Today, affiliate marketing has become a very lucrative way to make extra money, especially as passive income, thanks to the growing rate of digital marketing.
As an affiliate marketer, you get to earn commissions when you promote a business's product and make sales when your customers purchase these products using your referral link or discount code.
According to statistics, the global digital and affiliate marketing industry is worth $280 billion and over $18 billion, respectively. And over 30% of affiliate marketers globally make $20,000 per month.
However, to be a successful affiliate marketer and start a successful affiliate marketing program, you need to do some real work to get there. Finding the best niche to invest in and your marketing strategies is what will separate your affiliate business from your competition.
I know this can be very stressful to do on your own, which is why in this article, I will teach you how to choose the best affiliate marketing niche and also answer some of your questions on how to get started as an affiliate marketer.
What to Look Out For Before Choosing An Affiliate Marketing Niche
Before choosing any niche for affiliate marketing, there are some key things you should look out for before picking any niche to build your affiliate marketing business around.
Every successful affiliate marketer can tell if a niche is worth it to invest in after going through some checks on that niche.
Below are some things you should consider before choosing a niche:
Lower Rate Of Competition
As a beginner in affiliate marketing, you don't want to choose a niche with hundreds or even thousands of affiliate marketers who are working hard to get the same audience you want to have.
Your focus is to look for a niche with a low competition rate so that you can quickly establish yourself as an expert within that niche.
To do this, you can start by researching the number of search results for your target keywords on Google or any other search engine.
If your target keyword has millions of search results, i.e., competing pages, this means that this niche has a high competition rate. However, if your target keywords have a few hundred or thousand search results or less than that, this means that it has low competition, and you can grow within this niche.
Pro Tip: To find out the number of search results on your target keywords, you can use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Rank Tracker.
Good Affiliate Programs Within The Niche
Choosing a niche with good affiliate programs is very important. There are thousands of affiliate programs, and over 40% are not reliable nor pay their affiliate partners well. You don't want to be in these shoes at all.
A good affiliate program is reliable, helps you choose the right products to sell to your audience, pays you a good commission on every sale or referral, and helps you keep track of your sales and referrals.
A good example is Shopify and Amazon. Amazon has one of the best affiliate marketing programs, with plenty of products to choose from and sell.
Shopify is also a very popular option among affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketers earn a good commission when they refer people to purchase a Shopify paid plan with their affiliate links.
Commissions And Profitability
Several affiliate programs have different methods of payout based on the volume of products/services you sell with your referral link.
Picking a good niche with a good payout and commission structure will enable you to earn a good amount for each sale made with your link.
Some niches are more lucrative than others, and affiliates can earn hundreds to thousands of dollars when they cash out their commissions.
If you are an affiliate partner for e-commerce stores like Shopify, Amazon, etc., you can earn a higher commission than other affiliate programs.
So before choosing a niche for your affiliate marketing business, ensure that the program within this niche is profitable and that the commission on any sale made with your link is competitive.
Large Audience With High Interest
A niche with a large audience and high interest in the product you are selling is something you should look out for before choosing an affiliate marketing niche. This is so important so that you are not exhausting your efforts for a small audience with low interest in what you are selling.
A lot of affiliate marketers go after niches with a large audience, so choosing a specific niche with a large audience can be hard. Instead, it is best to look for a niche with customers that have a high interest in the products you are selling. Here, you can make more sales when people purchase items with your referral link.
Pro Tip: Research on Products/services people are demanding within your niche, create quality content around those products or services, and refer people to places they can purchase such products or services.
Potential For Long-Term Growth
When starting in affiliate marketing, you need to think long-term. A niche with high demand has growth potential. This allows you to continue earning a commission from the same customer base for a very long time.
Seasonal products only last as long as the season lasts. This is why it is not worth it to choose seasonal niches.
The secret is to look for an evergreen niche with products or services people will continue to buy consistently over time. Examples of this will be fashion items, tech gadgets, etc.
If you want to earn long-term commissions from affiliate marketing, the longevity of your niche matters.
