Ranking #1 in Google for out-of-stock product

[daddyo]

I run a medium-sized forum and one of my threads happens to be ranked #1 right now for a high-demand item that was in stock a month or so ago at Amazon.com, but is now out of stock.

On average this month, I'm getting about 150-200 targeted clicks per day on the product but I can't convert because it's out of stock. People can buy it via 3rd-party vendors, but it's double what the regular price on Amazon is and most aren't willing to pay that much.

It's available (sometimes) at other vendors I'm affiliated with, but it goes in and out of stock and their commission rates aren't nearly as high as Amazon's.

Any thoughts on what I could do to harness that targeted traffic to generate more sales?

 

[Jizzlobber]

Are there peripheral components or accessories for this product?

 

[daddyo]

Yeah. Think I should list some of them in the thread?

 

[Jizzlobber]

Might help your ranking for those items as well. Perhaps some people are still interested in obtaining accessories in anticipation of eventually getting the primary item. Most likely smaller change but with the alternative being 0 conversions, it might be something to think about.

 

[daddyo]

Thanks. That's exactly the kind of response I was looking for. We'll see tomorrow if posting accessories/peripherals does the trick.

 

[hellblazer]

Are there no other vendors that carry the product?

 

[_poto_]

you could try to capture their e-mails and send out a mailer whenever it's back in stock...

 

[Seoholic]

DaddyO, have you tried Buy.com from CJ? IMO they carry pretty much everything Amazon does.

 

[HarveyJ]

Poto's idea has a bit of merit.
Lists are a great thing for marketing purposes if you can bring yourself to irritate people.

Alternatively, considering it's a forum, why not just do it via the mass PM you should be able to do as an admin? Slightly less intrusive, and you still know the email addresses if you look at your user database
Or just be very intrusive and email the entire forum's userbase when it's finally back in stock, using your aff link.

I'm also down with Jizzlobber's idea.
I've bought expansion packs for games before getting the actual game due to sellouts at my local EB.
Then again, how "must have" is this item? And what peripherals are available for it? And have you considered possibly displaying an alternative item if such a one exists? Going back to the video game analogy if it were Fallout3 that was out of stock, youm ight suggest people try STALKER for a quick fix in the meantime.