At OneNetBiz I’m often posed with the question ‘What’s the best way of selecting a profitable affiliate marketing niche?’
It’s a common question that’s asked by newcomers to the industry and people who have been at it a while.
I see it asked on forums and at WA where I’m an active member.
I understand why it’s asked so much because it’s the starting point of any successful affiliate marketing campaign.
However, the biggest mistake I often see is people putting the product before the demand.
What I mean by this is that marketer’s (even seasoned marketers) get carried away with an affiliate offer, or fall in love with a particular product they’d like to offer without doing any research as to whether there is a real demand for this product or service.
Some might argue that there’s money to be made out of any product, service or niche. And while this may be true to a certain extent, adopting this approach can make things much harder than they need to be.
The correct way of course is to find a hungry market, and then source an affiliate product or service to satisfy this hungry crowd.
However, it goes much deeper than this.
For example. Weight loss is a popular niche with many great products and programs that are marketed very profitably by affiliates all 
over the world.
Unfortunately if you decided to promote to the weight loss niche with your weight loss product you’d likely disappear into a very large hole of oblivion and be seen by nobody.
This is because the market is huge with many very big players. Therefore, within the big niche of weight loss, you’d need to identify the sub niches and then identify the pain or desire that would potentially drive visitors to make a purchase.
So again as an example, within the weight loss arena you could look at sub-niches such as weight loss for new mom’s (the desire to fit into those slinky great looking jeans she used to wear), or weight loss to reveal a perfect six-pack (the desire to look great on the beach or when he takes his top off), or weight loss for men over 50 (the fear of a major illness or heart attack).
By identifying a much more specific topic within that niche, you get a much clearer idea of who your potential customer is, and also a much better chance of identifying that pain or desire.
When somebody visits your site, they want the content to appeal to their problem, want or desire, and if you’ve nailed that and monetized it with a product which perfectly fits the bill then you’re obviously onto a winner.
So how do you go about selecting a profitable affiliate marketing niche?
Well it all starts with keyword research, and in particular long tail keyword research.
There are many programs out there which will assist you to do this. Many are paid for, and some such as the Google keyword tool are free.
However, the Google Keyword Tool is part of the Adwords program, and not particularly easy for new starters to get a clear idea of what is a good keyword for affiliate marketing.
The program that I use which throws up hundreds of valuable keywords for me is free within my membership of Wealthy Affiliate and it’s called JAAXY.
You can see JAAXY in action below and test it out for yourself.
You can also get Free access to JAAXY, Free web hosting, Free web-building and tons of Free affiliate marketing training by setting up your own Free, no obligation account at Wealthy Affiliate.
Anyway, back to business.
In order to get you started and give you ideas of profitable evergreen niche markets that you can use on your own website, or even on the free websites at WA, I’m going to run through some Top Niches highlighting the passion and the pain.
Incidentally, in case you’re wondering what an evergreen niche is, it’s one that keeps giving all year round, and year after year.
In other words, it’s not subject to fashion, the latest trends or any economical or political ups and downs. It’s what potential customers want the answers to forever….
So with that said, let’s make a start.
Remember, in order to make money in any niche market you’ve either got to feed a passion or solve a problem.
This is the easiest and fastest way to get started with an online business and make money.
Later on when you’re established, you can indulge your hobby of sweet wrappers from 1952 to 1978, but for now concentrate on solving a problem or feeding a passion.
Passion Niches.
1) Pets and Animals.
Any sort of pets are a great start for a passion niche.
The market for dogs in particular is phenomenal. However, it is also super competitive, which is a good thing as it shows plenty of people and companies making really good money from the dog care market.
It’s also one of those areas that you can really niche down into something very specific.
For example, dog training is huge online. There are many affiliate programs for dog training lessons with some great ones on ClickBank.
But be careful!…
I am the owner of 2 Jack Russell Terriers. If you tried to promote to me with a program that claimed to train all breeds of dogs in 3-easy steps, I wouldn’t even open the link.
On the other hand, if you approached me with ‘How to Stop Your JRT From Savaging the Postman’ then I might be interested.
Same with any other breed. Identify the annoying trait in the breed and provide a solution!
Other areas might include:
Weight loss for dogs.
Fashion wear for dogs.
Organic food for dogs.
Bling for dogs.
Fun days out for dogs.
Dog friendly holidays.
And up to now we’ve only discussed dogs….
Consider the pet market for:
Cats
Koi Carp
Tropical Fish
Reptiles
Hamsters
Spiders
Dragon Lizards
The list is endless and you can become an expert and really niche down into any of these areas.
