If you are interested in affiliate marketing andwebsite publishing, you probably know that choosing a niche is very important. If you make the wrong choice, you’ll waste time and money creating a site that won’t be profitable enough. π±
Fortunately, we’re here to help you avoid that. What we offer is to help you find an affordable affiliate niche, profitable and without too much competition. In this way, you can start creating a site with peace of mind and be sure to move in the right direction.
Of course, we’ll show you several techniques to find a profitable affiliate niche. It’s up to you to see which one will work best for you! πͺ
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Contents
What is a good affiliate niche?
If you came across this article, you must know what an affiliate niche is. It is simply a theme that you will focus on to create a site and monetize it through affiliate marketing . Nevertheless, there are bad and good affiliate niches.
As you have seen, the choice of the niche is essential. No matter how much work is put in, the outcome can differ greatly between a“good” and “bad” niche. π
There are many elements that characterize a good niche. In our opinion:
- A niche must be profitable, i.e. give access to profitable affiliate programs.
- Besides, a niche must have little competition, at the risk of drowning among all the other sites evolving in this niche.
Important commissions
The most important thing about affiliate marketing is the amount of commission an affiliate can earn. The lower the commission rate, the more sales a publisher will need to make to achieve a desired revenue. Conversely, an affiliate can quickly generate large sums of money if an affiliate program offers large commissions.
But it’s not as simple as that. π
Because some affiliate programs offering a high percentage of commission are scams. Or their conversion rate will be too low because the brand is not known for example.
Where you will find the affiliate programs with the highest percentage of commission is surely in the digital products. By selling online training, software or VPN for example, you can earn up to 80% commission. The concern is that these services are generally not well known, and therefore more difficult to sell, because consumers do not necessarily trust them.
In contrast, the affiliate program pays between 3 and 10% per sale. This is quite low. Yet, it is the most used program in the affiliate marketing world. Simply because it is extremely easy to sell on Amazon. π¦
What you need to understand is that a niche must contain affiliate programs that are profitable and easy to sell. Otherwise, you can look at the sky-high commission rate on an affiliate platform every day, but you won’t make any money.
In summary, we believe that a niche should be based on high commissions, but should also be based on a quality product or service.
A niche with little competition
If you want to develop in a niche, it is best to aim for a theme with little competition. In fact, there are a lot of niches that are very lucrative such as online casino, insurance, sports betting, VPN and others.
The problem is that in most cases, these niches are extremely competitive. That is to say, on the one hand there is a lot of money to be made, but on the other hand, you will have to invest a lot to be among the first.
The whole point of choosing a niche is to find a lucrative affiliation without having too much competition. π€π½
The problem is that if there is no competition, it’s usually because there is no market(and therefore no money to be made from the affiliation). Otherwise, someone would already be in the business of collecting commissions. And we’re not going to lie to you, it’s very rare to see a very profitable niche without any competition.
That’s why you should aim for a niche where reasonable competition exists. This way, you are sure to be in a profitable affiliation and you will be able to make your mark.
To determine if a niche is competitive, there are several techniques. The easiest is to search Google for affiliate sites in that theme. π
While it may seem counterintuitive, having competitors is good news. Simply because it means that a niche works and makes money. In addition, you will be able to draw inspiration from these sites and get their keywords for example.
Our 4 techniques to find an affiliate niche
Now you know the main criteria of a good affiliate niche. We will give you a list of techniques to make sure you find a niche that will work and make money.
In most cases, we will simply see what works and do the same thing(without copying, of course). But we’ll also show you some techniques to find a niche from scratch.
π To learn step by step how to find a niche and validate it, we invite you to download our free ebook.
1/ Be inspired by successful affiliate sites
In online business, many entrepreneurs advise “not to reinvent the wheel“. In our opinion, this advice is even more valid for website publishing. Indeed, if you start from a little-known niche on which nobody works, chances are that there is no market, and therefore no commission to generate.
In this situation, it’s 50-50. Either you find a functional niche without any competition, or you venture into a niche that will never be profitable. To avoid this problem, it is best to use affiliate sites that already work. π
How do I find affiliate sites that work?
The purpose of this technique is not to reinvent the wheel, but to repeat a long-proven technique . So we prefer to warn you, it is not with this method that you will find the “niche of the century” that nobody has thought of.
