Hey there Sea Changers and welcome to my series of affiliate marketing 101 how tos as we explore how to find a niche for affiliate marketing. As we know, affiliate marketing provides for an effective way to monetize your website, but where a lot of newbies get stuck is choosing the right niche.
Afterall, a niche determines your target audience, the products or services you promote, and ultimately your income potential. Finding a niche may seem daunting, but with a structured approach, you can identify a profitable and enjoyable area to focus on.
What's a Niche
Ok, let's start at the beginning – and I will keep this simple. In short, a niche is a specific segment of a market that caters to a particular audience with specific needs or interests. This can be as broad, or as narrow as you like based on the factors we will cover below.
For example, you could choose the larger and overarching “fitness” niche, or you could break it down to the more specific “running”. Or even narrower to “running for seniors”. It really is up to you based on where you feel your sweet spot is in terms of content and attraction of readers.
Check out the platform that helped me get started with my affiliate marketing business.
And best of all, if you are trying to work out what your niche will be, you can use this tool for free as well!
Check it out here!
How to Find a Niche for Affiliate Marketing
Let's break this all down…
1. Start with Your Interests and Passions
Affiliate marketing works best when you’re genuinely interested in the niche you choose – after all, you will be spending a lot of time reading and talking about it. Passion helps you stay motivated, especially in the early stages when building momentum can be challenging. So then the question is:
- What topics do I enjoy learning or talking about?
- What are my hobbies or skills?
- What problems have I solved in my life that others might face?
So, if we take our fitness example above, is there a particular part or it all that you are interested in, if you love running, then that could be where you start. Or of course you could break it down to areas such as marathon running or running for general fitness etc.
Think about not only what you know, but how much you know as well. You can always research more information, but a good base knowledge will definitely help here.
Check out my post: 5 Best Niches for Affiliate Marketing
2. Assess the Basics
Look, regardless of what you choose, a good niche should:
Be evergreen – this means that it can never go out-of-date or style.
Be able to solve a problem – Most people undertake searches on the internet to solve a problem – whether it be what or how to buy, how to use a product or simply because they require information – e.g. what are the best running shoes for a marathon.
Go back to your passion and make sure it meets these criteria.
3. Do some Market Research
As you think about your passions, there are essentially two risks here. The first is that your niche is too large – fitness is an example if this as it just about covers every sport and/or exercise regime there is. Then, as another example, “running for 50 year olds” is good, but maybe a little small as you may run out of things to talk about.
Additionally, as with any sales process, the more competition there is, the harder it can be to stand out of the crowd. However if no one else is selling a product, then it could mean that there is no market for it.
So in simple terms here, we just need to make sure that there are some people out there who would be interested in buying stuff based on your niche. Here are some steps you can undertake for some market research:
- Simple online search: Just do some searches online and see what comes up. If there looks to be a good number of posts – then there is definitely interest. See the graphic below for an example on a search for “running for 50 year olds” where you can see that there is some information there as well as some good keyword ideas as well.

- Trend Analysis: Check Google Trends to see if interest in your niche is growing, stable, or declining. Here we can see that running is of interest, however the whole 50 year old thing not so much. This doesn't mean it wouldn't work, rather that the other checks here may need to be a little more comprehensive.

- Competitor Analysis: Look at successful websites or influencers in your niche. What are they doing well? Are there gaps you can fill?
- Keyword Research: Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner to find search volume and competition for relevant keywords. You can see an example of Afrefs on the google search graphic above.
Check out the platform that helped me get started with my affiliate marketing business.
And best of all, if you are trying to work out what your niche will be, you can use this tool for free as well!
Check it out here!
4. Evaluate Monetization Potential
Ok, so that heading is really just a fancy way of saying that you need to check if there are affiliate programs related to your niche. – Afterall, if there are no opportunities to make money, then you are just creating a website as a hobby. Here are some ways to evaluate monetization potential:
Think about the products or services your audience would naturally be interested in. i.e. What do they need or want?
Knowing this information allows you to scroll through potential affiliate programs a little faster as you know what products you are looking for. Again we can use our running example and come up with products such as:
- Shoes/clothing
- Monitoring devices
- Diet regimes
- Running plans and maps
- Other health related options
Additionally, this information will also give you a list of blog post ideas too.
Once you have a clear idea here, it’s time to find affiliate programs. There are of course a number of way that this can be done with the main options as below:
1. Use Google Search
Google is a powerful tool for finding affiliate programs and probably the most effective. And as with any search you do, you can narrow it down depending on the products or services you are looking to promote as we discussed above.
2. Explore Affiliate Networks
In short, affiliate networks are platforms that serve as intermediaries between marketers and merchants, providing the infrastructure and tools to promote products or services and earn commissions.
Popular networks include:
- Amazon Associates: Great for physical products across nearly every niche (see example for running below).
- ShareASale: Offers programs for fashion, home, tech, and more.
- CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction): Features a wide range of brands and services.
- ClickBank: Focused on digital products like eBooks and courses.
- Rakuten Advertising: A reliable platform with established brands.

3. Check Competitor Websites
If you are really looking to focus down into a good affiliate program, why not check out what other affiliate websites within the same niche are using? This is because bigger affiliate marketing sites tend to be a bit more picky as to the programs they use meaning if they are using a particular program, it must be pretty good.
For more information, check out my post: How to Find Affiliate Programs For Your Niche
5. Stay Flexible
And finally (and probably me just indulging in a bit of advice), keep in mind that it’s okay to refine or pivot your niche as you gather more data and experience. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Before committing fully, test your niche idea by:
- Creating a blog, YouTube channel, or social media account to gauge interest.
- Writing a few articles or posts and monitoring engagement.
- Joining online communities related to your niche to see how people respond to your ideas.
Best Niches for Affiliate Marketing
If you’re still unsure, here are some profitable niche ideas to inspire you:
- Health – people are always looking to stay healthy
- Wealth – people are always looking to make money
- Self Help – people are always looking to improve themselves
- Romance/love – people are always looking to fall in love
- Hobbies – people are always going to spend money on their own passions.
Conclusion
And there you have it – how to find a niche for affiliate marketing. I hope it has been helpful and as usual, please do not hesitate to comment below if you have any questions, need some advice or have any experiences to share.
Do you want further assistance with any of the above or need help to build your own affiliate website?
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