Been a while since I’ve had a good “Ask Kirsty” through, this one is an oldie… but a goodie. It’s the old and still painful niche selection problem!

Hi Kirsty,

I need some advice. Im new to affiliate marketing and have been reading as much as i can for the past few months. While reading, there have been 2 things that seem to be repeated quite often, 1) pick a subject you enjoy and have a passion for and 2)just do it.

So, keeping inline with the ‘just do it’ statement, i started searching for a niche/product to promote early on but i didnt really think about picking a topic that i enjoyed. I thought that once i saw the money coming in then that would motivate me anyway.

So i found a kitchen appliance product that didn’t have a lot of competition and got about 27k local exact search (according to Google keyword tool) ad went about creating the site. Im a web developer/designer career wise so enjoyed the site creation, but now im stuck. I need to write content for it, but i have no interest in this product and find it so mind numbingly boring that i can’t bring myself to do it everyday. When i do write content for the site (reviews for each product) i find myself writing the same thing over and over again for each product. its basically the same thing from different manufacturers! i cant afford to hire content writers so the sites come to a halt.

So, i guess i realised the hard way why its important to pick a topic that you enjoy, at least until you get enough experience and maybe make some money.

But here’s my problem. Everything that i have any interest in is so heavily saturated and overly competitive that i don’t think i can compete and it wont be worth the time and effort to get so little reward. For example, i enjoy playing video games, but thats to broad a market and very competitive anyway. i could dig deeper and go for sub sections of the games market to target a niche, but these niches don’t really get any searches so again, its not really worth the time or the effort.

Do you have a tips or ideas of where i can go from here?

Well, Abbid I can immediately pick up on more than one common mistake that you have made in all of this. Clearly you’ve already learned the hard way about needing to be interested in what you are promoting, so we’ll skip that one! So the areas you need to look at again are: -

• Basing your niche selection purely upon what the Google Keyword tool tells you. It’s great to give you a rough idea, but it often over and under estimates actual traffic you might get from your search terms.  Bear in mind that the data you are seeing has been collated on an automatic basis. Whilst it is a good way to investigate possible traffic bearing areas, I think it is important to also realise that it is often innaccurate.
• Basing your niche selection around a single keyword – it sounds to me like you are subscribing to the “exact match domain” school of affiliate marketing.  Whilst this particular bit of advice has been floating around for a while and has been very useful I think it is a mistake to accept it as gospel, and the thinking of it as a formula to succeed is a woeful over simplification. Remember that on any domain, you will not only get traffic relating to your main search term but on many related search terms if you take the time to put up decent content.  I have a single product domain which Google reckons has 880 monthly searches. I get 2,000 visits per month to it because I’m not only ranking for that term but many other related terms thanks to my decent content.
• Thinking you need an exact match domain – You don’t. Yes, try to get something attractive looking with at least one important keyword in it – but don’t let it be a rod for your back. This mistake wasn’t obvious from your question, I’m just guessing. However a lot of people reading this probably let exact match domain availability rule their progress too much, so I’ve included it
• Letting your pre-conceptions build a wall against progress – You’ve only been involved in affiliate marketing for a short time, but already you have a very rigid notion of what you “have” to do to find your niche. Whilst any bit of useful advice you get in this game should be heeded, do not treat it like gospel. First of all, are you absolutely SURE there’s no search volume around the small and targeted niches you have been thinking of?  If they are interconnected I’d consider doing a site to house say 5 or 6 of these, approach one at a time and add others when ready.  Secondly, how can you know that areas are over saturated without actually trying?  On each and every over saturated niche I’ve ever entered I’ve quickly realised I’m one of the only people knocking about who is prepared to spend time producing quality, unique content.  Choose a small area and don’t take on the big boys, but don’t be put off by a little competition either.

Tips and Ideas

I want to be a little more helpful than picking holes in your reasoning, so here’s where I’d go from your current situation.

