Times are changing fast, primarily online. That means niche site owners must adapt just as quickly if they want their little corner of the internet to stay profitable.
However, it also means looking for new niche opportunities because the best niches for affiliate marketing in 2024 are very different from those ten years ago.
Over the next few years, we can expect some niches to slowly fade away while others emerge as the new best niches for affiliate marketers to be in.
Let’s not pretend this is an exact science – it isn’t – but in this article, we’ll explore some of the best niches to be active in.
But first, we’ll discuss some tactics for finding the niche right for you or finding a unique way to promote a niche that seems already well-filled. So, if you’re thinking about starting affiliate marketing or expanding your portfolio of sites, take some time to read this before committing any effort to enter a niche.
If you wish to understand the concept of niche markets better, you might want to watch this video before diving into the article:
Table of Contents
Find A Niche That You’re Interested In And Knowledgeable About
The most important key to success is your relationship with your chosen niche. It should be a passion first and foremost, or at least something you can see yourself writing about regularly for years.
For example, if you like golfing, you might enjoy writing an article about using Callaway golf equipment, such as this review from OutOfBoundsGolf.com:
Creating a niche website around your hobby could motivate you, and you might even learn something while researching. What do professional golfers use? How would they rate Callaway clubs compared to other brands? Then, follow it up with similar posts covering all other brands ( Titleist, TaylorMade, Mizuno, etc.).
Niche markets with specific problems or needs, like sustainable living, keto diets, or website hosting, provide ample room for targeted and effective affiliate marketing campaigns.
Do Your Research To Find Out What Products And Services Are Being Offered
There will already be affiliate sites promoting the top products in your niche. If you can find a company or a type of product that no one else is promoting for this niche, it’ll be much easier to stand out from the competition.
In other words, finding ways to contribute something fresh is essential. Information that adds something to what’s already out there.
You can start by using Google Trends to research what terms people searched for over the last 12 months.
Let’s take “karate clothing,” for example. Put the different categories and brands in Google Trends and note any searches made more frequently during this period. You should also look at when these searches peaked relative to when they occurred. Was it a hot summer? The beginning of the holiday season?
Use this information to help shape your niche site and determine what products or services you want to promote in the future. This will help you distinguish yourself from your competition and make yours the best affiliate site in your niche.
You’ll be writing about what your audience is actively looking for and understanding why they are searching that way.
Google Trends allows you to see the interest in a particular product type over time. Here, interest in karate clothing has been relatively stable over the past five years.
This could make it an interesting article to build your affiliate marketing business around because it’s unlikely that interest in this niche will suddenly fade.
Create Helpful Content That Will Attract Visitors And Convert Them Into Customers
If you’re selling products with excellent margins, it’s worth keeping an active eye on any new brands launched over the next few years. Creating helpful content means that you’ll also have to regularly update your content when better products or solutions become available.
New companies come and go all the time. Still, if one of your affiliate products becomes defunct or starts underperforming compared to its competitors, you should replace it as soon as possible.
The longer you’ll be active in a specific niche, the better you will begin to understand it. This will make it easier for you to pick up new products or trends and add them to the content on your site. This will keep your content up-to-date, informative, and high-quality, helping you be the best in your niche.
As an affiliate marketer, being the best in your niche means understanding what your audience wants, what they’re looking for, and what best serves their purposes. You can achieve this only by being part of the conversation in your niche.
Always put your audience at the center of your affiliate marketing efforts because this is the surest way to conquer your affiliate niche.
Be on the lookout for any brands mentioned by customers or famous athletes. Survey people who have used or own these niche-related items. Rummage through the review sections of products in your niche on large platforms like Amazon.
Knowing what’s considered good quality and what should be avoided is essential because this will help you create the most helpful content in your niche. Helpful content is the way to attract more visitors and turn them into leads and customers. Getting the experience of people who have actively used the stuff in your niche will help you gain the knowledge for writing that content.
What Are The Most Profitable Niches For Affiliate Marketing?
Unfortunately, there is no exact science as to the most profitable affiliate marketing niches. As discussed above, the best affiliate marketing niche is constantly changing. It also depends on your interests and knowledge.
However, there are some factors to look for when choosing your niche.
1. Demand
There has to be demand for the product in your niche. Otherwise, it will be impossible for you to earn commissions. Try to weigh the level of demand against the number of competitors in your niche, but also consider your niche’s future.
