Affiliate marketing has been a vessel for major success for millions of people, but finding your place in it may not be easy. After all, just because you like or know something, doesn’t mean you can make money off it, does it? Actually, it does! With a little self-reflective brainstorming, some in-depth research and a website to boot, you can turn your knowledge, experience and interest into a highly profitable affiliate marketing relationship. Here’s the blueprint for your two step plan:
1. Analyze Your Own Interests And Expertise
Some newcomers to the world of affiliate marketing try to find a product first, then force themselves into it. While this approach can work, you’re actually better off looking inward, first. This is because you need to select a niche that you know something about and preferably, one that you have a lot of passion for.
Ultimately, of course, you can do anything you put your mind to, however, if you opt for unfamiliar territory, you’ll be winging it. There’s enough to learn in affiliate marketing that you don’t want to be presented with too many additional obstacles. The knowledge and passion you already have will act as a launchpad for your long-term success.
Base your search for a niche on the answers to questions like these:
- What do you do in your free time?
- What industry do you have the most experience in?
- What do you enjoy talking about?
- Which classes were your favorites in high school and college?
- What do you read for pleasure?
- What types of problems are you particularly good at solving?
While there will not likely be any type of prerequisite presented to you by potential affiliates, it will help if you can promote yourself as an expert who has been in the field for a certain number of years or an enthusiast who has personally enjoyed participating in an activity every summer since you were five.
Also, you’ll make a more genuine impression on your audience when you really know what you’re talking about as opposed to making it up as you go along. After you’ve nurtured your first affiliate website to a certain level of success, go ahead and try your hand at something you don’t know much about if you’re comfortable doing so.
2. Align Your Personal Interests And Expertise With A Profitable Niche
Once you’ve narrowed the possibilities down based on who you are and what you like, find an industry in which you can make money as an affiliate. You could use keyword tools online to see what people are searching for on search engines and at big name retailers. Study trends and forecasts to determine what’s hot and what’s not and where you might belong in the thick of it. Start with the internet’s largest online retailer, by searching products by “best seller” or by looking at the number of reviews the different products have. Keep in mind that for every single review, approximately 500 total have been sold for that item.
Certain niches represent some of the most historically profitable industries in affiliate marketing, but you still need to be a good fit for them. Your answers to the following questions can help place you in a profitable niche, provided you’d feel at home in it and can see yourself building a killer website around it:
- How can you help people age better?
- How can you help people feel more positive about themselves?
- Do you know how to get a really, really good night’s sleep?
- Have you figured out a reliable way to lose weight?
- Are you the world’s best match-maker?
- Can you advise people on how to make something awesome and unique from scratch?
Although no industry is fool-proof in terms of a reliable income, in general, health, romance and hobbies do well for affiliate marketers, therefore, any way you can help people interested in these topics will work in your favor.
For example, say your a fitness nut and love taking care of yourself from the inside out. Consider all the supplements available and how often people are confused about them. If you clearly demonstrate your authority and help your audience understand which supplements they should take and for what reasons, they’ll likely buy from you.
Supplements are a seven billion dollar industry, with growth projected to climb an average of more than 12 percent over the next decade or so.
Find a way to make people feel better, look better or connect with each other. Solve a problem for them, such as insomnia or obesity with a product or service you know will work and then, build a site where you can present a solution to your targeted audience.
With tireless search engine optimization, constant contact with your customer base and a wise choice of affiliate partnerships, by this time next year, you could be calling yourself a successful internet marketer. The first step though starts now, by narrowing your choice of niches to something sensible, doable and most importantly, profitable!
Jonathan Leger has been a successful Internet Marketer for over 11 years. He owns an SEO and Keyword Tool suite and is the creator of a number of well known and respected software and service applications such as The Best Spinner, Article Builder and more.
