Affiliate Marketing is an awesome way of making money online, but many people don’t really know “what is a niche for affiliate marketing?”. It is actually an important decision and if you get it wrong, you can hamper your chances of earning any money online from affiliate marketing. So, we will be helping you to understand what a niche for affiliate marketing is and offering some tips to help you choose the right niche too.
Whether you want to get started in the healthy food niche, the losing weight niche or any niche at all, we can help you understand what is a niche and how to choose the right niche for you.
Let’s get cracking with explaining what a niche for affiliate marketing is
What is a Niche for Affiliate Marketing?
When you start thinking about a niche, it could be literally anything but the best way to narrow down on what your niche is
going to be is to think about your target audience and the subject or interest you might share within that subject.
That way you can think about the niche that you are going to target for your affiliate marketing campaigns and your blog. But often, people just starting out with affiliate marketing end up starting too broad and don’t narrow their choice down effectively to be a proper niche.
If you are going to start with a hobby, then you need to still narrow that down to help avoid a lot of competition when you are just getting started.
That niche could be a passion of yours, a type of job you have, a lifestyle, a hobby or a particular product that you currently use. Let’s see if we could narrow it down through the use of some examples.
A niche could be classic cars, wedding photography, coin collection, a type of shoe, animal training, pet care, health and wellness, sport related products, types of music, debt reduction, types of wine, video games, online gaming, weight loss, healthy food, meal ideas, food preparation ideas, smartphone accessories, laptop accessories, camping equipment, hiking gear, keeping fit, children’s toys, etc.
But when you really need to narrow down your search for a niche, you could actually find that many of these could still be narrowed down further.
The better you can narrow it down and remain focused, the better chance you have of identifying your target audience and have your niche nailed on for starting affiliate marketing.
If you take children’s toys, that is quite a generic subject and you could easily break that down into specific niche. These could include baby toys, toddler toys or dolls, action figures or Lego. Toys for the garden, or the bath or education toys. The list could be endless.
Shoes could be narrowed down to men’s shoes, women’s shoes, leisure shoes, sport shoes, football shoes, boots, casual shoes, or athletic shoes.
Weight Loss could be narrowed down to losing belly fat, losing bingo wings, exercises, diets, etc.
A niche could be any of these different examples and it shows not only the opportunity presented by a niche content website but that it can be very rewarding and enjoyable to engage with other people who share that same interest that you want to use.
But the key to getting it right is by choosing the right niche for you.
Tips on Choosing the Right Niche for You
Choosing a niche isn’t just as easy as picking a hobby or going for what you think will be profitable, you need to make sure it is the right option for you and that it is something that you can really get your teeth into and create content for.
If you are going to get bored of a subject in a couple of months, then that is not the right option for you and it means you have probably chosen a niche because you think it will be profitable, rather than something you really love.
It would be like me trying to start a niche website in knitting. There are plenty of people who enjoy this pastime and want to find help and advice on that subject. But I have no interest in it, and couldn’t knit even to save my life, so why would I choose that niche?
You have to go with what you know and enjoy, so my first tip is:
Don’t Follow the Herd
Don’t follow the herd and choose a niche because you think it is going to be profitable or because everyone else is doing 
it. If that subject is something you enjoy and can engage in, then fine. But don’t just pick a niche because the item prices are high.
I would much rather have a niche website that has low ticket items that is an authority website and making regular sales, than a niche website with high ticket items that shows no authority or lacks any real info that makes no money.
I recently read a great blog post from Nathaniell, a fellow member at Wealthy Affiliate. He talked about a low item price niche site compared to all the hype about high-ticket affiliate marketing. Check it out here.
Choose a niche that you can really become an authority in and will still enjoy writing about in a year’s time. For me, I can do that with affiliate marketing (which is why I have this website) or Star Trek, or Sport. Because I love all of those subjects. But knitting or anything arty, I leave to Gem as those are subjects, she enjoys.
This leads me to tip 2:
Pick A Niche in Something You Know…or Love
Any niche can be profitable in affiliate marketing because there will always be someone else interested in the same subject as you.
People sometimes mock people when they say they are a Star Trek fan, but I went to a convention last year and there were 
thousands of people there all enjoying the same interest.
