How to Find a Niche for Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is run around a niche. A niche is a particular segment in a target market. An affiliate marketer must find a specific niche to exploit so his affiliate business unique and he can serve the specific market needs successfully. How to find a niche for affiliate marketing is the first question an affiliate marketer usually asks.

With this article, you might be able to find what niche that suits you best. article is about how to find a niche market. It will also help you to tackle the mental block on confusion when deciding on several niche options. You’ll also find tips and samples on the niches.

In this article, we’ll see

- What a niche is
- Size of online market
- Two niche topic selection problems
- How to choose your niche
- What to watch for
- Tips on an even better niche
- Niche samples
- More tips
- Conclusion

What a Niche Is

Every affiliate site starts with a niche idea. A niche a distinct segment of a market. It is the “audience” or the people who have specific interest on products /services. It can be a passion, problem, need, or want.

The affiliate site is subject matter where an affiliate marketer can help people who look for help or advice, or information. A niche must be statistically significant in numbers to be viable. It must be specific enough to have a distinctive market, yet must be broad enough to have significant market segment size.

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Size of the online market

About 8.08 billion souls are on earth today, according to worldometer.com, as of December, 2023. The number increases everyday. and every person needs and wants (maybe except for the babies who don’t know what they want, yet still have needs). The markets are the places where these needs are fulfilled.

According to statista.com, in 2017, 1.66 billion people purchased goods online. The e-retail sales amounted to 2.3 trillion US dollars. It was projected to grow to 4.48 trillion US dollars in 2021.

It is a huge market. And with so many diverse target market, there is also a vast place for online sellers, including affiliate marketers. Lots of niche opportunities are there in the market.

Two topic selection issues

While searching for a niche, two distinct issues may emerge. First is there seems nothing is worth as a niche, the ‘blank-can’t-think-of-any’ feeling. It feels like you don’t know anything well enough that can attract enough audience.

The second is when there are too much of them. You might have more than one hobbies. And there is also personal and professional experience and expertise. Now all subjects seems to be viable. It can feel like being drown in the sea of topics.

Both problems contribute to the feeling of being lost or confused. And at this point, you could be indefinite and fail to convince yourself to start with the website. Now let’s see why.

Why extraordinary ideas don’t come up immediately

Good idea doesn’t come up when we are looking for it. But it easily just pops up at unexpected time and place, when we’re not thinking hard about it. Why? Because when human mind is pushed to a corner to find new ideas, it will get stressed and cannot have ample room to explore many things around.

When pushed, human mind choked like a clogged pipe.

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This is why ideas of a subject usually come up when we don’t direct ourselves to the direction of the subject itself. When the mind is cornered and confined, it will react by giving response which is the most immediate escape, not the open mind idea.

Let’s see how to find a niche and tackle the two problems. The following procedure will help you to find your niche.

How to choose your niche

So how to find a niche for an affiliate marketing business? The subject to choose as a niche should be the one that is most fun for you. The subject should not feel like taxing your mind. The niche is the one you are interested AND will enjoy working with.

To find a niche that suits you, it should match some of the following properties:

1. It is something you enjoy.

The niche should be something you have great interest in and are happy with. It is something you’ll be involved with while helping people. If you’re not happy with it, you won’t be able to help people.

2. You can easily give descriptions and discuss about it eagerly.

It is something you have deep knowledge in, have been familiar with, have experience with, or better, have expertise with. This way you can help people with more in-depth explanation or guidance. Providing a more than just general solution for a visitor’s problem is what will make your site stand out.

3. It is also something you want to learn about or examine further.

Knowledge improves with giving and learning. By helping people, you will also learn and improve on the subject. And the articles will get better and more helpful.

Remember that on the subject, everyone, including the site owner learns new things. Some problems might not find a ready answer, but may find it through discussions. The online market is a 2-way communication tool. A site author might also get valuable input from the visitors.

The niche to select has to have significant market and actionable for the scale of business. Segmenting and targeting the market must be done cautiously to match the marketer’s available resources. For a brief about segmenting and targeting, see the basics of marketing article here. 

What to watch for

While aiming for your favorite niche, you must always consider its viability. Here are some things that might lead into false market feasibility.

Temporary trend niche

Not all growing market segment will continue to grow or maintain its size. Some can be temporary or even short-lived. The market is very dynamic, especially the online market.

Health related subject is usually long term niche. But the market segment size for COVID-19 related niche (such as COVID-19 related health equipment) may not grow as fast or may even decline.

For example: The market for hand sanitizer in year 2020 increased 4 folds than that in year 2019 due to the pandemic. But in year 2021, it decreased to half of the revenue of year 2020. This is how fast the market is changing.

The change occurs not only in total market size or revenue. The price of products in the fast-changing market also change quickly, which usually decreases. For an affiliate marketer, this will directly impact sales commission.

