How to Find the Best Affiliate Marketing Niches for 2021

Choosing the best affiliate marketing niche isn’t always easy, especially if you’ve only specialized in one single vertical so far.

One of the biggest mistakes that beginner affiliates make, is thinking that they need to find a unique niche in order to be successful.

While it’s true that you need to find a vertical that isn’t saturated with competitors, there are many well-known options that provide a high chance of success today.

At lemonads, our team has worked with a huge number of advertisers as well as affiliates. So, we are constantly analyzing campaigns and helping our stakeholders figure out which are the best market niches to target. In this article, we’ll define a niche in affiliate marketing.

Defining a Niche in Affiliate Marketing

The term “niche” can have slightly different meanings, but in the affiliate content, this word represents a more specific vertical inside of a larger industry. For example, the “sports” industry has many niches, including sports accessories, competitions, private clubs, and other sub-verticals that are directly related to this type of physical activity.

In other words, niches are more specific specialties that allow affiliates to narrow the audience they want to target. This, in turn, also allows marketers to develop better materials that are designed for specific audiences.

Some of the characteristics of the best affiliate marketing niches include:

Well-Defined and Specific

Top affiliate marketing niches tend to be specific and well-defined. Although it should not be narrow enough to be prohibitive, a solid niche for affiliate marketing will have a limited scope in terms of the products that need to be promoted.

For example, the mobile gaming industry only encompasses games that are available on smartphones and tablets. A few accessories designed for playing video games on these devices as well.

Niches that are too narrow have a limited audience and are usually extremely hard to convert. Some of these verticals have extremely lucrative payouts. However, these tend to be saturated and are best suited for experienced affiliates.

Solves Common Problems and Stir Emotion

Another common myth about niches for affiliate marketing is that these need to be luxury-based in order to be successful. On the contrary, some of the best affiliate niches tend to solve common problems and produce emotions that go beyond improving appearance because people are more likely to spend money to solve a pressing issue. For example, e-commerce platforms help consumers save time and stay safe during the pandemic.

At the same time, niches that stir emotion can also produce stellar results because people will feel a stronger desire to take action. Think about products like survival kits, which rely on the idea that the person buying them may be in an extreme situation in the future.

Profitability and Competition

Lastly, you need to ensure that the verticals you work with are profitable and that there are not too many competitors compared to the traffic available. The profitability of an industry is affected by many different factors, but some of the key indicators include the popularity of the products being promoted, their price point, and the demand for these goods.

We briefly discussed the importance of finding a market that is not saturated. But, remember that many profitable verticals are mature in terms of industry development, which naturally increases the number of competitors. To make the best choice, evaluate the level of competition and the potential for profitability before choosing an industry to specialize in.

Why Choose a Specific Niche?

There is a huge technical component to becoming an affiliate marketer, so many beginner affiliates fail to see the benefits of choosing a niche.

Rather than becoming a jack of all trades, selecting a set of specific verticals allows you to learn about the audience and figure out what steps you need to take to transform these users into conversions.

Not only this, but the niche you choose will directly affect how much you enjoy running and optimizing your campaign. Instead of spending hours doing something you’re not passionate about, you can choose to only work with industries that align with your goals and beliefs. Which, in turn, will exponentially increase the amount of joy you get from developing your affiliate content.

How to Find the Top Affiliate Marketing Niches (6 Steps)

There are hundreds, if not thousands of different industries that affiliates can specialize in. But, not all of these have the same potential for success. Not only this, but all affiliates are different and the profitability of each niche depends on the marketer’s level of expertise. This means that you need to take your knowledge or willingness to learn into consideration in order to choose the best niche.

With the above in mind, there are some general steps that all affiliates must follow in order to find the most profitable niche for their specific case. Let’s take a look at these six steps.

1. Evaluate Your Interests and Passions

There’s a strong chance you’ll spend a significant amount of time working on your affiliate content, especially if you’re planning on entering a new industry. Before you commit to a limited number of specialties, you should think about your interests, hobbies, and passions.

The more you like your specialty, the less it’s going to feel like work. This will help you stay creative and encourage you to create fresh content on a regular basis, both of which will boost the performance of your affiliate marketing materials. Just remember to pick a topic that you already have some mastery of, or take into account the fact that you need to learn about the industry if you’re choosing a specialty that you have no prior knowledge of.

2. Think About Creative Ways to Generate Revenue

Selling products and services is the most obvious way to make money, but many companies generate revenues from collecting data, running surveys, overseeing online events, and participating in certain activities. Instead of limiting your options, evaluate the different ways that companies generate revenues and think about which methods you can use in the niches you’re passionate about.

For example, if you already have an informative website with an engaged audience, you may be able to collect information easily or implement ads that allow third parties to do it. You can also analyze leading competitor sites to figure out what monetization strategies they have in place and adapt your strategy accordingly.

3. Review Niche Competitors and Search Volumes

Once you have a list of your interest and monetization strategy, it’s time to figure out exactly what competitors and search volumes are like for your potential niches. You can use platforms like AHREFS or SEMrush to conduct competitor analysis on leading brands within the industries you want to specialize in.

Furthermore, also look at the search volumes because this will help you figure out how popular the niche is. In most cases, good affiliate marketing niches have a search volume of more than 1,000 searches per month, but this can vary depending on the price point and type of product, so always take the context into consideration.

4. Research Potential Traffic Sources

If you’re planning on producing your own content and managing independent platforms, you need to think about potential traffic sources. There are many methods you can use to drive traffic to a website or app, but keep in mind that not all of these provide the same type of visitors in terms of quality.

Search engines like Google tend to produce the highest quality traffic, not to mention the fact that affiliates can drive an almost limitless number of users to their sites without paying for each individual lead. That said, ranking high on search engines takes time, so you should consider PPC campaigns and similar alternatives if you need to get results right away.

If you are thinking about using paid alternatives, you may consider ways to drive traffic from your specific niche to your site. For instance, posting links to your content on social media groups that specialize in your niche or a similar vertical.

5. Identify Gaps in the Market

Choosing a competitive niche can provide good results, but you should always try to find obvious gaps in the market before entering a crowded vertical. Gaps in the market refer to segments or niches that haven’t been addressed by leading brands. However, if smaller brands seize the opportunity and fill these gaps, they can exponentially increase their earnings while establishing a positive reputation. You can use online market research tools to help you identify these gaps and market research.

6. Develop a Unique Selling Point for Your Platform

Whether you set up an app or website, there’s a strong chance there’s already a defined hierarchy in the market. Starting at the bottom of the pecking order is normal, but the best way to shine a positive light on your business is to develop a unique selling point that’s not available through any of the leading platforms.

3 Things to Avoid at All Costs

In addition to the above, to pick the best niches you should avoid three things at all costs. These are:

1. Choosing Niches Based Solely on Profitability

Even though a niche’s profitability is crucial, you should avoid choosing verticals by the amount of money you can potentially make. Always take into consideration the amount of prior knowledge you have about the industry as well as your personal opinion before committing.

2. Misreading Trends

Many beginner marketers that find early success feel like they have figured out the affiliate ecosystem, which leads to them misreading trends. Instead, you should take the time to learn and be relatively prudent until you verify that you can make predictions accurately.

3. Garnering a Reputation for Being Opportunistic

As a niche affiliate, the last thing you want to do is make it look like you’re benefiting from the pain or misfortune of others. To avoid this, you should only work with niches that are ethical and focus on delivering a positive experience to consider.