With collectibles and other merchandise that could make an appealing option for affiliate marketing…
Keeping fit or losing weight is a term searched by millions of people over the world.
People are always looking for help with technology questions.
Whatever niche you are thinking about using, it needs to be something that you are going to enjoy engaging it and will not get bored of easily.
It does take a little time to get yourself embedded in the search engines and for people to find your niche website. During that time, it can feel like no one is reading your blog posts, yet. But if you are thinking about the bigger picture and enjoy talking about the niche you are going to choose, then it means you are writing to engage with others and they are going to sense that in your writing and they are going to want to engage back with you.
Receiving your first organic comment is a great achievement and it shows that someone else enjoys what you are writing and want to converse with you.
It also helps when it looks like you really know your stuff when you are writing your content and that is because it is a subject that you know something about.
People need to know there is a real person behind the website and that they are offering their advice and it comes from someone who knows what they are talking about.
That is why so many affiliate marketers start off with a hobby or a subject matter they know a lot about.
But you want to be able to enjoy blogging. During my day job, I spent a lot of time using spreadsheets, etc. So, I could start a blog helping people out with the different functions of excel and how to do certain stuff on spreadsheets to achieve the different stuff you can do.
But I would easily get bored of writing stuff like that, and that makes it not a great option at this point for a blog.
I prefer helping people in something I love, and that is with affiliate marketing and getting started with a great business model.
Don’t rush your decision, really break down your options and remember to rank your choices on how much you enjoy the subject and if you want to carry on learning more about that subject and the different aspects of that niche.
As you grow your authority in that niche, you will naturally expand further out into other niches within the same subject and that allows you to grasp a bigger audience in a wider niche. But to start with, get to as narrow as you can.
Here is tip 3:
Identify Your Target Audience
This goes hand in hand with choosing a niche, who is your target audience going to be. Who are you writing your content 
for?
You need to tailor this correctly to ensure they read your content and follow your recommendations within your niche.
I will give you an example. If you were to target the kids toys topic, who would you be targeting with your product reviews and posts? Well, that target audience would be parents. So, what aspects of the toys would they thinking about? What questions would they have too?
A great way to find out this is to go to Amazon and see what questions have been asked by buyers of the products.
This can work for any product niche. Even when you expand into other affiliate programs, typically the product will be still available on Amazon and you can go and check out the Q&A on the product page.
This can really help you understand the target audience of the niche and help you engage with the type of people who are going to be visiting your niche blog website.
Really narrowing down who your target audience is with your niche options will really help you on your way with affiliate marketing.
Here is another example, golf clubs.
People are always looking for the best golf clubs. But who is the target audience you are targeting?
Are you targeting beginners who are looking for great starter clubs and are looking for tips on how to get started with golf and promoting golf lessons?
Or are you targeting the more elite golfer who is looking for a better-quality golf club and is looking for tips to improve their handicap.
Knowing your target audience is often where affiliate marketers go wrong and it can mean having to rethink your strategy when you realise.
My advice would be is to sit down with a cup of tea and really brainstorm who your target audience is for the niche ideas you are thinking about. Then you can make an informed decision over which option you are going to get started with.
Conclusion
I would also add that your first niche is probably not going to be your last. I learned so much from my first niche website, but I did make a few mistakes along the way and that niche website is no longer around. But if you can follow the advice above, you may not make the same mistakes I made.
We all learn from failure, and you will have plenty of little failures along the way. But if you can learn from them, then you will come back stronger and have a niche website that is both profitable and an authority.
If you ever want help or support, we are always there to help people and if you still are not sure of which niche you are going to use to get started with affiliate marketing, feel free to write to us in the comments below and we will help you narrow down your options.
I would also add that there is a lot more to learning affiliate marketing than choosing the right niche. We have a top recommended training platform for beginners that want to learn affiliate marketing. It is a comprehensive training platform, which includes a free website builder and it has helped thousands of people learn and earn from affiliate marketing. If you would like to read more, we recommend you check out our Wealthy Affiliate review.
Thanks for taking the time to read our post on What is a Niche for Affiliate Marketing.
If you still have any questions, then please write them in the comments below and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks
Thank you for your post. The article is informative and very helpful to me. I started online business for a while now and am actively looking for my niche to promote products and trying to make money.
