If you’ve been getting into affiliate marketing lately, and may have done some research on the topic, I am quite certain you have come across the many times said; you need to pick your niche,
But what is a niche, or more importantly; what is an affiliate marketing niche?
While yes, it has been repeated many times, you really need to pick your niche if you want to do affiliate marketing successfully and yes; it is a critical factor in the initial phases of your affiliate marketing business.
So, in this article, we’ll not only talk about what is an affiliate marketing niche but also how tp pick one that is super profitable, within a market which is not over-run by powerful competitors.
And we’ll also see how to go about making sure your new “niche” idea can make you money for the long run.
If you’re new to affiliate marketing, then this is something you have to read so sit back, lean back a bit in your chair and take some notes (or just bookmark it for later).
Let’s take a look at what a niche is and how to become profitable in one.
What Is An Affiliate Marketing Niche?
Before I jump into this and give you a specific answer, you first have to understand what a niche is in its most basic form.
What is a niche?
A niche can be understood in many ways, but the easiest way I can explain it is that a niche is simply just a group of people looking for something (online).
I am part of 100s of different niches online, and chances are so are you. Whatever I look for online, whether it may be blogging tips or a new kettle for my little home office, I am part of all those niches.
So, when you are thinking of picking a niche, think of “people looking for something” online.
Now, all this “niche” talk is obviously intended to help you achieve better results with your affiliate marketing campaigns so let’s take a look at what, how and why picking a very specific niche (within a selected industry) is crucial to earning money as an affiliate marketer online.
Niches In Affiliate Marketing
Let’s start this off by saying why it is important for you to have a focused niche to build your affiliate marketing business around.
The internet has a lot of competition in it, there are thousands of pieces of content being published each and every second, and also, business are already established in practically any given niche or industry online.
The reason it is important for you to pick a niche is because this will help you stand out from the competition and get you results quicker.
Failing to pick the right niche which is not-too-competitive can quite literally mean failure in your business and the worst thing about it; you won’t realise you’ve made a mistake until after a few months of hard work with zero results to show for it.. not a happy situation to be in; trust me on this.
Let me now explain to you what an “affiliate marketing niche” is:
- Clothes (This is not a niche, but an industry).
There are many, and I do mean many online business and other affiliate marketers like yourself trying to sell “clothes”, now obviously that term(or industry) is extremely popular online so you can rest assured that there are hundreds of companies out there with millions (or rather billions) of marketing budget behind the brand with an army of employees working to take another piece fo the pie.
Do you want to compete in this space? Then be my guest but I guarantee you it won’t get you far.
- Sporting Clothes (this is a niche either).
Although this can be qualified as a “niche”, it’s also safe to assume (without doing any research) that this area of sports clothing is also highly competitive and again; with a lot of more established companies working to grab the attention of anybody looking for these type of clothes
While this is technically a niche in itself, and it would be easier competing withing than say the previous example of “clothes”, it’s also best to stay away fro this space.
“But I want to start my affiliate marketing business within the sporting clothes industry, does that mean I can’t?” you may ask.
yes you can, but my suggestion for you here is to dig even deeper and deeper such as:
- Rock climbing clothes (getting there)
Ok, now we’re talking, and now we have niched the whole clothing industry to a particular group of people looking for something.
Sure there may not be as many people looking for rock climbing clothes as there may be “clothes” in general, but the competition is also much much less here which gives you a fighting chance of actually making a few sales; which I am sure it’s what you’re after.
Can You Dig Even Deeper In Your Niche?
Of course you can, and the deeper you go, the less competition you have and the more likely you are to make some sales soon; just do not go too deep
For example, niching it down to rock climbing shoes is a fantastic idea, but going even deeper and just promoting green rock climbing shoe laces is going over the top and it will seriously limit your possibilities.
Yes you can still make sales; but then the market becomes so limited that even if you are the go-to guy or gal for green laces, you won’t be making many sales anyway.
Do you get my point on this?
You have to use your head a bit here and figure out the best way possible for you to win. That is what an affiliate marketing niche is all about; picking out the right industry for you to go in where you can make the most return on your investment (which likely is the most valuable kind od investment; time).
How Do You Get Started Once You’ve Picked Your Niche?
Once you’ve decided on a niche; then (believe it or not), you’ve had a great big win and you have achieved more than most do as even picking a niche is sometimes a roadblock that newbie affiliate marketers fail to make, or make properly to be more exact.
But, once you’ve chosen your niche, which again; congrats. It’s time to start building a business around it and to close off this post; I will give you a quick brief intro to what you need to do to get started.
Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing
My Four Step System + A Free Training Course
If you’ve decided on your affiliate niche and wanted to get started, then a good roadmap to follow is this:
Step 1:
Pick your niche (which is what we’ve done already) and then move on to step 2, 3 and 4.
Step 2:
Build your website.
You absolutely need to build your site if you want to build a sustainable affiliate marketing business.
Yes, you can still (surprisingly) post affiliate links on social media if you wish and that may (or probably not) get you some results; but the idea of building your site is because you need to “own” your customer.
Step 3:
Get traffic.
Once you start getting traffic in, you are then free and able to do so much with you offers and with your content.
Obviously, getting that traffic is the hardest part and where most fail but as with everything; it’s a skill that can be learned and there are many ways in which you can do this. How? By following certain principles that generate traffic.
Nobody was born “knowing how to get traffic”, so every website that now has traffic (even a little) has done some sort of traffic generation techniques, probably the same ones I will mention below:
- Social media
- SEO
- Guest Blogging
- and much more.
Please follow through to the link above as that will lead you to a guide I have on Wealthy Affiliate wherein a step-by-step video, you will learn about all the ways you can generate traffic.
It won’t come easy, that I can tell you right now; but if you put your mind to it; you will start seeing some positive results soon.
Step 4:
Monetise
Here are the many ways you can monetise an affiliate marketing website.
Closing Words
Thank you very much for reading this post, I hope this has helped you find the answers you were looking regarding what is an affiliate marketing niche.
You may be sitting there thinking that there I a lot that needs to be done to fully understand the power of affiliate marketing and you are absolutely right and picking a niche, is only just the beginning when it comes to your tasks.
Picking a niche is your first “big” step though so if you have the mental capacity to understand this simple blog post and pick a niche that you like and meets all the requirements set above, you have already ticked off one massive (sometimes daunting) task for newbie affiliate marketers.
Again, I encourage you to join Wealthy Affiliate on a free membership; even with just a free membership, you can learn a lot of new things in a straightforward and easy to follow video tutorial with daily tasks you need to mark off to move forward.
There is a lot to be learnt so get on it as soon as you can.
If you want to experience the true freedom and excitement (hell even the ups and downs affiliate marketing can bring, go get started and stop wasting time reading about it.
There is no easier way to learn than to try and fail, you can fail a hundred times but as long as you learn from it and keep moving forward, in time you will look back and realise how much you’ve learned (hopefully you’ll also be making some extra $ by then too).
Anyways thanks for reading and good luck. As always, feel free to reach out if you ever need my help.
Talk soon.
