Do you know what a niche is? Before finding out how to find a profitable niche in affiliate marketing, you need to know what you are looking for…
A niche, pronounced ‘nishe’ or ‘nich’… whichever will do fine, is really a topic… like ice skating… Ice skating is a niche but the whole idea here is not to go for an obvious niche as you stand no chance in cornering the market with, but finding a more specific topic…
Take a look at my mind map below.
The further away you get from the main topic into subtopics or more specific topics, you are drilling down to the area you want to be focussing on for your niche. The further you can drill down with your niche idea, the better. I found when I was skating that there were certain things that were almost completely impossible to find. Competition wear – designer skating dresses, were not easy, and soft blade covers. I had soft blade covers, so that when the blade was dried it was placed in the cover to stop the sharpened edges going rusty, despite being dry, there would always be condensation on the blade.
Nothing stopping you having something like this that you make yourself and drop shipping it or finding them globally and featuring them on your website. You could get your product made in China and distributed by Amazon… Ok… maybe a step too far right now but you get the idea. But this is a step forward.
The standard niche market works by choosing a specific niche and finding people making that product and promoting their products for a small commission. There are tons of companies that offer this, Amazon being one of them.
Choosing Your Niche
I chose Ice Skating as my example because before I had kids, I was an ice skater and so its something in which I have experience and I could extrapolate out, probably not far enough yet but it makes the point. The niche needs to be profitable but not one that you will have huge competition. It is surprising where you might get by doing a mind map of your passions/hobbies/experiences.
As a paramedic or EMT you may well immediately go to Health as your niche but its way too big… you need to drill down to find that super sub niche hiding away under all the usual Health related paraphernalia… It might be gym subscriptions, protein shakes, trainers… you get the idea… somewhere to start. Or it might be your hobby or your furry cheerleaders – dogs! Health is a huge part of your daily life, or rather, the opposite of health, so it might be you prefer to leave that totally behind and go for your hobby – movies/gardening/travel/tennis … Maybe putting together a website that logs your dos and dont’s on the various treks you have taken, inside information about where to go to eat/sleep/visit. How to get there, what public transport is like… all these things give you leverage for affiliating products etc and making profit from your adventures.
Find Your Niche – Get Some Help!
Think about things that get you fired up… is it nutrition of the sportsman, do you feel that there is a brand of protein powder that is way beyond the best and everyone should be using it… along with the shaker.. maybe stretching bands or rollers for tight muscles and injuries. Perhaps you can have a cool down website with blogs on how to cool down, equipment to use, exercises to cool down, what to do if you’re tight, ice packs, physio.. you get the picture. There is a super niche in there. But it has to light your fire, you’re going to be spending a lot of time on this so you have to want to do it.
Inside Wealthy Affiliate there are tons more articles and training on how to choose a good niche………..
To ensure you find that hidden goldmine of an idea in your chosen niche, check out this sample tutorial courtesy of Wealthy Affiliate – NICHES, hop over and read what everyone there has to say about it !
This is another question that I get from those who are asking what I am doing. When I start explaining, the question of how do you find a niche that will be profitable comes up. They may get the concept, but they want to know the process to go through.
It is important to go through this as otherwise you may be disappointed when you are not able to monetize a niche or a sub-niche that may interest you. The things I look at is the products that are being sold in the niche, the number of people in the niche, and if there is a lot of competition.
Just like you, I use a mind map and then hit the internet to dig out information on the topics I mentioned above. It does not have to take long but most definitely it may save you time later if you have to switch niches. I am now involved in quite a few niches but I would advise starting with one.
Your last bit of advice is also very solid. Wealthy Affiliate is an excellent platform to learn all about niches, websites, affiliate marketing, etc. and they have features and tools plus an active and helpful community to get you started properly, to include selecting the right niche. Good read and thanks!
Thankyou Dave, I am pleased that the article was a helpful!
I love the mind map idea! I didn’t think to brainstorm this way. Do you know of any tools that could help you identify subtopics within the niche? I joined WA and LOVE the keyword tool- is the premium version worth the extra money for those that are serious about making a living this way?
The keyword tool is so worth it ! You can use it to brainstorm your sub niches, You can also do alphabet soup to help with sub niches. I could not manage without using Jaaxy to support my writing.
It’s funny that I’m already running my online business and still, I’m not good at finding the right niche to focus on. I’ve kind of used someone else’s niche just to get by and beat overwhelm & procrastination. I don’t wanna get stuck overthinking, you know.
But now that I’m more knowledgeable than I was as a newbie, maybe it’s time for me to head back to niche selection and find the right specific niche for me. The problem? I don’t wanna’ lose momentum in my already existing business!
Any advice you could give me? Should I stick to my old niche or pursue a well-thought out niche to correct my course?
To be totally honest, you have to love your niche. This is going to be your business moving forward and you have to have the passion for this, not just like it. You need to embrace that overwhelming feeling, and procrastination, we all have and come out the other side. I still procrastinate… but I do succeed ! Go for it, we are all here to support you !
It’s very important when you’re choosing your niche that you have a passion for it and a lot of knowledge about it too.
Your examples are excellent because that’s what I did with my niche about natural ways to lower blood sugar.
The key is to dig deep and find all the sub-niches to write about.
And you’re correct with joining Wealthy Affiliate because that’s where I joined and learned everything there is to know about your niche and building your website about it!
Would you suggest trying Wealthy Affiliate or signing up right away as I did?
I tried it out for precisely 3 days then signed up. It was long enough for me to decide that this was what I needed to be successful. You thought straight off that it was for you. I think its good to try it out but to be fair there are no contracts, you can get out whenever you like if you find its not for you.
I love the brainstorming idea and will definitely be doing it with my niche. Monetizing a niche is one of the hardest tasks to accomplish.
Your examples are very good and make it clear for a newbie. The branching out to get a unique niche is well planned and a way to find a domain to keep your interest, is excellent.
Thank you for clearing the mist on niches!
Stella
Bush Lady
Thankyou Stella. The brainstorming is fun too,… you can let your mind wander in different directions whilst brainstorming, logging everything and returning to different ideas to think further without forgetting anything !
A nice detailed article on niches and a good question to ask everyone because when I first started affiliate marketing I had no idea what a niche was and how much you can actually find to write about with something that you love to do and profit from it. Unlimited ideas. As your example on ice skating, the way it was broken down to different niches was right on. I had no ideas skating supplies were hard to find with it being so popular. I have skated in years so I skated on the old skates. All the best to you. Michelle
Thankyou Michelle, the key to success is to have thought and worked on your niche idea before you start writing content.
Hi Quinn, I must say that this article is very helpful and informative. It is not so easy to choose the right niche at first because we need to choose something that we will write in a long-term, maybe years who knows. I am in the health niche, weight loss but I heard that it is too saturated, do you maybe know how long it should take to start ranking in that niche as it is highly competitive?
I dont know Daniel Im afraid, I honestly feel that it could be a long time and especially so if you dont have funding for advertising to be competitive. How about trying to drill down on your niche and find a sector that is not saturated? You want to do weight loss, think carefully about it and try to find something that is unique about your website? and what you are promoting