Which products and services will people buy over the next ten years? Is what you’re considering a short trend that will pass out, or is it here to stay, and will people still look for it years from now? Is there a gap between the demand in this niche and what competitors are already offering?
2. Raving Fans
Are there any passionate communities (on social media, forums, etc.) that will defend these niche-related items against criticism or negative press? This could be a sign that this particular niche is a strong one that will not suddenly disappear.
A good example is cryptocurrency, which regularly receives negative publicity but has an immense following of people who defend it.
Apple is an excellent example of a strong fanbase’s impact on a brand’s success.
3. Profitability Over The Long Term
Are certain brands likely to continue selling niche-related items into the future – i.e., 15+ years and beyond? This shouldn’t be confused with short-term trends, which might only last a few months.
For example, “Sasuke goods” were trendy for a few years but faded away.
It would be a shame of all the hard work you’ve put into building a niche affiliate marketing site, only to see the interest in your niche disappear entirely.
Note: Other factors to consider, such as product types and the time it takes to make a sale, will be discussed further in this article.
4. Low Competition Niches For Affiliate Marketing
Less competition in your niche means it’ll be easier to claim your share of it. When you’re battling big companies with large budgets for linkbuilding or awareness campaigns, it can seem impossible to reach your audience.
If you’ve managed to find a niche with relatively few competitors, however, your work might pay off a lot sooner. However, in most cases, they have low competition for a reason, which usually means there is simply less money to be made.
This makes it less appealing for big players or not lucrative enough for big companies to arise in that niche, keeping the competition low.
Sneakers or insurance, for example, is a vast market. Everyone needs shoes and wants to be insured, so a lot of money can be made. This leads to a highly competitive market, with many affiliates aiming at the same audience and big companies making lots of revenue.
Therefore, low-competition niches are for affiliate marketing what a junior league is for a professional sports team. It’s easy to score points, but they’re not worth as much as in the big league.
Finding low-competition niches for affiliate marketing that are also lucrative is a challenge. Everyone is looking for those niches; if they were lucrative enough, affiliates and companies would swarm to them.
Your best bet for finding a lucrative affiliate marketing niche that is still relatively low in competition is by keeping an eye out for emerging trends and beating others to the punch. We’ve already mentioned Google Trends as a beneficial tool for finding emerging trends in search behavior.
This could help you find an affiliate niche before it becomes competitive, allowing you to build your presence in that niche while it is still low in competition.
What’s The Best Niche For Affiliate Marketing?
Let’s be blunt: there isn’t a single best niche for affiliate marketing. Some niches will be better than others, and the most profitable (highest ROI) may depend on the height of commission but just as much on how much effort it costs to make each sale.
A $60 commission rate might be excellent if you only need to send one lead who makes frequent purchases, but it is not as lucrative if you need to generate ten leads who each buy one item.
Of course, some niches are more profitable than others, but as we’ve pointed out above, this also strongly correlates with your knowledge of the niche.
It’s impossible to compare two niches like “fitness” and “pet food” and say which is more lucrative. New niches are also coming up in the market, and quick research into affiliate marketing trends can provide additional insights into lucrative new niches.
The real, albeit kind of evasive, answer is that you won’t know for sure how good a niche is until you try it out.
It can be challenging to predict how easy it will be to attract buyers before you try. You might assume that people won’t want to buy certain products, but if you market them correctly, enough may eventually become interested.
However, there are some factors to watch out for. We’ve discussed trends and the popularity of searches above. Next, let’s look at the actual commissions you can make.
Real-life top 8 niche websites (ideas):
- Bikerumor.com – Niche Affiliate Website for Cycling Retailers and News
Bikerumor.com (part of AllGear Digital) was founded in June 2008 by Tyler Benedict and is the world’s #1 cycling tech blog. According to Similarweb.com, the site gets around 1.3 million visits monthly.
- Sleepopolis.com – Niche Affiliate Website for Mattress Reviews
Sleepopolis.com has been around since 2014 and provides visitors with comprehensive sleep-industry information verified by reputable sleep-industry experts and other sleep professionals. According to Similarweb.com, the site gets around 2.7 million visits monthly.
