Finding your affiliate marketing niche

Obviously, the ideal situation is to find an area with low competition. There are tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMRush and SpyFu that will show the volume and level of competition to give some insights. While the competition will be higher the broader and lower in the buying funnel the terms looking getting a large amount of traffic - be it organically or through paid and other traffic sources - this should not necessarily be overlooked as a potential opportunity. There are, however, many sub-categories of these evergreen niches that can be a solid starting point for people new to affiliate marketing.

These smaller areas allow affiliates to build a brand in these more specific topics and gradually move to the broader ones. As Rae Dolan, a well-known affiliate marketer, states:

Her steps to choosing a niche include points each affiliate should use in making their decision.

• Use PPC bids as an indicator of competition and interest in the topic. If no one is advertising in the space or the volume and bids are low, this may be an indication of limited appeal.

• Doing searches for the keywords in your niche allows you to see if all results are major brands homepages which will suggest high competition. If they include small blogs or deep pages on the first page you may have an opportunity and have done some of your initial keyword research.

• Once you have your list of ranking sites, check their inbound links to see how difficult it will be to meet the numbers.

When choosing your audience, some other factors can be used to make the process easier. If you are part of the audience you are looking to target, it will be easier to choose terms and have insights into the questions similar people will have. The topic can also be one you are curious about so the research interests you, and the learning curve will not be as steep.

Once you have the area, start asking questions to answer problems or issues you see in the space. People search for answers, so knowing what they are asking can help with smart content that captures interest and rankings. Beyond looking at the suggested searches when you start typing in the Google search box, there are forums and platforms where questions in the niche can also be found.

Learning and understanding the terminology can also be a major factor in selecting a profitable niche. If the language and terminology are obscure, then definitions and explanations can be solid content that gets search for often. Using the right words is important, not only in content creation and possible paid traffic options but including it in ad copy and landing pages to attract the people in the niche.