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Now playing: Last Night by Al Jarreau
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Finding a good niche is half the battle when it comes to affiliate marketing. It is also the cause of much angst and hair-pulling by newbies. But chin up, baldy, because there are still tons of good niches left, and you can find them in places you might not have considered, namely, not on the computer.
Can you see the signs?
As I write this, we are driving along the street in Panama City, and on every block there are dozens of potential niche ideas. (Never mind why I'm working while on vacation. I just can't help myself.) Signs, businesses, buildings, window displays, trees, vehicles, workers, pedestrians—you get the idea.
I'm not saying that any of these things is a niche in itself; they are too broad and some of them are simply idea catalysts. But observing them can bring hundreds of possible niches to mind. Here's an RV dealership: Could a certain type of RV or RV accessory be a good niche? What about other products that RV'ers/campers/travelers need? There's someone who appears to be a student walking on the sidewalk with a backpack. Could you make a site about college textbooks or backpacks and bags or simple furniture for a college dorm?
Here's an old Mercedes in a car lot. If you like a certain make of car, or a particular component of classic or sports cars or whatever, is there a niche there? There's a billboard advertising a landscaping service. Do you have an interest in gardening, fencing, or any other product related to landscaping?
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that these niche ideas are necessarily profitable ones because I haven't researched them. I'm just making the point that keyword ideas are literally everywhere. They're not just lists of words on a computer screen.
Look around you
So if you're stuck and can't come up with a possible niche, take a drive, take a walk, go to a movie, go out to eat, read a book—whatever will stimulate your mind and your senses. Let your mind wander, do some free associations. Have a notepad with you so you can jot down ideas as they occur to you. Write everything down, even if you don't think it will work as a niche. It can prompt you to think of other related things later that might work.
Affiliate marketing is about providing web searchers with products related to their interests. They are real people with real lives and real needs just like you, and if you think of them that way rather than just disembodied hands clicking a mouse somewhere, you'll never be short of possibilities for your web sites.
I LOVE my “job.” Affiliate marketing takes work, but it doesn’t feel like work.
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