Incidentally, that’s Stuart sat at my desk sending e-mails. His brother George likes to watch You Tube!
2) Hobbies and DIY.
Now to be honest, these are actually two massive niches in their own right but I’ve thrown them together because they work well together.
Take woodworking as an example. It’s both DIY and a hobby area.
People take night classes just in woodworking, but it lends itself to hobby areas such as restoring toy boxes or creating bespoke doll’s houses for example.
Then there is property restoration which includes ‘How to fix’, ‘How to do’, ‘Where to find’, ‘How to be an expert in’
I even came across a massively successful website selling patterns for dolls clothes!
And I mean, this website was super successful….
There are thousands and thousands of affiliate promotions and affiliate commissions to be made from hobbies and DIY including:
Tools
Decorating Products
Hobbies
Arts & Crafts
Shed Plans
Chicken Coops
Home and Garden.
This niche is MEGA!!
3) Sports and Fitness
Again, another Mega Niche with lots of sub-niches.
Finding a general sports product to promote on a website that is trying to reach out to sports fans generally really won’t cut it.
Think more niche.
Break it down into a sport that you may be interested in such as:
Football
Soccer
Rugby
Tennis
Basketball
Etc. Etc….
Then break it down even further such as
Football boots.
Soccer kits (individual team websites)
How to improve your backhand in tennis
How to improve your golf swing.
Are you starting to see now?
Even in the Passion Niche you are attempting to solve a problem.
For example, nobody is going to wake up one morning and think it’s a great day to buy a manual or video on how to improve my back hand or golf swing.
But they will be driven to buy your product because they want to improve their passion. Whether that’s to win a tournament and be seen as the best, or to finally beat their buddies on the golf course.
A great example of breaking into a niche market was created by the training consultant at WA, Jay.
Jay developed a very successful website based around Football Snack Helmets.
In case you don’t know what a football snack helmet is, he produced a video case study on how he came up with the idea, built a website from scratch and monetized it.
You can watch the entire training video HERE >>> Football Snack Helmets Review
4) Travel and Adventure.
The travel niche appeals to such a whole wide spectrum of people that you could easily just spend your life marketing this topic without considering any other niche at all.
Again it combines people’s passion for travel and foreign lands while solving many problems that travel throws up.
For example, a person’s passion or desire might be to travel India.
If you are familiar with this country, or have even been a traveler or back packer there yourself then you have so much to talk about, from must do sites and places to visit, to the type of accommodation to stay in.
Things like:
What to see.
Where to visit
The best beaches
The must see temples
Elephant rides.
Then there are the problems.
Best way to travel.
Safest places to stay.
How do the trains operate.
What is the bus service like.
Visas
Medical treatment
What insurance is required.
Other areas to consider could be:-
Back packing for students on a budget.
Safe travel for elderly explorers.
Luxury travel advice for 50+
Most thrilling mountains to climb.
Most secluded beaches on earth.
Are you getting the picture now? If your passion is travel and exploring then this niche is limitless.
5) Health and Wellbeing
Health and Wellbeing easily spans both the passion niche and solving a problem niche.
Again, if you set up a general wellness blog, the chances are neither your blog nor affiliate offers would ever get to see daylight, so you really have to go niche in this arena.
Thankfully, there’s no shortage of alley ways to run down with this niche.
For example:
Health advice for expectant moms. (Passion is carrying a baby and wanting to provide the healthiest environment)
Health advice for post pregnancy. (Passion. Getting healthy and energetic, getting back into shape, best for baby)
Health advice for over 50’s, over 60’s, baby boomers etc. etc. (Feeling well, prolonging a healthy and active lifestyle)
Mental agility.
Calmness and serenity.
Being in the best shape whatever your age.
The great thing is that there is absolutely no shortage of products to monetize your site, and you could easily create multiple income streams from any niche within Health and Wellness.
For example.
Videos.
Fitness programs
Yoga workouts
Vitamin supplements.
Sports equipment.
Retreat vacations
People are passionate about being healthy and prolonging wellness into old age. And as the general population is getting older, this niche shows no signs of ever slowing down.
As this post is quite long already, and I’m sure that I’ve given you plenty to think about, I’m going to cover the Top 5 Problem niches in the next article.
Thanks for reading. I really hope you got some useful incites into selecting a profitable nice affiliate market.
Head over to OneNetBiz and get your Free copy of my e-Book, Niche Target Intelligence.
This is the book that will really expand your understanding of niche markets so you never have to worry about whether a niche will be profitable or not.
If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.
1 thought on “Selecting a Profitable Affiliate Marketing Niche-5 Top Passion Niches”