Picking a Niche is EVERYTHING in Affiliate Marketing
May 31st, 2007 by 
Amit
I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.
A lot of people have asked me : “Amit, how do you pick a niche?”
Simple.
I go to conferences, such as the Affiliate Summit, and I talk to merchants and affiliate networks. I interview them, I find out which niches are hot and which are not.
Here are some questions I like to ask:
- Do your top affiliates use ppc to promote your affiliate program?
- How much do your top affiliates make?
If they say ANYTHING less than a $100,000/month I walk.
Think about it. Are you going to waste your time in a niche where the super affiliates are making a measly $10,000/month in commissions? If you think $10,000/month is a lot, then you need to THINK BIGGER.
Let me tell you a little secret: let’s say you can have 3 affiliate promotions, you can put the same amount of effort launching each promotion, researching the keywords, making landing pages, setting up your Adwords campaigns, etc, etc, etc.
With the SAME EXACT EFFORT you can make $10k/month profit in one promotion, $100k/month profit in another promotion, and $1 million/month profit in yet another promotion. IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE NICHE YOUR IN.
Many affiliate are stuck in the rut of promoting affiliate programs where they are capped at $10k/month.
Find the right niche and you will be blown away how easy this business really is.
Posted in Market Research | 
I’m actually just getting started and picking a niche has definitely been the most frustrating part so far. I look through so many different programs and do so much research, that I guess I should just pick one and go for it.
Amit, I assume you did not see my comment on a few blogs back … is there a ‘bible’ that you recommend that a newbie in AM should read. Like the Adwords Definitive Guide of Perry if you want to start with Adwords?
Richard
Hi Amit, As a follow up to this post - can you give us a run down of the steps you take to insure your niche is solid? What investigation you do before starting a campaign, or what you look for. Would be very helpful. Thanks!
Hi Richard,
I would definitely recommend Definite Guide to Adwords by Perry Marshall. As for a book about affiliate marketing, there is not bible. I would recommend material by Ewen Chia, Roslind Gardner, Chris Carpenter, and John Reese to name just a few.
Hi Tob,
Find out where other affiliate are making a lot of money, consistently, over a long period of time! That’s all I can really tell you, I don’t have a set systematic way of determining how solid a niche is.
Hey Amit,
“Find where other affiliate are making a lot of money, consistently, over a long period of time!” - great advice!
After I pick my market, the way I pick which affiliate programs to promote is simple - just find out what my competitors are promoting & promote whatever they are promoting.
At least a few of what they promote will convert well for me.
After reading this post, I recommend that everyone should read this:
http://www.superaffiliatemindset.com/so-what-affiliate-network-should-you-be-on
[...] Mehta has mentioned several times that this is how he chooses affiliate programs. He recommends talking to affiliate managers and asking how much revenue their top affiliates are bringing [...]
[...] You might like to check out Super Affiliate Amit Mehta’s post “Selecting a niche is everything in affiliate marketing” [...]
Amit hey it’s me again, and I’m almost done with May in my marathon reading session.
This is a completely different philosophy on niche picking than I’ve ever heard before. Aren’t you almost guarenteeing that you are going to be in a super competitive niche by going after markets where affiliates are making over $100,000/month? Putting this post and your pyramiding your profits strategy together could be powerful.
im new to affiliate marketing and been doing it for a bout 5 months and ive grossed a little over 8k but ive been averaging about 1500/month and i wanted to get in to nicheing and adwords i tried facebook flyers but it didnt work out for me can any one help me on what a niche is or how to make one ??
\itll be greatly appreciated
thanx
Amit, I am an old guy and just very new to this affiliate marketing concept… (i’m just now wrapping my head around blogging)..
we are makers of fine high end custom & limited edition jewelry and wonder where we can find one of these super affiliates who specialize in our field? there is some sort of list or directory?
if their is one, would you mind pointing me in the right direction and if not, could you make one?
thanks
Thanks again for so freely sharing your knowledge.
[...] How & What To Promote Using Brute Force to Find Profits Picking a Niche is Everything in Affiliate Marketing [...]
So I haven’t seen any suggestions. Go Big is easy but how about some good Big suggestions.
Rick