There are millions of different niches to choose from when it comes to affiliate marketing. You need to pick a niche where people are known to buy. That is the first step to a profitable niche.
But before I get to explain anything, What is a niche? A niche is a topic, a piece of the market or industry you choose. It’s a topic related to a bigger topic. Simple. Like meditation is a niche in the health and wellness industry.
You can even target a smaller niche with meditation for kids age 4 to 7. The goal here is to get a starting point. Start small and go broad.
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How to choose a niche?
Start with making a list of things you are interested in. It’s easier to promote things you are interested in. Your motivation will stay with you when you get to promote things you like to talk about.
For example, if you are starting a new hobby, you can talk about that in your website and promote products related to your hobby. Go with something that is aligned with your values. Promote things you care about.
The next you want to do is to look on the internet if there are products related to your niche. You can research on Google, on Amazon, Magazines, etc. You want to see what people are interested to buy. Look at the number of sales, look at the reviews.
Go on ClickBank and Share-a-Sale to see if there are interesting affiliate programs for your niche. Ask Google to find affiliate programs in your niche. Search niche+affiliate program.
Pick a niche where people buy. One where there is a multitude of products to promote. That way, you never run out of products to review and it is easier to have something to talk about in your niche. There are interesting niches that people don’t spend money on. They don’t buy products. Be aware that not all niches can make you money.
Make sure that some products are only available online, no matter if they are physical of digital products. You want to generate sales from your affiliate link, so try to have products that are not available in store.
If you do, it’s OK, just make sure you also have online exclusive products to promote. The reason is if people can read your review and just go buy the product themselves, your are not earning a commission.
What Are The Roadblocks to Picking a Niche?
Think big! Your niche is too broad. You want to select a specific subject within your niche. Go specific but not too much because you want to be able to talk about the products, to review and to promote them.
For example, if you are a new parent and you want to be an affiliate for baby products, you need to narrow your niche. Almost every item you can buy for a baby can be a niche on it’s own. You have to be more specific. What do you like the most in your niche? Start with that.
Oops, too small! Your niche isn’t broad enough. Depending on your niche, if it’s too specific, it could be hard to find potential visitors for your website. Maybe you don’t know enough on your niche to see the potential items you can add to it. You can start with your initial idea and you scale up with new products still related to your niche.
For example, if you are into fire extinguishers niche and you feel stuck, you can talk about the different one needed at home, in apartment, in a cabin in the woods and you scale up for businesses and industries. Then you can talk about different fire preventing system, smoke alarms, etc.
Your head is a niche making machine. Having too many ideas. You want to do them all and you really don’t know which one you want to choose. It’s a good problem. Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Write down your niche ideas. Then write down about 10 sub-topic you can talk about in those niches. The easiest ones are the ones you want to put in your top 5.
What you do next is your research. See what offers are available and if they appeal to you. Pick one niche and get started with that one. You can still begin to write content and look for affiliate programs within your top 5.
The file is empty. You have no clue for a niche. Let’s take the time to think. Grab a piece of paper and a pen. What are the things you like to buy? What are the things you have to buy? If you had unlimited budget, what would you like to spend your money on? Do you read? Do you play video games? Are you interested in technology? Do you or someone you know have a health problem and you would like a solution? Do you have pets? Do you have kids? Are you divorced and looking for love?
The only limitation here is your mind. There are millions of products available on internet. Pick one you like and get started.
What to Keep in Mind?
As much fun as it can be talking about a topic you are passionate about, if there are no products to promote, you won’t make as much money as when there are products to promote.
Make sure there are plenty of interesting products you can promote in your niche so you never run out of valuable content to share with potential buyers.
There are products that are following new trends. They won’t last forever and they may not be ideal to promote since you never know when the end is coming for those products. There are evergreen products available. These are the products that have been on the market for a while and they have a good reputation and will be available, hopefully, for years to come.
Diversify the products your promote. Try to find online exclusives to help you make more commission through your affiliate links. Keep in mind that people are more than ever buying online. Even if you have a few products that can be found in store, knowing that you have a few only sold online products you will be able to make money from you affiliate business.
Make sure your niche is one where people are known to buy so it will be easier for you to make money. If you have a niche you like but no one is ever buying anything, you are not going to make money from it.
It doesn’t mean you have to stop providing content, but you will have to find other sources of income for that website. Getting started in a niche with tons of online buyers will help you achieve your goals faster and it will help you stay motivated while building your business.
Here is a video to help you choose a niche:
In Conclusion
When it comes to choosing a niche, keep in mind that you will have to work on that topic for the next years. Try to choose something that you like or something you have interest in.
You will spend hours doing research to find information to create your content. You will have to learn and write about that niche consistently. If you are not sure about a niche, there are tons available on the internet.
At some point, you will find something that will spark your interest.
Even though not all niches can be monetize with affiliate programs, there are other ways to earn money from your website, like having ads on your website, creating an ebook or a course for your niche.
Nothing stops you from choosing multiple niches in different industries. Keep the focus on one website and one niche until it is properly monetized.
If you have any concerns or questions about choosing the right niche, feel free to leave a comment and I will reply to you.
You know what to do!
Cynthia
Before you can go into any marketing business for instance affiliate marketing, you should under what niche is and how it does affect your business. You should venture I’m niches that are very enticing and are sorted after, it’ll help you gain more people to patronize your website. Thanks for sharing this amazing article
our greatest passion should be the topic that will guide our whole idea of building a site. But if we have more interests, it is best to sit down and think realistically, what is it that can bring us money. If we choose something that we see for a long time that people are not interested in and do not progress, maybe we should opt for one of the other passions.
The biggest issue I had when selecting a niche was trying not to go for a one that’s micro targeted. I wanted to choose a niche that consists of words with a high search volume, but a low competition rate.
I eventually created a site about draft beer in which I sold equipment related to that. I managed to build it up to about $500 per month, but I had to sell it because I had other things going on…
I like the idea of writing down 10 sub-topics per idea to see which one is the better one. It does a couple of things. It makes the person take action on their ideas by writing them down and two it will narrow down their choices, thereby making it easier to choose.
Yes, exactly! It can be so overwhelming to choose. Thank you for your feedback Les!
Yes, writing down the top 10 sub-topics we have interests in sharing in a certain niche is great advice. As for the researches, do you mean we try to check each one in search engines to get the related affiliate products or see whether it still entices us? Thanks.
Hi! For the researches, there are different ways to use them. One is to look for affiliate products in the niche you targeted. Searches can be used to see if your niche is something that people are interested in. You can you on magazine.com to see what are the popular interests and see if you can monetize those with affiliate programs.
Best wishes,
Cynthia