So far I have limited success. You are absolutely right that we need to choose the niche based on our passion for a subject. In order to really become an authority in our niche, we have to enjoy writing the topic year in and year out.
I am kind of following the herds and pick the one which is assumed to make most money. After few month, I feel my writing ideas were exhausted.
We get to pick something we love and with love, there is endless ideas pumping out from your brain, thus endless articles and money-making potentials.
Hey Anthony,
thanks for checking out our blog and for sharing your experiences. That is often the problem when you find it is not a niche that you can stay enthused about. The ideas run out, no ideas means no content and that can lead to you not earning. That is why many get it wrong, the ideas dry up and they wonder why they aren’t making any money.
But you need to keep pumping in the content to get to the top of the search engines. Picking the right niche is such an important step, hopefully you now have one you can really get your teeth into.
thanks
John
Great post and well detailed about finding the niche you have given me an awesome idea I am in Italy 🇮🇹 and Have learnt a natural way for women in their 40s to lose weight without using anything weight loss supplements and diets but to eat their food and still lose weight.
I saw you mention lose belly fat but since my target audience is women in their 40s, could you help me find the right niche for these women including those who want to lose belly fat?
Thank you enjoyed reading the tips
Hey Cinderella,
I think you have nailed your target audience as the over 40’s lady who wants to lose weight. But as you are suggesting ways to do it through their diet, your niche could be “natural ways to lose weight for the over 40’s lady”
It doesn’t have to overly complicated, and it looks like you have a great target audience and niche to target. By sticking to natural ways to lose weight, you could target food tips, food preparation and exercises women could do at home and there you have some content ideas for your niche.
Hope that helps
John
Selecting a niche could be very daunting as much as an easy task. I had issues when selecting the niche I would base my website on. I had so many areas of interest that seems like not so profitable but then, I knew about them. How I wish I came across tips like these during those periods. But then, I realized that identifying my target audience was germane and when I did that, I got the right idea and that was what I built the website on. These tips are spot on and I’m sure it would be of immense help to most people. Thanks for sharing
Hey Tracy,
thanks for checking out our blog and for writing some comments. I totally agree, if you can identify your target audience from the start, it not only makes it easier to choose a niche but it will also help massively with converting readers into sales.
Glad you found our tips useful
John
Thank you for the really detailed guidance on picking a niche. It’s really easy to pick something far too broad to begin with. I also definitely agree with you that your first niche probably won’t be your last and that you have to treat your first one as a learning exercise that you then use to build a better niche site the next time around. I think the most important thing is to start somewhere with something. It’s too easy to think “I’ll wait until I know the perfect niche” when in reality that never happens and the Internet moves on and trends change. A good ready, well thought out and with lots of helpful tips. Thanks again.
Hey Lisa,
thanks for checking out our blog and for writing some comments. Starting too broad makes it a really hard place to get your name out there in amongst all the competition. That is why a niche is a much better starting place for an affiliate marketer. I don’t think anyone nails their perfect niche first time, but you never know.
But a little brainstorming session will do wonders, and I do wish I had done more of it when I first got started.
thanks
John
Do I believe in coincidences ? Sometimes, like today, I do. I am currently about to embark on yet another journey into website creation and I need to read more articles like yours to familiarise myself with the process of making sure I have the right niche. Well, saying that, I do. I need to look past just the niche and into some of the topics you’ve covered. I too have a website that I started with, that probably won’t around for much longer. I don’t regret making it but as I’m learning I realise how many mistakes I made along the way. It’s important to learn from them though, I feel.
I though I would be able to write loads, a doddle, for sure. Not true and not only that, I ran out of passion and that made writing content a chore, not good. I have had to re-evaluate and have now come up with a niche that I know I am passionate about, makes me wonder why I didn’t choose it at the start. Reading through your post I am mentally ticking off boxes to make sure I’m on the right track. I have narrowed it down and I know who my audience is. I need to work on what they will want and make sure I am able to give that to them. Making sure I know the questions they will be asking is a key piece of advice.
Hey,
thanks for checking out our blog and for writing some comments. Sounds like you are now on the right track, but it can definitely make it extremely hard if you run out of steam and struggle to find inspiration to write about.