In order to find profitable affiliate sites, we will focus on bankable niches. To discover the most profitable niches, we invite you to read our article on 33 niches that pay the most in affiliation .
We invite you to select some niches, among those that speak to you the most. Once you have an idea of a niche, you will search for affiliate sites in that theme. ποΈ
There are different techniques for finding affiliate sites(all of which we teach in our free ebook). The easiest way is to use Google. To do this, you will type queries related to your niche, such as “niche name” + review, test, comparison and others.
By typing this style of keywords, you will quickly come across affiliate sites.
For example, if you are looking for a comparison of online banks, the first page contains only affiliated sites:
Once you’ve found several affiliate sites, you’ll need to check if they are driving traffic. In addition, it is important to check whether the level of competition is not too high. If that’s the case, you’ll have a hard time getting into this niche without a minimum investment.
π To learn how to assess the level of competition in an affiliate niche, we invite you to download our free ebook .
You can get inspiration from affiliate sites that work in France, but not only. In fact, if an American, Spanish or German site makes money, you can launch it in French. Chances are, it will be just as effective.
Thus, we recommend you to takeinspiration from sites in the United States, the first market of the SEO affiliation. To do this, nothing could be easier. You will have to search for comparison and review sites by typing “product name + reviews” on Google.
In this way, you will find affiliate sites that work in the United States. If you find a site that does affiliate marketing, we recommend checking its metrics on an SEO tool. That way, you can determine if the site is driving traffic and ranking on good keywords. π
If a site monetized through affiliation attracts many visitors every month, it is necessarily profitable. So, you can very well be inspired by this site to launch a similar one, but in French.
Please note that the products/services sold may not be available in France. If the site is about Amazon affiliation for example, the products should be available in France. But in other cases, the site may be promoting offers available only to Americans.
2/ Use an affiliate program list
As you know, the choice of the affiliate program is a crucial point to have a profitable site. Usually, publishers just find a theme and then look for good affiliate programs to monetize their site.
But you can also do the opposite. In fact, you can start from an affiliate program and create a site solely around this monetization. This way, you have a high-commission solution for making money before you even start. The only thing left to do is to bring traffic to your site. π§βπ»
To find several affiliate programs at once, there are several solutions.
The first is to search for free affiliate program listings on Google. On the Makers blog for example, you can find lists of programs on several themes(CBD, casino, VPN, weight loss, etc.).
Thanks to our lists, you will know the best affiliate programs in each theme. So you can choose the most profitable or the least competitive. The big plus is that it’s completely free and already sorted. Clearly you won’t have to spend time looking for programs on all the affiliate platforms. β
We really invite you to use our affiliate program listings or to search for others on Google. This is a quick way to find a new profitable niche.
The second way is touse a much more comprehensive list. In reality, there are paid lists that list hundreds or thousands of affiliate programs. In these lists you can sort thousands of programs by committee, theme, etc.
There are several lists of this type, but the one we recommend without any hesitation is Affilisting. Simply because it is the most comprehensive list, but it also makes it easier to find niches. π€π½
Affilisting presents over 10,000 affiliate programs in several languages. Dozens of themes are present(CBD, education, high tech, video games, garden, BtoB, etc.). For each affiliate program, Affilisting provides several guidelines.
You can see the commission rate and its type(recurring or one shot). A recurring commission means that an affiliate is paid for each sale for life. While in “one shot“, he gets paid once when he brings a customer, but does not earn commission on future purchases.
Finally, Affilisting offers a new niche idea every week. Each niche idea also contains several affiliate programs, usually the most lucrative ones. This is clearly a significant bonus, allowing you to get new niche ideas to launch without spending too much time on them. β
This type of list will greatly help you with the monetization part, but also with the choice of the niche. As mentioned above, if you launch a site on a theme without knowing with which affiliate program to monetize it, you are not sure to make money. And that’s even if your site gets traffic.
Affilisting, like other comprehensive lists, allows you to get ahead start in choosing your niche. Don’t worry, since it is possible to sort the programs, you won’t have to look at the 10,000 affiliations offered.
The best thing to do is to choose one or two bankable themes that you like, then create a site around the most profitable affiliate programs.
3/ Thanks to affiliation platforms
You probably know this, but the most used affiliate platform in the world is the Amazon partner program. But there are also many affiliate platforms, with many different programs, that can help you find a niche.
