving), then rank-and-renting it, but adding Google Places. Or partnering with someone established that don't have good online presence. You can make easy and large commissions from services and might even add some consultancy on top if you come offering leads and then SEO/PPC services.
 
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Something to consider is the value of a sale/conversion vs sales cycle.

Some things are more transactional than others. Yes, getting a high value property commission is nice, but it can take years of relationship building.

First they move to the country organizing a rental (low value conversion), applying for residency (low value conversion), opening a bank account (low value conversion), and you may help them with a lot of hassles over the next 6-32 months (no-very low value conversions). Only then do you get a commission on a property sale. In many markets your cut will be ~1.5-2% of the total sale price.

There's a lot of opportunity in this market. I know some guys that just do visa/residency applications at volume. Others are worship their prospects doing all sorts of things, but ultimately sell 5 properties a year then spend their time at the beach. Like any industry/niche, you just need to pick the model that is right for you.
 
I'm not sure if organising a rental is a low value conversion.

If the realtor gets a 10% commission on a $2000 monthly rental, then that comes out at $2400 and I think these numbers are relatively standard in the industry. What should I get then? 10% of those 10% for the lead? $240? Not too bad if you ask me, right? Or for an email/phone submit? $20-50?

Am I wrong on those numbers?
 
bernard said:
I'm not sure if organising a rental is a low value conversion.

If the realtor gets a 10% commission on a $2000 monthly rental, then that comes out at $2400 and I think these numbers are relatively standard in the industry. What should I get then? 10% of those 10% for the lead? $240? Not too bad if you ask me, right? Or for an email/phone submit? $20-50?

Am I wrong on those numbers?
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I don't know your local market. I am assuming you are dealing in expats leaving 1st world countries for lower tax/cost of living/better lifestyle.

In many markets, agents get paid 1 months rent to land a tenant. But how many agents actually want to put tenants in rentals for 1 months rent ($1000 to $5000 commission) when they can close on a $1.5MM property sale ($5k+ commission)?

So there's napkin math and the real world. For property specifically, these agents get so many leads most of them don't actually try to close them.

I will be amazed if you will find someone willing to even pay $5 for a phone/email submit in Eastern Europe, Central/South America or Asia.

Why? Because most aren't sales hustlers like you will find in other markets.

Also, this pay per lead model is confusing to them. They are a commission based industry. That's what is familiar.

But the problem is, commission based leads are free, and they are not motivated to sell them as a result. Even worse, they are extremely opaque.

See the problem?

In theory you are onto something, it is a high value market with lots of money to be made. But it's not off the shelf affiliate stuff. You need to spend time finding people who will actually work to close deals, and then be honest with you about the amount.
 
Interesting, I can see that issue, though I still think there is just way too much volume and way too much money to be made in order for it not to work out somehow.

As you write, all you really need is one highly motivated, trustworthy individual to partner with.
 
I agree, but again there's nuance in the market.

We 2x as much revenue last year from residency applications and company formations than we did property commissions. For me, property is the cream on top.

It's probably an exceptional business for licensed agents but as someone feeding them leads I haven't found it to be a golden goose. It certainly isn't stable. More of a feast to famine scenario.
 
illmasterj said:
We 2x as much revenue last year from residency applications and company formations than we did property commissions. For me, property is the cream on top.
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So you're in that business?

Maybe we will be competitors then hehe.
 
You missed remittances. Services that help you remit and repatriate money from your bank in the home country. As an expat, I find myself exploring the different options on a regular basis
 
Residencies and Visas
International tax advance/consultancy
Company formations
Service to help opening local bank accounts
Accountants & Legal

Plenty of good examples of websites with this information to and imo not that competitive. Also some subniches you could tackle with programmatic SEO & some development and importing some data/numbers to get a good amount of traffic. I know this market well, if you have questions just dm me.
 
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