• Game controller site?  Any other accessories people might buy that you’re an expert on? Most gaming consoles seem to have a plethora of add ons. If I was doing a site like that I’d create a comprehensive section covering each console brand and review main products. Then I’d also create a section for each major use or type of controller i.e. “flight simulator game controllers”  At first glance, there are an awful lot of authority sites in that area… but as I said before, put out some quality content and you will get traffic. Large authority sites are often unable to break out of a set “mould” in their content and structure. If you personalise your approach to how you would shop for these things yourself, I’m betting you’d get traffic.
• Sit down and list absolutely everthing that you’d enjoy shopping for online, and use one of them. Over simplified advice? Yeah, definately but it does sort of come back to the “just do it” phrase you alluded to at the start of this question. You will have to start somewhere, and even if it turns out not to have been the right place, you will learn something you can feed into your next attempt.
• Do not get disheartened if what you try first does not work. You absolutely must try again. Affiliate marketing is not an easy thing to master, there will be false starts and you have to get over them to succeed. Acknowledge that at the start and you have a good chance of winning!!

I think I’ll leave it there… plenty to digest as the post approaches 1200 words!

Good luck

So you’ve found that first money making idea, you’ve exploited it for all it’s worth and now what?  Back to square one eh?  Lost and desolate in the affiliate wilderness without so much as a blinking map to lead you to that next oasis like pool of lovely money.

But like most navigators of any kind, you’ll probably know exactly where you are with your current niche.  Time and time again I see people forging out on their next venture, which ends up being completely different from what has been recently successful for them or something related that has been chosen without reference to their current position.  This is a recipe for getting lost in the affiliate wilderness good and proper.

With this in mind I decided to provide an outline of how to engage in a bit of what I like to think of as “Affiliate Orienteering” – a great way to make sure that your next big idea is located in a more educated way than sticking a pin in a map!

Think About WHY Your Most Recent Venture Was Successful

If It’s a Single Product…

• Why did people buy it?

• What features did it have? For example, a while back chocolate fountains were suddenly all the rage.  People bought them because they were a great food related novelty, a nice way to finish off a dinner party with some table top cooking, or an interesting feature on a party buffet, some of their popularity came from the “staying in is the new going out” vibe that has become popular in recent years as the cost of living has increased. They also got a lot of coverage on the telly and in glossy magazines.

• Was it a standalone product?  Or are there any accessories for it that you might be able to promote?  Are there any similar products that are cheaper or have slightly different features?  i.e going back to our chocolate fountain idea, could you sell posh chocolate fondue sticks and recipe books as an addition to your current site?

• If it was a product with a specific purpose (like a chocolate fountain) what else is there out there that will appeal to people for the same reasons as they rushed out and bought a chocolate fountain? With that in your mind, do a bit of research.  The best place to start is probably the merchant or merchants you’ve already had success with. If I’d had a big success with chocolate fountains I’d immediately look at other single purpose cooking gadgets, particularly ones that might get wheeled out at parties.
• Here’s what my list of next niches to explore would be:-

• Fondue sets
• Stone Grills
• Popcorn makers
• Pizza makers
• Indoor BBQs
• Any other single purpose food gadget I could think of.

Armed with my list, I’d then approach some merchants and just plain outright ask them about the performance of any products they stocked that were on my list.  Questions would include: – “How do these sell?”, “Do you find these convert for you?” If they’re not converting now, will they convert at Christmas?” and finally “How many do you sell?”

If It’s a Broader Niche Site…

You’d follow the same process but the selling features would be more general.  Questions you’d ask yourself would be as follows: -

• Can I make a similar site and target a different country?
• Can this product area have variations that appeal to a different group of people?  i.e. I created a successful womens underwear site and then used a similar structure to create an underwear resource for men.
• If your site converted really well, why do you think it converted well? If it was targeted at a certain group of people i.e. silver surfers and you successfully created an appealing resource for them to use – have a think about what other product groups appeal to them.  After all you are already well experienced at selling to them.

Your Next Niche is Never as Far Away as You Think…

The majority of the successful niche areas I’ve tapped in the last few years have been related to one degree or another.  I’ve found that once you start to follow a “mapped approach” that creating useful resources that add value to the user and convert well gets easier and easier.  I suppose the best anology is that I have gotten familiar and comfortable with my local neighbourhood meaning that these days I very rarely need to use a map at all.  I just know where I’m going.

