subject: Selecting A Profitable Affiliate Website Segment For Your Project [print this page] I can certainly help you with finding an affiliate niche that might be of your interests but you have to work on it to make it profitable. Mostly affiliates believe once they have a great website up and live, it will begin generating revenue. Well, it wont trust me.
Finding a niche that you would like to work on is a simple process. I had already written an article last year. Key Nine Strategies for Affiliates that shows how to select a niche in the interests and inspiration section. Lets discuss it again after a year in more detail. I am definitely packed with ideas and a simple process of finding a niche as compared to last year. Isnt that what we call it experience?
Affiliate segment within you
Now that might sound stupid but it is true. Look inside your mind, your ideas, things that inspires you etc you can list down several activities, things, edibles etc. I am going to conduct that experiment on myself and lets see what I find. These are not necessarily the things I have to do but those I love doing it at least once a week.
- I like eating chicken and fish related meals, halal food, fair trade products, big fan of tea, milkshakes, confectionary products, chocolates and eating out.
- I like to work out in the gym, go out with family, go on long drives preferably on heavy bikes, wearing jeans and shirt in summer and suits in winter even in office.
- I like disciplined life style such as doing things on time, keeping an eye on the watch, schedule and try to manage all tasks in my iphone or computer.
- I like gadgets, got plasma at home, cinema theatre system, watching movies in spare time and enjoying pizza from the local shops. I own an iphone, HP laptop and a nokia mobile.
- My bedroom is cosy with double bed, nice big pillows, blue duvet, green curtains, attached large bath and has several perfumes that does not change very often unless it is given to me as a gift. I normally buy the same brand again and again.
- I buy clothes from burtons, M&S, JJB sports, Next and Debenhams.
Now its time to analyse what sort of affiliate segments I could setup that are within me and I dont even realise it because they are part of my daily life.
1 Halal Food i do not know a single affiliate website that is providing only halal food list for Muslims. Large stores such as Asda and Tesco has recognised the demand and providing halal meat in most of their stores now. Thousands of products are imported from asia, arab countries and other parts of the world that shows HALAL label on it and has great demand of it in the UK.
2 Fair Trade another similar affiliate segment with millions of products imported in the UK, especially from African countries.
3 Chocolates these are sold by hundred of online retailers with affiliate campaigns.
4 Eating out there are some websites as review websites but still has the potential for new entrants.
5 Tea we drink hundreds of cups of tea yearly in office, home, hotels etc and there are hundreds of brands imported from all parts of the world.
The list goes on such as bikes, bike accessories, laptops, mobile phones, home decoration, bathroom or bedroom accessories, specific stores and brands. I am not sure if i setup an affiliate website or websites with these segments and they would be profitable but one fact is for sure that I have decent knowledge and interests in these segments that would keep me interested for some time to make it a success.
Affiliate segments around you
How often do you ask your parents, sisters, brothers, girl friends or others about their preference if you are going to purchase a gift for them? I would say only once out of 100 times. We always assume what we purchase for them would be used effectively and appreciated. Most of the gifts I have received in my life are either not my choice or not used with so much interest that would have convinced me to purchase it again. Of course I wont buy a teddy bear, love cards for myself if I have received from my girl friends. That is the reason we have to look around us that involve people close to us and analyse their preferences.
I went to my brothers room last week and everything in his room was different than mine and he loves it, such as the colour scheme of everything in his bedroom, furniture style, things hanging on the walls, cosmetics and clothes of different brands and even his cigarette brands are unique. That gave me an idea that the life style of two bothers living in the same house could be totally different. I am sure I can get hundreds of different ideas if I just walk around all bedrooms in my house that involves my parents, sisters and even a guest room that has unique objects in it to cater the guests effectively.
Price comparison websites such as Kelkoo, Price Runner, Price Grabber has millions of products and their category structure and breadcrumbs down to product level provides useful information to find a niche such as Kelkoo / Cars & Accessories / Car Accessories / GPS and even down to Brand level if you wish to promote a specific brand and a product. Some more examples are mentioned below.
Price Grabber / Computers / Laptops & Accessories / Laptops / HP Laptops / with Intel Processors
Price Runner > Small Home Appliances > Coffee Makers > Coffee Makers
Price Runner > Clothing and accessories > Shoes > Mens Shoes > Nike Mens Shoes
Price Runner > Phones > Mobile Phones > Nokia Smartphone - Camera Mobile Phones
Price Runner > Sound and Vision > Vision > TVs > Sony LCD TVs
Price Runner > Kids and Family > Toys > Remote Controlled - Ride-ons Toys
You may select a broad category, niche subscategory, brand related or down to product level.
Search from Google and Google Trends
You may find it easy and interesting that how many search results actually come up with affiliate related websites based on your keywords. Try keywords like flowers, iphone, hp laptops etc that are product related and so many affiliate websites, forums and blogs with affiliate links show up.
Google Trends is an interesting free tool to explore the potential on your segments or keywords such as HP laptops. I have found UK to be lower than other countries. Try flowers only in England and you can view the list of cities with users searching for flowers keyword on Google.
Search from affiliate forums
We always find news on websites being developed, established websites merging with large companies or sold etc. I would suggest keeping an eye on the affiliate forums to view the trends and what might be the big new segment on the internet. I have been actively following the forums for the last six years and seen content sites changing to cashback, then voucher craze was on and now a lot of discussion is going on about Group Deal and nice price comparison engines with product feeds such as a holidays site, flights bookings etc.
Search from leading reports and statistics
Hitwise is probably the best source of research for retailers and also affiliates, used by leading marketing agencies to find top affiliate websites based on traffic but I must say it is not cheap. We are taking about 10k plus budget on it plus you will only be able to access it from limited IP addresses. Second option is eConsultancy that I am also registered and find it extremely useful. Try Alexa as free resource for some useful information.
