Affiliate Newbie?s Guide To Finding Niches

[Linda Buquet]

Michael Gray over at Graywolf's SEO Blog, just wrote a great post about picking niches for newbies. Enjoy!

<a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/affiliate-marketing/the-affiliate-marketing-newbies-guide-to-finding-niches/">The Affiliate Marketing Newbie?s Guide To Finding Niches</a>

One of the most popular questions you always hear from people who are new to affiliate marketing is what niche should I get into? So here?s my contribution to help out newbies get into the game with their eyes wide open.

I?ll share my methodology in researching and picking a niche, and my reasoning.

 

[victorm]

interesting, now it says the author's name is GabGoldenberg - identity crisis?
good article though, if only for this particular phrase

Unique content <..> is becoming commodified, so this route is getting harder and harder to use.

 

[JackieLee]

Hey Vic ~ what do you think he meant by that statement and what made it stand out for you?

 

[victorm]

@JackieLee... in brief, that he acknowledges content quality has nothing to do with writing and Search Engines are still too dumb to make the difference.

 

[Zandalay]

I am new to all of this and have yet to find an appropriate niche. I have read advice that it should be something I am passionate about. Trouble is, there is really nothing salable that I am passionate about. Thought about focusing on baby boomers but this is a very large population and not really a niche. While I can see how it would be helpful, is a niche really necessary? Is it possible to promote a variety of products at my website selected according to my own interest and preferences? What is a review site and how is it distinct from other sites? At the moment my website aims to provide goods and services for good living, good loving and smart working - broad categories that will allow nearly anything to be promoted. What is wrong with this approach?
Looking forward to your thoughts...

 

[Linda Buquet]

Is it possible to promote a variety of products at my website selected according to my own interest and preferences?

What is a review site and how is it distinct from other sites?

At the moment my website aims to provide goods and services for good living, good loving and smart working - broad categories that will allow nearly anything to be promoted. What is wrong with this approach?
Looking forward to your thoughts...

Hi Zandalay,

Nothing is wrong with promoting a bunch of unrelated products, it's just a hard way to start for a variety of reasons. That strategy is sort of like a mall site and there are just tons of those out there. It's sort of a scatter gun approach that makes it harder to get good search rankings, harder to generate content and harder to target your audience because there are so many variables.

One part of the issue that I can explain with an example. If one of your products is meditation music - sites that ONLY focus on meditation music are going to rank much higher than you so it will be harder for you to get traffic. (Plus potential customers may have more trust or want to look for a site that seems to specialize in this type of product and carries a whole store full of related products) If another one of your products is a "green" product, other sites focusing on environmentally healthy products will outrank you. If another product is ergonomic office chair, other sites that focus on office chairs or ergonomics are going to rank much higher. Multiply all these examples times all the different products you offer and you can start to see the problem.

Again it's not a "bad" model, it's just much harder to market and get traffic with a scatter gun approach as opposed to a niche marketing approach.

 

[NicheMarketer]

@Zandalay: Linda already gave you a good example why it will be very difficult to succeed with your niche. I would add only a technical aspect. To promote successfully your niche you have to rank high in search engines. As your niche deals with variety of products, you will have to rank high with a lot of keywords. And to rank high with only one keyword takes some hard work and lot of time to achieve.

I suggest you to start with one product or service only. To learn and find out how things work, you can build your first page on free websites like Squidoo.

 

[Zandalay]

Thanks for your feedback both. I appreciate you both taking the time to offer your thoughts. I can see the advantages of selecting a niche and going with it and I see the disadvantages of an online mall. I need to find that suitable niche and feel I am getting closer to it. At the moment I need to learn more about seo and will continue to refine my focus.
This is a great site, Linda...

 

[Laura61]

Lots of newbies have a really hard time finding a niche because they've been told they should choose a passion. I recommend that myself, IF a profitable niche can be found within that passion. It's ideal, but it will not always be possible.

So the second best thing would be to find a niche that you at least have some interest in, something you wouldn't mind researching and writing about. You may become an expert on that topic before you know it!

 

[WordWaves]

I am new to all of this and have yet to find an appropriate niche. I have read advice that it should be something I am passionate about. Trouble is, there is really nothing salable that I am passionate about. Thought about focusing on baby boomers but this is a very large population and not really a niche. While I can see how it would be helpful, is a niche really necessary? Is it possible to promote a variety of products at my website selected according to my own interest and preferences? What is a review site and how is it distinct from other sites? At the moment my website aims to provide goods and services for good living, good loving and smart working - broad categories that will allow nearly anything to be promoted. What is wrong with this approach?
Looking forward to your thoughts...

This is the shotgun approach to internet marketing. You're blasting out a ton of different products in such a wide pattern that you're competing on too many fronts and will only be making things harder on yourself.