Niche Research Guide: 5 Ways to Find Profitable Affiliate Niches

What is a niche market?

Niche markets cater to a smaller and more targeted audience within a larger market, whose distinct needs cannot be satisfied by the wider market offerings. To be considered as a niche market, the following characteristics should be present:

Specific – The first advantage of going niche is how specifically you can tailor your product – people see it and think, “This is for people like me.”
Small – As a result of being specific, the total addressable market is comparatively small.
In demand – The niche market has to want a tailored solution more than something general that’s made for the broad market.
Low in competition – By virtue of being small, niche markets are often – but not always – less competitive.
Leaning on your advantages – If possible, you should bring your own experience, edge, and unfair advantages to the table.

Typically, smaller markets known as niche markets face less competition mainly because big enterprises cannot venture into them due to the limited number of potential consumers. Running a large business entails having numerous operating expenses and employees, and targeting a small group of customers would not generate enough revenue to cover the costs. Thus, such markets suit small, independent businesses that could expand into the broader market in the future if desirable.

Focusing on niches can distinguish you in competitive fields since niche audiences possess distinct motivations, requirements, and aspirations that vary from those of the larger market. Specializing enables you to tailor an exceptional proposition to a specific, targeted group, instead of striving to cater to everyone and being unable to differentiate yourself.

Here’s a niche market example

If you were given a menu at a restaurant which includes Italian pasta, Indian curries, and sushi, would you believe that the restaurant is capable of preparing all of these cuisines to a high standard? Most likely, you would not.

How about that French eatery in the city center with just five dishes on the menu? It sounds promising. While they may not offer an extensive selection, they have fine-tuned those five dishes to perfection. This applies to specialty businesses too – their smaller range caters specifically to their intended clients.

An example of a specific and well-defined market is:

Mastering the field of “technology” is challenging due to the vast range of subcategories within it, possibly amounting to hundreds. However, opting to concentrate on a particular niche market such as “smart watches” or “smart watches for hikers” permits you to channel all your energy and time into developing a product that surpasses competitors in serving the niche audience.

Despite appearing to have a limited scope, this particular market has proven to be successful for certain companies. Garmin is a prime example, having generated $4.19 billion in revenue last year and employing 16,000 individuals. The phrase “hiking watches” garners a search volume of 3,600 per month, and opens up possibilities for expansion into categories like “fitness watches” or “running watches” in the future.

What makes a niche “good”?

Each niche doesn’t possess the same value. A few niches are evergreen, indicating that customers sustain their interest in this proposition throughout the year, and the necessity has remained consistent or amplified over the years.

Some niches experience seasonal fluctuations, wherein their popularity surges only during specific periods of the year, such as vacations or Christmas ornament sales. Alternatively, a niche may depend on current trends, fads, or hype.

There are some areas where it is unclear if they will become successful or if they are just a passing trend.

It is important to take the profitability of the niche into account. This includes assessing your product margins, operating expenses, expected turnaround time for profit, and potential sales volume.

For affiliates, this entails considering factors such as merchandisers and products’ conversion rates, the average order value (AOV), and commission rates.

How to do niche research

While anything has the potential to become a niche, not every niche guarantees profitability. Additionally, even if a niche yields returns, it may not be prudent to pursue it. It is essential to conduct comprehensive research before venturing into a niche to ascertain its long-term feasibility for your business.

A summary of the process for conducting niche research is presented below.

Every research stage entails essential aspects and measures of success that can assist you in evaluating whether your niche is viable. While a perfect score is not necessary, certain niches will perform better than others depending on your abilities and financial resources, particularly if this is your initial enterprise.

Follow these 5 steps to perform niche research:

Step 1. First, you need a niche idea

Identifying your areas of interest or excitement is crucial to finding niche site ideas that won’t lead to misery in the future. What specifically piques your interest?

If you happen to be a vegetarian, it could be challenging to connect with your audience or conduct extensive research and compose a thorough list of advantages and disadvantages for eight different fishing bait types even if fishing equipment would make for a lucrative affiliate marketing niche.

It is advantageous to concentrate on a specialization that you have a genuine interest in, as it can provide you with a competitive advantage.

Knowing your niche makes it simpler to create outstanding content, select captivating (yet unexplored) topics, and employ skilled writers who have knowledge about the subject. This enables you to establish a connection with your audience and establish a level of understanding that research-driven niches often fail to achieve.

Consider niches to pursue by contemplating:

Your hobbies – What topics do you have an abnormal amount of knowledge about? How expensive are related products or training?
Your professional network – Can you get an inside scoop on a niche thanks to your connections in the space?
Your work experience – Do you have work experience in a niche that would let you get a headstart?
Current trends – What trends or market changes do you see happening, which you can get in on early?
Your edge – What special advantage do you have, which will make it hard to compete with you and help you build a moat around your business?

You can also align your passions with those of a business partner, friend or significant other. Many successful entrepreneurs have entered the business world to address an issue that affects their partner, and they have achieved remarkable success.

It’s not necessary to belong to a particular consumer group to develop an enthusiasm or curiosity for a niche. However, if you cannot picture yourself dedicating significant time every week to honing skills or producing content related to that niche, it’s advisable to pursue other interests.

