Nowadays, the internet is a big part of our everyday life. Some people can’t imagine living without their smartphone or shopping elsewhere online for all their commodities ranging from foods, clothing, and electronics to even cars!
There are many ways these days you can make money online, and you want to get a piece of the action by becoming an affiliate marketer!
However, before going off the internet and researching what your business should be about, you should take 5 minutes to read my post, which will help you choose your direction for your online business.
This post will give you a comprehensive walk-through to help you find an affiliate marketing niche. Don’t make the common mistake of rushing to pick something that is trending and sounds like a very lucrative opportunity but in which you know nothing about or have little to no interest. Don’t let greed lead you on the wrong path!
Be Passionate About Building Your Business!
There are four steps involved in building a thriving business online:
As shown in the image above, the first step in creating your online business is to choose an interest, which translates into choosing your niche. However, what in the heck is a niche?
A Niche Is a Piece of the Internet Marketing Pie!
In a nutshell, a niche refers to a segment of the internet marketing market. In other words, it is a group of people who share the same passion or interest, looking for information, wanting to learn more about their passion, and ultimately purchasing stuff related to their interest online.
As you can see in the graph on the right, more than 3.75 billion people are online, which is still growing each year! Do you see the potential?
The take-home message is that building a business is an uphill battle with many ups and downs.
So if you let greed lead your niche selection, you will be more likely to give up when you hit some difficult times. So, in other words, you are setting yourself up for an epic failure!
Moreover, it is not a prerequisite to already be an expert when you first start. However, you must be willing to learn as your business grows to become an authority within your niche!
Then, the next question that comes up is:
How to Choose a Niche Fitting to Your Passion?
A common mistake often made by newbies when picking a niche for their business is that it is too broad. Remember, a niche refers to an audience, a group of people sharing the same passion or having the same hobby.
First off, don’t overthink this, please! Because your niche is your audience, why not choose a niche that fits your passion and target people who share the same passion or interest as you? They are your potential customers.
Moreover, remember that you will have to write content for your selected niche. It will be easier and won’t feel like a chore if you pick something that excites you and enjoys talking about endlessly.
I personally have many hobbies. I love playing volleyball, and golf (even though I am not really good at it), enjoy skiing, cycling, internet marketing, and puzzles! I could easily pick a targeted niche for my online business from what I just listed.
Here are two examples of possible niches based on my hobbies to help you choose the direction for your business:
(1) Golf
I enjoy the game of golf. Thus, one option would be golf as a niche. However, golf is too broad of a niche.
So, I need to narrow it down, be more specific, and go one step further. There is one aspect I want to improve on, my golf swing. Therefore, my targeted niche and online business could be about “golf swing lessons.”
Within the “golf swing lessons” niche, my audience will be millions of other golfers that are looking for ways to improve their swing. They are looking to learn more about the mechanics of the golf swing through tutorials, videos, books, and so on. Ultimately, they want to buy products to help them improve their golf swing.
Lastly, I am not a golf expert by any means. However, I am willing to put in the effort to become one. So, as I learn more about my niche, golf swing lessons, I will be helping other golfers just like myself.
(2) Cross-Country Skiing
Here is another example, cross-country skiing. Again, if I pick this as my niche, it would be too broad. I need to dig deeper.
I can target ski equipment within the cross-country skiing niche, such as ski boots. Thus, my niche would be “cross-country skiing boots.”
Within that targeted niche, I can explore many avenues, such as ski boots for children, women, men, or athletes, which are all ideas for posts for my online business as millions of people are searching the web every day to learn more about ski boots and most importantly buy them!
Make a Living from Your Passion?
Build Your Website
Once you have found your niche, you need a website that will be the foundation for your business. So, what are you waiting for? Get your free website below!
The next step is pretty straightforward and consists of building your website. In the past, creating a site was a daunting task.
Nowadays, with a little help from the SiteBuilder within the Wealthy Affiliate Platform, building a website is a breeze as it can be done in less than 30 seconds!