Everlasting niche

Some subjects seem to be eternal niche opportunities. Those related to personal interest, such as hobbies, can be a good niche subject.

For example: Cycling. Bicycle technology and component systems develop and change rapidly. A niche related to cycling technical interest may live forever.

Tips for an even better niche selection

Here are some more tips and suggestions to find a niche market. As you read it along, you might start to feel what subject fits you and sparks the interest to write.

Remember that you are the key figure. You are the individual where all the topics that come up relate to. Just look around yourself first. You are already involved in niches as a target market. See what is already “on” you that you can help people with. Here are some subjects you can dig a niche from:

Examine the consumer products  you use.  Name a product have you have used for some time. The one you are familiar with. The one you know so well, better than new consumers. Well, if you’re with it for years and know it well, you might help people with it. These may include personal needs such as dietary stuff, favorite stuff such as computers, software, electronics, vehicles, mobile phones, and many others.

Life experience. We went through many things in life. We certainly have tacked many obstacles, and learned from it. There are many subjects here you can use.

Niche samples

We can tak finance as an example. You can help people going through their financial issues, for example by providing advices on debt management, home loans or insurance. Another popular and greatly demanded subject is personal finance (which will be even better if you have the educational background in it).

Health is also a great niche. Everyone wants to stay healthy and overcome health issues. And when it comes to health, people are often in dire need for help. It is a big opportunity for a niche site. This is will even be much better if you’re physician or paramedic that can help with practical advices.

Hobby /interest. Hobby or interest is what people love. People will frequently look for what they love. Music and sports are two examples.

Let’s take sports as an example. When FIFA world cup is running, many eyes are on the matches during the game.

According to FIFA website, there were 3.2 billion viewers of FIFA world cup 2014. That’s the size of interest on the game. It’s that big. From this sport alone, you can choose whether to create a site on coaching, merchandise, fans club, social clubs, or other subjects.

Expectation /aspiration. You can also find a niche from people’s expectation /aspiration. Learning new way to earn income, for instance, could attract just almost anyone. The affiliate marketing can be one sample.

Helping people with their aspirations, such as a niche on profession is also a good niche idea. For example, stories or advices on becoming an aviation crew, which can help teenagers toward this profession makes a good niche too.

Weight loss is another highly demanded subject. You can explore this in relation to health. Healthy food /eating habit can also be a good niche. You may also want to cover physical exercise. There are a lot to extract ideas from.

Knowledge /expertise. This could be the single strongest prospect source of your niche. Educational background /expertise is a great source of knowledge to help people.

Professional experience is another strong power. Along the professional life, you must already gained a lot of experience to help people with. With your affiliate marketing, you can now help people through your site. Many people who previously could not reach your professional help in your professional activities can now get in touch with you. Just imagine how useful your niche is.

For a more detailed way, click this  article  on Wealthy Affiliate on how to choose a niche. It is pretty simple to understand, yet useful.

More Tips

The following are some tips to remind us that it is not really difficult to find a profitable niche.

Tip 1: Everyone is unique. No two persons are alike. Two people may see the same thing differently. Even one person can assess one thing from different perspective concerning two different uses or purposes. At this point, we can see that we can get more than one niche from the same thing. If we ask a friend or a relative over one subject, he may even come up with another idea.

Tip 2: A note is a big help. I know you’re busy. Just prepare a note to write down everything that can come up for ideas. Thus, when we have that spare, luxurious extra time to go in depth or wide with the written subjects, they’re ready on hand.

Tip 3: Take time off. Vast open space could be the best way to find ideas. This is the time when the mind is relaxed and open to see a vast possibility of ideas. The more relaxed our mind, the more it can see. However, don’t let the idea ruin the happy time. Just take a note and keep it for later.

Conclusion

A niche is an interest or need of the people which requires solution in the market. The market is a very vast place. There is abundance of possible niches in it.

Everyone has unique capability, experience, interest, or mastered knowledge, so everyone has the opportunity to cover a subject as a niche. Just remember that you have your own niche waiting to be found.

Ideas often pop up when the mind is relaxed. Thus taking time off might help to find idea for a niche. Just always be ready to take a note before it is forgotten.

Looking into yourself and the things around you could be the best clue of what subject you can cover best. Your most liked activities could also be the clue of what subject to explore.

Not all market trends can be considered a niche. Some trends might last too short be explored. On the other hand, there are market demands that last eternally although the market offerings change with time and era.


So start to look around and take note of what activities you regularly take. You’ll soon learn that there are subjects to cover as your own niche.

Thank you for visiting the site and reading the article. I hope this will article will enhance your inner willingness to build your site. Leave a comment or suggestion below if you have anything to say. You can also share this article or follow as at social media below.

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