Glad you have found your niche and your target audience, that will definitely set you on the right track towards finding success.
All the best
John
Hi John. I have been looking for ways to make a living from home for a number of years now. I recently came across affiliate marketing and creating your own website but I never really quite understood what a niche was.Thank you for your informative website that breaks down the process of figuring out what a niche is, that it shouldn’t be to narrow or broad and how to find one that will help you to produce an income by knowing what your target audience is. You have even supplied some ideas on which to build a niche. Now that I have a better understanding of what a niche actually is, I’m ready to start a website and begin making an online income. Thanks again. Jim
Hey Jim,
thanks for checking out our blog. Glad we have been able to define a niche for you. It’s great that you are now ready to get going with your niche. If you ever have any questions or need support, you know where we are!
All the best
John
Well done an an informative post about a very pertinent topic, I’ve recently created a website based up a niche that I am passionate about and could talk endlessly about…just hoping I won’t run out of steam when writing content. Your post certainly give me food for thought and is very well laid out.
As my niche is not necessarily one product that you can purchase as in it’s kind of a self help blog, I’m wondering how I can go about incorporating affiliate links that are relevant? Any guidance you can provide would be fantastic.
Thanks again for the post, it’s a great read! All the best, Julie Anne
Hey Jules,
thanks for checking out our blog. Self Help is a great topic to cover! It all comes down to your mindset, as having the right support with this can lead to people doing amazing things. Whilst there might not be any obvious products, there will be tons of books you could promote and then there are programs that promote the right breathing techniques, brain exercises, etc.
I used the Affiliate Program tool that comes with a Wealthy Affiliate membership and I searched for any programs to do with self help (you could probably be more specific) but I found pages and pages of affiliate programs to do with Self Help.
If you are not already a member, you might want to consider it. Besides the affiliate program tool, there are plenty of tools that come included that will help you transform your affiliate marketing business. Learn more in our Wealthy Affiliate review.
all the best
John
It’s true, selecting a niche can be a really daunting task especially if you don’t know what you want for yourself. I also have to agree that it’s not just about what is profitable and just about passion. Of one will get bored about a topic then there’s no need to go into it. A friend started writing on a problem she had, after about two posts, she realised she didn’t like talking about it and she locked up that website. You are really accurate with this post. Nice one.
Hey Henderson,
thanks for checking out our blog. I have heard that so many times, or been asked what do I write about?
Chasing a profitable niche is like chasing shiny objects, unless you know what you are doing there is no point.
Any niche can be profitable, if you are willing to put in the time, effort and research into it. That is why we recommend you pick something you enjoy, as it can be hard work researching a topic you have no idea about.
thanks
John
I am so happy coming across this blog post because I have been doing some research on this topic of selecting the right niche. I like your specific point about narrowing it down once you have selected your interest area so that it doesn’t get too broad.
But I have a question. Is it important to also consider the point of selecting a niche that you will create a blog for, which can be easily monetized when you finally get traffic attracted to your niche blog post? Or is it irrelevant?
Thanks again for your fantastic detailed information.
Hey Chris,
thanks for checking out our blog. I get where you are coming from, if there are no products or services in that niche, it can be hard to monetise your website with affiliate links. However, that is where the research stage comes in. The best tool for a beginner to use at first is to look at the Amazon marketplace. If Amazon sells products related to that niche, then there are going to be opportunities in that niche.
The other side to consider is that you might cover a niche that lacks products but if you are providing help that is going to attract traffic you could earn revenue from display ads.
I think most people choose a hobby though, and there are definitely going to be products or services for that.
John
This is a really great post, it is very helpful for anyone just starting out with affiliate marketing, there are many people that have trouble with choosing a niche and actually it is quite important to get the right one for you, I wouldn’t like to even have a guess at how many people must have chosen a niche then after completing a few articles and posts have changed their minds about the original niche they chose, so this post is ideal for people just starting out on their affiliate marketing journey in helping them chose the perfect niche for their website, thank you for sharing.
Hey Russ,
thanks for checking out our blog. There are going to be small failures along the road. I ditched my first niche, but what was more important was what I had learned from the experience. By going through it, I learned that that niche wasn’t for me – But when I launched my second site I chose the perfect one and got it up and running in half the time.