Attract Visitors
Now that you have a website, you need to create content to get traffic to your site. As many affiliate marketers would say (including me): “Content is KING”! To be able to create content and rank on the first page of Google, you need to have the proper tools.
These tools include Jaaxy, which will enable you to find low competition keywords, and the SiteContent, the ultimate writing platform that allows you to create content efficiently. Both resources are available at Wealthy Affiliate.
Once your foundation is in place, it’s time to build on it and turn it into a lucrative business.
Earn a Revenue
Once you have visitors (potential customers) to your site, it’s time to monetize that traffic! The best way to do this is through affiliate programs, which you can join for free!
There are many affiliate programs to choose from. Among the most popular you have Amazon Associates (Amazon’s affiliate program), where they have over 500 million products to promote, and the commission rate varies between 4-10%.
Besides Amazon, there are loads of alternatives you can choose from when it comes to affiliate programs. So, you can make money with your website, no matter your passion!
Do a simple Google search such as “your product” + “affiliate program” to find a program that is suitable for your niche.
Here in the image below is an example of golf lessons:
Now one thing remains:
Are You Ready to Be an Expert in Your Niche?
Your niche should be about your passion or one of your interests. Don’t build your business based on the trending flavor of the day! It might be a very lucrative opportunity, but if your only goal is to make money and you don’t care much about the product or niche, you will lose interest fast and give up.
You don’t need to be an expert right off the bat either! However, you must be willing to learn about your niche and become an authority.
Now, are you ready to become an expert in affiliate marketing? If so, you need a place to host your website and learn about internet marketing as well. There is a cutting-edge affiliate marketing platform that provides the proper environment to create and manage a business online, and it’s called Wealthy Affiliate.
Although, if you are like me, you would want to try it first before signing up for it! So, I recommend that you set up a free Starter Membership, which will allow you to browse around the platform.
However, if you are serious about becoming a successful affiliate marketer, upgrade to the premium membership to gain access to all the outstanding features of the WA platform for $49/month.
If you have any questions or need more help in choosing your niche, please leave me a comment below. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Hi Sonia,
I enjoyed this article on how to find an affiliate marketing niche, and I have to agree with following your passions. In my experience, the keys to success in affiliate marketing are connecting with your target market and persistence. I’ve been blogging for more than 2 years and continue to enjoy it immensely because I’m a member of my niche. That is, I share the interests of my readers and can readily identify with their pain points. Any niche can be profitable. But it won’t be unless you consistently produce useful content. Stick with your passions and succeed!
Thank you, Linda for sharing your thoughts. I personally find that it is easier to create content about your passion, I am glad to see that I am not alone!
Hey, this was an excellent article. It took me a second try to come up with a niche because I thought I was so good at picking my first niche website, but instead, I had to redo my whole site for that niche. I have made my first sale already, so I have a lot more work to do.
Once I feel that I am ready, I will end up making a 3rd site with a different niche, so I need to research what is popular and sells these days.
Well, Justin, I think it would be a mistake to build another website based on what is popular and trending and sells. You would be better off as I mentioned in my post to pick something that is one of your hobbies or you really want to learn about as your niche. Otherwise, you are destined to fail since you will end up giving up because you will lose interest.
Moreover, a little piece of advice if I may, if I were you, I would continue to build and grow your current website, write quality content, in order to get traffic to your site and don’t worry, the sales will come! You may not even need down the road to build another niche website. You can earn a full income with your current site. However, it takes time and a lot of efforts in order to succeed.
It was just my two sense… Best wishes for your online endeavors.
Some said business is solving problems, where has pain, there’s a niche. I think it’s right, which is why health, fitness, and self-help are such big niches.
However, I will be more likely to choose a niche that can fit my passion, just like you said.
Making a living from my passion is my ultimate business goal. I built two websites last month, and both have 50+ unique views per week, I think it’s an excellent starting point.
Great post btw!!
The problem with niches such as health, fitness, and self-improvement is that they are extremely popular, thus, very competitive. So if you want to establish yourself as an authority in these fields, you will have to choose wisely, and the best thing to do is to pick a very specific niche!
Remember, no niches are too competitive in my opinion, you need to be creative and pick a very targeted audience!