So I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front recently.  The main reason is that I’ve been busy preparing and launching a brand new site.  Whenever I’m involved in a new project it seems to consume all of my brains runtime.  I do think about other things i.e. things to talk to all you great people about on this blog, but they never seem to make it into print.  There’s just too much going on in my brain for them to make it out into the real world in a format that makes any sense at all.

God, I’d Forgotten How Bad Unknown Territory Can Be!

This most recent site has been particularly bad for my blogging because its in a completely new niche for me.  I’ve been absolutely wracked with anxieties about whether or not my ideas on landing page structures will work in the sector.

I’m feeling a lot of sympathy for all you guys out there who are trying to work out what niche to pursue and how to pursue it.  Forget swine flu.  it’s old hat. I’ve been showing symptoms of stress related “new niche-itis”  for some time.  It’s hideously infectious, hard to beat and might just kill off anyone’s attempt to build an affiliate business.

The worst of my recent symptoms have been: -

• Constantly doubting that what I was doing was any good at all.
• Regularly deciding that this site was definately going to fail.
• Regularly dismissing thoughts of failure and deciding the site was going to ROCK!!
• Spending too much time thinking about how much my site would rock and not enough time doing something about it.
• Agonising over how to structure landing pages, then not doing much about it.
• Conniptions directed at poor Duncan because he was singularly unable to read my mind about how the pages I was getting him to design should look.  I knew exactly what I wanted but would those damned words get out of my mouth and make sense?  Why couldn’t he work it out? The eejit!!
• Yawn…. I’m so tired.  Where will I start today’s work?  Hmmm, must just do yet another “to do list”.  Colour coding wasn’t right on the last one.  Procrastination, procrastination, procrastination.
• What’s that over there?  Where will we go for our first wedding anniversary?  Should we buy a new rug for the livingroom?  Distraction, distraction, distraction.

But Now….

The worst is over.  We finally managed to push through and get our site finished. Duncan has forgiven my frequent outbursts of bad temper (I bought him a Satnav today too – just for good measure!).  I started my first stream of PPC to the site 2 days ago. Then, in a shock relapse the last of my niche-itis symptoms manifested themselves with a parting shot.  Oh the horror!! The agony and rejection – when that long awaited first click bounced straight back off the page, never to return!  Failure!!

“Well that’s it.”  I thought .”The site’s shit.  I’m shit, its all shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit!!!!!!”

*ahem*

Of course having now given it a reasonable amount of time I’ve realised things are, in fact, looking quite promising.  it has a low bounce rate and I’ve even had 2 sales off a very, very, very small amount of traffic.  So thats OK then

So What I Really Want To Say Before I Forget What This Has Been Like….

Guys, I know how you feel!  It’s painful, its very nearly fearful.  But if you just keep going and apply common sense you’ll get to the end of your niche journey.

I’m not saying you’ll succeed every time, but if you fall victim to the symptoms of niche-itis you’ll most probably never progress and the disease will kill your affiliate dream. Forward is the direction you need to take to beat this terrible affliction. If you don’t get something up there you won’t ever learn those vital lessons you need to understand how affiliate marketing and your own mindset work together.

Meanwhile…

I’m off to detox.  New niches are very bad for my liver and my recent affliction culminated in the consumption of too much wine last night as I celebrated the completion of the site.  My head is an owie.

Can You See It?

Not just yet, I’m not happy enough with it, sorry guys!!

So have you been wondering where all the hot affiliate revenue action is this Christmas? Can’t work out where all them smug people on affiliate forums are getting thousands of sales a day from?

Fear Not There Is Still Time…

If your affiliate Mojo has been eluding you this year, or if you’re casting about for yet more amazing revenue opportunities the Christmas Affiliate Sleigh is still very much delivering the goodies to hard working affiliates all over the world.

