One of the first things you need to do after setting up your affiliate marketing website is to decide on the niche you want to use. As a Wealthy Affiliate member, if you are doing the entrepreneurial training, your niche choices are limitless. If you are doing the bootcamp training, your niche will have something to do with Wealthy Affiliate: For example, mine is “building a business from a remote location.”
Why Do You Want A Niche?
There are important reasons as to why you want to select a niche. Here are some:
- It will allow you to concentrate on one area of expertise
- It connects you with an audience that is focused and interested
- Your business will be more searchable
- A niche helps you connect with advertisers, sponsors, and other businesses
- Your niche gives your business a clear direction for developing content and choosing products to offer
- Simplifies your market because it gives you a clear message as to purpose and benefits.
What Is A Niche?
A niche is the subject of your website, and all your content needs to relate to that niche. It can supply information or answer questions about the subject.
For example, Jay Neill (Magistudios) in Wealthy Affiliate has a small niche called “Football Snack Helmets” that does quite well. It is suggested that you start with a relatively small niche, and if you run out of topics within the niche to write about, you can find a related topic that you can add to make your scope a bit broader.
I picked the rather large subject of “cats” for my entrepreneurial niche. I was told it was too large, but now, with 195 posts, I am just as glad the niche subject is so broad. It makes it much easier to find new topics.
How Do You Select A Topic?
Here are suggestions of ways to brainstorm for a topic:
- Look at objects in your house that you own and see if they give you an idea.
- Think about things you do every day. Is there anything there that might make a good niche?
- Read blogs for ideas
- Do the same with magazine articles
- Check out shopping sites like Amazon and eBay, and look at the popular products or categories
Think about the subjects you are passionate about. What do you love? (I love cats, so that one was easy.) Are you very interested in the subject? Is it something you can write about for months to come? Make a list of the subjects you might choose.
Then, from your list, choose the one you are most interested in. You can always change it later, if it doesn’t work out, but make your best choice for starting out. You don’t need to agonize over your decision, as your selection is not set in stone. Think of it as a good starting point.
Once you have selected a niche, it is important that you understand your audience. What are people buying in your niche? Which products are popular? What are your visitors’ needs? Obviously, an old person will have different needs from a 20-year-old.
If your niche is large enough, you can break it down into sub-categories. Each of these will contain a different audience.
It’s Important To Research Your Audience
To research your audience, there are several ways you can do so:
1) Type your niche subject into Google and put the words “how to” in front of it. You will get a list of relevant questions that people are looking for in Google.
2) You can also precede your niche subject in Google with “why,” “what,” or “where” to get more ideas of what people are searching for related to your niche.
3) Your keyword research is vital to letting your audience know that you might have a solution to a problem they are having. There are three kinds of searches your audience might initiate:
- Solving a problem
- Purchasing something
- Gathering information on the topic
The answers you come up with about what people want will help you design posts that will give the visitor the answer they are seeking.
If you can select a niche on a subject about which people have burning questions, you can do well. Think about times in your life when you had a burning question. These subjects are a good place to start.
Here are some other strategies for choosing a niche:
1) Do you have a hobby you really enjoy?
2) See if you can find a field with less competition. These are easier to rank for in search engines.
3) Select a niche with depth, as you will then have more to write about.
Here is a list from Google of the most profitable niches:
- Health and wellness
- Wealth and money
- Body building
- Romance niches
- Gaming niches
- Hobby niches
- Pets
To Sum Up
When thinking about your niche, select something that you love and that you are knowledgeable about. Then figure out if there is a market for it.
Promoting a single niche gives you a targeted market, plus it helps you build expert status. This in turn will bring in more customers. Once you have found a subject, establish a clear understanding of who your audience is.
Then pick out a small, specific chunk of your niche that fits a prominent part of your audience. Once you have exhausted this part of your wider subject, then expand and add a new piece.
I hope you have found some pointers in this post that will help you in your quest for a niche. May it be the start of something wonderful for you.
This is so helpful especially to those who are starting to learn affiliate marketing. Your post can give enough information to help your reader to decide on what niche they can start to build their business with. The topic was presented in a very understandable manner that readers can comprehend the whole idea of the post. Congratulation for a job well done.
Oh, I’m really glad to hear that. I do want it to be something that will help new folks find their way. Selecting a niche can be very difficult if you don’t understand what you are looking for. Thanks for your comment.