Congrats on your achievement so far, keep up the good work, and keep me posted!
I started as an affiliate marketer several months ago and can tell you that you are spot on when it comes to finding a niche that you have an interest in.
I first started out looking at all the niches that seemed to be good money makers and were popular. First of all, being popular meant that there was a tremendous amount of competition, which makes it much harder to be successful. Secondly, I found it frustrating trying to keep up with writing articles about topics that I wasn’t excited to learn about.
So after about 3 months, I decided to either quit or find a new niche. I am so glad that I didn’t quit and chose a niche that I’m very passionate about. I find writing to be enjoyable and not a chore, and I haven’t had any trouble finding ideas for articles because I love learning new things about it!
I am glad that you didn’t quit affiliate marketing altogether, that you persevered and chose a niche that was fitting with your passion.
Because building a business when your heart is not in it, quickly become as you so well said a chore. Hence, you are destined to fail sooner or later.
In order to be successful as an affiliate marketer, you must work hard, be committed, and patient. Thank you for sharing your story.
Hi Sonia
I enjoyed your article, and I totally agree with you about the statement you made concerning our niche. We MUST pick one we love. You don’t have to be an expert that’s so true, but you must be willing to research the topic. Remember whatever niche you pick, you will have to write about for years so YOU MUST enjoy it!!!
I have seen this happened too many times, unfortunately. Many newbies are going for what is trendy and only thinking about making money. They are not truly invested in their niche as they don’t really want to help people.
It is paramount to build your business around something you love. Otherwise, you will fail! As you must, eat, sleep and breathe your niche! It’s simple as that!
Hi Sonia
Thanks for sharing your post. I’m a blogger myself, and I sometimes find it difficult to stay focused on my niche, so this article had some great tips to keep me on track. I liked your examples of how you can get too broad when thinking about a niche. Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
James
I am glad that you found value in my post. I am like you, at times I find it very challenging to stay on track and write blog posts, which is why I make a schedule to help me better plan my writing session and be effective at it.
So, to help me stay focused on content creation, I use the Site Content which is a HUGE game changer in my opinion, as it helps me with writing my content faster and efficiently. This tool enables me to break down multiple posts all at once, and then go back at a later time to write them.
When people are looking for ways to make money online, their first reflex is to become an affiliate marketer.
Of course, you need to educate yourself about affiliate marketing. Which is why I think your post serves a great purpose by helping all aspiring affiliate marketers choose a direction, find an affiliate marketing niche!
The way you explain the process is very straightforward and easy to understand.
Great minds follow each other. So you must follow those already successful.
You can be successful online and make money, but first, you need to set up a good foundation! So, in my opinion, the very first step is choosing your niche.
I am glad to see that you found value in my post. Thanks for sharing your views about affiliate marketing.
Reading your article just triggered an idea of niche that I can do. I have been thinking for a long time about something that I am passionate about and wanted to turn it into a profitable website. I always thought though, that because there are so many sites out there offering that, it was too competitive, and I could not do it. However, narrowing down the niche and digging more in-depth is excellent advice. Thank you for that.
It sounds so easy to choose a niche, but when you have to pick one, it is not that easy. I like the way you explain it as it looks so simple and logical. Choosing a niche can be sometimes quite a challenge.
I am glad to see that my post helped you choose a niche based on your passion. No niches are too competitive, in my opinion; however, they can be too broad!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and best of luck to you with your new niche website!
Hi Sonia; I have read your article and I commend you on the quality.
It is most important that we have vested interest in the Niche of our choice in order to be able to maintain it with good quality content.
If we choose a niche according to the amount of money someone else is making from it and we do not really interested in it nor know something about it, it simple spells failure.
Are you saying that the simplest of interest and passion can become an income?
DorcasW
To answer your question, yes, any passion or interest you may have could be a niche for a website. It could be things like knitting or doing Jigsaw puzzles. There are loads of affiliate programs for these niches.
So any passion of yours can be profitable. You only need to have a website with quality content.
And the best place to go to learn more on how to turn your passion into an income is by clicking here.