- Veganfoodandliving.com – Niche Affiliate Website for Vegan Food-Related Retailers
Vegan Food & Living (part of Anthem Publishing) launched at the end of 2015 as a print magazine and website. And in 2021, it was awarded Favourite Vegan Magazine at the Vegfest UK Awards. According to Similarweb.com, the site gets more than 348K visits monthly.
- Ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk – Niche Affiliate Website for Outdoor Clothing and Gear Retailers
Ultralight Outdoor Gear was founded in 2006 by Mark Richardson, an experienced backpacker. The site publishes comprehensive trip reports and gear reviews to help visitors make informed buying decisions.
Since 2006, the company has grown significantly and currently employs 21 people. According to Similarweb.com, the site gets more than 412K visits monthly.
- Pooltablesplus.com – Niche Affiliate Website for Pool Table Products
Pool Tables Plus can be traced back to 1975, when Mark Ogonowski’s (President and CEO) parents, John and Gloria Ogonowski, opened a billiard room. In 1989, Mark and his sister founded Pool Tables Plus, Inc. According to Similarweb.com, the site gets more than 34K visits monthly.
- GrowersHouse.com – Niche Affiliate Website for Hydroponic Gardening Retailers
GrowersHouse.com was founded in 2011 by Nate Lipton, a year out of college. He combined his passion for gardening with the need to make a living and convinced his dad and some family friends to invest in and start GrowersHouse.
The company started as an online retailer with a single brick-and-mortar store in Tucson, AZ. Since then, they have grown to a large team of professionals and opened a new store in Phoenix.
According to Similarweb.com, the site gets more than 92K visits monthly
- Running Warehouse.com – Niche Affiliate Website for Running Shoes and Gear
Running Warehouse was founded in 2005 by a small group of passionate runners who enjoy sharing their knowledge – from product reviews to helpful tips. The company has become a reliable resource for runners worldwide, and according to Similarweb.com, the site gets around 2 million visits monthly.
- CameraLabs.com – Niche Affiliate Website for Camera and Photography Accessories
Gordon Laing founded CameraLabs.com in 2005 and has grown to over 371,000 pages serving 132,000 unique visitors a month. His video reviews on YouTube have over 61 million views, and he has a strong following on the leading social networks.
As an Amazon Associate, he earns from qualifying purchases of products based on his product reviews.
High or low commission rates are only part of the picture
You shouldn’t worry too much about high commission rates. You might find that commission rates, in general, aren’t very high, but they might still work out as a decent earner when combined with other factors such as:
- Average order value;
- The number of purchases per customer;
- Recurring commissions from subscription-based sales;
- Product type and supply/demand dynamics.
For example, selling pet food may only have a commission rate of $10 per sale, but people will regularly return to buy more. While paying for a bag of dog chow, they might choose to add a new chew toy. And hey, didn’t Bruno need a new dog bed as well?
Even with a relatively low commission rate, those numbers will add up. And you can make more money in the long run than by promoting, say, a lucrative lawyer service worth thousands of dollars with a high commission rate but an extremely high threshold for people to convert.
Similarly, high commission rates may be less relevant when you can continue making money from each customer in the future with:
- Recurring subscriptions;
- Recurring coaching/mentoring fees;
- Affiliate marketing for other products or services.
For example, if your pet food site attracts many dog owners and you’ve built a large email list from them, it’ll be much easier to make money from items for dogs even if you only get a $5 commission per sale.
Maybe you could even set up a dog food subscription with your supplier to market to all the dog owners you’ve previously reached.
Finally, it’s important to point out that specific affiliate niches can pay massive commissions but tend to have more competition and a higher threshold for conversion. Examples include financial or business services.
This isn’t to say that building an affiliate site for this type of niche isn’t worth it, but you’ll have to think about a unique approach and find a great product with a worthwhile commission.
Often, however, especially when you’re just starting out as an affiliate marketer, it’s better to look for something with a lower commission that is easier to rank and attract traffic from search engines.
Whatever your niche, the best approach to conquering it is to use a service like wecantrack, which can provide tracking, attribution, and reporting within the right affiliate attribution dashboard to always track your earnings and performance.
Track your results and make changes to improve them because successful affiliate marketing is a long-term strategy. You’ll need to be patient. Test multiple strategies and approaches to see what works best for your site, offers, niche, and audience.
In other words, finding the best niche for affiliate marketing in 2024 requires time and research.
Free website research tools to help you find the best affiliate marketing niches
Here are some tools to help you find the best niches for affiliate marketing and generate content ideas.
