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Do you know the first step you absolutely must take if you want to be a successful affiliate marketer?
Many people get it wrong. You see, a lot of affiliate marketers start by finding an affiliate product they’d like to promote. Then they go looking for someone to sell it to. But the truth is, that’s the backwards way to do it.
Instead, a better way to do it is to start with a hungry niche and then find a product that this niche desperately wants. That way you KNOW the niche is profitable. And then all you have to do is find out what the niche is already buying… and give them more of the same.
So how do you find this hungry market?
Just use this simple two-step system…
Step 1: Brainstorm Niches.
Many people think that coming up with a potential niche is the hardest part. It’s not. All you have to do is start by brainstorming as many prospective niches as possible.
The first way to do it is to think about your own life.
- What are your hobbies?
- What’s your job?
- What are your favorite topics of conversation?
- What do you spend your money?
- Where do you like to go on vacation?
- What were your favorite classes in college?
- What types of books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and other websites do you like to read?
- What are your problems?
- What do you worry about?
- What do you wish you could change about your life?
Next, think about these same questions in relation to your friends and family.
- What are their hobbies, interests and problems?
Finally, just pay attention to the world around you.
- What kinds of stores are in your neighborhood?
- What kinds of organizations and groups do you see listed in your paper?
- What are the hot topics on the news right now?
Once you have a big list of niches, move on to the next step…
Step 2: Determine Which Niches Are Profitable.
Now let’s whittle down your list of prospective niches to only the niches that are most profitable.
You do this by looking for niches that have LOTS of competing products, plenty of marketers trying to get their share of the pie, and lots of money being put towards advertising.
Here are three ways to do it
- Check the Clickbank.com and Amazon.com. Simply conduct a search for the keywords that broadly describe your potential niche, such as “weight loss” or “dog training.” Are there are lot of products in the niche? Are some of the products popular bestsellers? If so, these are both good signs of a profitable niche.
Use Keyword tools like WordTracker.com. These tools allow you to discover what people are searching for in Google and other search engines. Again, just enter your broad keywords (like “gardening”), and the tool will give you a list of hundreds if not
- thousands of related searches. Pay attention to the most-searched keywords – what is your market looking for?
- Follow the marketers’ money trail. Finally, marketers who spend a lot of money finding their prospects are likely catering to a profitable market. As such, start paying attention to paid advertising. This includes seeing if there are a lot of sponsored ads whenever you run a Google search. If so, that’s a great sign of a profitable niche.
Now that you’ve chosen a great niche, your next step is to start cashing in on this niche through the power of affiliate marketing. The sooner you do, the sooner you’ll start enjoying bigger commission checks