In France, the best known affiliation platforms are Awin, Effiliation and Affilae. What they have in common is that they are all “generalist” platforms. Clearly, you’re going to be able to find affiliate programs on all existing themes . π€©
On the other hand, there are also affiliation platforms that specialize in a particular theme. This is for example the case of Prelinker, an affiliation agency specialized in dating. Or FanFuel, a company specialized in the affiliation of food supplements.
Therefore, if you already have an idea of a theme to start on, it would be interesting to find a platform that is specialized in it.
Now, let’s take an example with an affiliation platform platform like Effiliation. The advantage of this type of management is that you can find a lot of programs. Thus, they can also be sorted by theme, commission, payment term, etc.
On Effiliation, you can search for a program with several criteria. This includes the type of commission(CPA, CPC, CPL, etc.), country and category(nutrition, real estate, fashion, finance, automotive, etc.). It is also possible to sort the programs according to their nature(BtoB or BtoC). π€πΌ
Depending on your criteria, you will be able to see some affiliate programs. Each time, all the indications of the program will be stated, such as the commission rate, the duration of the cookie and others.
Once you have found several interesting affiliations for commissions, you should check if publishers are already using it. Search Google for sites that use this affiliate program. If so, also look at the traffic it generates each month.
If the sites that use this program are getting traffic, it must be profitable. So, we invite you to get the winning keywords from these sites, and then create your own affiliate blog around these queries. Here, you already know that the affiliation will be profitable, so all you have to do is bring in traffic. And since you have the keywords of sites that are already functional, it will be a breeze!
We explained how to find a niche from a generalist site. With this method, it will be difficult to find a functional site among all the existing programs. So you can also use this strategy with specialized affiliate platforms.
4/ Via site purchasing platforms
If an affiliate site is profitable, and has been for some time, many web entrepreneurs will be interested in buying it. Indeed, when an affiliate site is well done, it will generate passive income every month. To ensure the continuity of these revenues, the publisher must simply maintain the site(adding articles, backlinks, etc.).
For the buyer, it is a way to create a semi-passive digital rent. In general, an affiliate site sells for 24x its monthly revenue. For example, if your site generates 1000β¬ per month, you can sell it for 24.000β¬ approximately. π€
There are several recognized platforms of sales sites such as Flippa (United States) and DotMarket (France). All affiliate sites that sell on these platforms are analyzed and their financial data validated. Thus, there are only sites that are really profitable.
If you can’t afford to buy an affiliate site, no worries. In fact, if we tell you about these site buying platforms, it’s simply because it’s a wealth of information.
In most cases, the URL of a sold site is not revealed. However, you will still be able to see his niche, his income and others. And with this information, you can determine if a niche is profitable or not.
Let’s take an example. π
We’ll go to the Flippa site, which allows you tobuy affiliate sites in the United States. On this platform, you will be able to find thousands of sites for sale. The best thing is to filter them according to your criteria. If you want to start a small site, we advise you to filter the sites to sell with maximum 500$ per month of profit.
As you can see, these sites display their URL, so you can go and consult them freely. Generally, the more money a site makes, the less likely it is that its URL will be published. The big advantage here is that you can see the site and thereforeanalyze itvia SEO tools for example.
So, you can take inspiration from these sites and see how they manage to generate profit. Obviously, the goal is not to copy and paste one of these sites, which is strictly forbidden. On the other hand, you have every right to create a French site on the same theme. Before you start, you should also check that the niche is not too competitive. π₯
In summary, we really invite you to take inspiration from the affiliate sites on sale, whether in France or in the United States. This way, you can get inspiration from sites that really earn commissions. It will therefore be much easier to project yourself than by starting from a niche found via an affiliation platform for example.
Now you know how to find an affiliate niche from scratch. With these tips alone, you already have an advantage over your competitors. But if you want to go further,we explain each technique in detail with examples in our freeebook. π
We invite you to download this ebook if you want to be sure to start on the right niche. And in addition to choosing a niche, you will learn how to find profitable affiliate programs(that your competitors do not have). Finally, we’ll also teach you the basics of SEO.
If you want to start publishing websites and generate your first money quickly, you know what you have to do!
Join 10,000+ makers and get all our latest tips for making a living from Blogging and Affiliate Marketing.