1. Domain Hunter Gatherer
A tool like Domain Hunter Gatherer can help you find promising domain names that are up for grabs. There are tons of domain names that were once registered but are now expired. Some are good for starting an excellent affiliate website; they might even have some leftover domain authority to get you started. You could also use it as a great inspiration to find the next topic on which you will build a niche site.
2. Google Autocomplete
This is a great way to find the most specific and best niches without opening up any tools or software. Start typing with a primary, broad keyword like “shoes” and see what Google suggests to complete the search. This will give you some great ideas about more specific additions to that broader niche idea.
3. Google Trends
Google Trends is like the Autocomplete feature, except that it offers more flexibility in digging deep into potential keywords that could be profitable years later. If you’re wondering whether a specific idea you’re playing with has great searches over time, Google Trends is the place to go.
4. Wikipedia Pageviews By Country
Wikipedia isn’t nearly as famous for research purposes as it once was, but there are still some decent insights to be found when you start looking at pageview data broken out by country over time. These statistics might bring exciting insights into what topics are popular amongst a particular audience you might be targeting.
5. Google Ads Keyword Planner
Many affiliate marketers use the Google Ads Keyword Research and Planner tool to discover new keywords and gain insights on search volumes for each term. You can get results for specific countries and languages or search globally. Google provides this tool for ad campaign planning and research, but it can also be used purely for SEO research and to find the right niche for you.
6. Moz’s Free SEO Tools – Keyword Explorer
This free keyword research tool can be used to find your niche and gain valuable insights like keyword difficulty, search volume, and expected organic click-through rate scores. This information is meant to help predict your ability to rank and drive traffic.
Moz was founded in 2004 by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig under the name SEOmoz and started as a blog where SEO experts shared their research and ideas.
In 2007, the company changed direction from consulting to software and raised a first round of funding to develop new tools. By 2009, they had 5,000 subscribers.
The company was rebranded from SEOmoz to Moz in 2013 and acquired STAT Search Analytics in 2018 to benefit from its daily rankings and deep SERP analytics.
In 2021, iContact (a subsidiary of Ziff Davis – NASDAQ: ZD) acquired Moz for an undisclosed amount and formed the Moz Group.
Final Thoughts On Finding The Best Niches For Affiliate Marketing
So, what is the best niche for affiliate marketing? The answer is that there isn’t a single best niche. However, to succeed in affiliate marketing, it’s crucial to find a niche you are passionate about and can create helpful content for your visitors. Also, don’t forget to track your progress using a tool like wecantrack so you can see how well you’re doing and continue to improve over time. Good luck!
Frequently Asked Questions About Profitable Niches In Affiliate Marketing
What is a niche site?
A niche site is a website that focuses on a specific topic or industry. This type of website provides a targeted audience with specialized content and services. For example, if someone is interested in gardening, a niche site may provide articles, videos, forums, and other resources related to gardening. The content on the site should be focused and highly relevant to the target audience. Niche sites are often used to drive traffic to a more extensive website or to promote products or services related to a specific topic. Additionally, niche sites can also be used to generate leads and build a solid customer base.
What are evergreen affiliate niches?
Evergreen affiliate niches are timeless and relevant topics regardless of the season or current trends. Evergreen niches include health and fitness, personal finance, travel, home and garden, and pet care. These topics remain popular year-round and have consistent audiences, making them excellent choices for affiliate marketing.
When selecting an evergreen niche, it’s essential to choose a topic you are passionate about and knowledgeable about. Additionally, you need to do your research to determine how competitive the market is and how much profit potential there is. It’s also essential to keep up with the latest trends in your niche and adjust your content accordingly.
How do you choose a niche for affiliate marketing?
You choose an affiliate marketing niche based on several factors. First, you need to be knowledgeable and passionate enough about the niche to continue creating valuable content. Second, there should be enough people interested in the niche for you to make a profit.
What is the most profitable affiliate marketing niche?
The most profitable affiliate marketing niches are those with relatively expensive products or services that lots of people need. Think, for example, of financial products (mortgages, insurance, or credit cards) or subscription services like SAAS programs that offer recurring revenue.
Which niche is best for beginners?
The best niche for beginners is one with relatively low competition because building an audience in a competitive niche would require experience. Aim for a topic you are passionate about to maintain your enthusiasm while learning the tricks of the trade.