How To Choose The Best Affiliate Marketing Niche
You should know that the very first step in choosing the best affiliate marketing niche is to discover what you are good at and very knowledgeable about. In choosing niches that you are very knowledgeable about, you can easily create content and sell products or services under those niches because you are passionate about them.
The next thing to also consider as a beginner in affiliate marketing is Trust. People only listen to the influencers they love and trust. Also, people buy from brands they trust. By focusing on a specific niche and consistently promoting products or services under that niche you have chosen, your customers or potential customers will trust you and consider you an expert in that niche.
This will help you build a loyal customer base which in return will help you scale fast to being a successful affiliate marketer.
However, if you have so many interests, finding the best affiliate marketing niche can be quite difficult. Below I will help you find the right niche to choose as a beginner.
Step #1: Discover Your Interests And Expertise
This is the first step you should take to begin your journey in choosing the best affiliate marketing niche.
This means you have to sit down and think about what topics you are passionate about. What products or industries draw your attention? What are you so knowledgeable about that people tend to ask you for help in that area?
You should know that being an affiliate marketer, you have the potential to build a profitable long-term source of income if planned and managed well. Therefore, you need to plan your affiliate marketing business well from the beginning by deciding on your interest.
You can also ask people around you questions about what they think you are passionate about. Also, do some research on different topics of your interest.
You shouldn't be scared of failing at first. It is all part of the learning process. Choosing a niche you are excited about will keep you going and help you learn faster.
Step #2: Research On Different Profitable Niches In Affiliate Marketing
After discovering your interests and you still feel confused, this is the part where you research different profitable niches in affiliate marketing and narrow it down based on your interests and hobbies.
There are several profitable affiliate marketing niches. This niche ranges from Fashion, gaming, home decor, education, and more.
In researching these profitable niches, you can easily pick 1 profitable niche you can begin with.
Pro Tip: Let's say you chose two niches to start with. Ensure they work well together before creating your affiliate business within these niches. For example, you chose fashion and home decor. These two can work perfectly well because they are quite similar for a person with a good sense of style.
Step #3: Evaluate The Monetization Of The Niche Chosen
As a beginner in affiliate marketing, there are several ways to earn money with your affiliate marketing business. There are three main models, these are:
- Pay Per Click: You earn a commission every time someone clicks on any of your affiliate links.
- Pay Per Sale: You get paid when someone uses your link to purchase an item.
- Pay Per Lead: You earn a commission when you refer people to sign up for a service, such as a membership or even a newsletter.
You can choose whichever way you want to earn commissions within your niche.
Step #4: Research On The Search Volumes
After picking a niche, you have to carry out an analysis of the niche chosen. This is to know how your chosen niche will perform in terms of competition and audience interest.
You need a niche where search volumes are not very high (like over a million in search volume) and with less competition.
You can use a keyword search tool like SEMrush to search for multiple keywords related to your chosen niche. This tool will display other related keywords that will let you know what people usually look for within your niche.
It will also show you the keyword difficulty, which will help you know how difficult it is to rank with these keywords. Keyword search volume shows you, on average, how many monthly searches the keyword receives and the Cost Per Click (CPC) of a keyword.
With all this information, you can decide if the niche you have chosen is well-known, brings in enough consistent traffic to your website, and earns you good revenue.
Step #5: Study The Competition Within Your Niche
With some mainstream affiliate marketing niches, competition can be very high. This means excellent affiliate marketing efforts and strategies will be needed to stay ahead in the race. While it is easier to follow current trends, I recommend choosing a niche with high search volume and lower competition.
However, if you want to target a popular niche, search for well-known influencers within your niche, evaluate the products/services they are promoting, and try to find a different angle on how to promote your products within the same niche.
Step #6: Discover Your Unique Selling Point
Every customer cares about the value your business offers them and how your products can solve their already existing problems. Therefore knowing your unique selling point (USP) is very important.
Your competitors might promote the same products as yours, but it is important to have something that sets you apart from them. You can do this through the content you create for your target audience, giveaways, etc.
You need to analyze your competitors' USPs, strengths, and weaknesses and then use this information to craft your USPs and strengths.
