Choosing A Profitable Niche

One thing you may have learned about affiliate marketing by now is that a profitable business is one that specialises in a particular niche market. Especially for a small online business or solopreneur utilising an affiliate program, finding and exploiting a niche is a necessity.

After all, your company is not going to compete with a global giant like McDonalds. Instead, you need to opt for filling a small and easily definable gap in supply.

Narrowing down the thousands of prospects for your business focus and finding one that will prove to be most profitable can be quite a daunting task. This short guide will help you get started in Choosing A Profitable Niche.

Niche Research Basics

Start narrowing down your options by thinking about the things that interest you. If you are a man with a background in the construction industry, it will probably be hard to become excited about selling baby clothes.

From the broad category you are interested in, you then need to find out what, in particular, other people are searching for. Wordtracker’s free keyword suggestion tool or Google AdWords Keyword Tool can help you determine the search volume for a number of keywords that are related to a specific topic. Terms that get less than hundreds of hits from Google per day are probably not going to be very profitable.

Let Wordtracker or AdWords do the hard work. If you’re thinking of writing a “how to” guide, then simply type in the words “how to” and see what comes up at the top of the search list. A recent visit to Wordtracker came up with the topic “how to make a crossbow” towards the top of the list. That may be the perfect fit for you and your talents.

One thing you need to determine is how much competition there is for any particular area of interest. When supply outweighs demand, your chances of making a profit become slim to none.

Do a simple Google search by typing in “how to make a crossbow”. Take a look at the sites that match and look for affiliate marketing links. For this particular topic, there didn’t appear to be many. This presents a great opportunity.

Narrowing It Down

However, you might want to narrow down this topic even further. Repeat the same research process using the phrases “how to build a wooden crossbow” or “how to make a toy crossbow”. The less sites you find that are already filling this need, the better your chances of having found a Profitable Niche.

Now you can take these keyword phrases and enter them at various affiliate programs to return a list of partners who can fill this market niche. Pay attention to the rate of earnings per click. The lower the rate, the longer it will take you to make a profit. Strive for $0.50 to $1 per click or more.

The amount of competition for your niche will influence the pay per click rate, too. Again we come back to the concept of supply and demand. If there are lots of affiliate marketers vying to partner with a particular company for the same product, there’s no need to entice marketers with a higher rate.

You may choose to get involved with an established niche market and that’s something that may work for you, depending on your approach but there is plenty of room for fresh niches too!

This guide should give you a good starting point for Choosing A Profitable Niche and starting a successful affiliate marketing website. Remember that the opportunities are nearly endless so select one that is of most interest to you so that you can come to work feeling passionate and interested in what you’re doing. Love and believe in what you do and it will show!