Step 1. Choose a Niche
When deciding on a niche, you may feel a bit overwhelmed. We find it helpful to ask a few questions.
- What are you interested in? If you choose something you have a true interest in, it will be much easier for your to create content around that niche, and provide valuable information to readers, resulting in more affiliate sales. It’s also likely that you will stick with creating more content if you have an interest in your niche, and becoming an authority in your space!
- What do people spend their money on? Once you have an idea of a niche you like, you need to determine if there is a market for it. The best way to determine this is with some simple research online. Are there other media outlets, magazines, large social media accounts related to that niche? If so, that is a good indicator there is a market for it!
- What products are there to promote? Once you’ve narrowed down a niche, you need to figure out what products you will promote in that niche. The biggest mistake we see new affiliate marketers make, is trying to promote an excessively broad range of products or services. We’ve found that the best results come from more specific product promotion.
Profitable Niches For Affiliate Marketing
Hobbies – Cars, Travel, Photography, Casino, Hotels, Gaming, Fishing, Hunting
Electronics – Smartphones, Cameras, Lenses, Camera gear, Headphones, Computers, Televisions, VR Headsets, Gaming Accessories
Money / Financial – Investing, Bitcoin, Stocks, Credit Cards, Real Estate, Mortgages, Debt Settlement, E-Commerce
Fashion – Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, Timepieces, Eyewear, Headwear, Accessories, Lingerie, Workwear, Luxury For Less, Thrift
Home / Family – Home Security Systems, Smart Home Products, Dogs, Gardening, Furniture, Storage & Organization, Decor
Health / Fitness – Weight Loss, Exercise & Fitness, Cooking, Supplements, Vitamins, Fitness Gear
Alternative – Cannabis, CBD, Herbal Medicine, Essential Oils
PRO TIP: Although it can be overwhelming, we suggest you don’t get too held up on choosing a niche. Virtually any niche can be made profitable. Dedicate your time to learning the principals Affiliate Marketing, as you can always create multiple businesses for different niches. That is the beauty of affiliate marketing, the sky is the limit!
Step 2. Choose a Website Name That Relates to Your Niche
Your website name (domain name) represents your online presence. Having a domain name is important in so many ways. Not only does it give your site a professional appearance, but it also increases your brand awareness, builds credibility, search engine ranking… the list goes on!
PRO TIP: When choosing your domain name, you will notice that there is a drop down with multiple domain “extensions.” We highly suggest going for a .COM domain name! If the domain you are looking for is not available in .COM – a few good alternatives are .CO / .NET / .ORG
If the domain name you are looking for still is not available, we find it useful to add the word “The” to the domain name, use dashes, or a combination of both to achieve obtaining the domain that represents your website.
Luckily domain names are cheap (about $12.99 per year), so it’s not too expensive to change it if you end up thinking of a better one, or if the domain you originally wanted becomes available at a later time!
Step 3. Signup for Web Hosting to Start Building Your Site
Once you have a domain name, you will need to get website hosting, in order to “host” your website on the internet. There are tons of hosting providers out there, but we HIGHLY suggest Bluehost! They host over 2 million websites, have one of the easiest platforms to use, 1 click site installations, and much more!
Our #2 Choice: We also suggest siteground for website hosting! They provide a great service and top notch customer support as well!
Step 4. Build Your Website!
After doing your site installation on Bluehost, its time to start building your website! You will absolutely NEED Elementor! We can’t stress this enough. Sure, there are other drag and drop wordpress site builders out there (or you can custom code your own site), however, in our opinion, nothing comes close to Elementor. Best of all, it’s FREE!
Step 5. Setup Email Marketing and Start Collecting Emails
We can’t stress it enough… Email Marketing is one of the most important aspects of affiliate marketing, and marketing in general! Think about it, people spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on paid advertising in hopes of reaching qualified customers. Typically, they are paying for each instance their advertisement is seen or clicked by the audience they target.
When you collect the emails of that audience by having them opt-in to your mailing list/newsletter, you can now get your advertisements in front of them whenever you want for free (other than the cost of the mailing list system). Best of all, you can even setup automated sequences of emails to those who signup!
As you can see, email marketing plays a huge role in being a successful Affiliate Marketer. To get started, go ahead and signup with our recommended mailing system Constant Contact below!
Step 6. Choose and Apply to Affiliate Programs
With your website and marketing tools ready to go, there is one last thing you will need… products to promote! There are many affiliate networks out there so it is best for you to do your own research to figure out which networks you like best (and have products you want to promote). If you are just getting started we’d recommend Share A Sale, Click Bank, and Amazon Associates. These are reputable networks, with many different products to promote, and are relatively easy to use. If you have a specific brand or product in mind, head over to their website and scan through their header and footer menus for an “Affiliate” program link. You can also search the brand / product on google followed by “affiliate program” and you should be able to find a link to their affiliate program if they have one!