Step 2. Size up your competition

Niche markets with no competition may appear appealing, but often this indicates that the market is not profitable. A lack of coverage in the area could signify previous unsuccessful attempts and abandonment in search of more promising prospects.

Instead of searching for an unheard-of niche, focus on distinguishing yourself within an already profitable industry.

Step 4. Create a content plan

One simple task you can perform, after compiling a list of rivals, is to sort their keywords by difficulty. Although a human check is necessary to authenticate the difficulty rating provided by any keyword tool, it can still help you to quickly narrow down from thousands of keywords to the ones that are worth pursuing.

It is important to ensure that both informative content and keywords that indicate potential customers’ intentions to buy are well-balanced.

Having the coolest and most lucrative niche is useless if it fails to lead people towards any form of commercial activity as it will make running a business challenging.

To prevent exhausting the niche, it is advisable to plan the content you intend to create. This way, you can explore and build upon enough subtopics and concepts that will enable you to produce 40-50 articles on the subject matter.

Step 5. Evaluate the results (and act!)

Ensure you employ diverse techniques and tools to verify your findings. Solely depending on one method cannot provide absolute certainty. However, if various criteria suggest the same result, you can assume that you have selected a profitable niche. But, keep in mind to consider the long-term perspective. The most valuable niches exhibit growth patterns and do not simply fade away as passing trends.

Afterwards, search for your rivals. Uncovering competition in a particular market is a positive indication of its profitability. Furthermore, it implies the existence of others from whom you can gain knowledge. Despite the fact that you may be in direct competition with someone, it is beneficial to track their online activities to gain insights into the industry and comprehend how they generate income. Depending on your chosen market, it’s even possible to develop “frenemies” (enemies with whom you maintain a friendly relationship) during your journey.

Ensure diversification in your affiliate partnerships to avoid relying solely on one program or revenue stream for your income. Due to changing rules and companies going bankrupt or shutting down their affiliate program, there’s no way to predict when an income stream will end. It’s beneficial to explore and experiment with different affiliate networks, besides Amazon, in order to diversify your revenue.

The Best High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing Programs

The determination of what makes certain affiliate marketing programs superior is dependent on personal opinions. However, I selected these programs based on their payout amounts, quantity of consumers, and average ratings by customers in order to assess their usefulness. Customer evaluations aid in determining a product’s worth for referral purposes. Additionally, customer feedback can be utilized to promote products or services by emphasizing the remarkable outcomes clients attain and their favored characteristics.

1. Smartproxy

Customers can use Smartproxy to gather business data from around the globe for various purposes such as competitor analysis, scraping search engine result pages (SERPs), aggregating prices, and verifying ads.

An average rating of 4.7 out of five stars was given by 836 reviewers.

You can potentially earn $2,000 for each customer you refer to Smartproxy through its affiliate program.

2. Thinkific

Thinkific is a platform for creating online courses that has been utilized by more than 50,000 instructors and has facilitated over 100 million courses.

An average rating of 4.6 out of five stars was given by 669 reviewers.

By participating in the Thinkific affiliate program, you can earn as much as $1,700 per year for each person you refer.

3. BigCommerce

BigCommerce offers a range of ecommerce solutions, including open SaaS, headless integrations, omnichannel capabilities, B2B services, and offline-to-online solutions.

The average rating for this product, as given by 648 reviewers, was 8.1 out of ten stars.

By registering for the BigCommerce affiliate program, one can get up to $1,500 for bringing in new enterprise customers or receiving a commission worth 200% of the customer’s initial payment.

4. Teamwork

Teamwork is project management software geared towards optimizing billable hours and improving efficiency for all members of your organization, including the founder and project managers.

The product has received an average rating of 4.4 out of five stars from 1,022 reviewers.

The Teamwork affiliate program offers the opportunity to receive up to $1,000 for each new customer referral.

5. Flywheel

Managed WordPress hosting by Flywheel is tailored to suit agencies, ecommerce and websites that receive high traffic.

It received an average rating of 4.4 out of five stars from 36 reviewers.

By participating in the Flywheel affiliate program, you have the opportunity to earn as much as $500 for every new referral you bring in.

6. Teachable

Over 100,000 entrepreneurs, creators, and businesses of various sizes utilize Teachable, an online course platform, to generate captivating online courses and coaching businesses.

The product received a rating of 4.4 out of five stars from 150 reviewers.

By enrolling in the Teachable affiliate program, you have the opportunity to earn an average of $450 monthly.

7. Shutterstock

A worldwide platform for procuring stock photos, vectors, illustrations, videos, and music is provided by Shutterstock.

An average rating of 4.4 out of five stars was given by 507 reviewers.

By enrolling in the Shutterstock affiliate program, you can receive a maximum of $300 for every new customer you refer.

8. HubSpot

HubSpot offers a CRM solution for effectively handling marketing, sales, content management, and customer service tasks within your company.

The product received an average rating of 4.5 out of five stars from 3,616 reviewers.

Earn an average payout of $264 per month (based on current affiliate earnings) with the HubSpot affiliate program , or more as a solutions partner .