Step #7: Create Your Affiliate Marketing Strategies
This is the part where you plan how you want to promote your affiliate marketing business and get your target audience to come to your website.
You can do this by deciding the content type you will create for your audience. This could be through well-written content on various relevant topics within your niche or creating Video content on video streaming platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, which clearly explains the products or services you sell and their benefits.
Leveraging Email marketing or writing guest posts for other popular blogs within your niche. Guest post writing for a website within your niche can help your target audience discover you and come to your website. This can be done when you write valuable content for this audience and include the links to your website in the guest posts you will be writing.
Step #8: Execute Your Strategies
This is where the real work is. After carefully choosing a niche with the help provided above, you still have to build your affiliate marketing business.
You should know that affiliate marketing requires patience and a lot of hard work in the first few years as an affiliate marketer. This is because you want to build trust and establish yourself as an expert within your niche.
This will require that you are always researching the needs of your target audience at every season and provide solutions to those needs through valuable content.
Also, you will have to have a sharp eye for products your customers are purchasing in high volume at any time and see to it that your audience is purchasing these products through your referral link.
This will take a lot of work, but you can do so if you keep building your affiliate marketing business one day at a time.
Pro Tip: The best way to start out in affiliate marketing is to create a blog for your affiliate business. With this blog, you will create lots of valuable content for your target audience to engage with. The content in your blog can be a mix of written content, video content, infographics, and more.
I strongly recommend that you read some of our posts on blogging, how to keep visitors hooked to your blog, and excellent blog post ideas to start with if you need help starting a blog post for your blog. Our posts will help you get started and grow in your journey to becoming a successful affiliate blogger.
Benefits of focusing on an affiliate marketing niche
Choosing a niche to focus on as you build your affiliate marketing business can help you grow faster and earn more income.
Here are some key benefits of focusing on a particular niche:
- Focusing on a niche helps you to clearly define your target audience and create content specifically for this audience. This, in turn, can turn them into paying customers.
- You can carefully plan and execute your marketing strategies effectively, with the confidence that they will attract potential customers to your website.
- Focusing on a particular niche helps you to establish yourself as an expert within that niche. As you consistently release content your customers want, they will find your website helpful and reliable. This can help you attract even more viewers and buyers to your site, and more people link to your content online.
- Focusing on a niche can help improve your website's SEO. This, in turn, will help customers easily discover your website when they search for things relating to your niche online.
Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Niche For Beginners
To help you further on the best affiliate marketing niche to choose from, I researched some popular niches in affiliate marketing.
There are more than 10 popular affiliate marketing niches, and these niches have their pros and cons.
As a beginner affiliate marketer, you can start with any of the niches listed below.
1. Technology
The technology industry is always evolving, and there is always a new product or service to discover.
Mobile apps, marketing software, editing software, tech gadgets, and home devices are very popular products to market within this niche.
You can join affiliate programs like ClickFunnels, Rakuten, Amazon, Semrush, etc., which are very popular in this niche.
Pro
This niche is very lucrative if you properly invest in providing value to your target audience in this niche. It is evergreen because people would want to renew their subscription if they are pleased with the software or buy a new gadget occasionally. This is great if your customers are using your link to do so.
Con
You will need very good knowledge about different software and devices within this niche. Also, this niche can require a high budget to create promotions and campaigns that can convert customers.
2. Beauty and Cosmetics
The beauty, fragrances, and cosmetics niche is a very popular niche with lots of major and minor influencers within it. The search volume on Google on beauty per month is over 900 thousand, which keeps growing over time.
This industry is good for beginner affiliate marketers with a unique area of focus and a unique selling point.
Pro
A lot of people take advice from influencers or experts before purchasing a beauty item. By choosing a sub-niche and establishing yourself as an expert within this niche, people can take advice from your website and use your affiliate links to purchase beauty products. You will be earning a commission consistently.
Con
There is massive competition within the beauty industry. To win within this niche, you will need to conduct extensive research on sub-niches within the beauty industry with less competition and establish yourself as an authority there.