For reasons I’m unclear about (I’m not a retail analyist, just a humble affiliate doing my best.) Mondays are always very strong during the Christmas season.  In the states last Monday retail analysts reported a 15% jump in online retail spending.  This made it the 2nd biggest online spending day ever behind the $881 million spent on December 10, 2007.  With another big shopping spree being forecast for Monday 8th December as shoppers go online to seek out Christmas discounts offered to keep the spending momentum going… you have the entire weekend to get ready for the onslaught.

There are also another 2 glorious Mondays before those last order dates kick in before the big man in the red suit arrives, and several hundred knackered affiliates finally get some sleep.

Arrgghhhh!!!!!!  But What Should I Promote?

Well, actually lots of retailers give you whopping great clues about the things that people are seeking out online this year.

Stateside, PriceGrabber.com published its top ten most searched for products on “Black Friday”: -

1. Nintendo Wii Console
2. Ugg Australia ‘Classic Short’ Boot
3. Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player
4. Samsung LN52A650 52″ LCD TV
5. Nintendo Wii Fit
6. Panasonic TH-42PX80U 42″ Plasma TV
7. Sennheiser HD 555 Headphones
8. Canon EOS Rebel XSi Black SLR Digital Camera Kit
9. Acer Aspire One AOA110-1295 Notebook
10. Canon PowerShot A590 IS Black Digital Camera

In the UK, Hitwise published data at the start of November highlighting which gadgets were going to be hot this year based on share of UK searches sending traffic to their Hot Consumer Electronics Custom category and Deloitte have a very informative Christmas retail survey (Page 17 tells you what people want in their stockings this festive season).

The Best Resource I’ve Found Was…

Good old Amazon.co.uk!  I only just realised recently that they collate the data on people’s wish lists and make it available in an attempt to assist with people’s online Christmas shopping efforts.  

This handy dandy little tool told me that…

People are really, really digging Dawn French’s Autobiography “Dear Fatty”.  It’s the second most wished for book behind JK Rowling’s Tales of the Beedle and The Bard.  Next up is Barak Obama’s tome, which should net him a nice little nestegg to set him up post-presidency.

Hot in Toys This Season is…

The silverlit PicooZ Helicopter!

Bop it Extreme 2

and the Radica 20Q Version 2

Even More Interestingly…

Lots of people are already getting organised and thinking about keeping their computer secure for the whole of next year. Norton Antivirus is the 3rd most wished for software item on their hotlist.

So what are you waiting for affiliates?  Get those revenues maximised and start planning next years mini sites and niche offerings.

Top Of My Christmas Wishlist?

Don’t laugh… but I recently watched it on a flight between Singapore and Brisbane and couldn’t get any sleep afterwards because I got all over-excited.  It was all I could do not to stand on my seat singing and clapping.  Of course, I do have a little bit of a thing for ABBA…

Have outfit will travel.  Who’s having an Abba themed Chrimbo night.  Anyone?  Please? Hello?!

Ho ho ho!!  Merry Christmas!!

This is a really interesting question I had from Alex the other day. He has loads of ideas for sites based around his interests, but is just a bit vague on what to do with those to proceed with his affiliate efforts. His question caught my imagination a bit so I decided to brainstorm his areas of interest and show him the process I use to work things out.

Hi Kirsty,
I have recently stumbled upon your site and it has proved extremely helpful so far. Great Job!!!
I would just like to ask you a few simple questions that may get me a few steps closer towards a successful affiliate site.

I have many hobbies that I would like to explore from my love for chillies (plants and fruit) to UK fishing locations and many in between. However, I do realise that there are obvious affiliate limits to the subjects that I’m interested in no matter how niche they may be.

I guess the question that I’m asking is ‘How do I decide on a new affiliate subject to pursue and how would I go about it? I have been working in IT for the last 8 years and am confident in my ability but am a complete beginner in the affiliate world. Any help you would be able to give me would be gratefully received.

Regards, Alex

Hi Alex,

Welcome to the blog! I am glad that you found it useful.

You’re absolutely right to pick a subject that interests you, so in deciding to pursue that avenue you have taken your first steps to success.

