Choosing a Niche

For today’s Marketing Monday, I answer the question for affiliate marketers starting out, what is the best way to choose a niche. When it comes to affiliate marketing, there are a number of ways an affiliate marketer can choose a niche. But before you dedicate your time and effort into a niche, it’s important that you put some thought and do some research into it first.

What are you passionate about?

The first thing you should consider when choosing a niche is to list the things that you feel passionate about. The best chance you have with affiliate marketing is when you are in a niche that you can write about and work with daily. Because if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, chances are slim that you’ll stick with it for very long. Think about it this way; if you choose something that you don’t like or have an interest in and then have to wake up and work with it each morning, you find that you are in a bad position before you even get started. Over time, when you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll get bored and move on to something else. You may even start feeling depressed and hate what you’re doing altogether and quit. This ends up being the exact opposite of what you desired to experience in your work life. So when choosing a niche, make sure you have the ability to dig in to your niche forever.

Is it something that will last?

Next, you will want to look over the longevity of the niche market, sometimes referred to as an evergreen niche. You definitely want to avoid those things considered to be a fad and will become obsolete before you can start making money with it. When it comes to affiliate marketing, it can and often does take some time before you begin making a substantial income, even though you may see some initial commissions right away. When you are building up your niche, you want to be sure it will keep going for a long period of time. So make sure when you choose, it isn’t something that will be here today and gone tomorrow. You want to be assured that your hard work will pay off long-term.

Can I make money with it?

It’s also important to consider the niche’s profitability. Is what you want to promote going to make money for you? After all, you chose affiliate marketing to make a steady (and growing) stream of income. By doing your homework and finding out how many people will be interested in what you’re promoting will help you with your decision. You also need to consider what promotion options you will use. In the niche you choose, what types of products can you promote? Can you promote a book or program that will sell in your niche? Can you promote hard goods or digital products?

Is it competitive?

One of the main mistakes new Internet or affiliate marketers make is choosing a highly popular market that is too competitive because of it size and it is too generalized, hoping to appeal to the masses. Not only is this really not a niche, but you will end up becoming quickly disenchanted with your results. It is always better to select a sub-market within a big market to help you gain more of an advantage and be something you can do. Case in point, suppose you are looking to get into the weight loss market which is highly competitive. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, select a segment within that market. For example, let say you decided to go into the weight loss market. Instead of promoting weight loss programs to everyone, you target women who just had a baby and want to lose that extra weight. Not only will you be better off, but it will help you learn more about the dynamics of that niche and have a greater chance of success. Then once you establish yourself with it, you can more easily expand into related sub-markets from there. Say, add into the mix weight loss for home based working women. Over time you will also establish yourself as an expert in the weight loss field and more easily expand your market as you grow.

One last point to consider…

It is also possible for you to create your own membership site related to your niche once you are established. Think about all these things I have given you. They'll help you choose a niche that's right for you, before putting in a lot of time and energy. When selecting a niche keep this in mind. Choose a niche that interests you. And find one that has a wider variety of affiliate products that you can promote. You'll be more success in the long run. If you like this article post, I invite you to share it with others. Also I invite you to leave any comments, questions, suggestions, or observations about this topic I might have missed below! :)