3. Health and Fitness
The Health niche is an evergreen affiliate marketing niche. This is because people always search online for ways to improve their health.
Statistics show that the health industry is worth $4 trillion, and it is projected to double by 2030.
There are millions of affiliate marketers in this niche, but you can target smaller sub-niches and create content around this niche.
Pro
This is an evergreen niche, and your website has the potential to rank on SERP when you create detailed content answering questions your target audience is asking within this niche.
Con
This niche is not for everyone. You will need to be an expert in medicine and fitness before giving any health-related advice online.
4. Education
Education is always in high demand, especially in the new year, because people want to learn new skills and increase their knowledge in a particular field.
To be part of this niche, you don't need to be an expert, but you should have an understanding of the products and services you are selling to your customers.
Pro
You can be an affiliate for E-learning platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and Skillshare, and you can get high commissions when people purchase a membership with your link.
Con
It is a very competitive niche with lots of creators with a large audience being affiliate partners for most E-learning platforms.
5. Fashion
Fashion is an evergreen niche. It is a very diverse industry with many sub-niches to explore. There are always demands for fashion goods due to changes in trends and seasons.
As a beginner, it is important to know that there are a lot of affiliate programs available in the fashion industry, like Urban Outfitters, ASOS, Nordstrom, etc. You can start with any of the popular affiliate programs, and you can earn up to 8% commission on any sale made.
Pro
You can easily promote your affiliate links through your social media platforms as long as you keep creating valuable content your audience wants on these platforms.
Con
You will need to have a good sense of style to be successful in this niche. Also, because of how populated this niche is, you will need a sub-niche to thrive as an affiliate marketer.
6. Home Decor
Just like fashion, the Home decor is an evergreen niche. This industry keeps growing, with lots of people picking interest in the way their home looks daily. The market value of the home decor industry will be $200 billion in 2024, which means that this is a great industry to choose as an affiliate marketer.
If you have a passion for decorating, this is a great niche for you to choose.
Pro
You should also know that there are different home decor sub-niches. This is because of people's tastes differ. These sub-niches involve minimalist home decor, luxury home decor, vintage home decor, and many more available.
Because of how diverse this industry is, you can choose a sub-niche you are passionate and knowledgeable about and create expert content on it consistently. This will establish you as an authority within the sub-niche.
Con
Learning home decor and showing practical examples can be expensive if you don't have the funds to do so.
7. Travel
After the Pandemic and the rise of remote jobs, the travel industry experienced a huge boom in the number of people traveling daily.
Every day, people make plans to travel, and this has brought a rise in the number of travel planning agencies within the past year.
Because this industry is rapidly growing, and more people are looking for inexpensive ways to travel, you can become an affiliate marketer within this niche and help people purchase inexpensive airline tickets or discover inexpensive hotels with your affiliate links.
Pro
Some travel agencies and airlines run affiliate programs in which you can earn as high as 30% commission on every sale made with your affiliate links. You can check out affiliate programs like Trip advisor, Kayak, Lonely Planets, etc.
Con
Travel restrictions and other factors can make people have second thoughts about traveling to other countries. This can hinder people from purchasing travel tickets if there are a lot of travel restrictions within a country.
8. Business and Finance
This is a very juicy niche because people are constantly looking for ways to make money, save money, and invest money.
If you are passionate about making money and different ways to keep money, you can create financial tips, investing guides, and cryptocurrency tips for your audience. You can also promote good financial management software that can benefit your customers. Because of how big this industry is, you can choose a sub-niche, like accounting, personal finance, corporate finance, etc., to major in.
Pro
Business and Finance is a lucrative niche to be in if you are starting in affiliate marketing. This is because people always ask questions about starting a business or managing their finances. You can take advantage of the gaps within this niche and provide valuable content for your audience.
Con
Because of how sensitive money is to people, this niche is only for people who understand how money works and everything about starting/ growing a business. This niche is not for everyone.
9. Food
Food is a great niche for those with an interest in cooking and just getting started with affiliate marketing.
Although this niche has a lot of competitors, there are various sub-niches you can target, like vegan foods, native foods, gluten-free foods, etc.