Your first job to get your niche picked out should be to have a bit of a brainstorming session to yourself. Grab a bit of paper or a whiteboard and write all of your hobbies and interests down, regardless of whether you think there are products or affiliate programmes related to them or not. You might be surprised what you come up with.

When I’m doing this kind of stuff I play a bit of a “word game” for want of a better descriptive term. I then describe as many connected subject areas or product areas as I can think of for each niche. By doing this, I can identify which areas will be easy to come up with content for and which have a variety of products that could be sold in association with them. Once this is complete for all your areas of interest you should be able to further research merchants and see which one strikes the best balance of good content and monetisation potential!

OK, so to give you a working example I’m going to brainstorm the ideas that you have given me. The format I tend to use is content ideas followed by monetisation ideas!

Chili Plants & Fruit

• How to grow them

• Recipies and household uses

• Chili variety guide

• Where to buy seeds and propigation materials

Monetisation

• Recipie books

• Cooking equipment

• Gifts for the Chili enthusiast

UK Fishing Locations

• As it says on the tin. Where are the best places to fish in the UK? User generated reviews?

• By technique i.e. fly fishing, coarse fishing, sea fishing etc

• By fish type i.e. Trout, Salmon etc

• Equipment guide

• How to create your own flies

• Bait guide

• Fishing techniques

• There’s a good prospect for a forum in this subject matter – monetise with adsense?

Monetisation

• Equipment

• A plethora of fishing books

• Magazine subscriptions

• Hotels & accommodation in fishing areas

• May be some scope for a suppliers directory with paid advertising? If the site was structured by region advertising could be structured and sold same.

The next step is to then match up affiliate programmes with your chosen area. You’ll have to evaluate the sites and programmes that are out there. Do you think they’d convert your traffic well? What are the network stats like on the merchant? It might also be an idea to contact the merchant and ask them what their average baskets and conversion rates are for reasonably relevant traffic. Armed with that info you should be able to make a relatively educated decision.

I don’t think the above ideas are exhaustive as I obviously don’t have the same subject knowledge as you do, but I’m sure you get the idea! The next step is to decide which has the best prospect for monetisation versus the expenditure of your time. There are two ways to think about this. The Chili example would probably be relatively quick and easy to set up to one extent or another and would probably be a good way for you to “cut your affiliate teeth”. There’s always a danger in taking on a huge project straight out of the affiliate traps!

On the other hand, I think a fishing guide has the prospect of being very interesting and perhaps the relationship between your content and a product sale. My feeling is that this kind of traffic would convert better than food related traffic. What I’ve mentioned above is a huge undertaking! However, there would be nothing to stop you from buying a general UK domain and starting it as a guide to perhaps one popular fishing area. As you progressed you could simply widen the scope and target of the site. I’d recommend this step by step approach as it would help you get a site out quicker without your product looking half finished.

Phew!  So there you go folks, a handy dandy guide to niche brainstorming.

I was having a bit of a browse around online a few days ago, feeling a bit sorry for myself and in need of a bit of retail therapy to cheer me up. The following series of events probably show a couple of things. Firstly, I’m an affiliate-o-holic and Secondly, it gives a small insight into how you can feed personal interests into finding a niche. So yeah. This is a tutorial in how to work yourself too hard… and some full on niche detective work!

It all Starts With Placing Yourself In The Position Of The Buyer…
So anyway…. there I was sitting at my desk, all burnt out and crabby (I could tell I was because Duncan was hiding from me – not easy to do in a two bedroom apartment, but manage it he did!).

“Bloody working all the time” I thought. “I’m fed up! Time to buy myself some nice stuff.”

Then Comes The Realisation Of A Unique Selling Point or Product…

So off I trot around the internet looking for some funky handbags and other things women like to buy when they’re feeling overworked and harassed. After stumbling around the internet for a while I happen upon one of the handbag pages from YesStyle and see they have a bewildering array of really cool and unusual handbags (I particularly loved their RooTote bags but they can’t ship them to Australia cos of some distribution agreement – gah!!)

After That, Your Affiliate Investigation Skills Set In…

“Hmm…”, I think. “They have an affiliate programme with Webgains, don’t they?”

