GUIDE: Choosing a Market for Success
The knowledge of starting a side hustle from home is out. It’s no secret that there is money to be made in exchange for your time in the comfort of your home. The online digital landscape has made digital marketing a powerful player in the game of side hustles.
Whether you are just looking for some extra expense money, or to quit your 9-5 entirely, the ability to start a side hustle from home has never been more possible. But with starting your home side hustle, and online digital business, comes answering the big question: what industry are you going to start your business in?
In order to make money from your digital business, you need to select a profitable niche. This step is one of the most crucial indicators of the success and viability of your affiliate marketing business.
A general rule of thumb to keep in mind is mainstream and broad industries are vague and highly competitive, making them diluted and more difficult to succeed in.
While a nano-niche market can open the door to possibly untapped opportunities for affiliate marketers. Let’s go over 9 tips to consider when going about selecting a profitable niche.
9 Tips to Selecting a Profitable Niche:
Tip # 1: The Power of Niching Down
What does niching down mean? Essentially it is taking a large counterpart, (an industry) and breaking off into a specialized segment.
A great example of this is the healthcare industry. Healthcare is broad and can be too vague when it comes to starting a business in it. Which area of health are you focusing on? Fitness? Nutrition? Chronic pain?
If you wanted to choose this as your niche and were looking to start a health and wellness blog, start a blog for women who just hit 30 and want to preserve their youth. Or a fitness blog that specializes in diet plans and exercises for people with chronic back and neck pain.
Niching down gives you a stronger authority in expertise, and although you may want to speak to everyone, the people you will be speaking to are 10 times more likely to listen and trust what you are saying, which ultimately will lead to higher conversions.
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Tip # 2: Conduct Thourough Research:
Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer when going about selecting your niche. Ask yourself some important questions: What am I looking to know? What information am I looking for? What is the thing in life I’m having the most trouble finding support or guidance for?
There’s a quote in business that speaks something along the lines of this: “If you are looking for a company to build, look for problems that need to be solved.” Affiliate marketing and digital media are no different than brick-and-mortar stores, or physical products.
You are creating content and education to questions and issues that people are looking for solutions to. When you approach your business from this perspective, your passion comes through your work and sets you apart.
Tip # 3: Define Your Passionate Audience
Specialized products solve serious problems. People are more likely to buy are people coming to the internet with a very specific issue they need help with. The more specific, the higher your success rate will be.
Whether it’s learning how to grow an online business, an exercise program to save their back pain, or a water carrier that they can take on all-day hikes, the human intent is the same: Have a need – Find a solution.
Take time to explore some of the industries you are knowledgable in or passionate about and see their performance. Not all niches are going to be successful online, so this is where homework comes in with the trial-by-fire checklist method.
First, find what you like, and next see who’s doing it. Then track their performance, and last draw your conclusion if you think it’s worth the time and effort to build a business in it.
The fundamentals are simple. But without application and going through each step you will waste a lot of time and possibly, money.
Tip # 4: Asses Affiliate Program Viability:
As your aim with this business idea is to be an affiliate marketer, make sure to make this tip a vital part of your research. Not all niches have robust affiliate programs.
As you will see as you begin to explore platforms like Clickbank, some industries would be better served by an affiliate than others. Things like education, health, fitness, and dating have very good returns for affiliates.
Research programs and their commission structures, and invest time to figure out what niches are more affiliate-friendly to ensure that you can monetize your efforts effectively.
Tip # 5: Build Authority and Trust:
Generally speaking, the more knowledgeable you are, the better your content will perform. The better your content does, the further the reach, which equals better growth as an affiliate marketer.
Make sure your content offers value, insights, solutions, capturing stories, and thoughtful humor that keeps your audience engaged as well as showcases your expertise.
A credible source will always be one people come back to and reference others too. So even if you don’t see an immediate return in the short term, think of this tip as a necessity for the long game.
Tip # 6: Develop a Strategy for Content Creation:
Up-to-trend, relevant, and consistent content is the way to stay ahead of the game. One of the biggest reasons most affiliates and digital marketers don’t see success is that they fall off. They start off strong and quickly dwindle their consistency to very little and then none at all.
If you want to stay in it for the long haul, you have to stay consistent. A schedule and strategy will help you with this. Consistency establishes your brand as the go-to resource in your niche which helps in driving organic traffic and affiliate conversions.
Always make adjustments and be quick to tailor your content to the relevancy and appeal of your audience. Create detailed blog posts, engaging videos, and visually appealing content that addresses the unique needs and interests of the niche.
Tip # 7: Leverage Social Media:
With the world on their phones for hours a day, this is one tool you will not want to skip using. Learn and familiarize yourself with a few of the major social media platforms, so you can begin to leverage the power of it to help your affiliate business.
Join groups and forums in your niche on these platforms that will allow you to engage with that community directly. Create and curate content that sparks discussions between your audience and fosters a sense of community.
It’s important here to make sure responding to messages and comments is part of your daily routine, and this will help to build trust and authority with your ideal audience.
Tip # 8: Monitor Trends and Adapt:
Rapid information is great for reach, but that also means rapid change comes with it. When you get specific and nano-niche down changing to stay competitive is non-negotiable.
Be vigilant in monitoring trends, and consumer preferences, take tolls on your platofmrs from your audience to assist with this, and learn industry developments. The more current you are in your niche the quicker and more easily you will be able to adapt.
Tip # 9: Optimize for the Long Term:
Choosing a profitable niche to grow and affiliate brand is the first part of the battle. The second part is making a plan to stay competitive for the long term. As more time passes more people will enter the industry so what is going to keep you set apart and relevant.
To stay ahead, continuously analyze performance metrics, collect feedback from your audience, and adapt your strategies as quickly as needed to ensure the long-term profitability of your affiliate marketing conversions.
Entering the affiliate marketing space is incredibly exciting! Not only for the ability to earn some extra income but for the knowledge you will gain not only in your chosen industry but also in the world of digital marketing as a whole.
This is one of the largest growing industries with predictions of it only growing bigger in the coming years. Don’t sit on the sidelines and watch other people learn and excel in this arena. Get in there and enjoy the ride for yourself!
Taking money out of it, learning about all the knowledge of what it takes to be an online marketer, in all that that encompasses, is incredibly exhilarating.
To sum up, the 9 tips to building a profitable affiliate niche, researching, and studying analytics are the two fundamentals you should not leave this article without.
If you found this article helpful, please let me know in the comments below! 🙂