We must expect little problems along the way, that is business – but if we are learning and if I can help anyone get it right first time, that would make me extremely happy.
thanks
John
I never knew that so much went into choosing a niche. I just thought that I could just look for something that suits me and something I really like. This is a very good post and I feel that this is exactly the right foundation I need to kick-start my affiliate marketing business. Thank you for this information.
Hey John,
thanks for checking out our blog. The main concept is as simple as picking a topic, but if you start too broad then you are going to find you are up against a lot more competition when it comes to getting ranked into the search engines. If you can start really narrow with a niche, you are up against less competition and can become an authority within that niche and then start branching out when you are ranking really well.
There is a logic to it and it is about giving you the best opportunity to succeed. Hope that helps?
John
Hi John
The problem with niches as there are too many and trying to narrow it to a few, is very difficult. This is because firstly you do not know if it is viable, second can you write blogs on it for years to come without getting bored and thirdly can you make money from it. This takes a lot of research and heart searching, but you will quickly know if the niche is right for you, as you will enjoy and look forward to writing articles for your website. If you feel dread, having doubts then the niche is not for you . I thought the article was excellent and very thought provoking, to get people questioning. That is the most important part, as when you are questioning you are thinking. When you are thinking, you are improving and that is all one can ask for.
Is there any niches that should be avoided with a barge pole?
Thanks
Antonio
Hey Antonio,
thanks for checking out our blog and for adding some insights. I like the way you put it about questioning yourself makes you think. Nice point.
Any niches to avoid…?
I would always do the research into a niche, especially ones that might be illegal in certain countries. CBD Oil, for example. It is legal in some countries and affiliate programs are sprouting up everywhere, but affiliate marketing is global. In some countries, it is still illegal. If you started a blog promoting CBD Oil, but in your country it is illegal, that would be a big mistake as the authorities might take an interest in you.
Like I said, do your research as most niches would be fine, just don’t pick one that might get you in trouble.
thanks
John
Hello John,
Knowing how to choose the right niche will be a fundamental step if we seek to earn extra money as affiliates. A niche is a group of people who have a common interest. For example in my case I love to practice fly fishing in various lakes in Argentina.
As a fisherman I know very well what types of rods, lures, what kind of lines, interesting places, times of the year to go fishing. I share all this knowledge on my website trying to make “sales”.
Being also a member of Wealthy Affiliate if you want to be a successful seller affiliate I have only to encourage you to register and learn with the best.
Thank you so much! Claudio
Hey Claudio,
thanks for checking out our blog and looks like you have nailed your niche selection. Great choice, given your interest.
The Wealthy Affiliate University Review – My Own Experiences offers valuable insights with their step-by-step training that will take a concept like yours through every step required to build a profitable online business. It is the best training platform I have found online.
Definitely worth checking out
All the best
John
I appreciate your article regarding choosing a niche and understanding what a niche is. I am new to earning online and to affiliate marketing. I have struggled to understand what a niche is although I now realise that it is not complicated thanks to reading articles like this one. I have been thinking about digital products as my overall niche but will break it down even further now that I have a better understanding of what a niche is. So, thanks again for a great article.
Hey Rina,
thanks for checking out our blog. Glad we were able to help you out with your understanding. Digital products can be a great idea, but you are going to narrow down to what type of digital product are you going to promote.
If you need anymore help, you know where we are…
John
Great and very thorough article about what are niches for affiliate marketing, how to choose the right niche(s) and get audience and traffic on your website. I started my first websites while ago and as a master of Master of Political Science and ex electricity automation engineer, I could start by something relating to these. Political science and things related to it are most of the time pretty boring for most of the people while robotics (related on automation engineering) may be “too technical” so I decided to choose some health niches im familiar enough cause I have been on national level in sports and still being partial-time personal trainer, not because money but because its very fun and gives you good feelings to help people to get solid muscle mass, lose mass, significantly improve their strength levels or whatever they want.
Hey Jesse,
thanks for checking out our blog. One of the best things about choosing something you enjoy with affiliate marketing, is that it can be really fun to learn more about something you enjoy and can help other people within that niche.
Sounds like you have chosen the perfect niche for you, well done!
John