YesStyle have always been on my radar as I’ve always seen various affiliate programme posts by their affiliate managers. I’ve just never gotten around to looking at their site. At first look, whilst I liked the products, the type of things for sale on there were quite alien to me as the overall feel is very “different”. This immediately struck me as a good thing. Obviously many of the brands are targeted at Asians. So there was the first, obvious, niche. Asians overseas wanting to buy their favourite clothing, skincare, and accessory brands.

“Hmmmm” I thought (again). “…but there must also be other people buying the products on this site. They appeal to me, so who else?”

It was at this stage I thought I should just drop the affiliate manager a line and ask him straight what their markets and bestsellers were. YesStyle have over 20,000 products so it seemed prudent to save myself a day or three! I checked their EPC on Webgains and decided it was good enough for me to devote some research time to. Stefan Janssens got right back to me (Literally ten minutes later – well done Stefan!)

Here’s What I Found Out From Stefan: -
“YesStyle are a merchant based in Hong Kong but mainly sell overseas. Australia is one of our major markets (but also US, UK and Europe). We have lots of stuff you wont find anywhere else. “

This makes their products very interesting. If they can’t be bought anywhere else, and you can work out a way to drive highly relevant traffic to them, they will convert like the blazes!

“Oh ho.” I thought. “I wonder what kind of products go well in those countries?” So again I applied my patented technique. I asked. Over the course of a few e-mails flying backwards and forwards I discovered this from the lovely Stefan: -

Our beauty products sell well in the UK, but always for specific brands and
product

There are several reason why people buy them from us
- Exclusive gift sets
- Pricing: This depends very much on the brand and the country on the
customer. We have one world wide price, while usually beauty brands will
have different pricing strategies by country.
- Products suitable for Asian skin (not necessarily from Asian brands. Also
US / French brands will have products especially for the Asian market, and
overseas Asian may want to buy them. )

There are the top brands for UK and Australia

Austraila

Anna Sui, Biotherm, Dainty, Lancome, Shiseido

UK

Anna Sui, Demalogica, Kose, Shiseido, SK-II

I also discovered that in the UK market…

Currently Our Men’s fashion does really well
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Men.aspx (any brands — mainly casual shirts,
t-shirts, and jeans) .

Also Womenswear brands such as Dodostyle
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=235782 , Sechuna
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=238769& , and more
elegant styles such as Nabi
http://www.yesstyle.com/en/Browse.aspx?section=women&bid=235262& sell very
well in the UK.

Well! Not bad for an hour’s work I don’t think! I found out bags of information about a merchant I’d absolutely no idea would convert all that well in the UK. What’s more, they might well be a good fit for me to try things out in Australia with a couple of test mini sites.

Ummm…. Kirsty, Weren’t You Supposed To Be Taking A Break?
Is what Duncan whispered cautiously when he found me a couple of hours later feverishly researching keywords and fiddling about with product feeds.

“Oops.” I said, and promptly went back to online shopping.

Make A Test Purchase…

Given how impressed I was with YesStyle’s range I actually went back and popped in an order with them (good way to combine work and play!). I got myself a bikini, a dress, a really cool bag, Anna Sui Eyelash curlers, and an Anna Sui gift set for $200 US all up which was then delivered here to Australia for free. Pretty good what with the weak state of the US Dollar at the moment.

So there you have it. A tale of me trying to have a relaxing night of indulging myself and ending up finding literally hundreds of products I should find a way of pushing in the UK market (and indulging myself eventually!). It’s pretty typical of me really.

Whats that? Yes, perhaps next time I should relax OFFLINE!

For anyone that’s interested, YesStyle have affiliate programmes in Australia (on Clixgalore), UK (on Webgains), Europe (Zanox) and US (Shareasale), but all of them will track worldwide.

N.B – YesStyle didn’t know I was going to make this post during my dealings with them. I was impressed with their info and responsiveness. I thought my experience with them really showed how you can use your own shopping experiences to find something you could promote.  Naturally, if they’re really greatful they can show their appreciation spontaneously….

You’ve got my address guys