In order to be a successful affiliate marketer, you need to find a profitable affiliate marketing niche. What is a niche, exactly?
It is basically a topic within a topic.
For example, maybe you LOVE the Caribbean Islands. You know about all about the best hotels to stay at, great places to eat, how to get the lowest airfare possible, where the best beaches are, and you’d love to learn even more about the Caribbean so you can create a website designed to help people plan and have an awesome vacation. With how lucrative the travel industry is, you can both help people and make a TON of money running a website about traveling to the Caribbean islands.
But there is a MAJOR problem with this topic idea.
Head over to google and type in – Traveling to the Caribbean.
Do you see any small bloggers showing up on the first page of Google for that search term? All I see are large, corporate websites. I don’t really see a “small business” until the bottom of the second page. Do you really want to compete with huge corporations like that?
Sure, if you end up winning the search ranking battle, you could make a ton of money with a website about the caribbean. Unfortunately, with that much competition, you won’t win the battle for years.
Narrowing Your Affiliate Marketing Niche
So, with our fake website idea, we’ve determined starting a website about the Caribbean Islands isn’t going to work. It’s just too broad of a topic.
Does that mean you should abandon the idea all together? HECK NO!
All you have to do is scale down a little bit. Maybe you could specialize on a specific island? Say, maybe, the Grand Cayman Islands?
Let’s take a look by going to Google and typing in: Traveling to the Grand Kayman Islands
That looks a little better, but maybe we can scale down even a little bit more and see what we find. Maybe the best option for us, as “the little guys”, would be to focus on a smaller and less popular island?
That’s exactly what the owner of Anguilla-Beaches.com did. At 14 years old, Nora Evoy began a website about a small and mostly unheard of Caribbean Island that she loves. It has been a sustainable business for her for over a decade now.
Amazing, isn’t it?!
Maybe you know a lot about a place that attracts local, regional, national, or global tourists? Maybe your knowledge about that place could earn you a living?
Not only can it earn you a living, you’ll be the local hero with the amount of business you generate for local small businesses. Just ask Nora!
Finding The Balance
Finding the right balance can be tough. You need to decide on a topic that isn’t too broad, but also isn’t so narrow that few people are ever interested in researching the topic. The way you will attract potential customers is by providing free information on the web. Are people searching for your topic idea? If so, how much competition do you have on the first page of Google for search terms related to your topic idea?
A little competition is a good thing. That means money can be made. But too much competition means you would not make any money for a long time. While I don’t preach “get rich quick” methods (I run a LEGIT business online – which takes some time), it’s important for you to start seeing money coming in as quickly as possible, especially with your first website. When commissions are being made, motivation goes through the roof.
Does Your Topic SELL?
Have you narrowed your idea down to a topic that is in-demand, but not over saturated in the search results? Great! But now we have to make sure it’ll be a profitable topic for you.
When I started SharkSider.com, I was pumped. I found a topic that I not only loved, but there didn’t seem to be much information about different types of sharks on the web. I decided I would write about all of the 400+ types of sharks. I would enjoy building it, there wasn’t a ton of competition, it was a fun topic and I would truly be helping people by providing them with information about sharks they otherwise couldn’t get.
Unfortunately, I chose about the least profitable topic on Earth!
Sure, sharks are cool and the site does very well by attracting 10’s of thousands of unique visitors per month, but making money is pretty tough.
Sure, I make a few hundred bucks per month off of ebook sales and display advertising, but a few hundred bucks per month isn’t a full-time income. I want to make that PER DAY!
What Topics Are The Most Profitable?
First of all, there are certain niche topics that are called “evergreen niches”. They call them “evergreen” because the topics are always fresh.
If you create a website about Sharks, there’s really only so much you can say. New shark breeds aren’t discovered that often.
But if you create a website about the stock market, that changes every day. There’s always something new happening that you can write about.
Those topics also tend to be the most profitable.
There are also many topics that might not be “evergreen” in the true sense of the word, but many consider them evergreen niche topics simply due to the number of people who are constantly seeking information related to them. Some of those topics include…
- Anything related to money (making more money, how to save, how to invest, starting a business, etc.)
- Strengthening relationships (business relationships, finding romantic partners, getting along better with spouses, raising kids, etc.)
- Improving health (relieving pain, weight loss, sexual health, etc.)
- Sex (I shall say no more)
- Learning new skills
I’ve personally found that affiliate marketers tend to do best with topics related to the “how to” industry or writing reviews about products and services. I utilize both of those in my current business, including this website (how to make money as an affiliate marketer).
Finding Great Products & Services Offering Affiliate Programs
You would be amazed at the number of affiliate products and services out there. But how exactly do you find these affiliate programs?
For starters, you could always team up with a large company like Amazon, Walmart, and even Google.
In fact, I currently leverage both Amazon and Google for my affiliate business. Even though their commissions are a bit lower than other affiliate programs, everyone knows and trusts a place like Amazon, so conversion rates are very high.
BUT, sometimes you’ll want to find smaller affiliate programs.
Let’s say you start a website teaching people how to play the bass guitar. You could certainly recommend guitars for sale on Amazon, but maybe we can find something that pays a bit better (Amazon only pays up to 8.5%).
The first thing we can do is simply go to Google (or any other search engine) and type in: Guitar Affiliate.
Whoa… Check it out! The entire first page is all about affiliate programs related to guitars! Nice! There’s tons of ideas right there!
But we can even dig a bit deeper. Did you know there are websites specifically designed to match affiliate marketers with other businesses selling products and services? There are two you should go sign up for right away (it’s free):
Once you’re signed up, you can brows through THOUSANDS of companies that are desperately looking for affiliate marketers like YOU to promote their products and services. And they’ll pay you GREAT money to do it!
Let Google Tell You Which Topic Is Best!
Did you know, you can use a special tool where Google will tell you if your topic idea is being searched for or not? They even tell you how much competition there is! Using this free “keyword tool”, operated directly by Google, is usually only used by business who want to advertise using the Google advertising network.
But, we’re sneaky. There’s a way you can use this tool to find the single most profitable affiliate niche topic.
Check out my FREE 7-Day Affiliate Marketing E-Course and you’ll get the full step-by-step instructions on how to use this invaluable tool.
Making A Final Decision About Your Affiliate Marketing Niche Topic
You should go through the above process with your top 3 to 5 topic ideas. I don’t care what your interests, hobbies, passion or skills are, there IS a topic that will work for you. One that is in-demand, without too much competition, that has affiliate programs available, and one you’d have a blast writing or talking about.