You can create written content and video content for whichever sub-niche you choose and promote your affiliate links with your content.
Pro
It is easy to get started as an affiliate marketer in this niche. You don't need to be an expert to create content. You only need to share your knowledge with your audience.
Con
Not all sub-niches are the same. You can only give expert knowledge on certain sub-niches in this industry. Therefore, you are restricted to writing on some topics if you are not an expert in that area.
10. Gaming
The gaming industry is growing rapidly with the rise of play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity, etc. This industry targets a broad range of audiences which means you can have a diverse customer base.
Many gaming influencers are also affiliate partners with gaming brands, and they are very popular on Twitch, YouTube, and Tiktok.
You can establish yourself as an authority within this niche and earn high commissions when people use your affiliate link to purchase gaming items like game consoles, weapons, memberships, etc.
Pro
This is a very fun niche to be in as an affiliate marketer, and you can grow your audience easily if you are very good and knowledgeable at gaming.
Con
This niche can be very competitive for a newbie.
FAQS On How To Choose An Affiliate Marketing Niche
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process of promoting another company’s product or service with your platforms, like your website or your social media pages.
Commissions are earned when someone purchases the product or service you promote on your website, social media pages, or Youtube through your affiliate links. The commissions earned are usually a stated percentage of the sales price or a fixed amount.
What are the benefits of being an affiliate marketer?
Some benefits of being an affiliate marketer include the following:
- Being an affiliate marketer is a great way of making passive income on your website, Youtube, and social media pages.
- It is a lucrative business opportunity that requires little or no money to start.
- It is very convenient and flexible for you to do as a side hustle. Also, you have a high potential to grow within the niche of your choice as you continue providing valuable content for your audience.
How can I be an Affiliate Marketer in 2023?
It is easy to be an affiliate marketer. All you need to do is to:
- Educate yourself on what affiliate marketing is to understand this business opportunity very well.
- Do your research on different profitable niches you can choose from.
- Pick a niche out of these profitable niches that you are very passionate about.
- Evaluate The monetization Of the niche you have chosen.
- Research the search volume of the target keyword used within your niche.
- Study your competition and know their strengths and weaknesses.
- Discover your Unique Selling Point.
- Plan and execute your marketing strategies to grow your affiliate marketing business.
What are the top affiliate marketing programs to join?
You can join lucrative affiliate programs like Clickbank, ShareASale, SEMrush, Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Rakuten, etc.
Which niche is very profitable in affiliate marketing?
The niches that are very profitable for affiliate marketing include technology, food, finance, education, gaming, beauty, fashion, health and wellness, pets, travel, home decor, luxury, and insurance.
What are the necessary skills needed to be a successful affiliate marketer?
Being a successful affiliate marketer takes patience and hard work. However, these are the necessary skills you need to thrive in affiliate marketing.
- Problem-solving skills.
- Great Content marketing skills
- Knowledge of website design.
- Excellent Creativity skills
- Good communication and leadership skills.
- You should have technical knowledge on how to use web analytics tools for your website.
- Finally, you should be excellent at sales and marketing.
How much do affiliate marketers earn in a month?
Top affiliate marketers earn over $200k per year.
Intermediate affiliate marketers earn $20k to $100k per year.
Beginner affiliate marketers earn $2k to $10k in a year.
You should know that the amount of money you make as an affiliate marketer depends on the niche you are in, the affiliate marketing program you chose, and the commission you earn on any sale made with your referral link.
Who are the highest-paid affiliate marketers in the world?
The highest-paid affiliate marketers in the world are Neil Patel, Pat Flynn, Finch Sells, Russell Brunson, etc.
Final Thoughts
Although affiliate marketing is a very lucrative business that enables you to generate lots of passive income through good affiliate marketing programs, it is very important to choose a profitable niche that aligns with your interests and expertise.
Choosing a good affiliate marketing niche(s) can help you create strategies that will help you stand out from your competition and scale your business long-term.
Starting can look like a lot of work, but the tips I listed in this article can easily guide you to becoming a profitable affiliate marketer.