Competition Within Your Affiliate Niche
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 a list of potential topics and popular niche markets, you then should look at the affiliate offers within the space. If you were searching to cover web development or creating a presence online, then looking for affiliate advertisers within that space is your next step. Domain registration, hosting and SSL certificates (and yes all the products that Namecheap affiliate marketing offers) would be areas to look at and consider the payments and conversion potential. You need to test your traffic to see if the highest commission vendor really converts better than others with lower commissions. Higher conversion may be due to lower price, brand popularity, or better reviews.
This consideration and testing of margins and success is crucial and should be researched and tested with as much effort as is given to keyword and niche selection.
While high-end products generally pay higher commissions, they also have lower volume and usually lower income potential. These types of factors need to be examined before making a final decision. You also may look at the availability of an appropriate domain name for the niche. If finding a clear, relevant domain is challenging, it may be a competitive affiliate space to try an build a presence.
You should also look for a vendor with solid support for their affiliates. An advertiser who keeps track of the success of its affiliates and engages with them can help in choosing where to market your website. A vendor who creates regularly updated creatives and provides solid resources and support will make your efforts easier.
There are a number of websites that monitor the hot topics for affiliate marketers. Posts made by Viper Chill generally feature solid affiliate marketing content.
For a good example of solid support and educational resources, check out the Namecheap affiliate program. Read through the FAQs, discover the resource center and get a feel for what you should get from a good vendor.